- Written by Rick Carder
Serving in outreach, especially as a community chaplain with the police department and jail ministry, you don’t always find that the end of the story is as clear as it was from the beginning. Yet you make your resolve that what you’re doing is planting seeds and God is going to produce the fruit. As we reach out to others we quickly learned that we are indeed planting seeds of trees that will grow in which we will never enjoy the shade of.
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| The apartment that taught me that you may never know the impact of your message. |
When I was pastoring and serving as a chaplain our local church had a food pantry in which we would record the names and addresses of people who would be served by this ministry. We often said that our ministry was that a blessing others and not expecting a return on our investment. We would serve families in the name of Jesus and leave the results up to God.
Yet on serval occasions we noticed that there were different people who would write down the same address as they came to our pantry. One day this happened twice within the same day which made this especially alarming. I decided that I would pay a visit to that apartment address to see what was going on.
You might say that in those days I had far more zeal than spiritual discernment but there I was standing at the door of apartment which I’ve never been before. As I thought to myself, "What am I doing here?" the door opened. My stomach begin to knot up and my throat was dry as this large deep voice woman stood at the door saying, "What do you want?"
With God’s help at that moment my spine stiffened and I simply said, "Are you the resident of this apartment?" I quickly made introduction and stated the purpose of my visit. I stated that I was concerned about the number of people who are using this address to get groceries from our church pantry. The woman simply said, "Yeah, what’s it to you? I send these people out to get groceries to pay for their night’s stay."
After further dialogue I stood at the door and cut a deal with Terry, the head resident. I told her that I would be willing to bring a bag of groceries every week if she would not send people to our church because we needed to be clear of the intent of our food pantry. She accepted this and for several weeks, every Monday I would bring groceries to her apartment. I never went inside because it seem like there were different people in the apartment each week.While it was suspicious and rather curious I decided that my job ended once I dropped off the groceries.
Sometime past when eventually I invited Terry and any of her associates to come to church and that it may be easier for her to pick up the groceries after attending our service. I stated that there are wonderful people who would be happy to meet her and that we had ministries that could further serve her needs. To my surprise she began to attend and often sat in the back row of the church. I don’t blame many of the strange looks that she and I received as I sat next to her. She had every intent of being kind but her deep voice and piercing look gave people the impression that she was hostile and that children should be protected. Her and I would have many conversations about how people perceive her. It is no surprise that because of her hygiene or clothing or facial expressions they gave off the impression that she was not friendly.
We begin to talk about that and some of the ladies would even help her with clothing needs. Eventually she became regular in her attendance and more approachable as people got to know her. I still would take time to visit with her at the apartment while never going inside. We would often sit just outside and have our conversations while meeting a few other drifters that would stay for a night or two.
Weeks turned in the months that I continued to minister is best I knew how. All the while continuing my chaplaincy at the police department many of the officers would tell me to be careful as I work with, "Her kind." I assured them that my role as pastor was as free to her and her kind as it was to the officers. Many officers saw my naïveness. They knew that I was a foster parent and a good hearted soul. They knew that I went to the jail as well as mentoring at-risk youth. My nickname became Padre both at the police department and in jail.
One night I showed up for the roll-call at the police department. It was a time when reports of previous night’s activities were reported as well as other vital information shared with police officers. As we were interacting in the back I heard the report that shot my head around quickly with the look of shock and surprise on my face.
The Captain announced, "Well fellas, we finally broke it up. It looks like Terry and her house of prostitution is finally shut down!" He gave the address in which I couldn’t help but blurred out, "Terry? You mean my Terry!" The room roared with laughter. My realization that yes indeed they were talking about the very same woman that I had been fostering a ministry with who ran the house of prostitution. Of course all of the pieces of the puzzle fell into place instantly at that moment! Of course, I should’ve been more aware.
I became the candid camera victim as the officers slapped me on the back yelling, "Go Padre!"
Trying to pick myself up off the floor and pull my emotions together all I could think to say to the officers was, "Thank you for making my job a lot easier. You all know that I also have a jail ministry! I’ll visit her there tomorrow." I further said, "You catch ‘em, I’ll clean ‘em!"
I hope that the message ultimately reached to the hearts of the officers that we are all sinners and that no one is righteous. My hope is what they learned is that our Christian love is without condition but that we pray and desire that all people would come in the life-changing message of God‘s love in Jesus Christ.
