WELCOME FROM HAYWOOD STREET:
UPDATES:
The Haywood Street Gardens continue to remind us of our roots, our potential to grow and the miraculous abundance of the Haywood Street ministry. We thank Dewey for his stewardship of this Holy Ground.
We are thrilled to announce a new partnership between Katie Button Restaurants & Chef José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen. This remarkable collaboration will ensure 500 beautiful meals for the Haywood Street Community, every Saturday, for the foreseeable future.
Our thanks goes out to Eda Rhyne for their donation of hand sanitizer and to the community members who donated travel-size bottles. We now have over 100, filled, bottles to distribute amongst our Friends!
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
1. This week’s online worship service is available here. A reminder that worship happens LIVE every Wednesday at 1:30 via the Haywood Street Congregation YouTube channel.
2. The Haywood Street clothing closet is in Phase 1 of its re-opening! CLICK HERE to see how it works!
CURRENT WAYS TO SUPPORT THE MINISTRY 7 OUR FRIENDS:
1. Make a meal for Friends staying in Respite. Click here to sign up!
2. Donation needs:
– Mulch: please contact Bryan to coordinate drop-off.
– Shoes, underwear, and socks
– Cleaning products: Lysol spray, hand sanitizer, etc.
– Basic hygiene toiletries
* All donations can be dropped off on Thursdays from 9 am – 11 am. Drive around back to the single, white door.
A HAYWOOD STREET REFLECTION BY: DAVE
The Other Side of Lazarus Part lll: The Truth About a Tree
As I stumbled towards what seemed to be downtown Asheville, my mind drifted back to recount the past three nights and two days in the pine forest. The cool water I drank found its way to my very soul and began to soothe me and I began to come out of the fog I was in. The old cliché says that the first cut is the deepest, well I can tell you that the first night was the darkest. So that first night I found a single pine tree which looked like the ground beneath it was the best suited for sitting and sleeping. It was a good choice among a bunch of questionable choices. As I stated before, it was raining, not too hard just a steady drizzle, but I was soon soaked as pine trees do not give much comfort in the rain. I sat down in front of the tree, leaned back against the uneven bark of the pine tree, and closed my eyes. Then I began to pray. You see, I was looking for a deal but not the kind of deal you think. I was not looking to be rescued, I knew in my heart that it was way too late for that, and I certainly did not deserve to be rescued. I had burned all my bridges in life to up to that point and ostracized all the ones I loved to the point that I was sure no one was looking for me, and the only one that every really and truly loved me had died some 35 years earlier. So, I started my conversation with my Granddaddy and why he felt it necessary to leave me all alone for the last 35 years. Let me assure you that self-pity and the misery that so often accompanies it was all present underneath that tree. Self-pity always gives you an “out” so to speak and allows you to blame all your mistakes on everybody but you, so in my conversation, I started it with a question, as though to infer it was somehow my Grandfathers fault that I was sitting under that tree wet and cold in the rain, why did you leave me? I have not accomplished one single thing you taught me, in fact I have violated all your rules to have a successful life. I needed more time. Why did you not allow me that one simple thing? As the tears came and mixed with the rain dripping off my head, I then begged him to allow me to join him, because this life was not working anymore, then silence, then complete misery. My soul was all twisted up, like the pine needles underneath my feet. Then the answer came, and it was not anything I expected, it was not what I wanted to hear. We will call it the Holy Spirit and it spoke to me just like the whispering of the wind in the pine tree above me, in a soft and gentle and patient voice. You know people often ask me how do you know when the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, and I am sure that it is different for each person, but this voice I recognized, because twice in the past I had heard it, though I had ask for it thousands of times over the years, this time is was more pronounced. “Son, I have a plan for your life, but first, I had to bring you here, so that you could clearly hear me. I was there when you were born, you had a very rough birth, so I had to spend most of that evening with your mother who suffered the pains of creation, but I was there never the less. I was there the night you were baptized and you cried out to me, I wept because I knew you were mine, in a deliberate way, I was by your side during your gas explosion and the many surgeries that came afterwards. I was there during your bout with spinal meningitis, to comfort your family who thought all was lost. Son I have been with you through all of your valleys and mountains, but all your journeys have led you here to this tree, for my purpose, in my time, for your life. You have walked this life on your terms, now I am asking you to give the rest of it over to my purpose in your life, you see I have a plan, and you can say no! I will love you always, but if you say yes, be prepared, cause the world does not trust me, you could be back underneath this tree. Now, go into town and ask for a preacher.” When I woke on Wednesday Morning, it was not raining, I spent the next two days, walking around the woods, and the general area, trying to get the courage to go into town. Then, on Friday, I found the courage to go into town. There was a peace about me that I had never felt, so of I went in search of this “Preacher”, ……….to be continued.
