CFOT.ca

 As we engage in the ministry of compassion, it is important to remember that we cannot fix everything.  I’ve learned to approach the sufferer, not to solve their problems, but to love them as God has commanded us. Jesus does not send us to do anything that He has not felt or experienced Himself.  He calls us to walk along side people during their tough times.  Sometimes, the only thing we can do to help someone is to listen and weep with them.

The gospel is the story of God looking for us and in return, us looking for others to be chased by the same grace.  Compassion is about seeking, but not seeking those who are just like us.  It is about seeking and finding people who are alone, sick and forgotten.  It is seeing the invisible, and helping them feel good when they are in our presence.  It is showing an interest in their lives and seeing them differently:  Looking beyond their exterior to who they really are.

Canada, and specifically Toronto, welcomes immigrants from around the world making this city the most multicultural city in the world.  This multiculturalism came to our Corps some time ago. Although the reaction was never rejection, it wasn’t easy for either party to adapt to the new vision God had for our congregation.  We are in a state of continuous growth as we experience the grace and renewing of the Holy Spirit.  I definitely see God’s grace poured out onto the people who have led this change and awakening.

When the first immigrants came to our church no one had any idea about the suffering and paperwork that an immigrant to go through. Although they are not experts, most people in our congregation have a minimum knowledge of the immigration laws and the language of the culture they have adopted, which is Spanish.

We pray together when one of our brothers has to face an Immigration Hearing.  We rejoice and celebrate when a family is accepted as a landed immigrant, but we cry and we mourn when someone is rejected and sent back to their country of origin.  Even after some have returned to their countries, people in our Canadian congregation maintain contact with them and support them.

God has given us the opportunity to serve others through the opening of a Family Services Centre.  Members of our church, who may not have had direct contact with the need and poverty of immigrants, have been able to use gifts and skills that they didn’t even know they had.  Not just in a position of helper and helped, but they have developed relationships and friendships that go beyond what they had always lived.  Several times we have had to stop and have a break because some volunteers from our congregation have experienced such strong emotions when the faced the suffering of others.  The people they are helping have faced such extreme situations, totally unfamiliar to our daily Canadian life.  The experience of helping has allowed compassion, latent in some, to be returned to life.

Most of the newcomers not only had material needs, but many of them were not yet Christians.  Many did not want to know anything about God.  Canadians cannot evangelize new immigrants without real love and compassion.  Although language may be a barrier, there is something more convincing than a thousand words: LOVE. Love has no language barriers and it’s the only reason that newcomers keep coming into our church, even though they may not understand a word of what the Canadians are saying.

 We have seen people with no hope or knowledge about Jesus coming to the Lord experiencing His transforming love through the congregation.  We know about some cases, even though they have to go back to their countries, took the seed and they are planting in their countries because they understood that the Promised Land is not found in Canada, but in Jesus.  Now they are working for the Lord and giving away what they received in Yorkminster.

Due to the change in our congregation and the arrival of new members, preaching has become a training ground to help prepare us as we open the door to new believers.  We are listening to their stories and the problems that many newcomers have.  Such situations are entirely new for some, and some have no idea of how to handle them.  That’s why our sermons have become training lessons that have opened the eyes of many and have touched the hearts of others and equipped us to take on new challenges.

My perception of others and their problems has changed greatly.  My senses have been awakened to see the needs around me.  I cannot be idle next to suffering and continue as if I had not seen it.  I know I cannot change the world, but if I can change my perception about the world that is a very important step.  I’m not as critical as before; on the contrary, I understand that there is always a reason, a trigger, that has led this person into that situation.

I had seen myself as a radical person, talking about moral values, but the Lord has challenged me… letting me know that He is the only one who can decide who is right or not.  My position is only being the tool that He chooses to use to change the circumstances of those whom He has chosen to bless. 

A brush cannot criticize the canvas.  A chisel cannot refuse to work on certain kinds of rock.  Likewise, I cannot judge the people with whom the Lord wants to work.  His love, that inspires compassion, protects us from the weariness and monotony to which any other work would have to face.  It is much easier to work alongside those whom you love, than to take them as a burden that you have to carry eight hours a day, five days a week.  When we love our people as Christ loves us, then they won’t be a burden.  That is the protection that the Lord wants to offer through the grace that is poured through his love.

The Lord has called us to weep with those who are weeping and laugh with those who are laughing. Christ offers to us, as protection, His love and the certainty of victory.  The cross is the perfect place to lay down our burdens, the perfect therapy to find balance in life.  Now I understand that compassion is not passive pity that makes us suffer, but the awareness and awakening that makes us move and changes lives, starting with our own.

Post by Auxiliary Captain Angelica Hernandez