Ray Bentley - Your Personal Ground Zero

Your Personal Ground Zero

How can I describe the place that has become known as “Ground Zero?”

Like an open wound upon the land? The gates of hell? The doorway to heaven? These are all phrases I’ve heard during the past several weeks and especially during the week our team from Maranatha Chapel traveled to be part of the many ministry efforts taking place right now in New York City.

We reported in to Harvest Christian Fellowship, New York, to receive our assignments, only to discover that while we had landed in one of the densest concentrations of population in the world, where literally masses of people needed ministering to, we were asked first to simply minister one-on-one, to people on the streets or wherever we might be. We were challenged to follow the example of Jesus. He saw the multitudes, and yet met individual needs with compassion, in a personal and private way. So, our team of 12 spread out over the Ground Zero area and made ourselves available to listen and talk and pray with people as the Lord led us. How quickly people were ready to open up and share their heavy hearts!

We learned quickly that what people needed was simply the chance to talk. We asked questions like, “Where were you when it happened? Did you know anyone who died? How are you handling fear…or grief…or confusion?” We discovered that in 20 –30 minutes, we developed strong bonds with these people, and found ourselves caring more deeply and personally than we ever thought possible. One member of our team, Jan Clark, described for us a couple of the people she and others met:

“There was Mike, who told us he believes he is alive today because he was irresponsible. He had been scheduled for a job interview on September 11 high up in the Twin Towers. But, he had spent the day before out with his buddies and didn’t get his resume done, so decided to skip the interview.
Then there is Joel, the construction worker, who is haunted everyday by what he saw that day. He was situated where he could see people hanging out the windows of the Trade Center, deciding how they would choose to die. He can’t erase the images from his mind of people jumping and falling to a terrifying death.

Jan spoke for all of us when she wrote, “I have fallen in love with the people of New York and my heart breaks for them. I know that the Lord had to send me across the country to learn to love people where they are without expectation and to watch the Lord work through me, in spite of my weaknesses and shortcomings. It has been a humbling and very emotional experience to return and try to share what I learned. I just know that I am better for having met the hearts of the people who live at Ground Zero.”

I too realized when I came home, that this kind of ministry should happen all the time, every day in my life, as I encounter people with needs and fears and personal trials. I realized again how deeply Jesus cares about the individual and how important it is for us, as members of His Body, to open our eyes and hearts to care for our neighbors, family and co-workers. Jesus wants to use each of us as vessels of healing and hope in what is to many a frightening and hopeless world.

There are literally thousands of stories to be told in New York, stories that break our hearts and urge us to reach out with the love of Jesus. But I also realized that it took a tragedy like September 11 to wake me up once again to the reality that every day, everywhere, someone has a story, a need, a heartache, their own personal “ground zero.” Jesus left behind a trail of healing and hope and mended hearts, and He asks us to follow Him on that path.

“For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to Me…inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25: 35-40).

Our prayer at In The Word is that God’s Word will dwell in our hearts, strengthen us and show us daily how to share the love of Jesus.

God bless America!
Pastor Ray Bentley