Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life: Rethinking Ministry to the Poor – Robert D. Lupton

Beyond Charity: The Call to Christian Community Development – John M. Perkins

Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical’s Inside View of White Christianity – Edward Gilbreath

More Than Equals: Racial Healing for the Sake of the Gospel – Spencer Perkins and Chris Rice

Nickle and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America – Barbara Ehrenreich

Linking Arms, Linking Lives: How Urban-Suburban Partnerships Can Transform Communities – Ronald J. Sider, John M. Perkins, Wayne L. Gordon, and F. Albert Tizon

Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America – Michael O. Emerson & Christian Smith

Restoring At-Risk Communities – John M. Perkins

Renewing The City: Reflections On Community Development And Urban Renewal – Robert D. Lupton

James 2:5
Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?

Luke 12:33
Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

Zechariah 7:10
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’

Luke 4:18-19
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Isaiah 41:17
The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the LORD will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

Jeremiah 22:16
“He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the LORD.

1 Corinthians 13:3
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Ezekiel 16:49
Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.

Proverbs 21:13
If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.

Proverbs 14:31
He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.

I get that question alot.  I’ll answer candidly:  No.  I don’t feel safe.  There are drug dealers, sex offenders, prostitutes, and homeless folks walking past our house on a sometimes hourly basis.  I rarely am at home without our security system on.  We never leave anything of value in our cars.  If a strange person is walking past our house when it’s time to get out of the car, I wait till they are gone or I drive around the block.  I’m always suspicious of people who are hanging out on the corners at  strange hours.  I never stay home alone overnight and I sleep on the couch if Jay comes home late.  When I go upstairs during the day I always close the big door with the deadbolt lock. I sleep with a knife, mace and my phone next to my bed – just in case.   When I cut the grass I make sure my back is never to the alley, so people can’t sneak up on me.

Obviously, I don’t feel safe. I wouldn’t take all these extra precautions if I did.  However, no where do I see in scripture that ‘feeling safe’ is a prerequisite for serving God.  If that was the case, I’d never get out of bed.  Courage is not the absence of fear, it’s being afraid and doing it anyway.  If God has called you, then the safest place you can be is in His will.  His will is always right and good.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.” – Describing Aslan in C.S Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia

Lindsay Eubanks is a longtime member of Sojourn, a wife, mother and Occupational Therapist. Lindsay and her husband live in the Shelby Park neighborhood in Louisville where they are trying to learn to be better neighbors and love God more.

On Saturday, March 7, a Sojourn SEED group took a couple of hours on Saturday morning to dig a trench for a woman and her mother in the Germantown neighborhood.  The sewage line was backing up into the house and needed a new pipe to take the sewage to the actual sewer.  David McArdle, SEED leader, said the guys had quite an adventure and really had fun with using an axe.

“The best part was all the chopping of tree roots with our axe. Most of us were fighting over who took out the next root. Then we got down to a lot of bricks about a foot underground. That was fun to try to get all of those out of the way. ” says McArdle.

The team also asked for prayer for the woman who is living there taking care of her aging mother.

“We really need some prayer for this woman who lives and takes care of her mom. She just had surgery a couple days ago to remove some blood clots and will have about 6-8 weeks of rehab now. Her mom is pretty frail and doesn’t have much memory left. We hope that we can get her to some groups at the church for folks in the area,”says McArdle.

It is beautiful to see the men of our church family humbling themselves to dealing with other people’s sewage waste, just to be the hands and feet of Christ.  This woman and family could use more help. If anyone would like more information about this family and is interested in helping this family again please contact Nathan Ivey at nivey@sojournchurch.com.