You Have Been Served – With Love Of Course

Yesterday, I got up extra early, went to a doctor’s appointment then headed over to a local elementary scho0l to scout out places to plant some flowers.  Then I got to head over to The Barn Nursery and spend a chunk of someone else’s money on a ton of flowers.  And then this morning, I got to get up early and go have a blast planting those flowers at the same elementary school.  Why?

Our church is participating in something called One Prayer.  We take the month of June and do a special sermon series, pray a whole lot about how we can become one with other believers around the world and serve our community.  

From the One Prayer website:

“One Prayer began in 2008 to explore the question: We pray to Jesus asking Him to answer our prayers – what if we became the answer to His? In John 17:20-24, He prayed that we would be one, and One Prayer is an opportunity to see what can be accomplished when the Church works together.

God has worked in amazing ways over the past two years as millions of believers around the world have united to pray, learn, and love others. We’re joining forces once again for One Prayer 2010 as we come together for four weeks to learn more about our Creator and go out into the world to share, serve and give.”

Last year, our church participated in it’s first One Prayer.  We organized the first Feed the Hungry (Which is still going strong a year later.  Every month a team heads downtown and provides breakfast for about 200 hungry people. ) and helped build a house for Habitat for Humanity.  The NetReach small group (70 members small that do nothing but serve the community) was also born out of One Prayer last year.

Also, since the One Prayer series last year, our family has stepped up our outreach efforts and wow, can we see a difference in the way our lives have been blessed.  I think it’s pretty amazing what God can do for us when we live the way He has asked us to live.  We are happier and more satisfied now than we have ever been. 

This year, we kicked off our service projects by sprucing up the grounds of Spring Creek Elementary School and starting a school supply drive for needy students.  We had about 25 people show up to help out wherever we had a need: pulling weeds, digging holes, planting flowers or picking up trash.  No one complained about being sweaty or being hot.  Everyone pitched in and had a blast.

Next weekend, we are taking lunch to three different fire stations and hanging out with the firefighters who help to keep us safe in our communities.

The following Saturday, we are heading down to JC Towers (the low-income, senior citizen housing complex) to do some light cleaning of their apartments. 

All events are family friendly, so feel free to bring the kiddos out and lend a hand (and of course, your heart) where you feel led.  I imagine you might even have a bit of fun!