More on the Chaplaincy stuff...

It’s Monday evening, I’m sitting out on the patio overlooking the canal and watching the lightening crackle out to the east. I can hear the water lapping at the shore, feel the warm breeze, hear the thunder in the distance and the muffled sounds of some kind of organised sport from the field a few blocks away. Nice!
I work at this house in Palm Beach every Monday night as a personal carer for 3 disabled adults. It’s a challenging job at times but the perks include the patio overlooking the canal!

As promised, here’s more about our church service last night. Gary Coleman was there from Sport & Leisure Ministries. He’s the chaplain for the Indy here on the coast and other motorsport events around the country. He had with him Hunter something-or-other from motorsport chaplaincy USA. Charlie Tonga from the NRL also shared his testimony.
Gary shared how it is our role as Christians to ‘be Christ’ to the people around us. To our friends, our neighbours, our work colleagues, our families… Every single person in the world is hurting inside without Jesus and they’re watching us Christians intently to see the difference that He makes in our lives. Not many people will sit down and listen to the Gospel, but they are watching and they can see the Gospel unfolding and at work in our lives.

This doesn’t undermine the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in drawing people to the truth, but it highlights the important role we have as followers of Christ in partnering with God. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:22-23
“…I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel…”
A simple message, but it’s one we all need to hear over and over again to remind us and encourage us to reach out to the people around us, not but preaching to them but simply by being Jesus to them.

Gary said that if we don’t have non-Christians around us, we can’t fulfill our role as Christians. If we don’t have people who name us as their friends, we can’t live the Gospel to them. That’s challenging for me, I know there are some old friends I need to start reaching out to, some old friends I need to start modeling the Christ-life to.