Inclusion
It is the aspect of our ministry that we love the most. The untargeted people that show up at events, that come into a prayer meeting or Bible study, that find the tree next the church provides the most shade, or just have nowhere else to go. We find that this acceptance of all people best represents our Lord Jesus and how He interacted with those rejected or excluded by others. Recently, a woman showed up at our sewing school with a beautiful teen-age girl beside her. At a second glance, it was obvious that the girl had mental limitations. She didn’t speak, didn’t focus, and seemed totally oblivious to what was going on around her. Her aunt explained that this girl had been born with some mental deficiencies and no school would accept her. Abandoned by her own parents, the aunt had full care of her. But it was more difficult to leave the girl at home while the aunt went to work. She was certainly a young woman at risk because she could easily wander away or be lured out into the street. “Could she just come and sit here with your students each day?” The director agreed and each day this young woman now comes and sits with the other girls, though she is not able to understand the classes. Last week, when I taught a Bible class, I noticed that at one point she focused on me as if she was trying to understand. Afterwards, she was laughing with some of the girls and even has started to say a few words.
Missions is about all peoples and we are thankful to be a part of a mission that includes those that others reject, and actually reaches out to those at risk and without the advantages that many of us have. How the Gospel will reach into the heart of this young woman, I don’t know. But she is one that we are claiming for His Kingdom, believing that by welcoming her in our sewing school, she will feel the welcome of her Heavenly Father.
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