"And Jesus said, 'Let the little children come unto me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'" Matthew 19:14
A few months ago, the Mission Athens team began exploring ways we could have a greater impact on those in the most need in our community. We invited the director of all of the city's federal housing projects to come to one of our Mission Athens meetings. During our conversation with him, we learned that Fifth Avenue Apartments housed the largest concentration of women and children living in federal housing in the city of Athens .
During our Central Youth Ministry and Mission Athens combined Spring service project, Spring Into Action, we visited a few of the housing projects around town and worked to beautify their campuses with landscaping, planting flowers and bulbs, and meeting our neighbors. After that project, we began to think of ways we could continue to build relationships in these areas.
We began planning our Summer Block Party immediately following the Spring Into Action project. We had originally planned the event for June 10 as advertised on this blog, but we had to push it back due to rain. At the time, we were disappointed, but now I see God's hand is in it all.
You see, we hosted our Block Party on Sunday, and it could not have been a more fantastic event. I can't wait to share with you all they ways God blessed us on Sunday. First of all, following weeks of severe drought, Athens has been blessed with large amounts of rain over the past few weeks. We are so thankful for the rain; however, we truly prayed we would not have to reschedule our event again. On Sunday, there was a huge black cloud right over 5th Avenue Park all afternoon. The wind was blowing, and we were sure we were going to get a rain storm. However, just before our party started, the cloud blew away, and this is what we saw.
As we began setting up the tables, food and crafts, our small team quickly realized it takes a lot of hands to pull off an event such as this. Our Central Church of Christ church family turned out in large numbers, picked up a job and went to work. It was so awesome to see the body of Christ working together, each using his or her own talents, to serve our community. Everyone, from the smallest child to the oldest members, pitched in to help make the event such a success. Here are just a few of the ways our members helped.
As great as it was to see Central's church family come together to create a fun environment, it was much more awesome to see God glorified throughout the day in so many ways. We were so happy to have so many of our neighbors from Fifth Avenue attend. All throughout the afternoon, more and more people kept coming over and joining us. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the afternoon of fellowship.
We learned a lot on Sunday afternoon about the needs that are right down the street here in Athens, Alabama. It was such a positive afternoon in so many ways, yet I would be remiss if I didn't share with you some of the stories that broke my heart. There was a man there, who I was so happy to spend some time with, who shared with me that he had just gotten to Athens from Arizona. He has fallen on hard times, has no real friends in this new city, and was beginning to wonder if anyone here cared enough to help him. He said he knew he needed to go to church, but he was so angry about his circumstances and the lack of anyone even noticing him, that he was about to give up on God. "Your church has shown me that God's love is still real," he said. "I am going to go to church on Sunday." I pray that he does, and that we can help him get back into a relationship with God.
Finally, so many of the children we noticed were really enjoying the food. I want to share with you the story of one of these precious children, as I think it really is representative of what so many of them go through. My friend Beth and I had the pleasure of meeting a sweet little 5-year-old girl who is excited about starting kindergarten in the fall. She talked a mile a minute, as most young girls, do, but her stories would break your heart. She treasured all her crafts, painstakingly picking up every small thing to take home, but not taking anything that wasn't hers. We walked her back to her apartment so she could leave her "prizes" there, and then she decided she wanted to come back with us to the cookout. As we walked, she pointed out the landmarks along the way.
"That's where so-and-so lives. She doesn't have a Mama or a Daddy."
"That apartment was totally trashed last week. The lady who lived there is in jail now."
"I don't know what happened over there, but the police came the other night and took that guy away."
"My Mama is sick, and we have been taking turns taking care of her. Can we bring her some food? We don't have a lot of food in our house, only lunch meat."
"That's where my friend lives. I think she is boring, but I want her to come to the party, too, and her Mama wouldn't let her come. Can you come with me to ask her to come with us now?"
"Sure," we said, as we walked over to pick up her friend.
Upon meeting this sweet little girl, I asked her if she had eaten yet, as it was almost 7 pm. She replied, "I had breakfast." I said, "Oh, I love having breakfast for supper." She looked at me like I was crazy and said, "I had breakfast for breakfast."
Oh.....
These sweet little girls impressed me so much with their independence and loving hearts. When we returned to the cookout, they met up with their other friend, and I watched the three of them for a while. They took the new friend to the buffet line, fixed her plate with all the food, only taking one of each item. They chose water to drink, and they sat with their friend while she ate instead of running to play and leaving her behind. After they were finished, they asked if they could take food to their families, and we helped them carry plates back to their apartments.
I didn't want to leave. After all the months of being nervous and planning and praying, the afternoon had gone so much better than I could have ever dreamed. I had a hard time sleeping that night. I was excited, humbled, heart broken, fulfilled, happy, sad, overwhelmed and full of faith, all at the same time. You see, Sunday was just the beginning of the story, I pray.
Our Mission Athens team is prayerfully considering how we can build a sustained physical presence in this community, right here near Fifth Avenue Apartments. We believe this spot in our city needs the love of Jesus, and we want to help these children and neighbors know that there are people here who love and care about them. Please pray with us that we will find the right path, and that our community will support us in these efforts. As we saw on Sunday, when we all work together, we can accomplish truly great things for Him.
I will close with one last picture. I think the smiles on the faces of the hot but happy Mission Athens teammates show you how thankful we all were that our Mission Athens Block Party was such a success. Thank you, God!