These aren’t definite proof that someone is in a gang.  However, it’s helpful to know what to look for since gang activity tends to be higher in lower-income neighborhoods.

• Staying out late
• Unexplained injuries
• Withdrawal from family or friends
• Secretive about new friends
• Abrupt change in personality
• Unexplained new possessions or money
• Preference for certain colour of clothing (gang colours)
• Graffiti on personal items such as notebooks or bedroom walls
• Tattoos or markings of gang symbols on hands or body
• Frequent run-ins with the law

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.

Remember the story about Jesus trying to get some time alone to grieve after John the Baptist was beheaded and the crowds just following him like the paparazzi?

When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Matthew 14: 13-14

When I read this story, I like to think that I would be like Jesus and welcome the needy crowd with open arms. However, reality has shown that I actually would feel justified in locking my doors and pretending I’m not home because “I deserve a break.” Thankfully, two Sojourn community groups took the path of Christ this week and served a family with an unexpected and urgent need.

Andy walks into Sojourn Community Church and let’s the leaders know he just found out he is being evicted. Not next month. Not next week – but tomorrow! If you aren’t familiar with the procedure for evictions, it goes like this: Sheriff comes to your door, then all your possessions get thrown onto the sidewalk. And in a neighborhood where crime is high, it’s like a yard sale without the sale. Needless to say, Andy needed help to find people to get his belongings somewhere safe so he wouldn’t lose them to weather or thieves. And he needed it done that day. He said he had been to other churches in the area and no one was able to help. They, like Sojourn on any given day, probably just didn’t have the man power to help him. But, through God’s grace, the Rogers and Hobacks community group had the man power and made the time to help Andy.

Sojourner Lesie Hoeback says, “Andy and his wife have 3 small kids and just one small car, so he said there was no way they could move everything by themselves.  So, Matt Harner rented a U-haul truck and our group and Brandon & Bethany Rogers’ CG headed to his house around 6:30 to move Andy and his family to a very small efficiency apartment at Wayside Christian Mission.  We helped them finish packing everything up, played with their extra-loving and super-friendly kids, brought the wife and kids Subway for dinner, all while we loaded everything into the U-Haul, 2 pick-up trucks, and a few cars and took everything to their new “house.”  It was all we could do to get all of their stuff into this small apartment, so I am not sure how Andy, his wife, their 3 small kids, and their cat are going to live there! Once we piled everything inside, there wasn’t even room to lay down the mattresses, much less really walk around!  But, nonetheless Andy talked about how they were blessed to have a place to go and so blessed to have people help them move all of their stuff.  We told them we were glad we could help and glad their family would at least be together.  We asked if we could pray with them before we left, and they said that would be great.  Brandon prayed for their family and thanked God that He gave us the ultimate example of love through sending Christ to die for us, and thanked Him for giving us a chance to show His love to others.

“Nathan said yesterday that Andy told him he was going to bring his family to Sojourn now.  We hope and pray that through showing God’s love in a tangible way in Andy’s time of need, he and his whole family will come to know the overwhelming love of Christ and learn to lean on Him through the trials and challenges of life.”

Was it inconvenient? I’m sure. I bet they had dinner plans that night after a long day at work. Was it awkward? Of course. Who naturally wants to go into an inner city neighborhood and move a strangers belonging to a homeless shelter in the freezing cold? But thank God they answered the call to a small sacrifice that night. God has used this small token of love toward Andy to show His love for this man and his family. Andy stated he wants to come back to Sojourn and wants to bring his wife. Whether he really will at this point and time doesn’t really matter. Whether he comes to Sojourn or another church doesn’t matter. What matters is Andy saw the hands of God via His people when they cared enough for this stranger to stop their lives for a night and help him move. Perhaps he will step foot into a church and further learn about God’s love for him. His situation isn’t fixed, but his broken heart might have one stitch closer to healing.

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