Day #2: Challenges and God's Protection

Day two of BUMP began our first day of serious work projects. We split the teams into three groups: one went to Center City to meet the Senior Pastor, John Davis, and got to walk around the Drexel/UPenn neighborhood and pass out fliers and talk to people. As one leader confessed, she struggled with street evangelism but she felt that it was good for her and the team to get out of their comfort zones and start conversations about Jesus.

The second group stayed with me in Feltonville, and we went to the Community Center near the library and the school. There’s a public pool, playground, and a field with a few baseball diamonds, and a basketball court. It’s an important and fairly central place for the kids of the community, especially in the summer when they’re out of school. The grounds-man there is responsible for keeping the field clean, but it’s a big field for a one-man job and it was pretty cluttered with fourth-of-July leftovers, beer bottles, cigar wrappers, needles, and general trash. We spent the morning doing a walk-through of the field cleaning everything up. The grounds-man met with us afterwards and thanked us for the help, explaining that in another two weeks the field would be filthy again but he was happy to have some time to work on other issues instead of having to work on the field every day.

The Community Center wanted to take our picture to put up!

The final group went to South Philly and met with Pastor Will Turner and his wife, Sarah, in a neighborhood called Point Breeze. Pastor Will was at the one-year anniversary mark of having planted a church in Point Breeze, and he wanted BUMP to show some love in the community, so the team got to meet the proprietors of the park and do clean-up projects there.

Later in the day, the BUMP site-director for Grace Church, Peter Ndaita, spoke with the team about Evangelism. He talked about his experience of evangelism in his home country of Kenya, and what he had learned about evangelism from working at Grace Church. He explained how, to him, evangelism centers on building relationships and showing love to people, and taking the opportunity when it arises to share the love of God with them. He talked about building relationships with his Muslim neighbors and being available to them, and not shying away from talking with them about their religious beliefs and sharing the gospel with them.

Peter in the center, with leaders Sharon and Kim

We then spent some time worshipping and praying for the day’s VBS, before making our final preparations, eating dinner, and starting day two of VBS.

Day two was a testament to the sovereignty of God. The actual VBS went well, but the circumstances surrounding the evening became a true test for me and the other leaders. We found out, shortly before VBS began, that the church parsonage (right next to the church) had been robbed. Additionally, one of the church volunteers had to be taken to the hospital, and one of the team’s leaders heard some difficult news from his family. There was some fear, due to the circumstances of the theft, that the robber(s) may return during VBS so we prayed for safety and protection from God in the midst of all the uncertainty during the VBS.

The dancers leading music during the VBS opening

VBS itself was a little chaotic. Of all the days of VBS for the week, the kids were hardest to manage of Tuesday. They were disobedient, restless, and difficult to keep calm and engaged in the activities of the evening. It was a hard night for us, but God was gracious and brought us through it safely and protected us in the midst of all the uncertainty of the night.

There were still plenty of smiles!