Insight from Nasser (a college student)

Over winter break I was asked to come and help with a Bible study in a trailer park. In those three Bible studies I witnessed the beautiful and enduring power of God. I sat silently and listened to stories of abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, depression, mental disabilities, broken-hearts and battered soul’s pour themselves out to the Father, and witnessed the healing. I saw two women pray to the Father with such intimacy and faith that you could feel Him there with us. What faith! People were crying at every study and as the tears rolled down their cheeks, we prayed passionately.


She broke down and cried in front of me when her story was read to her. The story of her laying, dying on the floor in front of her children because of heroin.

And another confess, with tears consuming her story, of how she aborted her child

And another of depression and mental struggles`

But after the flow of painful tears there was a story about how the Father had changed and saved; and then began a new flow of tears of joy.

This is when I knew we had forgotten something in the church. The American church has been plagued by mediocrity for too long. We have been sitting in our chairs and in our pews forgetting how cold it is outside and how expensive food can be for a single mother with three children. But it is not just that, we have forgotten how to suffer. We have forgotten how to be broken and how to confess that brokenness. We have forgotten that God has given us all beautiful gifts and these were all meant to bring about His Kingdom to this earth. We have forgotten that Christ did not just lead with His voice, sight, heart, and soul; but he suffered with, and saved those who could not find theirs.

Christ calls us to be His hands and feet. So when you hear about that explosion that just killed 40 people in Pakistan, those Christians that are being persecuted for their faith in Egypt, those poor,suffering families that live just a mile from your house, and then ask 'God where are you?' He’s looking back at you asking the same question.

Brothers and Sisters get out of your comfortable church buildings and create a church on the streets of Chicago, on the sidewalks of Gary, IN, and in impoverished trailer parks in Valpo. They are waiting for you!

Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets.”

-Luke 6:20-23
Nasser Nabhan