Meet Mary…
April 14, 2009
To my surprise last Sunday as I walked in and sat down for Church I noticed a familiar face in the pew in front of me, a very sweet lady by the name of Marry that we had met on an outreach back in December. We have since gotten to know her a lot better. Now Marry isn’t homeless, but is very poor. Marry lives in a run down apartment near Franklin Street downtown and has almost nothing to her name except a mat on the floor to sleep on, a few pairs of clothing, only a hand full of Ramon noodle packs, and her favorite belonging is her Bibles. The thing that always gets me though and even when in Honduras is, how can someone who has SO little be SO happy. Marry later answered this question for me. Her response was “when you fill yourself with material things you can tend to forget about praising the Lord in the midst of all these earthly things, and sometimes what you need to do is filter out the stuff you don’t need and fill yourself with what we all need and that’s more of Christ”. Sometimes it’s so hard for me to wrap my head around this but she’s totally right.
Last Sunday I took Marry into the office where all our street ministry supplies are. We sifted through boxes of clothing for her and also got her some shampoo and a new tooth brush to hold her over for a few weeks. As we were looking through the boxes I heard her say under her breath “oh is that a skirt” later to be followed with “that’s way to short for a lady of my age”. Come to find out she was hoping to find a nice outfit to wear for Easter Sunday. After eventually finding a few summer outfits Ashley and I offered her a ride back to her apartment, she had missed her bus and she also had a few bags of clothing with her. After getting to Marry’s apartment we walked her in with all her things we had found for her that day and she was so sweet. She always verbally thanks the Lord first for what she gets and then thanks us and follows with a hug. As she walked us out and we were about to leave, I asked Marry what she would think if next Sunday we would take her after church and buy her a brand new Easter dress for Easter service. Marry looked at me and looked at Ashley and said “ I couldn’t have ya’ll do that for me, no ones ever loved me enough to buy me something like that”. To be totally honest, Ashley and I were getting quite choked up as tears started falling down Marry’s face. I quickly grabbed Marry and gave her a hug and told her next Sunday were going to get you a brand new Easter dress just because we love you. This was when I realized, that its not about us at all, Its about Loving God, and Loving OTHERS!!
Well today is Sunday night and Marry got her first new Easter dress this afternoon along with a new pair of shoes and new purse. Theirs just something about Marry that just radiates the Holy Spirit that I feel we should all desire to have a walk with Christ as Marry’s is. We are still getting to know her and finding out new things, and listening to new stories every time we see her. She told us today she has never felt so welcomed by a body of believers and feels the Lord made no mistake by placing her in that second pew from the front these past two Sundays and also running into us that Dec 6th morning. Praise God!!
For more info on the West Jax Street Ministry Team please visit our church web site.
