the story i find myself in

this sunday was an amazing sunday. we are currently studying nehemiah and this week was on the topic of letting go. God was rebuilding the city through nehemiah and along the way there were some people who were trying to thwart his process - saying we want to live in the rubble and not change. hardened hearts to the process of renewal. a great message for our crowd. in our meetings in planning for the service we came up with the idea to go ask people on the street what is the hardest thing they have ever had to let go of. then after that we asked them if they would let go of their shoes and donate them to our homeless ministry at the church. something that people probably have abundance of and something simple that other people are in need of. the response was great. of about 14 people we asked, 4 people gave us their shoes. so great!! so yesterday morning we showed this video in the service and then our pastor taught on letting go and being a part of renewal and rebuilding and we gave our people a chance to respond...and it was amazing! at the end of the service we wheeled out 4 trash cans and asked people to donate their shoes and all 4 cans were filled! over 200 pairs of shoes. it was great because it all was genuine sacrifice. it didnt feel like people were guilted into responding. it was a celebratory time of sacrifice. as simple as we might think it is - for our people to give up stuff was so great! it makes me excited to see how we can continue to practically be a part of restoring and rebuilding God's kingdom here in houston.

Posted by ashdown on Monday, October 30, 2006 at 10/30/2006 09:10:00 AM | Permalink