Surprised by Compassion

Surprised by Compassion

When people asked Jesus what the greatest commandment in scripture was he replied, “To love the Lord your God…and to love your neighbor as yourself”. Of course, one listener needed to know exactly who Jesus meant by “your neighbor”. Jesus responded by telling the story of the Good Samaritan. To the Jews, the Samaritans were despised and rejected for racial, cultural and religious reasons. By putting the Samaritan in the role “the neighbor”, Jesus demonstrated that our compassion should extend to those who are typically rejected and despised. For Mission Adelante, this puts a compassion bulls-eye on the backs of Latino immigrants. Leviticus 19:34 connects the dots even more clearly. “The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”

Just as Jesus’ hearers must have been perplexed by the idea of a Samaritan showing compassion to a Jew, we have found that immigrants are as surprised as they are grateful to be the recipients of compassion from native born Americans. One of our core values says, “We believe that God calls Christians to demonstrate special compassion to “strangers”, going out of their way to show them compassion.” This kind of compassion surprises and disarms a people who have learned to be guarded, making them open to considering the claims of Jesus.

If you are interested in helping Mission Adelante reach this mission field in our own city, we would love to get you connected. We are now recruiting for our summer trimester. Please go to our website www.missionadelante.org to see more volunteer opportunities.

In Other News

• Next week (March 15-21) Mission Adelante will be on Spring Break. ESL, Kids Adelante, LIT, and Spanish Classes will not meet.
• Summer Internship Applications Due Soon! If you know someone who is interested in a summer internship in cross-cultural ministry, please have them email jarrettm@missionadelante.org for more information.
• Pastors and community group leaders met at Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church to discuss a cooperative effort at gang prevention in KCK.
• Each week the number of families who are seeking help through our resource center increases. Last Saturday over 10 families came through and received basic food items, clothing, furniture and other essential items.

Prayer Requests

• Please pray for the kids who participate in our LIT program to finish strong both in LIT and in school. The last few weeks have been challenging with attitudes, and problems for a few of the kids at school and at home.
• Please continue to pray for the families in our community who are unemployed. Pray that God would provide for their needs.

Resource Center Needs

• Food staples for what we call "Canasta Basica" or basic basket also go fast. One "Canasta Basica" contains: 2 bags of rice, 3 bags of beans, 1 box of Maizena, one bag of sugar, one bottle of cooking oil, 2 bags of pasta, 1 bag of flour. We love it when friends can bring a complete "Canasta Basica" already assembled!