God calls us to serve. It's written all throughout the
Bible. "It is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new
lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago he planned that we should spend
these lives in helping others." (Ephesians 2:10 LB)
"For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to
serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45 NIV) "For you were called to freedom,
brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but
through love serve one another." (Galatians 5:13 NIV)
What God told Jeremiah is also true for all of us:
"Before I made you in your mother's womb, I chose you. Before you were
born, I set you apart for a special work." (Jeremiah 1:5a NCV) We weren't
made to just sit around and watch others serve us or watch others serve those
around us. God made each and every one of us to do a special work, not just our
pastors and governing Board members. It includes you, me, our children, our
parents, and even our grandparents. If we aren't serving others, then we aren't
doing what God called us to do.
Over the past month, it was incredible to see how many
people from Mooresville Church of God were out serving in our community! If you
didn't get the opportunity to join any of the groups this time, you missed out
and you should be first in line next time!
Levi Rennick, one of our summer interns, led a group down to
our neighborhood Laundromat to spend some time talking to our neighbors and
asking about how we could pray for them. Not only did they have the opportunity
to interact with some of our neighbors, they even had some extra time to help
scrub the Laundromat – a.k.a. manual labor.
Meghan Jackson, our other summer intern, led a fantastic
group of ladies at Meadow Lakes! These young women pampered the elderly women
in the memory ward each week. They painted nails, put makeup on them and did
crafts over the four weeks of service. The best part about this event was that
these young ladies were challenged to reach outside of their comfort zone and
try something new! Each week these young ladies were excited to go back and
share God's love with those women at Meadow Lakes. "I believe that it was
great for our students to interact with people who are older than themselves
that they do not know. I also believe we made an impact with the nurses and the
activity leaders at the nursing home just knowing we were coming to be there
and helping them by giving them a break as well," Pastor Kim Schuessler.
Brittani Bentley organized a group to participate at the
Farmer's Market in downtown Mooresville on Tuesday nights for the month of
July. This group of volunteers provided free homemade goods to our community.
The Farmer's Market provided an opportunity for members of our church to let
people know about how they can help others or get help themselves when they
need assistance. "As a church, we were able to let people know who we are
and where we are located," Pastor Kim.
"It was all about relationships for me. We met so many
that needed help or wanted a new church," Brittani Bentley said. This was
a great opportunity to invite new families to our church!
Vanessa True helped to organize a large group of children
and young adults to do a lot of manual labor at two of Mooresville's elementary
schools: Neil Armstrong and Newby. Both schools had large piles of mulch that
needed to be placed in flower beds and playgrounds. The school crew also helped
pick up trash, pull weeds, cut down some dead trees and branches, and paint
some curbs to get the schools ready for the start of a new year. Last, but not
least, this crew finished their month by doing a prayer walk around the school
grounds praying for the students and teachers as they begin a fresh new year.
I led a group in organizing dinner and an ice cream social
for both the Mooresville Police Department and Fire Department crews. These men
and women put their lives on the line for each and every person in our
community, some even in our neighboring communities. Providing these men and
women dinner and ice cream was the least we could do. Not only did we get to
share a meal and ice cream with them, we actually had time to sit down and get
to know them. Building these relationships is priceless! Not only did the
adults enjoy this time of sharing with the police and fire department staff,
but some young children experienced some really cool things like touring the
police and fire stations, and even getting to set in the fire truck!
