The House that God Built
The word Bethel is used over sixty times in the Old Testament. The spiritual meaning is House of God. It was a place where God’s presence was felt and a place where people sought God and God met them. Bethel was a place of worship, a place of confirmation and a place of transformation.
I was reminded of Bethel last week. We were at one of our ministry locations where we have been working with children, teenagers and families since 2010. So much transformation has taken place in this location both physically and spiritually. We began in a tiny little room, about a 10x12 space, with after school tutoring and Bible storying for 30 children 5 days each week. It was hot and crowded. When we began the average dropout level was second grade. Today, we have a building over three times the original size and over 100 children that we offer services to with no dropouts and many continuing to college. We provide Sunday School and Worship every Sunday. Our building has become a vital resource for the community. Other Christian organizations use it for special events. Just a couple of weeks ago one of our families needed a space to hold a family wedding party and used our building. For the community it is a place of Hope. It has been life giving to many through food and medicines and life saving through Jesus.
Last week as I sat with one of our directors she shared some recent stories with me. One of our teenage girls that has been coming to our center for 10 years wants to go to college for computer training. Her dad is an alcoholic and there is no money for her education. We committed to paying her school fees. Her name is Pooja, she loves Jesus and is a shining light and example to the girls in the community. Another bright light, a young girl, age 13, was busy helping the other children with their projects. As I was watching Shasha, our director shared that she has 4 other siblings, and their father had recently died. The mother does not make enough money to even buy groceries to feed them all. We made a commitment to buy the family groceries for the next six months. As the stories continued, we ended up committing to feeding six families for the next six months. Our staff tutor over 60 children every day. Provide life skill classes for 60 teenagers. And they commit to visiting 12 families in the community every week. Hope and Life!
As we talked more, she looked at me and said softly, “I call this place Bethel”.
This building, sitting in the middle of a very poor slum, is Bethel. It is the house of God. It is a house that God built. It is a place where God’s presence is felt. A place where people seek God and find Him. A place of worship, a place of confirmation, a place of transformation. It is Bethel!