When you came
down long ago, you did awesome deeds beyond our highest expectations. And oh, how
the mountains quaked!
I opened an application on my phone early Saturday morning
before full day of outreach and church stuff and shocked at what I saw. It said we are 21 days until back2school outreach. We’ve been planning and working and pushing
toward this awesome event for some time, and it is right around the corner.
Seems like my conversations and even dreams are all over the
expectation of the biggest and sweetest outreach we have ever had. This is our sixth year. The first year we helped over 150
students. Last it was almost 2,000
students, and this year the goal of the six churches partnering together is to
serve over 3,000 students. The budget
has gone from $500 that first year to over $50,0000 this year as we have grown
and added lots to what the students receive.
In a nutshell, each student who is registered (last day to
register is this coming Saturday from 9 until noon at any of the six churches)
will receive a brand new backpack with school supplies. They will be offered a haircut and be able to
pick out some gently used clothes. They
will also get a brand new pair of socks and shoes along with their feet being
washed by one of our volunteers. Each
kid, ranging from preschool to high school, will talk about their hopes and
dreams and be prayed for. It is
incredible.
One of the things that fires me up the most is our
volunteers. The first year there were 20
or 30 people that helped. Last year well
over 400 volunteers served, and the number of volunteers for this year have
already topped 700 from numerous churches.
This is exciting, and I am expecting God to do more than we have ever
seen before.
Do you live in a state of constant expectation that God is
going to do awesome things? I can only
imagine what it must have been like to be around Jesus when he was on
earth. There were miracles happening all
the time. People were healed, some were
even raised from the dead, and Jesus fed lots of people with only a little bit of
food. The list goes on and on. Those people heard and saw things they didn’t
know were possible.
I live through the coming, and beyond, with a great
expectation that God is about to blow our minds, He will change more lives, and
He will accomplish more than we have thought possible. The expectation builds for me and for all who
around this sweet project. We haven’t
arrived yet, but it is coming this direction real fast.
Pray. Pray for
miracles to happen and for lives to be changed.
Pray expecting that to happen.
Serve. If you haven’t volunteered
or given yet, there is still time to get involved. Share.
Tell the story of what God has done in your life, what you have seen Him
do in the lives of others and of what you are excited about. All of that helps to build the expectation
that God is going to make this an awesome event.
I realize that He is blessing and wants to bless much more
than this one event. Though it is big
for us, there are many more and bigger things that God is dealing with. He will do great things in this, but there is
more and more and more to come. I can’t
wait to see what it is. What are you
expecting God to do around you?
1 Peter 1:3 NLT
All praise to
God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been
born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation,
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