Our church just completed 40 Days of Community and I spent some time reflecting on the impact those 40 days have had on my life. Let me share with you some of my thoughts and excerpts from an email I sent to our pastors.
The small group that I lead for those 40 days has been a real blessing and I feel that I've connected better with some people in this town. It's just too bad that we're leaving and that I won't be able to really develop these budding friendships. We even met Wednesday morning for a Bible study and plan to meet again on Dec. 20th. I'm not sure if it will continue in the New Year as I plan to be moving and the Women 2 Women will be starting up at church and most of them have signed up for that.
I was most challenged by the idea that we need to have a ministry in the church and some type of outreach as well. My thinking has been quite insular and I've been approaching my ministry in the church with the attitude that this takes enough of my time and I don't need to do more. I really do need to get out there and our small group came up with a great way of reaching out. We put together baskets or pamper hampers to give to some women in our community who needed some kind of hug or expression of care. Each week we prayed for a certain woman and then looked at what we had in our possessions that we could share with her. We took things that we already have and used that to share with others. One of the girls in the group got really creative and got some other people, like her neighbor, her daughter, her sister-in-law and people from her church in Rosthern involved, too.
It's been a blessing to me to think about these various women and pray for them. In fact, the first week we were doing the baskets, I was a little uncertain as to how legitimate of an outreach this could be. During that week we were praying and focusing on Kathy. Now this will seem totally unrelated, but it all comes together here so bare with me: I popped into "Sabine & Co." to grab a coffee to go one morning after I had dropped Josh off at preschool. I don't usually do coffee, but with John away and the short nights that Austin inflicts upon me, some good coffee is needed some days. I noticed a few other preschool Moms were there, visiting with each other, but I didn't have time to join them. So the next preschool morning I intentionally planned to get a coffee at Sabines and join the other preschool Moms. None of them went to Sabines that morning and I was disappointed, but I did happen to bump into Kathy there and we started to chat. She invited me to sit down with her and we had a great visit. From the conversation with Kathy I had a great sense of confirmation that these baskets we were planning to put together are exactly the kind of ministry our small group needs to be doing. We're all Moms with kids and we don't have time or money to go out and do some kind of big project, but we do have things in our possessions that we can share in a creative way and it is a joy to do it, especially when you know someone is hurting and just needs a physical affirmation of love and care.
It's something I can do in a small way as I get to know people in a new community. It doesn't stop here.
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