Gil and the kids and I have been doing grocery delivery with Lakeview Pantry a couple Saturdays a month since last summer. Its a fun way for our family to serve people in a tangible way and it also partners us with a local community agency where most of the workers are not Christians. We've gotten to know some of the great staff at the pantry and we've enjoyed interacting with people receiving groceries. Its also opened my eyes to the pockets of poverty and neglected elderly people on the north side.
This morning I walked into the Lakeview auditorium about 20 minutes before worship started and Mike M., a man who's been attending with his girlfriend for about 7 months, asked if he could introduce me to someone. Two weeks ago when he did grocery delivery with a team from New Life Lakeview & Lincoln Park, a woman asked him if he and Suzanne would pray for her. "A few months ago a family prayed for me when they came," she had said. After praying for her and then chatting with her they discovered that she wanted to go to church but just didn't have a ride.
This morning they brought her to New Life and re-introduced me to Jean--the woman prayed for by two different New Life groups over a period of months as they were bringing groceries arranged by a secular food pantry. She lit up when we all put two and two together realizing that the family who prayed for her the last time was our family. It was a cool moment.
Honestly, we weren't doing grocery delivery thinking it would ever yield a church visitor. We just felt it was a good way to serve people in a tangible way as a family. I'm encouraged to see unlooked-for fruit from the Lord of the Harvest. He is good.
Put that feeling in an aerosol can with an inhaler and you've got a recession-proof product. It's the best feeling on earth -- that God does stuff through little ol' me.
Posted by: Bill Mills | March 03, 2009 at 01:02 AM
Agreed -- it absolutely IS the best feeling on earth! It's a good reminder for me that God truly is the best orchestrator. I don't need to design complicated plans. I just need to follow His call. His ideas are far better than any I can come up with!
I'm confident Jean will be back again and again to our church and that she'll be a blessing to many of us.
Posted by: Suzanne | March 03, 2009 at 06:27 AM