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Walking in someone else's shoes

There he stood, a little cherub with corn rows on the top of his head and scuffed up, untied kicks on the bottom of his feet. His name was Traevon. He was the cutest thing I’d seen all day.



And I’d seen a lot of people. Old people, young people. Heavy people, thin people. People walking and people in wheelchairs. People who smelled bad, redolent of stale Pall Malls and wet dogs. It’s not uncommon where I work. After all, Union Mission is the largest Christian mission in the state, dispensing social justice on a grand scale. Indeed, each month The Mission feeds a number larger than the population of the city where it operates.

Naivete at The Mission

When I went to work at Union Mission back in January, everyone sort of chuckled at my inexperience in Mission work (some might call it naivete...and they would be right.)


Their source of merriment was my contention that I was excited for the fall, when pretty much every day is critical to the success of our food giveaways, coat giveaways, benefit concerts, holiday mailings, etc. A lot of that stuff is generated from the development and marketing department where I work. My attitude was "bring it on."


"Be careful what you pray for," the saying goes. No kidding. The pace is picking up here at The Mission, and that means a lot of work ahead.


But you know what? It also means a lot of opportunity. And for that, I'm excited.


Here's a rundown of things coming up this weekend:


Saturday: Coat Giveaway
This has become our first big event at The Mission each year. We collect coats starting in August, then sort them, hang them and give them away to our guests. Our guys at Union Mission Crossroads and the Union Mission Foundations program, along with the women and children at Brookside Family Life Center get first crack, then we invite our guests from Union Mission Family Services to get what they and their children need to stay warm this winter.


Saturday: Blessed Sacrament's annual Cardboard City
A special shout-out to Michelle Patterson, who works with the youth at Blessed Sacrament in South Charleston. She invited us back in the summer to participate in their event, which helps educate their young people about extreme poverty and homelessness. I'll be speaking at the event and participating in a Q&A afterward.


Sunday: Brown paper bag inserts
Do you get the Sunday Gazette-Mail? If so, keep an eye out for brown paper bags with our signature wefeedpeople.com logo; inside, you'll find some information about our Thanksgiving dinner and how you can help.


Sunday: Jeremy Camp's "Speaking Louder Than Before"
Christian recording artist Jeremy Camp is in town, along with Natalie Grant and Bebo Norman, to put on a concert at the Municipal Auditorium. Tickets are going fast, so get 'em now! Oh, and make sure you bring a canned good with you...we'll have a collection site just outside the entrance as well as a booth set up inside to share The Mission with you. We've also been invited to come onstage and tell the audience a little about what we do here at Union Mission.


Sunday: Bethany Baptist Church's Missions Conference
Bethany Baptist has been a wonderful partner to Union Mission over the years, and we're excited to participate in their upcoming Missions Conference. Union Mission President and CEO, Rex Whiteman, is the keynote speaker for their Sunday festitivies.


(I'll say this much: I'm no longer naive at how busy Mission work can be.)

Some favorites from The NINES

If you didn't catch some of the Leadership Network and Catalyst's theNines event, there were some really, really great messages from pastors and church leaders around the country. I thought I'd share a few of my favorites with you.

Well, two of them, anyway. After all, some of the more popular pastors' videos are listed as "private," and you can't embed them from YouTube. That's pretty disappointing. I hope I'm just doing something wrong rather than some of them not being as forthright in sharing their material on a common site. Oh, I'm sure you could go to their specific websites and watch the videos, but how about sharing some page views, fellas? I dare say you could spare a few!

So here you go with two videos from theNines.

J.D. Greear of The Summit Church in Raleigh/Durham, N.C.




Rich Nathan of The Vineyard Church, Columbus, Ohio

God's Chisel

Very cool...take a look when you have some time.