A weekend of service

One of the things we wanted to make a big priority this fall, especially after our big mission trip, was meeting the needs of people closer to home with the love of Christ. This weekend our students did just that in a couple of great ways.

On Saturday about 2/3 of our high schoolers got up about 4 hours earlier then normal (8:30am, and trust me certain ones of them named Becky and Kathryn complained about that over and over) to do yard work on 10 yards in our area. They picked up trash, trimmed bushes, raked up about 60 bags of leaves, piled fire wood, rode ATVS (surprise, that was Ben's group), and more. Everyone we helped would not have otherwise been able to do their fall yard cleaning, so this was a great help to them. Thanks so much to our students for working hard and giving up the chance to sleep in to help others.

On Sunday our middle schoolers headed to Iglesia Trinidad in Milwaukee to prepare and serve a meal and attend worship with the congregation. What a different experience then we normal have at HRC. Here they get the pitch forks out if everything isn't smooth and almost professional, and there they start the service by asking who wants to have certain parts in the service. Here we get on edge over certain praise band songs being to irreverant, and there they hand out instruments to anyone in the audience who would like to play along (our group liked having tambourines, maracas, shakers, and more, and actually kept pretty good beat). Here we would wonder what was happening if anyone responded to a question in the pastor's sermon, and there a dialogue is part of the plan. I personally thought that was pretty cool. The congregation and the pastor interacted throughout the sermon, making it really come alive and also helping the message be very tailor made to the congregation's specific questions/interests. The message was on loving one's neighbor, and one individual thought there should be a limit on that (he was not to keen on loving his sex offender neighbor). He and the pastor had a good exchange on what the Bible says, and you could tell it helped him wrestle with a tough question. A neat change of pace from the normal monologue sermon.
Thanks to all the parents who prepared food, and you can rest assured it was enjoyed and quickly eaten. This is a very poor congregation, and you could tell by the zeal they attacked the food (many filling 3 plates or more to the breaking point plus taking "to go" plates) that this was the first time they had eaten in a while, and perhaps the last time for awhile.

The whole weekend simply reminds us all what Jesus called the Greatest Commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself. The word for neighbor in the original Greek is really universal, so Jesus is really telling us to love the world as ourselves. Its a tall order, but one that is so important to strive towards, especially in the tough times we are facing today. May God bless ya alls weeks!