Being a Missionary

..is something that I have never really wanted to do until I realized that I didn't have to really go anywhere...I can be a missionary right here in Tallahassee and so can my kids! Over the summer, not sure why, I got the missionary bug. God laid it on my heart to work alongside of my children to serve others. I did a study on James some time ago and my was it convicting! I must admit that in mine and John's profession you see a lot of pitiful people, ones that don't want to work, ones that let themselves go, ones that are lazy, and on and on. It is very hard to not get judgemental and honestly you can become very apathetic but in James it says, "Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing and you say, "Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?" James 2: 15-16. I also get saddened by the attitude of most of us Americans. I believe that most people have a sense of entitlement...feeling like we/they deserve whatever it may be. So over the summer as I have talked about before, we as a family did Summer of Service projects to get us thinking about others and not just ourselves all the time. It was very rewarding. This semester, our church does GAs on Wednesday nights. I was asked to help and teach which I have really enjoyed. Part of the curriculum is a Mission Emphasis and I felt led to take that on. I really have become very excited about it! Our church right now is doing a Mission Focus and teaching from James on Having Faith and Taking Action. It is funny when I look back at my Christian walk and some of the things I remember most about high school youth group and College group are the times that we "Had Faith and Took Action." I remember packing lunches in High School for the homeless people and we drove around town and gave the brown bag lunches to the homeless People that were standing on the road. I also remember grilling hamburgers and hot dogs on campus during the moving in weekend at the FSU college dorms and handing out free lunch, snacks, and drinks to all the college kids and their parents just to show kindness. When I volunteered to do the Mission Emphasis for the kids at GAs, I had free reign to share what I wanted so I did some reading and praying and came up with some Mission Opportunities that I wanted to share with them about. We started our "Mission Moments" two weeks ago. I talked to them about filling boxes for Operation Christmas Child. We showed a great video from Franklin Graham just last night (I posted it on my blog last week) that makes me cry every time I see one of those kids open the shoe box and be so thankful for dollar store toys! We also have a food pantry at church called MANNA. I have been talking to them about meeting people's immediate needs such as feeding a hungry person. Our MANNA food pantry serves over two hundred people every other week. We had a MANNA food pantry drive for our GA lock in last Friday and collected lots of food. I found out last night that one little girls (second grader) decided to write a letter to all her neighbors about MANNA and asked them to donate food. She left the letter on their mailboxes and after several days later went to collect food. She collected over 25 bags of groceries for MANNA!!! This was her idea...she caught the vision! I have made little flip books for the kids for their MANNA shopping list. I also decided to join the HOPE TO HAITI project that a friend and former Pastor of ours heads up. On his website he talks about how the cost of ONE cup of Starbucks coffee, or the cost of ONE MacDonald's Happy Meal, or the cost of ONE greeting card can feed a child in Haiti for ONE whole month. I shared this with the kids and they really understood.......many of our kids probably spend $3 on a daily basis and they couldn't believe that that was all it would take to feed a child for a whole month. They have been bringing money for two weeks and putting it in a big Water Jug. We have well over $100. I tried to emphasize that if they saved the money it took to buy the Happy Meal and instead ate a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich, look how much good they could do! Last night, I had a first grader come to GAs with a canister full of money. She and her Dad went door to door for two hours one day and shared with their neighbors about Hope to Haiti....she brought $77 that she made to feed the children in Haiti!!!! One little girl made enough money to feed 28 children in Haiti for a month! These kids are getting excited and thinking about others and I love it!!! I tried to tell them that I sometimes get overwhelmed by all the bad out there and how many people need help but that we don't all have to be passionate about every project, but that we can all do something, even something simple...I wanted to give them some ideas and opportunities and I told them that if something seemed meaningful to them then run with it and we would do anything we could to help. I think everyone of us can be used in a different way! My friend Ann and her kiddos recently started helping with Meals on Wheels and have enjoyed meeting new people and delivering meals once a week to those that are in need of personal contact and food. How awesome is that that she and her four kids can put a smile on those that she delivers food to! You know I used to get annoyed by our church leaders asking for "help" for so many people or causes and I felt overwhelmed by all the "needy people" and really didn't understand fully why we had to "feed" people....can't we just teach them about the Bible...but I had a Ah Ha moment.....I shared this with our GA girls. What if I sent Emily to school without any breakfast and had made her sleep in the rain all night...could she learn the math Facts or even want to learn the math facts that Mrs. Smith was trying to teach her...of course not..she is hungry, cold, and tired....this goes for other people too...if someone is hungry, tired, cold, dehydrated, etc , they aren't going to want to hear what we say about Jesus...Jesus did things to help others....he healed the blind, he met BASIC needs in order to show them the WAY!!! We have to do the same...we can try to meet people's basic needs and then maybe we can share with them the love of Christ and the Gospel...at least that is my take right now plus as it says in James, It is commanded of us to do so!!!