We Go to Church on Saturday Night

Salvation Army Chapel, Las Vegas, Nevada

We certainly weren’t needed to help serve the food. There appeared to be a couple of families with parents and children prepared to serve tortillas along with meat, veggies, and salsa.

Our friend Kathleen had asked if we wanted to go to the dinner with her. She usually gets a team of friends together to serve dinner outside one of the chapels at the Lied Social Services campus of the Salvation Army on the third Saturday night of each month, but this was the fourth Saturday. Another team was serving for the evening, so initially, anyway, we just observed.

The dinners are served outside the chapel, which is surrounded by Salvation Army apartment buildings and other facilities for those in need. The dinner isn’t just for apartment dwellers, though. It’s for anyone who’s hungry. A long line of people were already waiting when we arrived shortly before the 6:00 pm dinner was served.

Estimating how much dinner to prepare can be a challenge -- after all, nobody RSVPs for the weekly event. Guest volume can be affected by anything from weather to when assistance checks arrive. Kathleen said that on her first night of preparing the meal, she greatly underestimated the number of people coming; even though everyone got something, some people still left hungry. She determined to never let that happen again, and she hasn’t

Over a hundred guests were served the night we visited, and they all seemed to enjoy the dinner. (I overheard a man trying to give pointers on how to fold a tortilla to another diner, and she protested, “I know how to fold a taco! I’ve got plenty of Mexicans in my family!”) There were also plenty of desserts (donated by a local grocer).

Shortly after dinner began, a loud argument began between a man and a woman in the line. Ron, who administers the ministry, quickly calmed the unrest. After getting food, the young, slender woman involved came over to tell Kathleen her story.

She asked Kathleen for a place to stay and money. Kathleen suggested the Las Vegas Rescue Mission, but the woman gave an elaborate story of why that wouldn’t work for her. Kathleen couldn’t give the help the woman wanted, but hoped they’d begun a relationship that might lead to something later.

I asked about the woman’s story, and Kathleen said, “She was lying. I know, because when I was in her place, I was a liar.” She knows from experience that alcoholics and drug users lie. But lives can change.

As diners entered, they were invited to stop by a table full of neatly folded clothes, including a number of coats. Ron urged people to pick out clothes, “Winter is coming! You’ll be needing those jackets!” By the time dinner was done, all of the clothes were gone.

There was another chance for people to get clothes if they needed them -- during the meal, Ron announced, “We have new socks available for everyone who stays for tonight’s worship service!”  Some ministries require people to attend a worship service before the meal is served, but this ministry didn’t operate that way. Still, the offer of new, clean socks was generally a powerful incentive to attend the evening service.

Only twenty-two people stayed for the worship service; most people left immediately after eating. Though there was a preacher for the service, the usual worship team couldn’t make it, so we sang an acapella version of the first verse of “Amazing Grace”.

The speaker that evening, Tae Chu, opened with a golfing joke, then spoke about the Lord’s Prayer, then the story of Joseph from Genesis. He concluded with another joke about a symphony conductor.  Ron came forward and gave short Gospel presentation after Tae finished.

When Ron finished, a woman raised her hand, “Ron, I think you should preach like that when people are here. You should stand on a box while people are waiting in line for food.” Ron chuckled, but not a chuckle that seemed to commit to the idea.

While helping with clean-up, I talked to another volunteer named Mike who told me he had had a gambling addiction, but God had saved him. That is why he wanted to help people dealing with other problems. He hoped his story would help others.

I suppose I should make it clear that though this meal and the worship service were on Salvation Army grounds, it wasn’t a Salvation Army ministry, just a group of people trying to help others. Not a work of a church but rather the work of The Church.

Statistics:

Service Length: 1 hour

Sermon Length: 35 minutes

Our Rough Count: 22

Snacks: meal served before worship service

Musicians: none

Songs:“Amazing Grace”

Distance to Church: 3 miles

Open WiFi: no

Tie/Suit Count: none

Las Vegas Rescue Mission and First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Las Vegas

Las Vegas Rescue Mission

"Would you like some homemade cookies?" I asked the woman walking along North Las Vegas Blvd. 

"You can take those cookies," she answered, "And stick them up..." Well, I won't complete her sentence. But I'd much rather eat the cookies than do what she suggested.

Mindy and I went out Saturday morning with our new friend Kathleen Quirk to deliver cookies to street people in the less touristy locations in Las Vegas.

Kathleen has been baking cookies and handing them out for about four years now. It wasn't long before that Kathleen was living on these streets herself, but now she's the kitchen director of the kitchen at Las Vegas Rescue Mission. I had read online about her ministry, Cookies and Hope, in an article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. We connected on Facebook, and I asked her if we could join her on her cookie run.

And most of the street people, unlike the woman mentioned above (who didn't seem to be having a good day) were quite appreciative of the cookies. Kathleen says that when she was on the street she would pray for someone to come her way and give something to her. She hopes she is the answer to prayers made by people on the street.

I asked Kathleen about her favorite memory of handing out cookies, and she told us about the time a man put a gun to her head. Initially she'd met a young woman on the street and started a conversation, giving the woman a business card with her phone number, so the woman could call her she ever wanted to get off the street. Not too long after, the woman called. Kathleen went to help the woman. A man was there, probably the woman's pimp, and he put a gun to Kathleen's head and told her to stay away from his girl. Days later, Kathleen was driving and saw the woman, who got into Kathleen's car. Kathleen called someone who could take the woman to safety out of state. That woman returned to her family and is doing well today, partly due to some cookies.

Another woman that Kathleen met in her cookie ministry is now in the rehabilitation program at the Las Vegas Rescue Mission. We met Nikki as she was sorting clothes for the Rescue Mission while we were taking a tour of the facilities.

We saw the entry rooms to the men's dorms and the women's dorms (the dorms themselves are kept private from visitors). We saw classrooms for those in rehabilitation programs, including a room full of computers that people farther along in the program can use to research employment opportunities.

We saw the dining room that every night feeds five to six hundred people. (There's no worship attendance requirement to eat the evening meal, but those spending the night are required to attend the evening worship service). We heard that the Sunday evening service open to the people is very well attended, usually filling up all the seats. There's a second Sunday evening "family" service for those in the Mission's program.

Mindy and I attended that service, at 7:30 pm Sunday evening. When we went inside, a gentleman in the program let Mindy know where the seating for women was as she wandered toward the men's section. (We later learned that married couples and families were allowed to sit together in one section, but it was fun for me to sit with the guys, and Mindy enjoyed sitting with Kathleen and the women in their section.)

As the service began, everyone was encouraged to stand, though a few guys in the back row with me stayed seated. The two guys on guitars who led the worship had graduated from the program years earlier, but return almost every Sunday night. A ninety year old man named Bob led a time of prayer. Bob has been a part of the ministry of the LVRM for the last thirty years. He prayed for blessings on President Obama, the director of the Mission, and the pastor of the Mission, Jeff. Afterward, Pastor Jeff came forward and told the congregation they'd start the year strong, as he said, "God is good" and the congregation said, "All the time!" Jeff then said, "All the time," and the congregation responded with "God is good!"

Jeff read the passage from Mark 8 about Jesus healing the blind man. In the story, the blind man is not immediately healed completely. At first he sees "men looking like trees." Jeff said that many of us have a fuzzy picture of Jesus. We need to go to God's word to see Jesus clearly. He urged people to make a commitment to read God's Word and pray in the New Year to come. Appropriately, the service concluded with the chorus, Open the Eyes of my Heart. I must admit that not many people talked to us before or after the service, although we were greeted as we entered. Most people there knew each other, and we were obvious outsiders. It was good enough to watch the members of the program greet each other with love and good spirits.

Statistics

Service Length: 1 hour 1 minute

Sermon Length: 25 minutes

Visitor Treatment: we were greeted as we came in, but other than Mindy's being directed toward the women's section, no particular attention was paid to us as guests

Followup by Tuesday Morning: none

Our Rough Count: 98

Probable Ushers' Count: As people came in, their nametags were scanned and their pictures went up on the screen in front -- so the attendance count would be quite accurate if they added the pastor (who told us he'd forgotten his nametag), Kathleen and us. 

Snacks: none

Musicians: all male: drums, electric guitar, electric bass, and percussion/tambourine. The two guitar players traded off leading songs

Songs: Come, Now is the Time to Worship

            Heart of Worship

            Blessed be Your Name

            New Year

            Open the Eyes of my Heart

Miles to church: 12

Miles from start: 85

Total 2016 Miles: 703

Church website: http://www.vegasrescue.org/

 First Christian Church

Mindy and I had been warmly greeted already that day when we went to the morning worship service at the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Las Vegas . We were meeting Tracy and Troy Morris at the service, friends of friends from Healdsburg Community Church. Tracy had been a part of First Christian Church for most of her life. Now she and Troy are part of the leadership (elders and deacons were installed during the service; Troy was ordained as an elder).

Since it was Epiphany Sunday, Christmas continued in the worship service. Pastor Steve Willis was wearing a white stole with his robe for the season, and I was happy to have one more week of Christmas carols. The morning sermon was pretty much directed toward us, even though Steve hadn't known we were coming. The title was "God is in the Relocation Business," and our life this year is all about moving as we head for a new state every week.

The two places we worshiped Sunday, though in the same city, seemed like two different worlds. But it was good to see God present in both.

Statistics:

Service Length: 1 hour 17 minutes

Sermon Length: 17 minutes

Visitor Treatment: we were greeted as we entered; our new friends Tracy and Troy introduced us to several people. Mindy signed a guest book near the door to the sanctuary, and Dean registered us as visitors on the attendance sheet in the pew.

Followup by Tuesday Morning: none

Our Rough Count: 102

Probable Ushers' Count: 125

Snacks: We arrived too late to visit the church's coffee shop, Holy Grounds, which is open between the two worship services (from 9:00 am to 10:30 am)

Musicians: the choir director (a man) played the organ and a synthesizer; there were 12 women and 9 men in the robed choir

Songs: All Creatures of our God and King

            Joy to the World

            Children Welcome in the Name of Jesus

            Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying

            (choir only) Seven-fold Amen

            (choir only) He is Born

            Thy Word

            Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow

            We Three Kings

            Go Tell it on the Mountain

Miles to church: 12

Miles from start: 686

Total 2016 Miles: 40

Church website: http://www.fcclv.org/