The Best Medicine...Helping Others!!!

Mission Blitz


I am trying to think back to how it all began, at least in my mind. I suppose it was nearly a year ago when Jim (our pastor) spoke on a Sunday morning of how we all need to be in service helping one another. He told stories of several families that needed help but the one I remember the most was about a man living in a house with huge leaks in the roof. I was both agitated and moved by his message. I felt as if I was inspired and ready to vote for the cause but didn’t know where to register. Where were these families? I agreed I needed to help them and that I even wanted to help them but how could I go about it? I told Jim how I felt. Others must have bent his ear also because he shared with the Elders of the church at the next meeting that he felt a need to help the community and that there had to be a way that we could give back like he had seen done at Laurel Ridge (the town where our church camp is located. And then he said, with a glow in his eyes, that if other churches responded and did the same thing, it would multiply and many more people could be helped in our community. Everyone agreed that the time was right and that we could do it.

Later after some groundwork had been done, Jim brought another message to us on a Sunday morning and at the end of it he asked who was willing to help, to be Christ to those in need. The entire church came forward. It was a moving experience as we prepared our minds and souls for service.

It took a lot of work by many people. Countless hours locating the people that needed the help of our church, meetings by dozens of people on how these tasks could be accomplished and other meetings to see how everyone in the church could be involved: by praying, working, donating, cooking, etc. Finally the vision was taking shape and the date arrived.

We kicked it off with a Thursday evening Mission Blitz dinner. The room was filled with love and enthusiasm. Teams had been formed, money and donations had come in, and breakfast and dinner would be cooked and served to the workers and supporters each day.

As the week progressed, the stories started floating in. People were telling the workers that their neighbor needed more help than they did, people receiving the help were feeding the workers, thanking them, and sharing stories. The workers were returning to the church with their bodies tired and sore but their hearts overflowing with love and excitement. I saw more hugging, laughing and handshaking during the Blitz than at any other time in our church. I heard more positive stories and comments from people and I heard the yearning to do yet more. Never have I been more proud to belong to any church or to be associated with such fine people . Never have I felt more “Christian”.

Good deeds are contagious. I started hearing families saying they were going to have a Blitz and call in other members of their families to help people in need. What if, as Jim says, we have indeed started something really, really good? Often he closes our worship service with these words, “We came here today to worship, let us go out to serve.”

During Mission Blitz, we truly did. In one way or another our prayers and hearts were connected to do good. Now we get to decide whether it was just a flicker of a candle in the night or will the flame to burn and ignite other candles??