City Serve

Every April the church we attend cancels all services for the weekend and people sign up to serve all over our "city".  This year 10 other churches joined with us hence the name city serve.  It really is an awesome thing to see so many people working together to bless lots of non-profit organizations as well as helping those that may not be able to have work done on their homes without it being voluntarily done.  Yards get raked, beds get mulched, homes get painted, decks get replaced.  This year there were 840 volunteers who helped 120 organizations or individuals. 

 So....how did we end up with a crowd of kids this size at our house you ask?  There is a trailer park 1 mile down the road from our house and there were numerous groups in there doing various projects.  Putting new aluminum skirting on a trailer, removing an old  rickety porch/deck and building a new one, etc.  There was one dear woman whose husband committed suicide a few months ago and needed some repairs to her trailer due to damage that happened during the suicide.  So a whole bunch of people converged on these homes to work and love our "neighbors."  Again, how did we end up with this crew of kids at our house?  And what are they looking at?

Mark took one of his trailers down and brought back two loads of debris from the old porch as well as loads of kids both times!  It was awesome!  The kids worked together to unload the old wood, ran around the yard, did the zip line, climbed the mountain and burned all the debris!  Our boys have asked numerous times if all the boys could come back every weekend!  They have plans for air soft wars, hikes, hunting, you name it!!

I am in the midst of a book right now called "Barefoot Church".  I am not too far into the book but I am liking what I am reading.  The crux is a church in Austin who goes out and is the church to the community.  They cancel services 4 times a year (any time there is a 5th Sunday in a month which pans out once every quarter) and do projects around their city.  They also have their life groups, community groups, small groups, whatever you want to call them groups initiate and do projects twice a month!!  I think that is awesome!

Briefly brainstormed last week with 2 ladies in my kitchen about what else we could do at the trailer park.  Things like.....take a load of mulch in and see who wants their flower beds spruced up, an ice cream social, more aluminum skirting replaced.  Building relationships and working together.  Isn't that what we are called to do?  I want to be a part of something is known for loving, helping and serving rather than consuming!