Thoughts on the Eve of Neighbors Lunch

I'm really excited about tomorrow's lunch. From my perspective, it's a success already. I think some of the things that have me thinking tonight merit some reflection.

• Over thirty people are planning to attend! On Monday of this week, I was hoping we'd make it to twelve!
• Almost half of the attendees are not members of this church. That's a remarkable thing. A huge step in opening our doors and being a known, relevant neighbor in the community.
• We received a request from a university student in Ireland who is writing a dissertation on homelessness. She can't attend, obviously, but we're sending her a DVD of the event.
• The Leader and News Press gave us a huge boost. I was doubtful a letter to the editor would be published on such short notice, but both papers were able to run the piece, and it doubled our attendance.
• By "coincidence," the Burbank City Council happened to form a subcommittee on Tuesday night to investigate stepping up the City's services for the homeless. The news coverage hit the same day as our letter to the editor. This issue is on the hearts and minds of a lot of people in our community. We are at the front of it, and it's no accident.
• God has brought us to this time and place to do something in our community. The relationships we have developed over the past two years with PATH made it possible to move quickly on this issue when the number of chronically homeless people coming through our doors rose. It's something to be excited about, but we need to remember that along with such a calling as this comes a tremendous responsibility to rise to the challenge.

Some questions on my mind tonight going into tomorrow...

• What are the challenges within ourselves we must overcome to be effective servants to this population?
• What external challenges will we face in this service?
• There's one guy, in particular, I'm thinking of. Will we be able to help him?
• Tonight Diana and I did some prep work at the church building. Someone had bedded down for the night on the front porch. Will the time we spend together tomorrow honor him?
• What if we run out of food?! (just being honest)
• What happens next?