Where's the Love?

For two weeks now, HMCC Austin has had our version of OCR on the UT campus to greet and invite international/new/returning students to our church. This means that our grand army of eight have been ravaging the campus of 50,000 students everyday passing out flyers and striking up conversation with any willing soul. With the inaugural service approaching in a week, my prayer so far has been "Please God; give me at least ONE person to bring to church next week." This attitude that I've had led me to certain revelations about myself:

(1) It's not a numbers game - I was more concerned with bringing people to church rather than loving them and having compassion for them. It wasn't a numbers game with Jesus - He gladly went to search for the one sheep that was lost. It's difficult to have this heart when I don't know how many people will come to service, events we host, or small groups we'll have for this coming year.. I had to think carefully about what a "successful" church plant meant - after which I realized I just needed to love people more.

(2) Desperation is good for me - I hated to admit it, but it had been a VERY long time since I had lifted up such a prayer. In Ann Arbor, I was never so desperate to bring someone to church, bring someone to Christ, or build relationships with the unchurched. But, faced with the fact that there might be more people on the band than there will be in the pews, it's all I could pray/think about. I just need to love people more.

(3) I'm so tired. I know - everyone's busy, everyone's tired. But it's getting tiresome - forcing myself out of my comfort zone, trying to deal with rejection without spite, and smiling brightly when all I want to do is take a nap. The other day, Toufue and I found one of our flyers crumpled up and laying sadly on the street - it was heartbreaking. I almost wanted to ask God, "The harvest is...where?" Almost. I just need to love God and people more.

Thank you for reading. And now that I have entertained you for 2-3 minutes, it is now your turn to pray for the Austin team for at least that long. I love you guys. And, I know this entry sounded depressing, but God is providing for and protecting our team... I swear. I will enter much happier testimonies... later.

Peace.