365 Days of Service

Day 179 - Dec 9

I spent a few hours at LifeChurch.tv’s Internet Campus today. I was watching the message from Week 1 of Prayer: http://www.lifechurch.tv/current_series and was praying with people all over the globe. I think at one point recently we had people from 36 different countries worshipping together. I have to stop and thank God for how amazing His work is - uniting a global group of believers.

Day 178 - Dec 8

I did not sleep well last night. It was a crazy night with the weather changing and the wind blowing pretty strongly outside. Regardless of a lack of sleep, I ran up to Mercy Ministry to deliver a couple of bags of clothes and to help in the clothes closet. We’ve been receiving a ton of clothes recently and it’s hard to keep up with the donations. They all have to be hung and sorted for the clients and it takes time to do it!

Mercy Ministry really needs warm clothes this time of year - hats, scarves, jackets, sweaters and kids’ warm clothes. If your family has outgrown some items, or you’re simply just not using them, let me know or deliver them personally to Mercy Ministry. They are located at 4646 N Santa Fe, in Oklahoma City, OK 73131. If you’re in the OKC area, let me know and I’ll be glad to pick them up for you!

Day 177 - Dec 7

Today was such a great day. I was really busy running around town. The morning started with running some errands where I returned shopping baskets in the wind. (That way they don’t blow around and bang into other people’s cars!) I served this afternoon at the Oklahoma City Campus of LifeChurch.tv in the toddler room. We have two little boys who cry every time they are dropped off so we all took some extra time with them today. They did so well - we are making progress!

I friend of our family is having a baby soon, so I went to her house for her baby shower and we had a great time. I cannot wait to meet their little girl!

This evening Ryan and I attended the SWITCH Leader Christmas party. If you’re not familiar with LifeChurch.tv’s youth experience - we call it SWITCH. Ryan was recently hired on as a Youth Pastor at the Edmond Campus of LifeChurch.tv. I’m going to tag along with him and serve young women in Switch. It’s going to be a ton of fun and a great opportunity for us to serve together. As a Youth Pastor, Ryan was needed to attend the party (not that we mind!) and I met him there. We played games, met a ton of new people - all leaders at the Edmond Campus, ate great Mexican food and had a lot of fun. Can’t wait to spend more time with our new leaders at the Edmond Campus!

Day 176 - Dec 6

If you’re reading regularly you probably saw how busy I was this past week. It was crazy but so great to spend time working at Mercy and serving others. I was worn out by the time today rolled around. I was still too excited to sleep in, so I got up and started working around the house.

In the past, Ryan and I have hung Christmas lights on the house. The first year we moved to Oklahoma we hung our leftover icicle lights (the ones that hang down in multiple strands) from Houston on the house and stood back to admire our work. Well, if you’ve never experienced the Oklahoma wind, you would not realize (as we didn’t) that it’s not super icicle-light friendly. By the next day, our icicles were no longer hanging down from the roof, they were resting on top of the roof. Well, we haven’t hung lights since that first year. Last year, to save Ryan the hastle, I simply decorated with lights in front of the house in the shrubs. So, today I simply put our decorations out front again. It looks nice and it saves Ryan an afternoon of climbing around on the roof in the 25 mph wind. I’m sure he appreciates it.

Day 175 - Dec 5

I’m on a mission right now: to bless another family for Christmas. I can’t list all the details because I want at least some part of it to be a surprise, but I’ll be sure to explain in a future post.

I spent some time today putting together emails to friends and family asking for help to complete my Christmas mission. I look forward to hearing back from them!

Day 174 - Dec 4

Jules and Rosa have been a strong presence in my life recently - they are the women who run Mercy Ministry. They both have shared their personal stories with me, encouraged me and led me through times of growth and spiritual challenge. It’s been awesome to get to know these ladies and to meet the people they interact with at Mercy on a daily basis. I have been blessed.

Recently, they decided to step out of their normal business hours and start a Mercy-based Single Moms Ministry. They are spending one evening a month allowing moms and their kids to come to Mercy to be fed and to be served - so that they get the individual attention they really need.

I was blessed enough to be invited to participate in the first Single Moms’ evening and I had the opportunity to interact with several women and to sit and talk with one for a while. She told me much of her story and I was extremely encouraged by her spirit and her faith. What an amazing woman. I look forward to the next single moms evening so I can continue to keep up with her and her family.

Some of the most impactful things I witnessed during the evening was seeing this group of people gather to help one another out - to offer assistance to strangers who become allies because of similar circumstances. Everyone pitched in to prepare dinner. Then we all headed back to the warehouse to load boxes and bags with food. There wasn’t a pair of idle hands or a single complaint the entire evening. I met some new volunteers and was introduced to several people I hadn’t met at Mercy before. To top everything off, Rosa spent some time speaking about her relationship with God, and I was spiritually fed, too.

If you’re interested in helping with this special ministry, get in touch. I’d love to give you the details.

Day 173 - Dec 3

Once a month our LifeGroup meets at Mercy Ministry to bag groceries, help with sorting clothes and stock shelves. About 10 of us were able to be there and Rosa came to share some of the awesome things we’ve been a part of this year. She pulled some statistics for us and this year alone we’ve served roughly 17,000 families. 17,000 families in a city of a population of about 1.1 million. That number is astounding for several reasons. Seeing what a dedicated group of people, staff and volunteers can do with limited resources amazes me. It’s only through the power and generosity of God that we are able to accomplish that.

It also amazes me that we are only feeding and clothing roughly .01% of the total population and .02% of the estimated 587,000 people living in OKC below poverty level. Is there something more we can do? Is it possible to unite the body of believers through an initiative like One Prayer to get the poor in cities around the world fed, even for one day?

Day 172 - Dec 2

Tuesdays are a long day of serving because there are two different Internet Campus experiences at LifeChurch.tv. The first is at 12:00pm CT and the other is at 8:00pm CT and most weeks I try to serve at both. Every now and then I am unable to serve at the 12:00pm experience and I always wonder who I might have had a chance to speak with.

Today I was able to be at both. I don’t remember anything specific about the earlier experience. Sometimes, even when I am serving, I don’t get to speak with anyone. We had a great discussion afterward about online community and that was great.

This evening, though, I was able to speak with 3 separate people, two of whom do not speak English as their primary language. I’d love to know where the first lived, it may have been India, but the second, Tan, was from Vietnam. She didn’t have anything particular she wanted to talk about, but she did specifically say she wanted to practice her English. We didn’t pray together, but we just talked about how different our lives are in our two countries, spoke about cultural misconceptions and I helped her with her grammar. You just never know who you will meet online and it’s always interesting to discover who is visiting the Internet Campus.

Day 171 - Dec 1

I am continually inspired by my friend, Rosa, who is on staff at Mercy Ministry. She leads the groups of volunteers that show up day after day to prepare groceries for clients, pray with visitors and provide tangible evidence of Jesus’ love. Rosa is an inspiration to me for the way she leads the volunteers, lives out her passion serving the Lord, and continues to support me through this 365 day journey. She builds me up and lets me off the hook when I’m not up to serving, and she continues to brighten my day again and again. This post is for you Rosa - thank you for your friendship and your leadership!

I spent the evening with a large group of people that come once a month to serve at Mercy. We had a TON of work to do and it is always inspiring for me to see a group of people commit themselves to a goal that is bigger than they are. Even with a ton of work to do everyone was engaged, busy, working to get the place fixed up and ready for the next day’s business. It is so cool to be a part of Mercy, doing the work of Jesus, 2,000 years later.

Day 170 - Nov 30

I served at the Oklahoma City Campus of LifeChurch.tv today. The message was delivered by Bill Hybels titled “Whispers’. If you didn’t get to see it this weekend, check it out online here: http://www.lifechurch.tv/message-archive (You may have to search for the title “Whispers”).

I have been listening to God’s whispers a lot lately - this 365 Days project is a result of one of them. Amazing things have been happening in my life lately and I’m celebrating my relationship with God because of it. If you’re facing a big challenge or a decision or wanting life to go in a new direction, listen to what Bill has to say about Whispers from God.