Let's Be NICE

A couple of days ago, a facebook friend posted a link to blog post writen by a christian minister who wrote a very thoughtful piece concerning the matter in which christians minister in his town spoke about Joel Osteen when he was leading an evangelistic meeting in their town. The ministers refused to support the meeting, and were openly highly critical of Osteen. The writer simply pointed out that, regardless of what they thought about him, thousands of people have come to Christ through his ministry. The writer went on to point out that as Christians, we should love and support one another.

I realized that I have received criticism of Osteen, and passed it on, without really hearing what the man has said. I do know that the last years of my parents life, listening to Osteens sermons brought them great encouragement.

My point here really has little to do with Joel Osteen. I am wondering how much damage we Christians do when we publicly criticize each other. I agree that we need to be careful to protect the truth. What I object to is the way Christians attack other Christians, often viciously, mean spirited, with no grace or mercy. Just to check that, I "googled" a number of leading ministers, and found that on the first page of the results, most of them had an attack come up, every time, written by another christian minister. These were often vicious, using phrases like "false Gospel" "unchristian heretical fad", "unbiblical sloth" "occultic", "the devils religion". 

These are names I found under attack: Mark Batterson, Francis Chan, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Mark Driscoll, Erwin McManus, Joel Olsteen, Joyce Meyer, John Piper, Joseph Prince, Robert Morris, and Beth Moore. Few christian leaders are untouched by public criticism. 

I am just tired of hearing hateful, demeaning language coming from the mouth of Christians, used to attack other Christians. 

Can we be nice? I know that we don't all agree about some important teachings of the Bible. There are so many ways to interpret scripture, and we all believe we are right. Of course we do, we wouldn't believe something we thought was wrong! I have been a Christian for many years. Some of my most strongly held beliefs have changed. Of course, there are some things that I KNOW are true, but so many doctrines are open to debate and can be seen from different angles. 

Mostly, I just would like to see Christians write about, and speak to, other Christians with respect, considering that we are brothers who love the Lord, are trying to follow Him in truth to the best of our understanding.  

"Charlie" The Janitor

In New Orleans, we had an interesting encounter with the janitor of the club we did the redo for.
We arrived at the club at 8:00am Saturday, where the janitor (I will call him Charlie here, but that is not his real name) was supposed to meet us and unlock the door. He arrived at 8:30, and seemed a bit grumpy. When he opened the door of the dressing room, we were shocked at the condition...trash everywhere, cigaret butts, tissues, plastic cups strewn all over the floor, as if trash cans did not exist.  Charlie explained that it is like that every morning. He may have felt that paint and decorating for these girls was useless because they didn't take care of what they had.
We just happily unpacked our supplies and started cleaning. As we worked, we prayed, sang, and laughed a lot, and Charlie began to warm up to us. He was working upstairs in the main room, but had to walk through the dressing room from time to time.
Dixie asked if he liked the color. He said he did not, but maybe the girls would. Eventually, Charlie began to give suggestions about the decorating. He suggested that a few things be painted black, and brought us some black paint. We used the paint to paint around the shower wall, and put some back swirls on a wall he thought should be black.

 
Charlie even had to leave at noon and told us he would be back in 30 minutes, and left us there working, trusting that we would be good!
When Charlie got back, we were loading up, ready to leave. A few girls were speaking to him, telling him Bye, and taking pictures with him. Karen told him good bye, and said "God bless you". He replied, "I am a born again Christian."
He had never mentioned that before, and we left grateful to know that he was a brother.

New Orleans

Last week, a group of Cottonwood women headed to New Orleans to help out with a ministry there that former Cottonwood members, Patrick and Dixie Bernson, started two years ago to reach out to women who are working in the strip clubs and brothels in New Orleans.
The ministry name is One, because they feel that even if they reach only one woman who is rescued from that life, their work is worthwhile.  They have a team of women who get permission to enter the clubs, visit with the women working there, take gifts to the women, the owners, the bouncers, and security workers. The hope is that through showing love and acceptance, they can bring hope and cause their hearts to be soft to receive the gospel.
The purpose of our trip was to encourage the ministry team and help them in their ministry in any way.
After some discussion and much prayer, Dixie and Patrick asked the owner of one of the clubs if we could paint and redecorate the dark, dirty, dismal dressing room of the club. When the team visits the club, they are able to speak with just a few of the women. Redecorating the dressing room would possible touch the hearts of all of the women who work there.
We arrived last Thursday night (No one knows why it took us 15 hours to make a 10 hour trip. We didn't stop for shopping or a lingering meal, didn't have car trouble or excessive traffic!! It's a mystery!)


Here is our group. Dixie is in front of, in the green stripes. Surrounding her, from left to right, MariLea, Jaykie, Teressa, Shellie, Nancy, Jeannette, and Karen.


On Friday morning, we drove around and took a few pictures of the clubs and brothels in East New Orleans. Here are a few pictures, just to give an idea of the area.

 

 

The strip clubs are clearly marked with signs, but the brothels are in nondescript buildings, some with a sign with just a name, like Lily Pad or Sakura, or they are labeled as health clubs or modelling agencies. Driving around the area gave us a good idea of the kind of activity is there...a neighborhood of clubs and cheap hotels mixed with small stores and regular businesses.
 We spent Friday afternoon baking cookies, painting canvasses, and getting things ready for Saturday.

 

 

 Dixie had told me that the girls were open to receive Bibles, but asked for pretty ones. I was blessed to find very pretty Women's Devotional Bibles at a phenomenal price. We wrote a note and tied a bow around each one to leave for the girls.

Friday night, we went out in small groups for a prayer drive. We prayed as we drove around the neighborhood, then parked in front of each business to pray for the people there. 

Saturday morning, we loaded our supplies and headed for the designated club. I took "before" pictures, but they don't really show the true condition of the room. I took a lot of  "during" pictures as our group worked with 8 young women of the team, cleaning and painting as we prayed, sang, visited, and laughed.

 

 

 

 

 

And, the finished product! 

 

 

 

A little bit of sight seeing Saturday afternoon. 

On Sunday afternoon, we had a special ministry time for the girls who are part of One Ministry. 

We set up a spa in Dixie's house and did pedicures, facials, massages, and one on one prayer ministry. 

We served them supper, then had a time of worship and a word of encouragement for them. 

I meant to take pictures, but was too busy doing facials! 

God was good. We travelled safely and had a great time.