My Recap

My personal recap of One Day Serve could probably be summed up in a few words:  amazing, humbling, joyful.  But I wanted to share some of the awesome things God did that could not have been planned by any "man".  Just to give you a little background, this day had been in the works since October.  We looked for families to serve.  We gathered their "lists".  We sought out locations in our community to do "random acts of kindness".  We began to share with the church about this special day.  We had concerns, I'll admit.  We thought...what if we have too many homes and not enough people to serve?  Or, what if we have too many people that want to participate and not enough places to serve?  As 12/12 drew near, it was clear that God had already worked out all of those "minor" details.

Our desire for this project was to show the unconditional love of Jesus to hurting families.  Families without a father due to death or divorce.  Families dealing with serious illness.  Families that are enduring major financial issues.  As the placement for the homes began, we attempted to place the most skilled people on the home jobs.  It was daunting because we had 200+ people sign up and, I'll be honest, I did not know each and every one of those people.  So, I did the placing (for the homes) and hoped for the best.  I thought to myself....worst case scenario, we'll shuffle some of the super "handy" folks from home to home based on need. 

Fast forward to today....I am in awe of God and His hand in the purposeful placement of His people....all the while, I am totally clueless and "hoping for the best."  Here is what He did:

1.  He placed a former single Mom in the home of a newly single Mom.

2.  He placed parents whose baby died shortly after birth in the home of a wife who lost her healthy, young husband unexpectedly a few years ago.

3.  He placed a man at the home of the wife who lost her husband to cancer....and this man used to drive her husband to his cancer treatments years ago!

4.  At the last minute, we added a family who is dealing with breast cancer.  This is the wife's second round of cancer and she is starting radiation this week.  Our pastor, Steve, recently lived out this very scenario.  Unknowing of the situation, Steve stopped at this home on Sunday and was able to talk to the husband.  He was able to say "I know how you feel."  He was able to pray with him.

I could go on and on.  But my point in sharing this is to point you back to God.  He is the one who purposely placed people in each of these homes.  I feel beyond blessed to sit where I sit.  To look back and see God's supernatural intervention while I didn't even know it was happening at the time!

So now that it is over, I am thoughtful about what God was teaching me through the One Day Serve.  Here are some of my thoughts on that:

1.  Every day can and should be a "One Day Serve".  This isn't something that has to be of great magnitude with 200+ participants.  This is something I need to live out every day!

2.  I need to take notice of people, resist my human desire to feel too busy or too bothered to invest in the lives that God has placed all around me.

3.  I have always taken the book of James very seriously.  Faith without works is dead!  Some people believe you cannot "work" your way into Heaven and although I agree with that 110%, I do not know how you can love Jesus, have a relationship with Him, read the bible, call yourself a follower of Jesus and NOT have an overwhelming desire to serve others!  To me, that is impossible!  What has God taught me here?  Well, He really knew what He was doing when He set that up because serving others obviously is such a blessing to the one being served.  But, it is heart-changing and brings more joy than is describable in words to the "servant".

4.  Every single human on this planet matters to God.  He wants every one of those humans to know Him.  So do I.