We go to the Movies for a Mission

Maya Cinemas Fresno 16, Fresno, California

We were sorry we’d eaten dinner before the movie, because the party room had two kinds of sandwiches (croissant and rolled wraps), chips, dips, and a veggie tray. I would have loved to feast but I only could handle a few chips and a couple of celery sticks, and a bottle of water for the show.

We shouldn’t have been surprised by the good spread. The Fresno Rescue Mission knows a thing or two about feeding people.

Fresno Rescue MIssion sponsored the Saturday evening screening of Same Kind of Different as Me, a new film from Pure Flix about two men changed by an encounter at a rescue mission. We bought tickets for the event online (tickets included the VIP reception beforehand; hence the food) and found ourselves in the theater party room shortly after 6:00 pm surrounded by posters of Kung Fu Panda (and others) and friendly people who’d come for the screening. We met sisters Saroya and Teresa, who were in fact identical twins (to be honest, Mindy had met Teresa the night before while shopping. Mindy was thrilled to see her again) We talked about our kids; Saroya has a daughter in New York, and one of our daughters had considered the college Teresa’s daughter’s currently attending in New York. Teresa and Saroya were there because they wanted to support the rescue mission. Saroya also said they were there to support Christian movies, “That’s very important to us.”

I also talked with a couple of people from the Mission itself. Deborah Torres, who’s the Chief Development Officer for the mission, said she hoped the event would “bring awareness to the Rescue Mission. We can all do something, we all have something to offer, whether working at the Rescue Mission or the animal shelter.”

I also asked Don Eskes, the CEO of the Fresno Rescue Mission, what they hoped to accomplish with the screening. He said, “We hope to inspire people to get to know those who are different from themselves. Only through relationships can we affect change.”  He said it’s important to not just pass by homeless people, but to give them time. “Tell me your story,” is what many people want to hear. Too often we pass by the homeless, not even thinking of them as people, he said.

Almost all the seats reserved for the event,the seats in the stadium seating section, were filled, and nobody needed to sit in the front rows on the floor. Before the film began, a couple of people spoke to the group. Rob Carter introduced himself as a promoter of faith based films in Central California. He urged people to support Christian films by recommending the film we were about to see and and by going to see The Star, an upcoming animated Christmas film, and I Can Only Imagine, a film featuring actor Dennis Quaid and the band Mercy Me. Deborah from the mission urged people to stick around after the film to ask questions and perhaps have a chance to win a framed movie poster.

We enjoyed the film. I’ll save most of my thoughts about it for an upcoming post at Movie Churches, but I’ll mention this one thing that bothered me, since Deborah addressed it immediately after the screening.

In one scene of Same Kind of Different as Me, a homeless man entered the mission’s dining hall during a meal, yelling and accusing someone of stealing from him. He smacked tables with the bat, and then smashed a large glass window. Finally, a woman (Deborah Hall, played by Renee Zellweger) confronted the man, and he left. But the man continues to return from the mission for meals.

At a similar mission on our cross country trip last year, we heard about a man who plugged a boombox in the wall of a mission’s chapel just before the service started. He turned up the volume (the boombox was playing only static), and when someone on the mission’s staff asked him to turn it off, he refused. entered the mission chapel just before a service and plugged a boombox into the wall and turned up the volume. It wasn’t even music that was playing, but radio static. Someone on the staff asked him to turn off the machine, but he refused. When he was asked to leave, he eventually started to make his way out; once outside he cursed at a staff member and shoved him, then threw the boombox at another staff member, hitting him in the head.

The staff member, a former police officer, quickly subdued the man. Police soon arrived and arrested the man. The mission’s director asked us not to identify the location of the mission, since such incidents were extremely rare, and they want guests to feel that the mission is a safe place. The police had been called because they wanted the other guests, especially those with children, to feel safe coming for a meal, for classes, or for a worship service.

So I was happy that before taking any questions, Deborah said, “If you come to the Fresno Rescue Mission, you don’t have to worry about someone wildly swinging a baseball bat.” There were only a few other questions, but Deborah encouraged people to come to the mission, if even for just a tour of the facilities.

After all the questions, Deborah asked who wanted the poster and several people raised their hands. (Mindy whisper-shouted, “Auction it off!”) Then Deborah asked, “Who was the real star of Same Kind of Different as Me?”

People murmured, but Mindy called out, “Greg Kinnear… Renee Zellweger… God!” (She told me later she couldn't remember Djimon Hounsou's name.) The third answer was correct, and we ended up with the poster. But of course the real prize of the evening was meeting so many people concerned about reaching out to the needs of hurting people in Fresno.

We Go to Church (but is it Really a Church?) before a Meal

Redwood Gospel Mission, Santa Rosa, California

Our trip last year, where we visited a worship service in every state, could have been completed so much more quickly -- perhaps in two months rather than a year -- if we’d mostly gone to places like Redwood Gospel Mission. Last year, each state required a week since we generally attended Saturday or Sunday services, but RGM has a worship service every evening at 6:00 pm.

Technically, one could argue that Redwood Gospel Mission is not a church. The people at the Mission would not call themselves a church. During the worship service, worshipers are encouraged to attend a church. But RGM certainly has worship services, so if we said that we would visit a worship service (rather than a worship service in a church), we might have found missions throughout the country, and the trip would have been a lot quicker. (Still, we have no regrets.)

When we arrived at the Mission a few minutes before the evening worship service, we saw an ambulance outside. Inside the building,I heard people speculating about who was in the ambulance and the reason the person was in it. No one seemed to really know, but speculation abounded.

As we looked around the chapel, we noticed a few women, but men filled almost all the seats in the chapel. I noticed a few men on their phones, and the man in front of us was looking at a local weekly. Christmas decorations were hanging up near the ceiling.

A minute or two before the scheduled time, a man stood in front of the group and quickly read through a list of announcements (among them, the fact that there’s a 6:00 pm worship service at the mission every day of the year, followed by the 7:00 dinner; he also announced a 6:30 am service followed immediately by breakfast). He also let the group know about the Mission’s drug and alcohol recovery program, the Manna Home ministry for women and children, and shelter availability for the night.

Someone led a prayer of thanksgiving for the day’s lovely weather and for the lovely mission. The two men on stage with guitars introduced themselves as Tim and Steve, who attend two different churches that meet in the same building (The Bridge and Alliance Christian Fellowship). Redwood Gospel Mission has a rotation of churches that lead worship for their evening service.

A few technical difficulties with the sound needed to be worked through (“Your mic’s not working yet!” “Got it!” “Karen, can you turn down the guitars a bit?”), but they carried on with a bit of static coming through the system. Tim said, “If we can lift God up and praise Him, it’s a blessing to everyone.” Almost every comment and song was met with scattered “Amens” and “Hallelujahs” from the crowd.

Tim introduced a Bob Dylan song by reminding us that we all need to make some choices (“It may be the devil, it may be the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody.”) Someone praised his singing with a loud “Brave-Oh!”

As we sang, a man came from behind us and tousled the hair of the man looking at the newspaper in front of us. The man responded good naturedly. A different man went to the front of the chapel and raised his clenched fist triumphantly for no reason we could discern.

Karen, who had been doing the sound, came forward to give the message. I heard a man behind me make a crude remark that would have more often be heard in a strip club than a chapel, but fortunately he quit after that.

Karen initially had problems with the sound system and also apologized for a scratchy throat. She apparently had been to the Mission before, saying, “I see a lot of faces I’ve known for a long time.”  She read a bit from the Robert Frost poem about the road less traveled, drawing a parallel with Matthew 7:15 where Jesus talked about the wide road leading to destruction and the narrow road to salvation.

She spoke of the many choices we make in our day to day life, but said the most crucial choice was whether we would accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, a choice between eternal life and eternal condemnation. She quoted Scripture demonstrating our need for God’s forgiveness for our sins that condemn us to death. She told the story of a California governor who offered clemency to a convict on death row. The convict refused the reprieve and went to his death. She said we have the same choice about whether to accept God’s offer of life. (Side note: Mindy wasn't able to verify this story)

She closed with an offer to pray the sinner’s prayer accepting God’s gift of salvation. “Close your eyes and say these words in your heart,” she said, but many in the chapel repeated her words of contrition and request for forgiveness out loud. “If you prayed that prayer, you are a new creation,” Karen said as she closed.

People stirred, getting ready to go into the meal. “Women and children first” was repeated by several people, and it seemed to be a regular prelude to forming the line to the dining room.

We went in to eat with the crowd, hoping to engage in conversation but almost everyone was  much more intent on clearing their very full plates rather than talking. (I did hear a man at another table say, “I have the munchies from hell; if anyone doesn’t want anything on your plate, it’s going in my pockets, somehow.”)

A few days later, I went without Mindy to the 6:30 am Bible study that preceded breakfast. On my way to the Mission, I saw many people walking from the freeway underpass (where they had spent the night) to the warmth of the Mission.

Before the service there was gossip about a rumor that people from the nearby shopping mall were taking pictures of the homeless that might be used to evict folks. Someone said the photographers might be coming to the services, which led one woman to respond, “You don’t have to be homeless to come to church here.” As in the evening service, the seats were pretty well filled, and there was a greater percentage of women.

A leader read a devotion from The Daily Bread and then asked if anyone had any Scripture to share. A woman shared an extended portion from Isaiah, a man shared from John 15 (“I am the vine and you are the branches”), and another man shared a quote from Joyce Myers.

People were then dismissed for breakfast, again with the admonition, “Women and children first”.

During our 2016 journey to every state, we went to a number of missions along the way. Though most of those places wouldn’t call themselves “churches,” at those places and at Redwood Gospel Mission, we certainly saw the Church at work.

Statistics

Evening Service / Morning Service

Service Length: 59 minutes / 15 minutes

Sermon Length: 17 minutes / none

Visitor Treatment: No special recognition of visitors, but there was a time for people to greet those around them.

Followup by Tuesday Morning: none (no attendance record)

Our Rough Count: 47 / 50

Probable Ushers’ Count: none

Snacks: spagetti, fruit salad, green salad, French bread, green beans, cupcakes, pie, milk, water /didn’t stay for breakfast

Musicians: acoustic guitars (2 men) / none

Songs: “Our God”

“Hear our Praises”

“Gotta Serve Somebody” (solo)

“Mighty to Save”

“Cornerstone”

“Revelatation Song”

“Lord, in Your Name we Lift up our Hands”

“How Marvelous, How Wonderful”

“Listen to our Hearts”

Miles to Church: 2

Church Website: srmission.org

WiFi Availability: none

Tie/Suit Count: 0 / 0

We Were Thankful in Salt Lake City

Catholic Community Services, Salt Lake City
A friend on Facebook said he was trying to volunteer at a rescue mission on Thanksgiving, but he wasn’t able to. Someone responded that at that rescue mission, volunteering positions filled up three months in advance for the holiday. I guess it’s not surprising: giving to others is a wonderful way to express thankfulness.

It would be even more difficult to volunteer to serve a meal on Thanksgiving at St. Vincent de Paul in Salt Lake City, because they don’t serve meals that day. Almost every other day of the year they serve meals, but because so many other organizations offer meals on Thanksgiving, that week is set apart for deep cleaning. At the dining hall they posted locations that would be serving on the holiday.

But most of the rest of the year, they serve lunch and dinner Monday through Friday, brunch and dinner on Saturdays, and dinner on Sundays to everyone who wants a meal. We saw men and women, elderly people and little kids.

Thanks to our hosts in Utah, Mindy and I were able serve on a Thursday and a Friday. We were able to unwrap frozen pork roasts from Deseret Foods (a service of the Latter Day Saints) on Thursday for cooking, and we got to put pulled pork in cooking trays Friday morning. When it was lunch time, we got to serve the pulled pork for sandwiches for Friday lunch. We also got to eat the pulled pork sandwiches for lunch, and they were excellent.

The folks we worked with, especially Johnnie and Jeff in the kitchen, were concerned about making tasty food that people would enjoy. They joked about doing a rescue mission edition of Iron Chef.

On this day when we express gratitude for all we have, let’s be thankful for those who faithfully serve others. And let’s look for opportunities to do the same.

Before one meal's over, the next is underway

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/