Mere Missions

102 • M ere M issions : M oving F orward to M ultiply

this community of despair, to do ministry. Young and old, male and female, the rich and not so rich would serve at one of the shelters, or pass out food and clothes, give a listening ear, pray. I saw Christians and non-Christians alike in Skid Row who were actively and compassionately loving the least of these. One particular group especially stuck out in my regular Saturday trips into Skid Row. It was a Buddhist group. Every week, fifty-one weeks out of the year, this Buddhist community would come to Spring Street and 7th, behind the Union Rescue Mission, to love and serve the poor, the addicts, the mentally ill who were living in the urine filled and violent streets of Skid Row. Their commitment to excellence and love would put many “Christians” to shame. They worked in harmony setting up their cooking grills and portable tents. I watched as they served hundreds of homeless people each Saturday. The food was served fresh, hot, and with love and kindness. The Buddhists would also pair up and look for those without shoes or shoes that were tattered and worn. Once they spotted someone they would kneel and wash their feet. They continued this act of kindness by putting new socks and shoes on the person. Their “niceness” was an excellent thing to behold. It was genuine compassion reaching out to those who were hurting, hopeless and homeless. It was right and it was good. It was humanity at its finest. What it wasn’t though, was missions leading to eternal life.

Content 1: Missions Plank: The Gospel

Niceness – wholesome, integrated personality – is an excellent thing. We must try by every medical, educational, economic, and political means in

our power, to produce a worldwhere as many people as possible grow up ‘nice’; just as we must try to produce a world where all have plenty to eat. But we must not suppose that even if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved