We canceled services today at church (the church @ greenbrier). Last night several local cities and communities were devastated by tornadoes. As you can see in the picture provided some people lost everything, while others sustained major damage to their homes and property. Reports of businesses and churches being completely destroyed have been circulating, more pictures can be seen on WRDW 12’s site.
Instead of having church today, we lived it out. We became Jesus to the immediate community where our church body meets. We helped some of our immediate members who’s yards were destroyed by the tornados, and then we went door to door seeking people who needed assistance cutting trees off of roofs and fences. We were able to help out several people, but many wanted to wait for insurance to give further instructions before they attempted to clean up any damage.
We had a lot of people show up, and then there was a segment of the church who stayed home. Understandable. Some people had kids who did not need to be in a dangerous situation, however overall it was a great showing. In a way, I wonder where some people were…I can’t help it…I don’t want to judge, but sometimes it seems that it is easier to come sit in a seat, rather than get our hands dirty…however different people are at different places in their spiritual journey, so we have to be patient with them with understanding. I also don’t want to take away from everyone who did show up, because there were a lot of people, that was very cool to see! It’s really fun being Jesus to those who are disconnected from a church family or from a relationship with Christ. I don’t think people realize just how gratifying it is to be selfless.
I try to have fun in whatever I do. Hank Murphy and I were standing around like every man does watching one other man cut through a big tree trunk. I told Hank that the Southern Baptist were going to be mad at us, because as the recent reports have indicated and as Perry Noble mentioned in his session at the Unleash Conference, the Southern Baptist have made a declaration basically saying that they were going green. Hank and I could not help but to mimic Perry Noble from there. This leads me to one of my favorite parts of the Unleash Conference that we went to last Thursday. Perry was explaining how he is not interested in leading the church or Christians to go green (not in those exact words) but that he was interested in pointing people to Jesus. He stated that he was not interested in who was going to be our next President, that he doubted God cared. However, in the closing moment on the topic, and this is where Hank and I had fun, Perry acts like he is Jesus in Heaven…and he starts yelling excitedly, “Look! They’re recycling! Did you see that, they just recycled! Oh, Wow! Did you see why they voted for President?!” Perry then turned as if he was talking to a choir, “Quick, Sing Something!” – It was a great moment! Of course he was mocking the whole situation to bring about the point that Jesus is interested in us pointing people to him, He celebrates when someone who was lost is found. Hank and I had fun replaying it out as we were not following the Southern Baptist code of saving the trees, we were cutting them up and putting them in a pile to be discarded. Oh, well! I guess we’ll just have to tell someone about Jesus.
Today, was fun! I am sore…bruised…cut up…tired, but so satisfied!
Love it! You guys are clearly doing it right! Keep up the great work.