With Fear and Trembling

All children are as sweet and innocent as my cousins, right?

Having served with a church plant for four years in the past, I thought I was signing on to the Mosaic Christian Church team with something to offer them. I think God finds it very amusing when I feel that I have anything to offer anyone.

"The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know." 1 Corinthians 8:2 NIV

I really thought I was ready for whatever they could throw at me: bookkeeping, the tech crew, service or missions teams, shepherding small groups, assisting on the Sheet Cake and Punch Committee, serving breakfast to 25 hungry high schoolers, allowing my car to tow loads two-three times its weight, Worship Leader, Choir Director...

But when presented, last week, with the offer to lead the children's ministry, I had to admit 'now there's something I wasn't ready for.'

"You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail." Proverb 19:21 NLT

It will be an awesome challenge and an invaluable learning experience. As my mom said the other day, "there are kids everywhere." Technology, budgets, and bands may be important to the American church experience, but no matter where God takes me to serve Him next, there will be children.

Don't worry parents, there's one guarantee that Mosaic's children's ministry will be great; Reagan Kuhl will be there every Sunday!

"(Jesus) put a child in the middle of the room. Then, cradling the little one in his arms, he said, "Whoever embraces one of these children as I do embraces me, and far more than me—God who sent me." -Mark 9:36-37 The Message

Causes I Care About

"No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help." Isaiah 58:6,7

I stumbled across some definitions recently that made me stop and think twice. Thought I'd share them with you in case you're due for some thinking.

• Stewardship is the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care.

• Compassion is not sentiment but is making justice and doing works of mercy.

I've never considered myself a very compassionate person, but this is a definition I can work with. Using this view of stewardship as a filter while making purchasing decisions can help us manage the resources God has blessed us with to contribute to justice and mercy. Here are a few of my favorites if you're looking for a great opportunity to be responsible with the resources entrusted to you:

SOZO International - Recently in a refugee camp in Barek Aub, Afghanistan inflation increased the cost of feeding the people from $30,000/month to $60,000. Consequently, many are currently starving. It costs only $94 to feed a a family of seven for a month.

Compassion International is well-known for its outstanding global child sponsorship program. But recently I learned of their AIDS Initiative through a heart-wrenching book called Red Letters. Every 14 seconds a child is orphaned by AIDS...

Christian Veterinary Missions - Nearest and dearest to my heart, this organization is empowering veterinarians to live out their Christian faith by serving others through their profession.

Samaritan's Purse is more than just Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes, a relief organization that is often first on the scene around the world in disaster situations.

"When a poor person dies of hunger, it has not happened because God did not take care of him or her. It has happened because neither you nor I wanted to give that person what he or she needed. We have refused to be instruments of love in the hands of God to give the poor a piece of bread, to offer them a dress with which to ward off cold. It has happened because we did not recognize Christ when, once more, he appeared under the guise of pain, identified with a man numb from the cold, dying of hunger, when he came in a lonely human being, in a lost child in search of a home." -Mother Teresa, Red Letters

Hugging the Post

Last night after lots of hugs, I put the Post back on a plane to Louisville. A group of eleven college age/20-somethings from Southeast Christian Church's Post ministry joined Mosaic this weekend in an attempt to reach out to our community.

They were a blessing to the thirsty 4th of July crowd in Columbia, MD as they handed out over 3,000 free waters and 1,500 packs of gum. They were a blessing to The Samaritan Women's House and its future residents as they left their fingerprint on the rehab of that work in progress. They were a blessing to Community Christian Church of White Marsh, MD as they served in the children's ministry for three services. They were a huge blessing to our Mosaic team as they helped us with many things that would have taken so much more time without them. But most of all, they were a blessing to me. I wonder if God sent them just to encourage me, and the other blessings were a bonus.

Someone asked me this weekend if I've had that "Oh no, what have I done?!" moment since I moved here. Without hesitation I was able to say nope. I remember daydreaming about a job that would allow me to go on every shortterm mission trip that caught my eye. This summer I have that job, I get to join every mission team from Mosaic, it's amazing!

I've never felt more at peace about where I am, than right now. I wonder if this is what the center of God's will feels like...

During the last hug at the airport, one of the guys said, "I'm a little jealous of you right now." You probably should be.