The Gathering

It is crazy how God's view is often so different from our own view. In my mind I imagine something one way and I get so pumped about it, but then the result comes, and God puts his own spin on things. I discovered that this is what would happen for the first ever 'Unified Day of Service and Worship' at the Barn. Right from the start things weren't going as I had planned them: only one of our leaders could make the day; only two churches got back to us about participating, and both could not make it; our big service project of the day changed its plans; and I had less time to set up, in the days before, than I expected.

The day of the event came. I had spent the previous two days reorganizing the Barn into a discussion format, and was ready to receive whoever came. The first to show up was our Lebanon YFC crew. These were inner city kids all the way from Lebanon, PA who I have been investing in for the past three years. Every June I go down to their camp and speak to them for the whole week about God, while at the same time building relationships with each and every one of them. So it was cool to me that after talking with Michael he agreed to bring up 6 of his kids and one of his leaders for the event. Needless to say, them coming really lifted my spirit and I was excited to see what would happen next.

What was to follow was not what I would have expected in the least. Two guys showed up. I was stoked! I didn't expect one of them to be here and I was excited to see them out to serve. We waited a little while longer, and after a long wait we had another student, Sam, show up, followed a bit later by Mark. Alright, 4 guys, awesome! But then no one else came. I knew that there were 3 more guys across the street waiting for us to come over to move thing back into the Barn, but 7 guys? Where was everyone? This whole time I'd imagined 30 kids or so showing up for the event and here I was with 13... What was that all about?

So when we began there were about 20 of us (counting leaders), we went over to the Roches house and began to bring all the items that had been taken out of the Barn a couple months ago, back in. We brought in couches, basketball nets, game tables, lamps, the bouldering wall, and whatever else was there to be found. We all loaded ourselves on the Roches big truck with the equipment and hauled it all over in bulk. It was awesome to see the kids work and for them to be excited about that work. About an hour later we were done. Phase 1 was complete.

Next, we all gathered down stairs and I talked to Randy about phase 2 of the day. We split the kids up into 4 teams. With these teams we would go into Kunkletown and go door to door asking people if they needed any help. Two teams (one Barn, one Lebanon) were sent into to lower Kunkletown, and two teams (one Barn, one Lebanon) were sent into upper Kunkletown. And so the journey began. Each team had flyers to hand out about the Barn and was ready to serve, but for my team (and the one with me) service was hard to come by. We knocked on the doors of nearly 30 houses and no one (including a man putting is porch on his house) didn't want our help. This was a bit discouraging, but it was amazing the response we got from people. We would strike up conversations with people and they would tell us how grateful they were that we asked to help them. We received a phone number from a man who needed help painting a fence in the future and gave our number to a family who might need help in the future. It was pretty cool!

As for the other teams, both of them found work to do (those lucky dogs!)... Randy's team found an elderly lady who needed help mowing, weeding, and doing some more yard work around her house. They spent a lot of time there investing in her life and doing work for her even when she kept on saying, "No one gets anything for free, what's the catch" and "That enough you don't have to do any more." On the other side of the street, Ryan's (one of our Lebanon leaders) group found another lady who needed help sanding her deck. And so the four guys all got down on their hands and knees and began to serve this woman who needed help. It was an amazing day to reach out.

When this was all done, one team went down the street to pick up trash, and a few teams went back at the Barn to pull weeds as the Band from LBC set up their equipment. When all this was done we went down to the house and all ate together, and then went up top to sing and share together. This was my favorite part of the night because I got to hear about all the other experiences of the day. It was in this moment that I was reminded that its not in the big things you do that service is found (only) but in the small things. That just offering our services and love was making an impact, just the same as sanding a persons deck; that just talking to Mr. Washington and encouraging him was making a difference, just as mowing an elderly woman's lawn was. At first I didn't expect that 13 kids and 7 adults could make that big of a difference, but then I was reminded that God uses those who are willing to serve no matter how big or how small.