Everyday, we are faced with decisions. We must decide to get up each morning. We must decide what we will eat and what we will wear. In all of our mundane daily decisions, we often times enter a mindset of what do I need, where will I go, what do I want to do, etc. How often do we intentionally decide to do something to help someone else? If we take stock, I think we would each be surprised by our decisions on a regular basis. So if we were to think about it, would it surprise you that helping someone can be super simple:
- buy someone a coffee
- let someone else go in front of you at the grocery store
- make dinner for a lonely neighbor
- offer to sit with a grieving person
While those are just a few ways you can help other people, it's meant to just get you thinking. You can help in big or small ways. Many people feel like helping is their mission in life. As you might imagine, we automatically morph to missions as being abroad. Did you know, though, that missions starts at home. We have to serve our families and our cities before we can serve countries abroad. Yes, some people are called to be missionaries in other countries, but what about those of us who aren't going into the villages in third world countries and building churches? What can we do to fulfill our missions? Well, we can:
- Get involved in our local churches
- Bring a friend to church with us
- Serve our neighborhoods in whatever way they need it
Beyond that though, we can adopt a mindset of "Our city, Our Mission" as my family has done with our local church. Below you will see a few photos from our day out with our church. As a church, we chose to leave the building and go BE THE CHURCH in an area of our city that really needed to be loved on. We went to Poe Mill and blessed six different locations within that small area of the city. Some were washing cars for a recreation center, others were helping to build up a children's program, while still others were out cleaning out buildings and knocking down walls (legitimately).
Our day began by meeting at our church for a quick debrief, praise, and prayer. We picked up our t-shirts and off we went to bless the people of Poe Mill. My family went to Griggs Church and were told about how their need came to be. The small church had acquired 2 buildings and the former owner left them quite a mess. Our job was to save 2 baby items for the church to use and get rid of the rest. We had both buildings cleaned out within a couple hours and then it was time to knock down some walls. One of the buildings needed to be gutted as the contractor would be coming in and renovating. This saved the church some demo costs as well as allowed us to bless them more.
We cleaned out the building behind us and the one you can't see on this shot. We were exhausted, but felt super humbled to have had the opportunity to go out into our community and do the work that this small church wasn't able to do. As we left the site, a couple was getting in their car from having attended church while we were working and took a moment to thank us for coming out of the way to help their church out. They were more than thankful for our group of about 20 or so on site doing what their little church family hadn't been able to do.
When we made it home, we were full of dirt and grime, but we were also full of thanks for the opportunity the Lord gave us in blessing others. You see, one of the lessons we learned was simple: By blessing others, the Lord was blessing us. We were serving others, but we were literally being the hands and feet of Jesus - which is exactly what we are called to do in this life. We may not know it right now, but there comes a time in our lives when we realize just how much the simple kind act will impact the lives of others.
After the buildings were all cleaned out, it was time to get to work on the walls. Not only were the teenagers (and younger children) happy to be able to tear something down, but they did a great job! Each of them took the hammer and knocked down at least one wall. I don't think they realized while they were doing it just how much they were learning about physical work and how much their work was blessing other children and adults. What they were doing is taking an old run down house and breathing new life into it. They were the beginning of a wonderful transformation from the old into a new usable building for the purpose of sharing the love of Christ with the people in Poe Mill. Furthermore, they were learning life skills that they will be able to use throughout their lives. To the left, we have Mackenzie learning to pry the drywall away from the slats enough to get her hand in side and then pull the drywall away. She was amazing!
To the left here, we have Madison working with Ava to remove the walls around the closets. Soon after this shot the "big kids" aka the men came in and had this room completely gutted in a matter of minutes. Madison learned how to swing a hammer and to do it safely. She said the best part of the day was helping others to bless this church.
Finally, on the left, we have the big kid working on one of the interior walls. This was when they discovered that this house was put together using the old slats and plaster method. While it presented a challenge, we came equipped with the tools and manpower to get the job done.
After we were done, we looked at what we had done and we were all overcome with emotion. We came in and cleaned the place up and then made a mess of it again, but that mess came as part of the reason we were there. We spoke with the contractor who asked that if we could gut the building, his team would clean up the mess as we didn't have room in the dumpster to put anything else after having cleaned the 2 buildings up prior to demo.
One of the most amazing parts of the day was that our little Mackenzie (not so little anymore) had been going to a church about 30 minutes away with a friend of hers. She wasn't super thrilled to be getting up and going with us yesterday, but that changed really quickly when Starbucks gave someone the wrong coffee and they blessed her with it. She then realized how other churches can be just as blessing as the one she's been going to. In the car on the way to the site, she asked if she could start getting connected with the Youth at GFC and going to different things at our church. You see, we had been allowing her to choose which church she went to. The Holy Spirit spoke to her during our short praise and prayer. That is all it could be. She's now looking forward to going to Wednesday night youth with her sister and becomming a connected part of the church.
Mountains were moved as we were moving things out of those buildings and even before we got to the site and I could not be more pleased with how we all came away feeling blessed for having the opportunity to bless others.
Comments
Post a Comment