On Tuesday, January 12 the world received the news of the earthquake in Haiti. My story begins the afternoon of January 13th. I was in discussion with two of our caseworkers and their common complaint was the negative whining and complaining of many of their clients in the last few days. As I was scheduled for the next lunch devotional they asked if I could find a way in which to address whining and complaining with the whole group of our guests. Although I said “yes,” I was uncomfortable in using time set aside for spiritual insight to address the negative morale of our guests and their impact on our staff and volunteers.
After much prayer I chose as my text Matthew 25:31-46. In this passage Jesus tells the people that righteous people automatically take care of the needs of others whereas unrighteous people need coercion to care for others. The righteous ask Jesus, “When did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you as a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?” And the King replied: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
Through this passage, I believe, God led me to challenge the men and women in the hostel to dig into their own pockets to help those less fortunate than themselves. My challenge was that if they raised X number of dollars that I would match 25 cents to their dollar and I would ask the Social Committee to match 25 cents on the dollar and the Mission to match 50cents on the dollar. I hoped for a magic number of $100.00 and thought that I was stretching my faith.
Through various meals over the next week I stood with a bucket in my hand and gave a regular report as to how much was raised for Haiti. In the end we had received out of our guests gracious giving $205.00. I and two others matched 25 cents on the dollar for another $150.00 and the Social Committee went above and beyond and added $300.00. This gave us a total of $655.00 that we donated through World Vision; and as we understand it the government of Canada is going to match that dollar for dollar. This means: deliberately confronting some whining and complaining among our guest resulted in $1,310.00 being given to help those in need in Haiti. This is the blessing of God. And yes, the amount of complaining went down as well.
Pastor Lester Mesenbrink
Chaplain, Kelowna's Gospel Mission