Friday taught the whole group a lesson. There are no days off from service. There are no days off for people who are hurting. Fridays have been designated as the group "day off", and we decided to spend the day in beautiful Ann Arbor. Our "day off" continued as we entered the bus to go home. This bus was unusually full, so we split into two groups. Des and Allie sat in the front, and the rest of us found our way to the back of the bus. At some point, Heide, Danielle, and I began to talk about the Abortion ban that was making its way through the North Dakota legislature when a woman (we'll call her "K") got up, muttered something about why all the Catholics decided to sit in the back of the bus, and left us to sit in the front of the bus. We were all taken aback, but we shook it off and kept talking. We noticed that she sat right behind Des and Allie. Unbeknownst to us, they were in a conversation discussing whether either of them had considered becoming a religious sister. Eventually, K decided to return to the back of the bus. As she returned, she asked us if we were going to try and proselytize her. Anthony assured her that we weren't. She then began to rant about the Catholic Church with venom. We talked with her all the way back to St. Johns. The whole time, she was trying to upset us and to confirm her assumptions about us, but Heide and the rest of us would not let that happen. Heide took the lead with Anthony in conversing with her, and the whole time, they consistently showed her love. In every word they said, love was the source. Even K began to notice this. The rest of us were praying intently for K. At some point in the conversation, we arrived at our stop, and we needed to leave. As we began to gather our belonging to leave, a man who had sat next to us the entire time got up and moved in front of us and turned around to face us, making sure that no one left before he made his point.
"How long are you guys here?"
"For the summer"
"There are a lot of hurt people here"
He said that with an approving smile, and thus, our bus experience ended. Afterward, we spoke at length about the experience, but most importantly, we prayed for K.
Working with the Flint crew on Saturday and sharing our stories at lunch really drove the point home that God is truly working through us to further the mission of Christ. God works through us when we are intentional about it and when we are least expecting it. And what joy that brings our entire community. We feel incredibly blessed to be able to participate in a very direct way in God's plan for others. K tried to tear us down, but by the grace of God, we were filled with the Holy Spirit and were uplifted because we were doing exactly what God wanted us to do.
St. Paul says "I will rather boast most gladly of my weakness, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me" (2 Cor. 12:5). We are reminded that none of this is because of us. Christ dwelling is us means that he must increase, while we must decrease. This is very good to keep in mind as we begin outreach again tomorrow.
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
--
-Anthony Smela
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