I'm sorry for the short delay. I hope I didn't keep you in too much suspense.
We started the day with devotions in our ministry teams and then left to go to the Inner City River Church, a church plant of the River Christian Fellowship church, in Kansas City. We met up with John Wiley and the pastor of the Inner City River. They explained to us the history of the church and the way that it operates. Inner City River, as said before, began as a church plant from River Christian Fellowship with people who had a heart for the inner city. River Christian Fellowship bought a whole block on 24th Street but gave the church planters one condition. They were not allowed to hold services for a whole year. They were to go out and just love the community. This process took a year and a half during which they partnered with the International House of Prayer (IHOP), providing a room for prayer, and Hope City, a ministry that fed anyone that needed food. Also, kids of the community would go to the Inner City River as a safe place before and after school. Thus was the history of the church when we arrived and they had only started to have evangelistic outreaches to build the church body. So our job was to go out and hand out flyers with information about the church in the surrounding community. We were split into our ministry teams and sent down the two streets on either side of the church with one team on each side of the street. We were told to stay fairly close together as this was a rougher part of town. Now, I admit, I was kinda scared. I have never been in a "rough" part of town and my imagination was having a hay day. So off we went for the next few hours to deliver information door-to-door. Our team went up to each door in threes with a guy in each threesome. At first, I was really scared to go up to the door but as we went on, it got easier and easier and I began to enjoy it. It really helped that we were told to only give them the packet, let them know that if they needed anything to call the church, and leave. So there was a lot pressure that I had been imagining that never really occurred. We had a great time. Then we came back to the church where they served us lunch and thanked us for our help. We then left and went back to the hotel where most of us, including myself, took a nap for the next few hours.
Then we went to the River Christian Fellowship for dinner and a movie. One thing I forgot to mention was the importance that John Wiley stressed on loving those in front of us. He used the story of Lazarus and the rich man as the example. His take on it was that God loved the rich man so much that He sent Lazarus to him so that the rich man could learn to love. But each day, the rich man stepped over Lazarus, ignoring the opportunity to help someone and be the hands and feet of God. That is something that John Wiley has really impressed upon us while we've been here. Love, love, love. Always love people. But anyways, they gave us pizza and salad and candy and then we went into their auditorium for the movie. Before the movie, we watched a video that had been taken of us that day and also one of John Wiley on the 700 Club, describing what his church is doing and how he was called to it. Well, I guess I should actually tell you what that is since I haven't as of yet. John Wiley and his church help those called the working poor. They still have jobs but are unable to afford housing and thus live in pay-by-the-week motels. He and his church provide food for these families and are currently in the process of providing them with homes and other ways to save them from the endless cycle of earning money to pay the rent and nothing left over to try to save for a real home. I'll get into a little more detail on this at a later time. But after the interview, we watched the film "The Ultimate Gift." It was a very touching movie and I highly recommend it. Then we all went back to the hotel and got ready for bed. Eden and I had a skype call with our friend Steven Beck and then I went back to my room and went to sleep.
Thus went day 2 in Kansas City.
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