Community.

The CCDA conference was great. I really did learn so much from it. One of the best things we learned was about how to be a community together with the people. We also learned how to empower people in the neighborhood to stand up, lead, and better their community. We don't need to do it for them. My fear has always been thatwe would come to a point where we would seem like white, middle class people who just want to come down here and hand out stuff, and not really get to know and do life with people. That fear is definitely NOT reality. Yesterday at work my eyes were opened to all the ways we are having the opporunity to live in community with our friends and family in the neighborhood , here are a few simple examples from just the past week:

+ Yesterday started off with a neighbor coming in and asking for a referral for a plumber. I know that sounds simple, but she could have asked anyone, instead she came down and knocked on our door to ask what we thought.

+ One of the middle school boys who has been having trouble in school came sprinting down the street to show us he got a B on his 9 weeks social studies test. We were so proud!

+ At least 15 different kids rang the doorbell to see if we would buy chocolate candy bars they are selling for a school fundraiser, now that is definitely neighborly.

+ One of the men in the neighborhood who didn't have to work because of the weather came down and took out all our trash.

+ A father and son in the neighborhood noticed the lawn needed to be mowed while we were at the conference and so they mowed our lawn.

+ The local middle school invited Ron, Luke and I to play in the parent/teacher volleyball game.

+ And then there was yesterday... It was about 5:25 and we were just about to close down the after school program for the day. Ron and Luke were out back playing basketball with some of the kids and I was downstairs when the front door flew open and a little 8 year old neighborhood girl stood in front of me screaming, covered in blood. I usually pride myself in being in control during chaos here, but I must admit I panicked a little. I grabbed the girl and sat her on the couch, once I saw the bone in her chin exposed I yelled for Luke and Ron from the back. She had been playing on the stairs in front of Cross and Crown when she fell face first from the top to the bottom. It wasn't as bad as we first thought, but she did end up getting quite a few stitches. From all that chaos, the thing that stuck out to me the most was the little boy she was with when she fell. They didn't go running to their mom in the house across the street. They came running to Rock Island. And I remember the little boy saying over and over, as his friend cried, "We didn't know where else to go"....... WOW....... I truly believe that is how the Lord leads people to us here at the mission. We aren't going to be bible beaters or require them to quote the sinners prayer and be baptized before we help. We are going to be here regardles... and when they are truly feeling that they have no where else to go, they WILL ring the doorbell. And we'll be right here waiting.

I feel so privileged to be able to serve the Lord in this way.

Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
Matthew 7:7