Sometimes after church people stop me and tell me something that they experienced in worship. Thought I'd share this one...
As we were taking communion this past Sunday we were singing a song that called us to the tender arms of Jesus - something about "He would wrap our arms around us..." This woman who was telling me this after church had a rough week, feeling pretty beat down and wounded. She was telling me that as she was coming to take communion she noticed one of our young teenagers as she passed by and she innocently smiled at this teen. But as she smiled the teen came up and gave her a huge hug - out of the blue - for no reason at all. These two don't really even know each other. As the woman got back to her seat and began singing about the arms of Jesus she realized that she was just embraced by Jesus through this young teenage girl. That Jesus had seen her pain and embraced her.
As she was telling me this story she began to cry. God moved in that moment. It was beautiful.
Makes me think we should learn from this teenager and be a bit quicker to hug, a bit quicker to respond, a bit quicker to embrace.
Thanks TCC for being a community that embraces one another. A community that reaches across the boundaries of age and race and culture and economics and simply embraces. Beautiful.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
Rap artists
One of the things we want to do as part of our youth and neighborhood ministry is to empower young people to be leaders. We want to walk alongside people, especially youth, to help them discover that God has given them strengths and talents, and that they can use those to change their neighborhood and have an impact in this world for the Kingdom of God. So when I heard about the Fruity Nutty 5 Campaign from the Victory Garden Initiative, I knew of a few teenagers who might want to get involved.
The Victory Garden Initiative, a Milwaukee non-profit that empowers communities to grow food, had a contest that 5 neighborhoods would win 30 fruit and nut trees. Each applicant needed to have a creative essay about why they wanted the trees for their neighborhood, and why their neighborhood would benefit from having them. I mentioned this to a few teenagers down the street who are in the TCC youth group. They were fired up. They wanted to get some fruit trees in our neighborhood! They decided that for the creative essay they would make a rap video. I encouraged them to go for it, and that I would assist in any way I could. They got together and wrote the lyrics, made the beat, and put the rap together. We got someone to shoot the video, and suddenly we had an essay to submit.
We also had to obtain signatures from other members of the neighborhood who would support having these trees in the neighborhood and people who would be willing to have one or two planted in their yard. So as the youth were being empowered to make their rap video, we were gaining support among the rest of the neighborhood and trying to unite everyone for this cause.
I don’t think any of them anticipated winning, but last Saturday it was announced that our neighborhood would be the winners of 30 fruit and nut trees! I’m so proud of them. They put in hard work and time to make a positive change in their neighborhood. It is my prayer that they, as well as many other youth in my neighborhood, will continue to discover their unique gifts and strengths and use them for the benefit of others and the Kingdom of God.
Check out the winning video here.
The Victory Garden Initiative, a Milwaukee non-profit that empowers communities to grow food, had a contest that 5 neighborhoods would win 30 fruit and nut trees. Each applicant needed to have a creative essay about why they wanted the trees for their neighborhood, and why their neighborhood would benefit from having them. I mentioned this to a few teenagers down the street who are in the TCC youth group. They were fired up. They wanted to get some fruit trees in our neighborhood! They decided that for the creative essay they would make a rap video. I encouraged them to go for it, and that I would assist in any way I could. They got together and wrote the lyrics, made the beat, and put the rap together. We got someone to shoot the video, and suddenly we had an essay to submit.
We also had to obtain signatures from other members of the neighborhood who would support having these trees in the neighborhood and people who would be willing to have one or two planted in their yard. So as the youth were being empowered to make their rap video, we were gaining support among the rest of the neighborhood and trying to unite everyone for this cause.
I don’t think any of them anticipated winning, but last Saturday it was announced that our neighborhood would be the winners of 30 fruit and nut trees! I’m so proud of them. They put in hard work and time to make a positive change in their neighborhood. It is my prayer that they, as well as many other youth in my neighborhood, will continue to discover their unique gifts and strengths and use them for the benefit of others and the Kingdom of God.
Check out the winning video here.
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