Blessed To Serve

It’s Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada.  This is one of my favourite holidays.  The air is crisp, but the sun shines warm. 

Leaves glint golds and browns and flutter to the ground where they make a satisfying crunching noise as I walk; bringing a smile to my face.

I pause this weekend to read some of Ann Voeskamp’s, “One Thousand Gifts”.  And I record things for which I’m thankful in my own list of one thousand gifts.

My thoughts go back to this past Wednesday evening when my husband and I, along with other staff from Shine FM, the radio station where I work, helped serve a meal at the Mustard Seed.

The Mustard Seed is an organization in downtown Edmonton helping people in poverty by providing a hot meal, clothing, and personal items.

It’s something I’d never done before and I was unsure of what to expect.  But God challenges us to step out of our comfort zone to serve others.  This is how we learn and grow.

We chopped and scrubbed and cooked together as a team, and when it came time to

serve the meal, the Mustard Seed staff opened the doors to their building.  People filtered through the food line, friendly, grateful for the food and our service.

Some faces stand out in my memory…

• A gentle looking man who spent his time after the meal sitting alone at a table, engrossed in a book.  Was this his chance to relax after a long day?  A few minutes of captured peace in a stress filled life of survival?

 

• The fellow with a twinkle in his eye who, when I asked how he was doing today responded, “As fine as a hair on a frog”…I laughed, “that’s pretty fine”.  He laughed back and agreed.

 

• The man who warned us not to get to close because he had pneumonia and didn’t want to make anyone sick.  My heart goes out to him.  I’m sure all he wants to do is curl up in a warm bed, but there’s no hot meal at home, so hunger drives him out.  I offer up a prayer of healing for the man.

• The elderly lady who quietly comes through the line.  I see her walking alone down the dark street when we leave and I wonder what sort of life she’s had.  Why is she at The Mustard Seed instead of home with her children and grandchildren?  I offer a prayer for her safety on the dark streets of Edmonton.

• The middle-aged man who comes through the line and tells me just seeing my smile has brightened his day.  I’m humbled that something so little seems like so much.

• The children who come with their parents because there’s no food at home.  The staff brings out toys so they can play after the meal. 

People eat together, and talk about their day.  They share their lives with one another.  This is their community.  Most of these people have homes but have to choose between paying rent and buying food.  There’s not enough money on the wages they earn to do both.

The staff tell us some come from across the city for the meal.  Sometimes it’s not just about the food, sometimes it’s about the companionship.  People are lonely and The Mustard Seed provides social nourishment as well as physical.

After the meal we clean up and head back to our lives.  But a little part of us has been touched by the community at The Mustard Seed.  In serving, we have been blessed.  And this Thanksgiving I'm thankful for that.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT:

Have you served the poor?  How did it make you feel?  If you haven’t would you consider it?  Please share your thoughts by clicking the link below.

If you’d like to support the Mustard Seed go to www.theseed.ca .

Hebrews 13:1-2 - Dinner Tonight?

MEMORY VERSE:

“Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.  Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!”  Hebrews 13:1-2 (NLT)

Sitting in church this weekend I couldn’t deny thoughts of discontent cavorting about in my mind.  We started “church shopping” a year and a half ago.  We’ve been attending this church for just under a year and haven’t made any connections. 

As we sat there I couldn’t help thinking maybe we’d chosen the wrong church.  I turned to my husband and said cynically, “If we’d stayed at that Baptist church we went to a couple of times we’d probably know people by now and be involved in ministries.”  Were we in the wrong place?

To be fair to the church, I’m probably not in the best frame of mind this weekend.  I’ve been travelling off and on for the past five weeks for work and am exhausted.  In fact before church my husband came upstairs to find me curled up on the couch, pillow under my head, eyes closed, wishfully thinking about a nap!

Last weekend I’d spoken at a retreat with a group of women from Southwood United, the church I attended when I lived in Calgary.  The weekend focused on finding freedom through forgiveness and as I opened up and shared some of my experiences with the group the sense of love and acceptance was overwhelming.  I realized how much I missed the presence of these women in my life.

A couple of weekends before, my husband and I were in Calgary for the weekend as I was speaking at Southwood and the sense that this was our church family was too strong to deny.

So perhaps I brought just a little bit of negativity with me this weekend when we returned to the church we’ve been attending since moving to Stony Plain.  I was frustrated...I wanted to be involved, I wanted to be connected, and I wanted to serve in the ministry of the church.

I chose this passage of scripture for the memory verse this week because it reminds me I have a responsibility to reach out to those in the church and work on making those connections myself.  I can’t just blame the church for the fact that we’re not “plugged in”.

Reaching out to people is not something that comes naturally for me.  I’d rather speak to a group of two or three hundred strangers than talk one-on-one with someone I’ve never met.

But this verse reminds me that God wants us to reach out to people in our church and in our community to get to know them.  We need to get past the shallow, “How is the weather today” conversation and get to know people on a more personal basis.

Inviting people into your home to share a meal is a great way to start.  Sharing food helps to “break the ice” and conversation flows. 

The food doesn’t have to be fancy.  In fact I recall a failed dessert whose base would have made a better Frisbee than a food source, but we salvaged the topping by scraping it off and “eco-binned” the concrete base.  Don’t think that wasn’t a conversation starter!

So this serves as a reminder to me...in order to meet people and be connected in the church I have to invest time and energy in reaching out and making those connections. 

Would you like to meet more people, make new friends, and have deeper connections?  Have you tried inviting people into your home?  Share your thoughts by clicking on “comments” below.

“Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.  Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it!”  Hebrews 13:1-2 (NLT)