pictured above is the team that went out serving on Saturday, armed with snow shovels and toilet brushes. notice how energized and enthused everyone looks? it was taken when we gathered back in the church office afterwards to pray for the people we served.
always seems to be the case that the "after" pictures of a servant evangelism team are more "life-full" than the "before" pictures. you never know what you're getting into when you set out to serve people in practical ways, with love in the name of Jesus. will there be driveways to shovel? will people let us wash their restrooms? will the love of God come through and be received? will these chore-like activities be any fun? invariably, what you end up getting into is a sort of love groove,or love loop. love flowing on the team. love flowing towards the people you get to bless. love flowing from God, present in the service itself. and that love tends to be experienced as life itself, overflowing. same deal with serving the poor, too, often times.
all in all, a great time had by all. the pizza box came from a pizza place whose bathroom we cleaned. at first, the workers at Cottage Inn wanted us to wait for a manager to come in to give us permission. then, when we assured them that we were there to clean their toilet for free, no strings attached (see the card we used as backup, to demonstrate that we weren't just weirdos, but rather, sanctioned weirdos), they were delighted to have us get to work. when we got done, they had a pizza waiting for us. "Seriously, no donations desired. We just want to bless you," we protested. They told us they had messed up an order, so they were just going to throw it out. I could see in their eyes that turning down the pizza would feel like a disappointment to them. And also maybe to Mike and Cody, the guys who were on my bathroom cleaning team. So we happily accepted, and brought it back to share with the rest of the crew.
Back at the church office, everyone signed the box. Maybe we'll get it framed.
No comments:
Post a Comment