Our elderly neighbors across the street were sitting on their front porch, just looking around. They do this quite often.
Our neighbor directly across the street was wiping off his wife's truck, a really nice truck at that.
His grandson, who lives across from us in the cove with his mom, girlfriend and baby daughter, was doing doughnuts around the large oak tree in their front yard with his 4-wheeler. Dust was flying everywhere. His small truck was parked in the grass of the side yard and 98.1 was blaring a Black Crowes song, "She talks to Angels".
Another neighbor's van wasn't there. It is a Mexican-American family. The husband just recently started waving to me and Ryan. I use to wave all the time when they first moved in. He never would wave back. I was ready to give up, Ryan was persistent, He said that that means we need to wave even more. Shame on me. We cross paths with him during the day, taking and picking up our children to and from school. I know he works nights, but I wonder where they were this particular Sunday morning?
All was quiet directly next door. Their house caught fire from hot grease left on the stove about a year ago. Between the fire, smoke and water damage, the house was deemed unlivable. Their insurance got on the ball, though, and they were back in the house just after about 3 months. Their daughter, her husband and their little girl live with the parents. The daughter told me that, and I quote exactly what she told me..."about $30,000 of Nascar memorabilia was destroyed in the fire."
God destroyed those idols.
I remember after the fire, the mom kept saying, "I thank God no one was hurt. The house can be rebuilt, but once a person is gone, they're gone."
Directly behind us live our Puerto Rican-American neighbors. All was quiet there. The mom was recently laid off. One of their two sons lives with them. His tow truck was there, but there weren't any repo-ed cars around. We have had up to 5 of them at one time- most of them parked on the street by our house. They recently had a carport sale, and Sierra HAD to go see what she could buy. Our Sierra loves... stuff. I set off with her. They were all outside and we got to talking. The mom told me she noticed the For Sale sign in our yard and asked me why we were moving. I suddenly felt giddy with excitement. She opened the door for me to share- about where God is calling us! I started talking about seminary, I explained what seminary was, what seminary was a school for... but once I started talking about Africa, the son immediately started shaking his head... "NO, NO, NO... why would you want to go there".... I proceeded to tell him that we felt God calling us there, to serve Him and His people. I told him my husband was wanting to teach African pastors. The son could not comprehend. He was in disbelief. We had a good 30 minute, at least, conversation about this. They were all asking many questions. I pray the Lord planted a seed in them that day. That they will see that we love our Lord and Savior and we are following Him to do His will, wherever He takes us!
My neighborly curiosity got me thinking about why God had me home so much lately, besides the fact that my kids have been sick. What was He showing me that particular morning? I heard a woman say on 640 am "Wherever we are, God can reveal Himself to us. God puts us where we are by His appointing." I don't know her name, but I wrote down what she said. I came in on the last part of her talk, but she started talking about Paul. She suggested perhaps his greatest ministry was when he was in jail, which is one of the bleakest, most desolate places. Though I do not see my home as a bleak and desolate place, I realized that what I was seeing outside was. Why were they all at home? Do they not know the Lord?
I suddenly felt so convicted. We are planning and praying about moving to Jackson for seminary and then travel over 8000 miles away, to tell people in Africa about Jesus Christ. Our first ministry should be our neighbors, shouldn't it?? We are where we are right now by God's will. I was convicted and I know what Ryan and I need to do: we need to invite our neighbors to church.
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