Strange Charity of 'Sinners' Towards Undocumented Workers

Van Helden is a heterosexual married Brazilian male of approximately 25 summers. He is married to a pretty blond woman of equal age. They have a son and another child on the way. They have been in this country three years and have experienced hardship and hunger. If he were fortunate enough Van Helden could have found work as a grounds maintenance worker, a construction worker, a janitor, or other lackluster and temporary jobs that undocumented folk need to take up and then put down as the feds drop in and out of the jobs in question.

There are no health benefits, paid holidays, paid sick days, pension plans, long-term disability insurance, etc. There is only work and only undercover.

One other thing I failed to mention. Though married and happily heterosexual, Van Helden works as a waiter in a premiere non-heterosexual bar in South Florida. He makes good tips not only because he is an excellent waiter, is 25 and not bad-looking, but because Van Helden, who is partially deaf, is compassionate. He is often seen signing to hearing-impaired diners who feel accepted in Club C due to the presence of a signing waiter.

Okay, so were does the strange charity of 'sinners' factor in? The patrons of Club C assume incorrectly that Van Helden is single and non-heterosexual. Actually, only the Management knows Van Helden is married to a woman and has a little boy. There are no other heterosexual and undocumented workers at Club C. No other waiter at Club C has a wife dining in the edges of his assigned area until her husband is done for the day at 3:00 a.m. Sunday through Saturday with Mondays off.

Encounter with a Spirit-Filled Man

Rolando first caught my attention in a Sabbath afternoon hour of prayer. He came with his Adventist girlfriend and her daughter from a previous marriage. We all welcomed him with sincerity knowing that he possibly wasn't of the Advent faith.

After that initial contact I noted that no one ever befriended him and this seemed to cause his Adventist girlfriend concern. When I took it upon myself to approach the man, I could see her gratefulness by her friendly manner every time she saw me every time we met.

I learned bits and pieces of what he believed and it fascinated me while it alarmed others. In a small study group in which the pastor was present Rolando mentioned that he had studied metaphysics before he had become interested in Christianity. I was the only one in the group that responded positively to his statement.

Later that week he told me he was in the process of reading the entire Bible and that he was making great headway. I envied the man for his thoroughness and lamented by obsessive detail to footnotes and meditating on just one verse which causes by complete reading of the Bible to proceed very slowly.

Yesterday, again I noticed that no one was engaging him in conversation after church and that he was walking around looking for someone to talk to. I took it upon myself to approach him and greet him, if nothing else. The conversation we had was mostly him talking and I'd pipe in bits and pieces that I felt were of value. As he spoke I was concerned that perhaps someone more traditional in Adventist beliefs should be talking to him, but I quickly asked God to help me say the right thing. As he spoke of his attendance at other Christian churches I found myself trying to carefully present the value of the Advent message. In part I did it for his Adventist girlfriend whom I knew would appreciate someone saying positive things about her church of choice to a man that was becoming more and more important in her formerly single life.

What Rolando told me would, no doubt, alarm most Adventists in attendance that morning at my conservative/mainstream Adventist church. He told me that in a church which he couldn't quite identify he had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands by the minister of that particular church. He described that he himself had not fallen to the floor as had others when similarly touched on the forehead. But he assured me that the realization and the enhanced spiritual altered state of consciousness that he experienced then and continued experiencing for days after that were the most life-changing and gratifying experiences he had ever encountered.

Years ago I myself would have run away or excused myself as courteously as I could after having heard him talk of this Spirit gift or Spirit baptism.

He told me that he came to his senses in the midst of his heightened sense of being with the realization that even though he'd like to only focus on this awareness of the Holy Spirit he realized that he had duties to his fellow man and their problems, as well.

He told he that having been a communist he had immersed himself in Marxism as well as philosophy and metaphysics when he lived in Cuba. But, he said, nothing compared to the joy and excellence of being immersed in the Holy Spirit experience.

I shared with him what I could courteously about my visit a year ago to a charismatic church. The only complaint I cared to tell him was that the Christian rock music used almost non-stop in the service was too loud for my ears. He said that it was probably a good idea to have Christian rock to keep the young people coming to church. The church was full of young people so perhaps his statement was valid.

I wanted to tell him of my experiences with the Holy Spirit. We exchanged cell phone numbers so perhaps one day soon we'll get the chance to have another conversation like the one we had yesterday.

When his Adventist girlfriend showed up and said they had to go home to lunch, he thanked me and told her about the incredible spiritual conversation we had been having. It was more me listening to his experiences, but perhaps that was more important. I did very little witnessing or evangelizing and what little I shared about Adventist authors I had read in the past few years, was of interest to him.

Now my question is this. Is this man and his experience of Holy Spirit baptism as valid as that of the Spirit-filled Adventists in attendance on this past Sabbath morning? Or, more alarmingly, is it more valid that anything I've encountered in my many years in the Adventist movement?

I'll need to study more, pray more and encounter more people who claim they have a valid experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Ellen G. White Bookstore Opens in a Chic Gay Ghetto

My local church complains vocally about the Rainbow Flags (Gay Pride flags) that the homeowners across the street from the church building display on Saturday mornings, not just on gay pride week. When a guest speaker inquires why there is no evangelistic effort to address the spiritual and health needs of the mostly gay and lesbians who live in this upscale residential area that surrounds the church building, the answers that are given are some of the following:

"It is very hard, almost impossible, to convert gay men and women to Adventist Christianity."

"Our efforts are better spent on groups of people that we have some hope of reaching."

"Brother, what we have surrounding our church is a peacock feather farm, a birdcage full of exotically colored effeminate men and their muscular counterparts. They wouldn't be interested in what our church offers."

"These are mostly English-speaking gay men and women and our church is a Spanish speaking congregation. Where would they fit in if they can't speak the language?"

"We unfortunately, like Lot in the bible, are surrounded by the same type of environment like Sodom and Gomorrah. It doesn't get any more sinful than this city."

Finally, months later, a few church members of conscience opened up a vegetarian food store stocking meat substitutes, natural foods, organic foods, other health books and Ellen G. White books dealing directly with health. The Ministry of Healing was among the books sold at this one-of-a-kind health store.

Next door was an upscale wine store that only stocked wine under $50.00 called Naked Grape. Next door to that was a tea-only cafe where anyone from the community, gay or straight, could sip herbal tea, chai tea, etc., and chat until the next event materialized out of thin air. Several pricey clothing stores filled out the rest of the street. Across the street were expensive Thai restaurants, as well as a piano bar and a fine-dining restaurant. Real estate businesses selling million dollar homes popped in and out of business as the real estate market ebbed and flowed.

When they were approached by some church members who found this odd little food store by chance as they walked their dogs on a cool Sabbath weekend, they wondered why anyone would go to so much trouble and try to witness to men and women that the majority of Adventist society had long ago abandoned?

"If we can save even one soul with the message of Christ our Righteousness through the health message, any loss we've experienced will not have been in vain."

Very few people visited the store as it didn't fit in with the rest of the neighborhood. Some wished they'd stop selling the religious-health books and start selling New Age or Buddhist titles to go with the vegetarian lifestyle that the store was promoting. Others disagreed and said it was a great place to meet other men and women who were exclusively vegetarian. Others even thought of boycotting the store until they removed the religious-health material and only sold health books.

One day the police was called because someone had spray-painted the words "Gay haters" across the glass window. Though it rattled their nerves they cleaned up the window and replaced the odd sentiment with "Love Your neighbor as You Love Yourself."

That ensured for a time, at least, that the community and the strange store could continue to co-exist for another summer or two.

The Ellen G. White Health Boutique did not open its doors in vain. Many souls were eventually won.

He [Christ] passed by no human being as worthless, but sought to apply the healing remedy to every soul. In whatever company He found Himself He presented a lesson appropriate to the time and the circumstances. Every neglect or insult shown by men to their fellow men only made Him more conscious of their need of His divine-human sympathy. The Ministry of Healing, p. 25,26

Disclaimer: Please see comment section.

Silent Witnessing at the Apple Store in SoHo (NYC)

During a self-directed walking tour of lower Manhattan (New York City) I stumbled upon the Apple Store in SoHo. Curious about what such a store could offer, and in need of a rest, I wandered into what quickly turned out to be a type of free Internet cafe. I wasn't sure how long one could use a computer so I set about to try different computers for no more than five or seven minutes.

Having not had access to a computer for almost a week, I accessed Adventist blogs I normally visit when at home in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I briefly visited progressiveadventism.com & spectrummagazine.typepad.com. I was careful to not spend more than five or seven minutes at each of the half dozen Apple computers I visited. As is my custom when visiting these sites and similar religious sites in public Internet cafes or restaurants, I left each blog on the screen as I walked away, hoping that the content might catch a curious person's attention, and hopefully expose them to either Christianity or Adventism, as the case may be. There was no way that I could subsequently find out how long anyone stayed at each of these Adventist blogs.

I then visited each of my own web sites or blogs, starting with my oldest blog, http://www.perfectfuturo.com/, so see how it would look on an Apple laptop. I then proceeded to visit the rest, but probably from the same computer. At each laptop I visited, no more than six, I left the page on the screen in case the next user in this busy showroom was vaguely curious about the pictures or titles of the blog posts. This is the probable order in which I visited the rest of my blogs:

Design your Future - Diseñe su Futuro
Desperate Christian Housewives
Christians on the Verge of a Cosmic Meltdown - Cristianos al Borde de un Desastre Cósmico

I can't be sure if I left all four at different computers, as two of the six Apple laptops I sampled were devoted to the aforementioned Adventist blogs. I left the Apple showroom after spending no more than 30 minutes.

When I returned home to Ft. Lauderdale, I accessed the website that informs me what websites were visited, from what country and for how long. I want to make it clear that the Apple showroom was very busy and that it was hard to find an empty computer for very long. I previously noted that I spent no more than seven minutes at each of the six computers I sampled. I was pleased to learn that one of the Apple laptops I had left with the following blog,
http://realjesuscristo.blogspot.com/, was up for a total of 26 minutes, 7 seconds. A total of 8 pages were viewed. the Exit Page was http://perfectfuturo.com/FutureTales.html.

Of course, time has a way of slipping away while browsing, but the pressure from walking showroom clerks walking around the showroom makes it unlikely that I spent no longer than 10 or 12 mintues at any one computer. There is always the slim possibility that I may have stayed longer than the 30 minutes I thought I spent in the store, or that the computer in question was vacant for a total of 26 minutes, 7 seconds, which is unlikely, as I mentioned earlier that the store was very busy.

Some modern or progressive Adventists feel that old style evangelism such as giving out religious leaflets or books or "street evangelism" consisting of walking up to a stranger and asking them if they knew the real Jeus Christ and then telling them about the saving experience of knowing and loving Christ, is passe or out-of-fashion. Nevertheless, who knows who might learn of either Christianity or Adventism by visiting Internet cafes or showrooms such as the Apple Store and after viewing a web page you intended to view anyway, of a religious nature, you simply leave the page up in hope that in this vaguely voyeuristic age of blogging and Internet websites and profiles, someone will be nosy or curious enough to take note of the previous user's web site. This is similar in some ways to what some shy Christians or Adventists, no doubt, have done by leaving Christian literature in public places, after having read them themselves, in hope that someone who accidentally, or perhaps not so accidentally, picks up the literature in question, might find something that they perhaps had no idea they were looking for.

How important whether in printing evangelistic literature or publishing religious blogs, to ask for the Holy Spirit's guidance before committing words and ideas to print or cyberspace pages.

We may never know the results of our mildly passive attempts at evangelism until the Next World.