Missional Ministry
As we prepare ourselves to travel to Moore, OK to help with the rebuild projects following last year’s devastating tornado outbreaks, more tornados rip through several states leaving destruction in their wake, including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.
Year after year, the storm seasons start earlier and are more violent than years prior. Two days of destruction leave a death toll of 33 innocent lives. I read a news article where one woman who owned a day care center in Mississippi was found dead still clutching the last toddler not picked up by parents. The toddler was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries. It is not known whether or not this child will live. Patty Fuller shared with our youth on Sunday a story of a school employee in Oklahoma who worked with her sister-in-law. This woman knew the storms were coming and was overwhelmed with a need to pick her child up from daycare. She felt her child would be safer with her than at the daycare. Patty’s sister-in-law tried to talk her out of leaving…the storms were very close and travel would be dangerous. The woman made it to the day care, picked up her child and left, but never made it home. She sought shelter at a local service station that took a direct hit from the tornado. The day care was not damaged in the storm.
It makes no sense how these storms strike, where they strike or how they can cause so much damage in one place, while just a few feet away, nothing more than wind and rain disturb the vegetation and leave everything else barely disrupted. While the fates of weather remain outside our abilities to control, our responses to the destruction and human suffering caused by these storms are not. Whenever we witness human need, we are called to respond: whether through prayer, offerings of monetary support, collections of supplies, or lending a hand with clean-up and construction. Sometimes we are called to respond with ALL of the ABOVE.
Last year, our youth were heartbroken to witness the devastation and human suffering they saw each night on the news. They responded with a desire to go and lend a hand, to help with clean-up or to rebuild. It has taken a year to be in a position to respond, but here we are…and once again we are witnessing tremendous human need. Please lend your support to the efforts of our youth to make a difference in the lives of others and to take part in the missional ministries of this congregation by representing you as Christ’s heart and hands in Oklahoma this summer.
They will be washing cars at The Rock on Saturday, May 3rd 11 a.m.—3 p.m. to raise money for their trip.
They will be selling flats of flowers on Sunday, May 11th following worship (Mother’s Day).
They will host a Fellowship Meal, Dessert Auction and Youth Auction on Saturday, May 24th at 6 p.m.
Please join us at any or all of these events to lend your support to their missional hearts.
Blessings,
Tracy