Sweet Look of Surprise!

We certainly know that we live in a society full of tightening fists, shrinking wallets and thirsty cars. Before I recently left for Sydney I could have sworn I heard my car cry out "woo-hooooo!" as it's fuel gauge arm climbed up and actually reached the F (full) for the first time in months. These are days of tightening belts, almost to the point of breaking our backs! Such are the times we now live in. So you could appreciate the look on one Vietnamese lady's face today when this white man casually strolled into the Australian Vietnamese Women's Welfare Association and announced that my church was opening the floodgates in our own effort to, to coin a phrase, 'make poverty history!' First, this white man announces himself as a pastor in the local Vietnamese church - stunned puzzled silence ensues...Then he proclaims the good news - the Vietnamese Evangelical Church of Melbourne is beginning, as of August, a Thursday evening soup kitchen meal program, open to all in Footscray in need of a good feed. The welfare lady, still trying to fit all the pieces together, takes our meal program brochure and slowly reads the information. Further amazement follows when I explain to her, in Vietnamese, that we will be serving "cháo" (the much loved Chinese-Vietnamese soupy rice porridge often called congee)! By the way I explain to her that our meal program is named AGAPE (the Greek word for God's perfect unconditional love). Interestingly her mouth confirmed the name not by words but by pose! At this point the white man's job is done and he leaves with a smile on his face and the lady still stands gobsmacked in wonder.

Part of her befuddlement is the apparent contradictory reality that this white man really is a pastor in a Vietnamese church. And he actually speaks a little Vietnamese! But I think the deeper astonishment is that even in today's climate of penny pinching and fiscal frugality, charity still does exist. More than that, it is not only the Vietnamese community groups who are doing their bit but, thank God, the Vietnamese church is now beginning to see the light and extend the hand of God into a community that desperately needs His touch. For even our humble fellowship is starting to realise that while we cannot do everything to help the needy, we can do something!
AMEN!