Humidity, Healing, and Hugs

Humidity.

We’ve become pretty used to it here. 6 weeks after taking up residence in Williamson, WV we are now becoming used to things that make this place what it is. We’re getting used to being in air conditioned buildings and then walking outside and being hit with a wave of heat, wet heat, that makes you feel like you just got out of the shower. But of the adaptations we’re dealing with I would say humidity is the smallest of them.

We’re becoming used to sitting in Pam, the church secretary's office every day, talking about the weather, how we’re doing, and how she is being impacted by us being there. The other day I went up to have some Pam time and she looked up at me and just started crying, saying how she had been listening to us worship with the youth earlier that morning during devos. That our voices being lifted up to Jesus touched her, and that she needed it. We talked about how healing it is to listen to voices worship in genuine praise to their God. She had her Bible open the whole morning, pouring over the Word, soaking it in like a sponge. I saw her earnestly seeking Jesus’s face that morning, and it’s what I needed to get through the week.

We’re becoming used to the community members, their personality’s and mannerisms. For example, Hazel, an elderly church lady who runs the kitchen at the church we’re staying in, is quite the character. We’ve had some “Hazel Encounters” that scared us to the very core. No one comes between Hazel and her kitchen. So we are all now extremely paranoid about keeping it “clean for Hazel”. But she’s very sweet and never fails to embrace us in hugs when she sees us. Always smiling. Always wanting to serve and love.

Gene. The church’s janitor. Always available to help us out with anything we need. A key broken off in a door. A clogged toilet. Who to talk to about...well...everything. Gene knows.

Pastor Jerrod. We love this man. Best accent in all of West Virginia. And some of the best preaching this side of the Mississippi :)

Pastor Greg. He has recruited for our Kid’s Club all year. He and some of his congregation have formed a healthy meal plan for the kid’s of Kid’s Club, so that we are able to give them healthy, abundant lunch items each day they come. Good man. Funny man. He never fails to crack us up.

The list goes on and on. Joe the Barber. Pierce Witt. Virginia. Iris. Pastor Ferd and his family. Sam from across the street. Pastor Mike and his congregation of Parsely Bottom Church that welcomed us in the most overwhelmingly loving way we have ever experienced. The ladies from the women’s shelter. The elderly folks at the nursing home. Rawl Freewill Baptist Church. The homeowners of the work project’s we’re doing. Debbie, Jackie and Nora, William and Ida, WC and Charlie, and Verna. And all of them, every single one of them, have shown us the upmost hospitality. Hospitality I have never been able to fathom.

We have all had to go outside of who we are comfortable with being. We have all been challenged to love deeper. To love when it’s the last thing we want to do, when it hurts too much, and when we aren’t getting anything back in return. We have been forced to give grace and receive grace.

Our pride has shown.

So has our humility.

So have our scars and wounds that were put on our hearts long ago but are re-surfacing this summer. Healing is happening for all of us individually.

This is still hard. I think it will continue to be hard. But we are learning to be a community. And we are learning to be a family.

I work on a staff of good people. With hearts so full and focused on Jesus. And even though there are days when all 4 of us question the reason of why we’re here, working for YouthWorks, with these people on our staff, doing the job we were hired for and so often feel so inadequate in, we are here together. And we don’t understand it. And that means something.

What is going on here in Williamson is what I think of when I think of the Kingdom of God. People walking hand in hand, side by side, with one another, and loving without bounds. Who are WE to get to be witness of lives being transformed each week? Who are WE to have a job in which we are required to stop each day and focus on the Lord and His goodness and faithfulness? Who are WE to be in relationship with these community members, most who have led lives so far from what we know, and yet we’re able to find a common ground of Jesus. We’re able to seek unity together. Why does He allow us to be a part of something this spectacular?

I really can only think of one reason.

Because in Mingo County, in the little 112 year old brick church on the corner, it’s making us love Him more.

And if my entire summer in Williamson was dedicated to make me love Him more, then this morning I fall on my knees in gratefulness.