A Christmas Gift

A few months ago, a sixteen year old girl who attends one of North Way's suburban locations decided to do something that was very generous. Instead of receiving gifts at her birthday party, she asked people to give her cash donations that she could give away to a good cause. She received over $300 in cash, and she gave it to the LAMP mentoring program at North Way. She wanted the money to go to LAMP, but she only asked that it go to "help somebody who really needed it."

I prayed through how God might want me to steward this gift, and nothing really came up over the past couple of months. Then, right before Christmas a single mom from Homewood who has five children in the LAMP program called me to ask for help. She didn't have any money to provide a Christmas dinner or any gifts for her children this year, and I felt like God was prompting me to use the special gift from months earlier to provide Christmas support for this family. My family went shopping and brought a full Christmas dinner and some small gifts over to her house in Homewood, thanks to the generosity of a sixteen year old girl who decided to do something special on her birthday. When I explained the story to the mom in Homewood, she was so moved. We all prayed together, and I got to see first hand how much the gift meant to her this Christmas.

Stories like this remind me that God's profound love transcends all manmade social boundaries... suburban and urban, racial, economic, generational, and cultural. God is on mission to redeem the world all of the time, and ordinary followers of Jesus play an important role in that mission. I was thankful to be an eyewitness to God answering a mom's prayer this Christmas.

Caught Being Good

I love when stories get back to me about people from North Way East End doing random acts of kindness for our neighbors in the city. Following Jesus causes us to do such wonderful things in order to demonstrate God's love in tangible ways. A local business in East Liberty did a turkey give away the Saturday before Thanksgiving. On Sunday morning, when we gather to worship in that area, a woman showed up with her daughter at that local business to get a turkey for their Thanksgiving meal because she couldn't afford one otherwise. She was disappointed when the store clerk informed her that the turkey give away had been held the day before, and that they didn't have any more turkeys. A North Way East End member happened to be standing nearby to welcome people into the church, and they noticed what was going on. They were moved with compassion for the mom and her daughter, so this person decided to buy a turkey for her so that she could have a Thanksgiving meal. I am writing "this person" because I know they won't want any credit for what they did and they wouldn't want me to write their name in this story. These little moments, when we think that nobody is watching, go such a long way in showing love for our neighbors. I am thankful that our church members don't only do these types of things on Sunday mornings... we try to show the love of Jesus in tangible ways throughout the week in all kinds of different places and circumstances. After all, that is what Jesus modeled for us. Sometimes Jesus used words, and sometimes Jesus used works to get his point across to his followers. Loving neighbors remains an important way of life for followers of Jesus.