31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Then the pastor dismissed until the following Sunday as the crowd slowly and quietly left.
This week I have learned so much about caring for others after going to Sleights Court and Loftus. We take everything we have and always want more when there are kids like the ones in these places who just want to be loved. My heart slowly started to break for these kids as they needed somebody to take care of them because the people who were supposed to chose not to. I look forward to going more often and spending more time and pouring into these kids.
Perhaps the biggest impact I've made here happened today when I least expected it. I called a cab so I could get back from Mike's house to Guisborough without all the bus stops and I got in and the driver and I talked about the weather and I mentioned what it was like back at home. He asked why I was here and I was here and I explained to him what I'm doing with UK-USA ministries and everything I'm doing in Guisborough, like many here, he was very skeptical of Christianity and was not afraid to tell me why. He had many questions about why I believed and I was able to answer them and tell him about my vision for England. I told him about what Jesus did and said while he was here and how I wanted to be obedient, he told me about his health problems and his life problems and how when he was a child his family attended church every Sunday. We arrived in Guisborough and unfortunately the conversation had to end, I asked him if I could pray for him in any way and he told me about his financial situation and about the kids he is raising that aren't his own, as I started to exit the car he made one last remark and it was that he wishes he had met more Christians like me during his life so he could see what it really meant to be a Christian. I invited him to the Methodist church but he was from the Middlesbrough area so I directed him towards Portrack Baptist and he said he was very busy with kids but he would try to make it. Just reinforcing that just by telling somebody why you are there can lead to an impact bigger than you'll ever know. It breaks me that only 20 percent of Christians share their faith, yet hate the idea that people go to hell.
Thank you to the ones out there who are still praying for me and supporting me to be here.
One of the other gap year workers named Jared is a phenomenal photographer and I am borrowing three of his photos to put on here. Hope you enjoy them.
The top photo is Roseberry Topping where we climbed at the end of our scavenger hunt day on Monday. The middle photo is most of our team minus a few who will be coming out soon. The bottom photo is Saltburn.
Grace be with you,
- Hunter
