This is a Chruch?

As you may or may not know helping the homeless is one of my many passions. I am a volunteer for a soup kitchen on Tuesday nights and many of our guest have become very close friends. The one I want to tell you about today is Bonnie (not her real name).
Bonnie is sassy, smart and witty. We became friends right away but it has been 2 years of building a relationship. Bonnie told me one night that she looks forward to Tuesday's so she can come to soup kitchen and see her friend, me. I told her I felt the same way.
Last Tuesday night Bonnie and I did our usual catching up and then the Lord told me to set a time with her when we could sit longer and talk. Because we use a company parking lot we are only allowed to be there for an hour so by the time we set up, give a short message and get everyone fed there's not always a lot of talk time and you know how I love to talk :)
I asked Bonnie if she would want to get together later in the week and she said yes. We decided to meet at a near by Burger King on Thursday. That morning I spent time in prayer for my friend and asked the Lord to do whatever He wanted with our day.
On my way to the Burger King it started to rain pretty hard and I felt bad that I hadn't offered to pick Bonnie up instead of having her meet me. I pulled into a parking space and there she was inside the building looking out the window. When she saw me she had the biggest smile on her face. Gems I'm talking bout a huge smile, I realized at that moment she probably thought I wasn't going to show up. I wondered how long she had been standing there wondering if I was going to come through. I ran inside and gave her a big hug.
The Lord told me to take her somewhere else where we could sit and be waited on. I took her to my favorite Italian place and we talked for hours. It's funny you can feel so close to someone and not even know their last name.
Gems I want to share one thing that really hit me while we were in the restaurant, it was how appreciative Bonnie was to our waiter. His name was Adam and each time he came to the table she smiled that big beautiful smile of her's and thanked him using his name, I mean really thanked him, looked him in the eye and totally acknowledged each thing he did. It was so sincere. I can only imagine how many times people avoided eye contact with Bonnie.
I shared a lot of things about my life and my past so Bonnie would see we had more in common than she may have thought. After we ate the Holy Spirit put it on my heart to show Bonnie where I go to church and give her a visual of what happens before we show up at the parking lot to feed our guest on Tuesday nights. We pulled up to our church which is really big!
I felt bad at first that I go to such a big church and here Bonnie sleeps in the woods. I pushed the thought out of my mind and brought her into the first building showing her the kitchen and where we make an assembly line when we have to go meals because of bad weather. I showed her the sinks where all the huge containers have to be cleaned and talked about how many volunteers it takes to make the whole thing happen. She was really interested and said she never thought about where all the food came from. She just kept saying “this is a church?” It wasn't the small white church with a steeple she was expecting.
We passed by the gym which is also pretty big and I felt like I had to once again explain why we had one. I told her that on Wednesday nights it's filled with High School kids, Thursday nights college and Friday nights middle school kids. I told her Tuesday nights a mens group also meets and how the place was filled with men being ministered to. I felt like I had to justify why we had this big facility.
We stopped in the ladies room before going into the sanctuary and she was blown away by that. I got a little nervous about entering the sanctuary and again she was wide eyed and kept saying this is a church!
We have a movie theme going on right now so there are marquee's and popcorn signs and it looks like your going into a movie theater. Bonnie asked what that was all about, why did we have all that kind of stuff if it was a church. Again I had this twinge in me and felt like I had to explain apologetically about the size of the church and the reason for the theme. I told her we reach out to people who either don't know Jesus at all or heard about Him but don't really have a relationship with Him yet. We try to make an environment where everyone would feel welcome. She seem to be taking it all in and continued to marvel at the facility.
We ended up in the prayer room and now it was Bonnie's turn to share her life with me. I listened carefully to her past and how she ended up where she was today. She told me how much it meant to her that I cared about her and how much the day had meant to her. She confessed she really didn't think I was going to show up and how grateful she was that I did. We talked a while longer and then I asked Bonnie if she wanted to begin a relationship with Jesus and she said yes. We prayed together and it was truly the best way to end an awesome day!
As we walked to my car Bonnie again started talking about our church and how it was nothing like the churches she had been to or seen in the past. There it was again the twinge in me like I had to apologize for the church and the themes and the size and before I said a word Bonnie looked at me and this is what she said.
“This isn't like a regular church, this seems like a place you can come and actually digest what's being said here.”
Gems here I was thinking Bonnie was thinking negative thoughts each time she made a comment about how it wasn't a regular church and I was the one with the negative thoughts. Bonnie was amazed that people would build big buildings just to minister to people in need. Seeing the things of comfort like a big clean bathroom and overstuffed couches in a prayer room reminded her of the good things in life. Things she deserved and was some how made to believe she didn't. I thought I was bringing Bonnie to the church so the Holy Spirit could teach her something but He brought me there to remind me of some things.
You see sometimes I feel bad that we have all this stuff at our church and I worry we spend too much money on our comfort. I didn't want Bonnie to feel bad about all the stuff and God wanted her to not only see it but enjoy those comforts first hand.
Bonnie saw it as a place where you could be real and not just sit in a pew and have a priest or pastor talk at you then send you on your way. She saw a place where people got a message, theme and all, and you were able to digest what the preacher said. A place you felt safe to let your guard down. That was such a great summary of what I believe our church is all about, applying God's word to our lives in love.
It was a great experience for me seeing my church through Bonnie's eyes and a great reminder to not assume what someone else is thinking. I mean really this is nothing compared to what we will have in Heaven. The streets alone will be made of gold!
I told God I was sorry for being a ninny head and thanked Him for allowing me to be a part of such an amazing day. Bonnie may be temporarily homeless in the world's eyes but she became owner of a mansion in Heaven that day. Now that's what I call church!