Jamie's American Road trip

And so I just finished watching the first episode of Jamie's American Road trip. Totally enjoyed it, always enjoy watching Jamie Oliver (i enjoy listening to the British accent so I could be bias..haha), he's touring America trying out the underground/local cuisines prepared by migrants. There was a chap which he met, a Colombian who works as a school bus driver by day and at nights, cooks for about 70plus homeless illegal migrants and distributes the food to them.

I was reminded of

Luke 4:18-19 The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has annointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.

I get excited when I hear/see of churches who are integrated in their local communities doing acts of justice, defending those who are weak, feeding those who are hungry, being a channel for His power. I get even more excited when together with these, there is an active proclaimation of the gospel and lives being saved. And I know it is hard to strike a balance.

I'm reminded from a thought shared by K.P Yohannan in his book, 'Revolution in World Missions' where he makes the point that yes, it is important for a church to meet the social need but it is more important to meet the spiritual need as often, the physical needs are an expression of their spiritual state.

God, wake us up from our spiritual slumber that we may see how much we need You in our lives.