A Mere Window.............

What a roller coaster of a week it has been for me. I had to drive to Talihina at 7am today. After such a long, exhausting kind of week, I have to say that I truly enjoyed the nice quiet drive to Talihina and back to Greenwood. God really spoke into my heart about so many things today. As Stretch would say, it's a great time to sit and reflect, and just simply listen to God.

Matt and I both have tried so hard to not be prideful about our project this weekend. I know people mean well by thanking us for what we did because we were willing to do Gods work. Honestly, as I sit back and look at the whole picture, and to think that I did it, or Matt did it was completely insane. God's work that was carefully orchestrated over the last year, completely leaves me in awe.

It started last October with backpacks, and then God literally started providing us with free donations from Wal-Mart, in which we had never even asked for. When God literally starts dropping things on you for free, it was at that time that we knew this is really what God wanted us to do all along.

The lady that worked with us all summer long, she works for the same company as my dad. I had called and asked her to see if maybe the company would be willing to donate a case or 2 of copy paper. She began to explain to me of everything that she had asked them to donate to over the years, and she was always turned down. She walked into the office one day, and the girl (the same girl that always turned her down) had seen our story in the paper and said that they could donate to the project, all she had to do was fill out some paper work. A few weeks later we were handed a $200 check. My friend didn't even get a chance to ask them for a donation, they offered it to her.

It really kind of saddens my heart that people were so proud of us. This shouldn't be the uncommon thing to see among Christians. We as Christ followers wants our church to do everything for us, but we don't want to do any of the work ourselves. How many times have you gone to your church and said, Sally Jane needs her electric turned on, can the church take care of that? When fact of the matter is, you had enough money in your wallet to do it yourself all along. People are suffering, and we don't want to sacrifice our time or our money to help them. We are set in our ways and think that we just have to pay our tithes and nothing else, and half of the church probably isn't even doing that.

Matt and I don't have money. We live pay check to pay check. Yes that is our own fault, that we are working diligently to correct, but that doesn't mean we use our lack of money as an excuse to not be able to care for others. I never dreamed that we would have been able to help 250 kids this past week. It wasn't us, we didn't have the money. But what we did have was the willingness to take what God had put on our hearts, even when we didn't fully believe that God could have taken it to this magnitude, and we stepped out on faith. When our faith was a little weak, he would drop school supplies in our laps that we didn't even ask for. We would say, "OK God, we get it, we are going to run with it, I don't know how it's going to work out, but this is obviously what you want us to do."

While we were on vacation we visited a church, and the sermon still speaks to my heart. The pastor said, God placed their church in one the riches communities in their town. Why did he do that? He said another pastor friend of his, his church was in the ghetto part of town. His church is out there reaching out to the homeless, right in the midst of the poor. Obviously the church doesn't bring in a lot of money, because anyone who attends doesn't have much money to give. He began to say that we each have a different roll in the community. God blessed his church with finances, so they can partner with the church in the ghetto, the church that is placed in the midst of poverty, to help them reach the poor and needy.

I may not have money, but I have time, Matt may not be a motivator like me, but God gave him the vision, Linda, well she went to the church that had the financial resources and other connections that we needed, and then he sent us Tim and Kim, who's church had just started a clothes closet just weeks before we were to bring all of this together. All of us from different churches, all of us playing a different roll, all of us working on the same vision. To think I could have ever made all of that happen, is simply crazy.

We should all be willing, we should all be searching for our roll. Saturday I watched several families in need, stories of men in near tears and all because of free school supplies? I don't know about you, but when you can't provide for your kids, and they are having to walk into a school where kids are probably going to make fun of them for what they are wearing, for their torn and old backpacks, and not being able to bring basic school supplies to school, I know I would rather personally go hungry than for my kids to experience the cruelty of kids at school.

Maybe it's time to quit running to your church and asking them do the work that God is telling you to do. Maybe it's time you learn to make a few sacrifices, so someone else has food on their table. If my babies were hungry, and someone driving a new car, and wearing new clothes, talking on their IPhone, with $40 mani pedi's, walked past my hungry babies and never missed a step, I wouldn't have much faith in Christ and I surely woudln't think much of that person. What kind of message are you sending out everyday? My heart is broken right now. I know those 250 kids are in need of so much more than crayons. God is challenging me, that this weekend was just a mere window to be able to see the needs around me. It's my choice to sit and be like everyone else, or will I listen to Gods call?