Culture of Capernaum - Faithfulness

Throughout the year, we want to highlight some attributes that we see as being part of our YL Capernaum culture.  This month, we highlight, faithfulness....

Faithfulness is defined in the dictionary as “the quality of being faithful.”  Nothing exemplifies this noun quite like our volunteer leaders in Capernaum.  Time and time again I have seen these men and women lay their lives down for their friends with disabilities.  The stories that come to mind are too numerous to recount here on this page but when I think of the pinnacle of faithfulness I think of Kailea, Andrew, Hayden, Ekow, Katherine, Dylan, Ryan, Ashley, Lauren, Rori, Courtney, Nicole, Daniel, Delaine, Justin, Casey, Danielle, Sammy, Isaiah, Phillip, Callie, Jason, Amanda, Kwynn, Ben, Crista, Megan, and the list goes on. 

Faithfulness isn’t something that is valued in America in 2018 in my opinion, look at the divorce rate, the drop-out rates, the single parent homes, etc.  But those examples are all examples of the world, not of the Kingdom and not of what the teachings of Jesus reveal to us.  When people I meet with are downtrodden or discouraged I try to encourage them to remember where God has been faithful to them, where He has shown up in their desert, where His followers have stepped up and actually been the Body of Christ.  In the context of Capernaum I think of the summer of 2017 at Carolina Point when every night 5 adult males would get their campers ready for bed and tucked in and then we would gather in the bathroom of the cabin and shower one of our Capernaum friends, Manny(named changed for privacy), who was in a wheelchair because it actually took 5 grown men to give him the care that he needed.  During those shower times I will confess that I didn’t always want to be there at the beginning, I had other things to do, but as we began the process of lowering Manny into a shower chair, strapping him in so he wouldn’t hurt himself or us, and we took turns washing his body, lifting him, washing his hair, brushing his teeth, sometimes lifting him up and frantically rushing him to the toilet so he could do “grown man things”, I became aware that I was a part of a Holy moment where Jesus was present.  As a team we laid down our selfish desires and entered into a humble moment, can you imagine how humbling that must have been for Manny to require the assistance of others to be able to clean himself nightly, a moment where we did for someone else what they could not do for themselves.  Is this not the Gospel being lived out?  Each leader in that bathroom was faithful to show up each night, faithful to enter into uncomfortable spaces, faithful to serve.

In the Message version of Galatians 5, the famous passage about the fruit of the Spirit, it says, “We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that basic holiness permeates things and people.”  Those words took on a whole new meaning to me and became alive in the deepest parts of my bones after our nightly showers with Manny.  We stuck together, even when we were tired and worn out from a long day. We had compassion, even when we wanted to be selfish and lie in our beds pretending like we were asleep. We experienced conviction that it is better to serve than to be served.  Thank you Jesus for the thousands of volunteer leaders in Capernaum throughout the Earth who are faithful to show up in kids lives and be the representation of the living God day in and day out!