Be the Church

Today was our church's third annual "Be the Church" day. It is the first year we were able to participate and our family had a great morning! "Be the Church" is serving in our community and doing practically the things Jesus taught. Some of the projects included serving meals in an inner city church and then canvasing the neighborhood to share some of the church's programs. (They do some great things there! I am amazed at how alive they are!) Some people handed out water in a local park, others organized care packages for our soldiers serving abroad. Some people visited our home bound members and did some minor repairs and yard work (that's what we did!) And others worked with the Meals on Wheels program and with an assisted living center visiting and bringing communion. We met at the church for a short service and then we were off!

Our family weeded some flower beds and trimmed bushes for one of our home bound members. I had just been there earlier this week taking one of our Meat Day Mission meals since they had both just had surgery and some health problems. That was really good for the kids to know where we were going. Travis enjoys working outside with Daddy, so he was great. We brought his tools and gloves and he dug up the weeds and hauled them in his wheelbarrow. Justin did some raking too, but mostly he just watched. I was support staff, getting supplies and calming a crying Justin. It took about 1 1/2 hours which was about our littlest one's attention span. We wore him out! He fell asleep on the way to eat lunch.



I had so much fun! And I think the guys did too. Our flower beds need weeding and on our way out this morning Randy and I both mentioned how badly our bushes need trimming, and yet this was the perfect morning to do it for someone else. We don't have this chance very often in our society where independence and self-sufficiency are exalted. These people couldn't do it themselves. They both mentioned how their yard used to be the envy of the neighborhood. People would ring their doorbell to comment on how beautiful their yard was. And it was very clear to me that they wish they could do more, but they just can't. They have filled in their flower beds with rocks and placed small statues in them so they are low maintenance. Pulling the weeds took about 30 minutes because there were so few! But their yard was still a tribute to God's creation, even with their limited ability.

















I was shopping at a resale shop this week looking for a few things for the boys and I found this shirt for Travis. This was the VBS program that our church did the summer after Justin was born. We weren't able to attend because we were keeping the boys away from other children in an effort to keep Justin healthy for surgery. But we heard awesome things about it! Rather than just teaching children about Bible stories, the week was about service and serving others. If the church is Jesus' home, then the rest of the world is his backyard and it is the place where we practice what God teaches us. Travis was so excited to wear it for Be the Church Day. It was the perfect thing to remind him that pulling weeds is service just like praying for people and bringing them meals. Everything that we do is service. As the church our purpose is to serve. And it's crazy how good it feels to serve!