Mayor Wright

In a community where trust and respect are earned, families are close knit, where kids run around barefoot having nothing to entertain them other than friends and their imaginations and where people on the outside aren’t welcomed, there’s a people booming with potential and overflowing with love. Exteriors are rough; words are few and action prevails, but that is only a façade. It takes time to gain trust, to build relationships, to earn credibility and to show you love them. Once they have embraced you, once they trust you, you are welcomed into their family with open arms; you become an uncle or aunty to every single child. Mayor-Wright housing is a community like this. It may be run down, in a bad part of town and super crammed with people, but it is vibrant with love, family values and endless possibilities for God to transform lives. I look at each child as a little flower bud. With love and care they can grow to be a beautiful flower that can eventually plant more seeds and continue the pattern of growth. But a garden takes time, work and sweat. Not all the plants make it, weeds may choke out some, the sun scorches others, birds eat a few, but there are those that will prevail. It is for those children that make all the time I spend at Mayor-Wrights worth it, long days, unruly kids; unwelcomed looks are worth it for just one child.

I volunteer at the family library located in the dead center of the housing community. I play games with kids and read books to them. Danny and Jennie, brother and sister, are two kids that stand out. Those two consistently come to the corps for youth programs and are involved on Sundays as well. Danny comes to the library and when it’s almost time for the van to come pick us and his sister up for Wednesday night programs, we walk over to his house and hang-out while we wait. His other siblings come out with their ukuleles and we sit and play music for a couple of minutes. We have a great time playing songs like “I’m Yours” and “Till My Dying day” which has now become one of my favorite songs. When I come by the family offers me food and welcomes me to hang out with the kids, those are the kind of relationships that I am talking about the kind that are priceless. A month ago I was a stranger, now I am welcomed into their home. I don’t feel like I don’t belong anymore, sure there are days that aren’t so positive, but the good days are starting to outnumber the bad. That’s Jesus working in my life and using me in amazing ways when I don’t feel like I have anything to offer. He steps in and does what I cannot do on my own. He is transforming me every day and using me to transform the lives of the families in Mayor-Wrights through love. God is amazing.

A Little About Me

I often wonder why I don’t see Old and New Testament miracles happen today. The kind where people are healed, food rains down from the sky, water turns to wine, and money comes from the mouth of fish or where mountains are thrown into the sea. Has God lost some of His power, or were the people in Biblical times more faithful? Was there more of a need for miraculous acts and miracles? I’ll guarantee it’s not God who is different. We now live in a world where satisfaction comes instantly. If I’m hungry I go buy something to eat, if I need clothes I head to the mall and buy a trendy outfit, whatever it is I need I take care of it myself. Sound familiar? If we can solve all our problems and meet our own needs, what room are we leaving for God to provide us for those things? We aren’t. I am guilty of that, are you?

So, a little about me; I don’t need any more things but I continue to buy them. I am not the greatest when it comes to saving money or spending it wisely. I was recently was convicted of just that. I shouldn’t be spending money for a couple of reasons, one, I really don’t have any money to be spending frivolously, two, I have debts to pay, and three, I have enough stuff and I definitely don’t need any more. So I surrendered my “plastic” to a friend to help me with my temptation to spend and help keep me accountable and pray for me, this way even if I had a moment of weakness there would be no physical way to spend money since it wasn’t in my wallet anymore. Problem solved. Tragically, the same day of the surrender I was thinking that I could use a pair of floor length pants, since I only have one pair and although Hawaii isn’t too cold it had been rather chilly lately, Hawaiian weather is relative, and it would be a lot colder when I went home to California for Christmas, so obviously I needed more. So I rationalized that if I only had one more pair I would be set, that’s not absurd, right? There was a problem, I had no money and no way would my friend keeping me accountable hand over my cards for pants. So there I was distraught, conflicted and pant-less.

Did I mention that I volunteer at the Salvation Army Thrift Store? Temptation central, but that’s a different story. So I was working one day and the head manager came in to see how things were going. He noticed that I wasn’t wearing pants, just capris, and that I needed to do so while working, and so he sent me to get pants from the rack. I found two pairs that I thought would be sufficient and showed them to my boss thinking I’d have to figure out a way to borrow money to pay for them. He looked at them then at me and simply said “Good, take them.” What? I could keep both to work in, for free, as in I didn’t have to pay for them with the money I had just given up? I was speechless to say the least. Was I not just worrying about how I was going to manage to pay for the pants then out of nowhere Jesus just hands them to me! No just one pair but two. I know getting jeans from Jesus sounds corny, but it’s awesome! It was my miraculous act, where I asked for something specific and had no way of getting it on my own and Jesus came through going above and beyond what I could have expected. Yes, this is small in the grand scheme of things but think, I surrendered just the tiniest bit and God came through in a big way, can you imagine if I gave up more and let Him start providing for me fully and completely. I can barely fathom the possibilities because they are endless, God is endless. I bet God was in heaven saying, “Finally Sarah is letting me provide for her, she’s finally letting go and allowing me to care for her and reveal the love I have for her,” whoa! What a wakeup call. What have I been missing out on all along because I wasn’t giving God opportunities to show His power? Why was I even worrying to begin with? In Matthew chapter six, God promises us that He’s going to take care of us. If He provides food for birds and clothes for lilies, how much more will He give us, His beloved people, His children? What He offers is endless, but how much we allow Him to give is up to us.