July 25, 2014

“Through love serve one another.”

SIMPLY SERVING (1)

Bill Wilson builds Sunday schools in some of New York City's worst areas. He has been stabbed and shot, and had team members killed. A Puerto Rican lady who could barely speak English said to him one day, “I want to do something for God, Please.” Bill said, “Okay, ride a different Sunday school bus every week and just love the kids.” So she rode different buses—Bill had dozens of them—and loved the children. After several months she became attached to one little boy. “I don't want to change buses anymore. I want to stay on this one,” she told Bill. The boy came to Sunday school every week with his sister and sat on the lady's lap, but never made a sound. She would repeatedly tell him, “I love you, and Jesus loves you.” One day to her amazement, he turned around and stammered, “I...love you too.” Then he gave her a big hug. That was at two-thirty on a Sunday afternoon. At six-thirty that night the boy was found dead in a dumpster under a fire escape. His mother had beaten him to death and thrown his body in the trash. “I love you, and Jesus loves you.” Those were the last words that little boy heard in his short life—from the lips of a Puerto Rican woman who could barely speak English. Bill says, “Who among us is qualified to minister? Who among us even knows what to do? Not you; not me. But I ran to an alter once and got some fire and just went. So did this woman who couldn't speak English. And so can you.”