Our auditorium was the outdoor sky, our instruments were our voices, our tools were rakes & blowers, our offering was our sweat, and our enemy was all the leaves on our neighbors lawns.
It was a crazy, cool day. I loved showing our neighbors that our God is a giver. So many of the people we went up to were so skeptical that they turned us down, and even said no to our offer to rake their leaves. One of my favorite stories of the day was a person that turned down one of our teams, but then saw the work they were doing on other lawns, and came back out and asked if they would still do his.
Another guy was walking his dog and jokingly asked, "wanna come rake mine". The response came back, "where do you live", to which he responded, "I'm just joking, but you guys remind me of a group that came and cleared a fallen tree from my lawn a year or so ago".
Guess what "group" that was? So, we knew just where he lived, and a team of people was sent over to his house and finished his leaves before he finished his walk.
At another house a young boy came out and gave us a hand on his lawn, and then started at one point to even gave a few minutes of work on his neighbors lawn too.
All day I just kept getting this picture of all these houses and the fact that likely, so many of them have no idea that there is a God who made them, & so desperately loves them. There is even a verse where Jesus says that He stands at our door, and knocks, and waits for us to invite Him in (Revelation 3:20).
I kept thinking that we were being Jesus, not just in serving, but in our knocking on doors. Every time a door was opened it created one more chance for the love of Jesus to pour into that home & into the lives of the people there.
I was proud to be a part of my church on Sunday. Proud to watch us put action to words, proud to watch us work so hard, proud to watch us laugh together, proud to see so many of us with our kids there teaching them that the way of Christ is a lifestyle not a belief.
I PRAY God will use our work to do SO MUCH more than just clear a few dozen lawns. I pray that a door opened on Sunday for some people, a door that will not close, but a door through which the love of Jesus will continue to walk through. I pray WE will continue to be changed too, changed as we embrace the call to LIVE OUT the Gospel.
