Hotel Church?

I've never seen those two words go together before. My good friend and Jinja teammate, Brent Abney, just shared this great article about the Portland Eastside Foursquare Church. They're a church body that purchased a hotel and are attacking prostitution and drugs head on while reaching out daily to others around them. Hotel profits go directly to help the needy in their community. Business as mission can play out in so many different ways and places. It may look strange but it often leads us to the same people that Jesus hung out with.

It reminds me of the strange feeling I had when our team first purchased the church and Source Cafe's building at Plot 20 Main Street in Jinja. Our "church building" housed 3 bars for a time until they had time to transition and we replaced them with a more positive community environment.

Even then we still had bars on both sides of us. One night someone set a bomb off in the bar not 10 feet from our building. The son of the owner sustained terrible leg injuries and we were there to help and pray over them in the days afterwards. For several weeks he couldn't go far with his leg injuries but the good thing was he didn't have to go far to attend church. I always loved it when I'd see him and his mom slowly make their way in to worship with us.