Serve Day 2012!

Serve Day

SERVE DAY.
Usually right around the beginning of June, our church gets together with other area churches and we find ways to serve our community.
Today 14,00 people got together as a part of ACTIONVC (Area Christians Taking Initiative on Needs)  to serve our community, the greater Los Angeles area / Conejo Valley / Ventura County.
 I was assigned to painting in the elementary area at Conejo Elementary School. I can't tell how much I enjoy being a part of this sense of community coming together. It was especially fun to do it a long side my girlfriends. Even my boss Kent served!

I heard one person mentioned, "you know, before all the government programs to assist people, people took care of people. Neighbors took care of neighbors. Community took care of each other."
Today that's just what we did, we took care of each other!
You name the way people take care of each other and it was done: There was window washing, power washing, painting, soccer camps, dance routines, houses being built, gardening, visiting assisted living homes, children singing to nursing homes, construction, playgrounds being built.


I remember last year when I did Serve Day, I was in a mobile home park and I washed the windows of an 86 yr. old women's mobile home. She told me she had been waiting over a year and half to have her windows washed but she simply couldn't reach or move items to get to the windows. I couldn't believe it. Here I lived only a few miles away, a young active 24 yr. old woman who was more than able to do such a simple project of washing windows.

Painting Conejo Elementary School as part of
 our project on Serve Day.
June 2, 2012

I overheard Kevin M. talking to the kids after they put on a soccer camp for kiddios. He told the story of Jesus and the blind man as told in John 9.
After Jesus spit on the ground and made some mud with the saliva, he put it on the man's eyes and told the man to go wash it off. The man did as he said and came home seeing. His neighbors questioned him how it happened. Who did it?!
²⁴ A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”
²⁵ He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
Kevin went on to say, "before today, we didn't know who you were, you didn't know us. But one thing I do know is that Jesus loves us. And he loves you! We were brought here today to love you just as he has loved us."

Well said Kevin! We sacrificed our Saturday mornings to serve because he sacrified his life so that we can have eternal life wit him! whoop whoop!