apartment ministry

This past Thursday night Erica and I had the opportunity to go to a local apartment complex and help host a barbeque for the residents. The basic thought is that by going into a poor apartment complex where there is not much hope, we can simply give them that hope by loving on them for an hour or so. We do this not through the church, but through Americore because apartment managers are often more likely to let us in if we are "developing community". Joel and Erica and I were in charge of the games, and we played a version of soccer for about an hour and then of course some football. A good time was had by all, especially Erica who got to play "cheerleader" with Heaven, a little girl who didn't want to play soccer, but loves cheerleading. As the great husband that I am, I told her to go to Erica who I claimed knew how to cheerlead. Needless to say, Heaven and Erica had a great time, but I did get a bit of a look when she went over to Erica and said that Brandon had said she knew how to cheerlead... =)
Aside from playing with the kids, the highlight of the night was that the hispanic pastor with us was able to lead someone to Christ! God works in mysterious ways and often a BBQ and some kids games are all He needs to open a door that can forever change a life.