Friday, June 01, 2012

The Story of Mo

‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’  Matthew 25:40

This Sunday, at the close of the 10:30 gathering, I gave a shout out to “Mo.” Mo lives on the streets of San Francisco and has become a friend of PCC’er Ryan Hupfer. I had been following the story of Mo from Ryan’s blog and was blown away when I saw him sitting next to Ryan. Below is the back-story of Mo.   
------
A couple of weeks ago I had talked to Mo about going to church with me and he seemed interested. This past Sunday I had a fifteen-mile long run I needed to get in before I headed to church around 10am. (Ryan is training for the SF Marathon.) As I stared at myself in the mirror I started thinking about Mo and how I wish there was a way for us to go to church together later that morning. This, of course, was basically impossible since it was 7am and I had no way to contact him. At that moment I thought about Mo and said a quick, simple prayer to myself. “God, I really wish there was a way I could get in touch with Mo so he could go to church with me today.” I prayed as I shut off the faucet after brushing my teeth. I felt a sense of helplessness that Mo was out on the streets somewhere and I had no way of contacting him.

About five seconds later my phone rings and the caller ID is a number I don’t recognize, which usually means it’s Mo calling me from someone else’s phone he’s asked to use. I picked up my phone and answered it as chills moved through my body. “Hey, it’s Mo!” he screamed into the phone.

I couldn’t believe he actually called me. Literally five seconds after asking God for help to get in touch with Mo he calls he from a phone I’m sure he had to talk someone into letting him use. After I finished getting ready I headed down a block to where Mo was standing across the street. We chatted for a little bit and I told him how I wanted him to go to church with me. He said he wanted to go with me and I told him to meet me right there at the same exact spot in two hours and we’ll drive over there together.

Almost exactly two hours later there he was, sleeping on the sidewalk about half a block away from where I live. We both get ready, hop in the car and head down to church together and it ended up being an awesome day we got to spend together. Everyone at PCC loved meeting Mo and he even got a shout-out from our pastor, which he thought was really funny.

After church we went to eat at Chipotle to hang out and then headed back up to San Francisco. It was great getting to spend some time with Mo and he’s a really good guy who has an amazing (and crazy) story. He still has a long way to go and being in a relationship like this can be messy, but I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon. Mo is here to stay.-------
You can discover more about being a part of our street ministry by going to wearepcc.com. It may not be a man that lives on the streets, but certainly there are people God places in our lives and calls us to invest in and invite into our community. Who is that for you? This weekend we continue Living in the Dust of the Rabbi studying Luke 7:36-50. Don’t come alone!

I love being your pastor!