From Joel Greenwood, Youth Pastor Fairview Missionary Church

Are You Serving?

I had the opportunity recently to go down to New Orleans for a week and continue the rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Katrina went through almost five years ago. Many people have forgotten that event, yet the city continues to be in ruins. The population was about 1.4 million before the hurricane and is now around 400,000 people. That means that about one third of the homes are still not being used and are in ruins. I took twelve teenagers and some adults and we worked on two different projects.

I learned a lot while I was down in New Orleans because the culture is very different. They are more laid back in the South and much more friendly than the North. In the North we always seem so task-oriented and don't take time for relationships and just time for talking a living life together. I appreciate their openness and love to communicate and get to know each other. It is almost as if you are family right when you begin talking with someone. If you see someone on the porch of their home, it is appropriate to go up and sit down next to them and start talking. It seems, at least in my neighborhood, that if I go and talk with someone that I am an inconvenience because he/she has things to do. We can so easily get caught up in our own lives and our own "to-do" lists that we forget why we are still on this planet. There is a reason that God didn't just bring us to heaven as soon as we accepted Him. We have a job to do and it isn't mowing the lawn and weeding the flower beds. Our job is to win people for Him and to build relationships and change lives.

The neatest thing that happened while we were down there was when we circled to pray on our last work day. We were in the 9th Ward of New Orleans, a predominately African-American neighborhood. As we were getting ready to pray, we heard a noise of someone running down the street. This guy that had been working in his yard, was so excited to pray with us (he was a strong Christian man) that he was sprinting down the street in a heat index of 110 degrees to make sure he got in our circle to pray. As we went around the circle, he took his turn and began thanking the LORD for our service to his community and then he said my favorite line of his prayer, with a chuckle, "God, thanks for bringing some color to this neighborhood!" 

Do we ever sprint so we can pray with God? Am I so passionate about corporate prayer that I will run down the street just to be involved? As always, I think God blessed our team more than we blessed those we were serving. Don't get me wrong, I know those people we worked for felt blessed, but I think I took more away from the trip than they did. 

God will always sharpen us when we take time away to serve others and put aside our selfish ways. Do we have that same attitude when we are home on our mission trip that is 24/7 to the people around us? Do I go across the street to help my neighbors when they need it? I think we have an awesome opportunity to be the "hands and feet" of Jesus to those around us. What better way is there to show God's love in a practical way!