Today I dropped by the Divine Children Christian Center, the daycare center that one of my small groups has adopted. One of our new converts, Cyndi Moncada, used to take her kids to this daycare center. As we teach people to follow Jesus, we teach them to take up Christ's mission of seeking the lost, serving the community, and sharing the good news. So when we asked in our small group, Who do you know that we could serve, Cyndi pointed us to this daycare center.
The woman that runs the daycare center is Yalonda. She is a woman with a big heart. She had to have a kidney transplant, and when a donor was found for her, she sought to live her life for Jesus out of gratitude. This woman has taken in a number of children from the Samaritan Inn, a homeless shelter, and she has weekly prayer sessions with the parents. We want to help this good woman who is doing so much to help others.
In our small group, we have gone and provided a meal once a month for the daycare center children and workers. Yalonda asked if we might be able to help some of the families with school supplies, so I talked with our Vega elementary outreach leader, Jo Pierce, and Jo got supplies for them. I went today to drop off the supplies and see what else we could do to help.
On Saturday, Yalonda is having a back to school day where the supplies will be given away. Also, Cyndi will go there and give free hair cuts to those that come. The rest of our group that can will also go on this day and offer to pray for the families as they start the new year, love on the kids, and get to know them. Later, we will plan to have a parents' night out for these families up at the church building to give the parents (many of whom are single moms) a night off.
While I was there today, I was blessed to be able to say a prayer for the kids and workers. They have a prayer each day at 10:00 AM. Then I was able to help lead some songs--Jesus Loves Me, This Little Light of Mine, and others. It was a real blessing. Those kids are precious!! Also, while there, I was able to talk to one of the workers that I had met when we last served a meal. Her name is Regina. She blessed me by sharing more of her life story, including her struggles. She also spoke wisdom to me in this, saying that "hurt people hurt people." How true. Most people lash out at others due to their own hurt and pain.
Regina said that she may come and worship with us on Sunday. Hopefully she'll be there with her family and Yalonda too. We just are so blessed every time we are able to get together.
Every small group ought to adopt a school, daycare center, neighborhood, people group to serve, and do this consistently, on a regular basis. A one time service does some good, but it takes repeated, regular contact and service to really get to know people, build relationships, and love them fully.
Has your small group adopted a school, daycare center, neighborhood, people group, etc.? What can we do to encourage this?
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