Aroma has a history of going out to serve others through acts of kindness. This includes offering prayer, handing out food or other supplies, and sharing personalized cards of blessing. We recently participated in an outreach event at Longshan Temple, a place where large numbers of homeless people congregate. Our group bought some food items from the local supermarket and prepared them to be given to anyone in need.
At the temple, we met Mr. Zhang and gave him some of our muffins. At first, he didn’t say anything. A few minutes later, another person, not from the area, walked by. He was someone who walked around Lungshan Temple often and knew the situation. We spoke with him for a few minutes about what was happening there. “Sometimes the homeless people can’t sleep well or they don’t have food.”
We then continued our conversation with Mr. Zhang. “What’s your name? we asked, “And can we pray for you? Do you have any pain or discomfort in any parts of your body?” He said, a specific part of his right leg was in pain(It previously had been broken, then healed but not completely). I asked Andrew, “Can you help me pray for him?” We prayed for Mr. Zhang together. We then asked him how he felt and he said he was still sore but felt better! We also asked him, how did you injure your leg? He said, 3 years ago, he was working in construction and was injured by falling. We also asked him, how long have you been here? He said 2 and ½ years. Andrew and I told him, “God loves you, and God bless you!”
When the event was over, our group gathered to discuss how everything went. Some of us sensed certain people at the temple were not wanting to listen to us and that the outreach event was a failure. We remembered, however, that as we are scattering seeds, we often don’t see immediate results. Here at the Aroma, we believe that when we spend time seeking God’s kingdom, NOTHING, especially our time is wasted! As Andre, one of our interns shared, “when you are pushing towards the kingdom, nothing can go wrong!”
-Jay Wirkkala
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