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the expectation builds (back2school 2013)

Isaiah 64:3  NLT

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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