Servant Living...

Most of you know that when my DH took a different path from full time pulpit ministry, my own "ministry" changed a bit. Because I'd always been involved in so much, I really wanted to take some time and just "be" in church. That's pretty much what I did for the first year. Gradually, this year, we've become more involved as we have been led.

The Pastor talked to me this Summer about taking leadership in an area of ministry within the church. At first I gave a rather quick "no, that's not where I see me working". I truly wanted to do what God wanted me to do. I've spent way too much time doing jobs in the church simply because "no one else would step forward." After a little prayer and a HUGE nudge kick in the pants from God, I said "Yes".

The ministry I am working with centers around Servant Evangelism. This is the concept that simple acts of kindness can make a big difference in the world. At our church, we call this "interact". It is our opportunity to interact, in meaningful ways, in our community. This summer we gave cold water out on the beach. We also shared treat bags with kids who completed the mile beach run.

I think the church is in danger of defining "need" as weakness and limiting its outreach to the hurting, sick, poor, or lonely. And certainly there are multiple opportunities to reach out to these people. But, the fact is there are many hurting and lonely people that appear to have it all together. And there are many people who don't believe kindness even exists in our world. We want to reach all of them.

So, here are the wonderful SE projects that we have in the next few weeks:

The week before Halloween we are going to "Reverse Trick-or-Treat". We will be visiting homes in a neighborhood and giving out large bags of candy they can use for Halloween or anything else they choose.

On Halloween, we are hosting a block party at our house. We will pass out candy to kids, but we will also have cold soda, water and large candy bars to adults.

Two weeks later, we will be hosting a Harvest Party at one of our local Assisted Living Facilities. We are bringing in musical entertainment, gifts from our kids, and some pets to share with about 40 residents. We will also leave candy baskets for the 350 employees at this facility.

And, I am MOST excited about the day after Thanksgiving....On the biggest shopping day of the year, we are going to get up at 0'dark hundred and head out to the large electronics store and pass out coffee to the waiting bargain hunters. I think they are going to be absolutely shocked by this.

I think the thing I am learning as we continue to find ways to spread little acts of kindness in our community is that it isn't that hard. We all have so many individual opportunities each and every day to be kind to someone else. And isn't that what Christian Living is all about?