On Monday AtG’s day started like this: Williamson County Jail for 6 hours, Tennessee Prison for Women for a Parole Hearing, where it was a bitter sweet day, some of the 30 women had lots of support, some had none, some came out crying with tears of joy that they might be home by Christmas other tears of pain that they would have to wait until they were eligible again. Then a meeting with a Pastor of a downtown Nashville Church. Between that: 12 messages, 20 missed calls and putting out fires and trying to locate a mom that left this message, “I am done, if you hear something bad has happened, well I lost my kids today”.

In the 25th Chapter of Matthew starting with verse 31 there states a mandate from God we read it all the time, but do we really understand that with the mandate comes a very harsh punishment for not obeying: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Six months ago Nashville TN was hit with a historic flood. The historic flooding barely made National News but, as the “Volunteer State”, we banded together, served our neighbors, but there are some who did not receive help. That is why I am writing this blog. The meeting with the downtown Nashville Pastor, ( a 76 year old who refuses to give up) made me physically sick yesterday, not just from the mold and mildew but from the aspect that NO ONE has shown up to help.

The little church of approximately 30 parishioners is not about Church on Sunday Morning or Wednesday Evening, it’s about what it does the rest of the week; serve a home cooked meal to 40 homeless/prostitutes 4 times a week. They had plans to further impact their community; turn the upstairs into housing for those who wanted a hand up not a hand out, have a children’s summer program and bring life skills training to the homeless/prostitutes that show up week after week.

So fast forward to today.

We need your help. The church is the victim of a catch 22; FEMA qualifies them as a Church “non-profit” so they can only receive loans but no financial assistance, they can’t get help from United Way because they are a church and not a 501(C)(3). Bottom line, we need your help. It’s going to take an army of workers to repair this Church. We need people to underwrite this work: dumpsters, cleaning supplies, drywall, nails, paint, flooring, appliances, sprinkler systems and much more. You name it we are going to need it to make this Church to live up to its new name “The PLACE” People Loved Accepted Changed & Encouraged. Will you help serve the least of these?

Donations can be made to Against the Grain memo: The Place