Love Thy Neighbor

Amy and David Lancaster - Founders of We Will Go Ministries

Yesterday ( August 7, 2013) I performed community service with my coworkers at a place called We Will Go Ministries. The firm I work for has a summer of service project requirement that each employee must participate in annually. You only have to do 1 project per year. When I signed up for We Will Go Ministries I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I really enjoy community service projects and any opportunity to help someone is rewarding in itself. 

Upon arriving at 9am we gathered in the pavilion and the staff of missionaries greeted us with such warmth and gratitude. They began with prayer and meditation and great testimonies. Let me just tell you about the staff of missionaries. We Will Go Ministries was founded by a couple David and Amy Lancaster who by trade are an engineer and dentist respectively. This devout Christian couple left a life of corporate and privilege to answer a call by GOD of true discipleship. They moved their family to Jackson, MS after traveling and being missionaries all around the world and renovated some of the worst crack and brothel houses in the city. They mentor other young missionaries in discipleship so they too can assist with carrying on God's missionary work throughout the city of Jackson. These people are so extraordinary and amazing I felt privileged to be in their presence. I felt as if I were living right in the new testament with true disciples. 

They took us to a place called The Community Center. It's a homeless shelter where people who are in need can receive a meal and wash up. This day they had medical personnel there performing free screenings and some of us participated in the free screenings. Outside a guy named Kevin who was introduced to Christ by the Lancasters after a long life of drugs, and drinking was ministering a word to the people including my coworkers and myself. Kevin's testimony was incredible in itself and inspiring.  After lunch we returned to the We Will Go main house and heard more wonderful testimonies by the other missionaries and we prayed and worshiped the Lord. Which I thought was absolutely wonderful. And then it was on to the bunk houses for painting and cleaning. 

The Lancasters are a Caucasian couple and their missionary staff is mostly Caucasian and some African American. I mentioned this because for the first time in my life I felt as if black and white didn't exist. As if there was no line drawn in the middle of the two races. Often times it's hard to come in contact with so called Christians who do not have a judgmental spirit. You know the ones who say God bless you in one breath and in the same breath talk about you like there's no end. But their cause and destiny goes far beyond color barriers. They reach out to people who have been deemed unreachable. They care for those who aren't being cared for. They truly look past people's faults and see their needs. 

As African Americans it can be difficult to not see the racial divide given the fact that we know our President is being picked apart, disrespected and ridiculed because of his skin color. We are outraged and disheartened over the verdict behind Trayvon Martin. I was there to provide a service to them but in turn they provided a service to me. They gave me a hope that Martin Luther King Jr's " I Have A Dream" speech will not be in vain. People will one day be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

For more information please visit wewillgo.org.