Today is Saturday...one of my favorite days of the week! Great time to sit back, relax, and enjoy time with the family. It is also a great time to reflect on the week that has passed and plan for the one to come.
As you think about this past week, what did you accomplish? Did you wrap up a big project at work? Did your child finish one sporting season last week and are you getting ready to start another next week? Did you stick to your New Year's Resolution to eat right and exercise or did you find yourself in the drive thru yet again?
If you are like me, you checked a few things off your to do list, but there are probably more left to be done.
A tougher question to answer is this one...how many seeds did you plant in the kingdom of God last week?
As I think back on my week, I hope that the colleagues I worked with felt His love through my leadership and actions, but if I'm honest, I probably missed some opportunities to talk about Jesus and how good He has been to me.
If I'm brutally honest, I wasted quite a bit of time playing Candy Crush when I could have been reading the Bible or praying with my children.
It's hard in the moment to realize we are missing opportunities or wasting time. Sometimes we just get all wrapped up in the day and become hypnotized by the whirlwind of modern life. The truth is, I probably spend more time telling my kids to brush their teeth and find their shoes than I do praying with them about their day ahead. Maybe next week, I will do better.
Whenever we talk about Mission Athens at Central, we are overwhelmed by the support and interest that our church family feels for this ministry. I believe there is genuine love and appreciation for the Dollar Club and for the work we are doing in the 5th Avenue area of town at The Haven. Lots of people just like me think "I want to do more at The Haven. I will try to make it over there next week." But then life happens, the phone rings, the iPad dings with another email, and we are back in our weekly dance of rush, rush, rush. Then Saturday comes, and we think, "What did I really accomplish this week?"
I would like to challenge everyone who is reading this blog to do SOMETHING in the week ahead to help the ministry at The Haven. There are three times when we need volunteers. Tuesdays from 3:30-4:30 and Thursdays from 3:30-4:30 we offer tutoring and homework help. Thursday evenings at 6:30 we host a Bible study for the families we help with the Dollar Club each week. At all three times, we like to offer snacks to our guests. We always need yard work help. We just got new tables and chairs last week, and we continue to need new books and materials for our library. We need iTunes cards so we can load educational games for the kids to play. We need WalMart gift cards so we can buy cleaning supplies and snacks. The list of ways to help is long.
Most of all, we need people to show up. We need volunteers who can commit just one hour a week, and our most desperate need is for tutoring on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. We have a core group of incredible women who we know will be there, rain or shine. But now that we are a year into this ministry, these ladies are getting a little tired. It would be wonderful to have enough volunteers that we can count on so that these helpers could have an afternoon off every now and then.
You may be thinking that you couldn't possibly tutor anyone, but you are wrong. If you can read, write, and add and subtract, you can help these kids. If you can't, you can still come and just "visit" with them. They love it! We are averaging over 20 kids each afternoon, and now that the temperatures are rising, we may have even more. We desperately need helpers who can talk with the kids and just be a friendly face for them.
Beyond those opportunities, what else can you do to help this ministry? We have a wish list. We would love to begin to offer some "enrichment" activities for the kids beyond just the two afternoon homework help sessions. It would be great to host a painting class one day. Many of these kids have never been to the movies, and we would love to organize a field trip to the movies one weekend. Perhaps you can sing and could organize a day to teach the kids a few songs. What can you do? How can you use that talent to help out at The Haven?
Please take a moment to think about your week ahead. Can you find some extra time or money and use it to plant some seeds? Can you help out at the Haven? You will be richly and abundantly blessed by your service. If you talk to any of our regular volunteers, you will see a huge smile as they talk about how much they love the children and how much they have loved getting to know each other better, too. It is such a wonderful opportunity right here in our backyard to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
Please talk with Tanya Griffin and Beth Patton about ways you can help. Take some time each Tuesday and Thursday to pray for the work at The Haven. Thank you so much for your support of Mission Athens! Together, all of us are planting little seeds of God's love in this community. It will be so much fun to harvest them through the years together!
"The one who plants and the one who waters work as a team with the same purpose. Yet they will be rewarded individually, according to their own hard work." 1 Corinthians 3:6-8
No comments:
Post a Comment