Change The World

A portion of this morning's activities was sponsored by the letter "M".  The rest of the day was sponsored by the letter "L"

"M" stands for mission.  The morning was a mission morning.  I had arranged for the church's mission committee, along with some Sunday School kids, to do a road clean up.  The neat thing was that we not only made the world a bit cleaner, but we earned money for the missions that we support.  It was also a part of participating in the United Methodist Church's program called "Change The World".  So we, essentially, did two things at once!

I had a blast.  I truly enjoy being in the company of members of our congregation, especially when we are involved in an activity such as this.  Like minded people working together toward a common goal is a wonderful thing! 

There were 15 of us that volunteered and showed up.  I was so thrilled to see this amount of people this morning.  It makes me feel good to see something that I had set up be set into action.  It feels even better to see that people are having a good time, and enjoying themselves and each other.

We had one of our volunteers drive behind our group to make sure that a maniac didn't plow us down.  Bob is a fantastic person.  His heart is so big, and his sense of humor is pretty wild.  He never fails in making me laugh.  He is one of the few people on the face of the earth that calls me "Missy".  I haven't been called that regularly since I was a kid.  He's a sweetheart. 

I also adore his wife.  My church girlfriends and I drag her out for dinner once a month for a "Girl's Night Out".  She is funny as heck!  She reminds me so much of her husband.  They were, truly, made for one another. 

I hopped into his car during a small portion of the clean-up to shoot the breeze.  I'm glad that I did because it gave me a chance to get to know him a bit better.  I hopped out of his car liking him even more.  Good stuff!

 The kids seemed to have a really good time.  I hope they walked away from it understanding what exactly we were doing, and how wonderful the world looks when there aren't beer cans, liquor bottles and garbage littering the road ways.  But boy were they pooped!  I have to say that this can be classified as "good stuff", as well. 

Around the time that I climbed out of Bob's car, another member of our church, Donny, came rolling up in his truck.  He said that he knew where we would be.  He hadn't been in church the past couple of weeks -- not because he didn't want to be there, but that is his personal story and it's not my place to tell it -- so I'm not sure how he knew we'd be there.   

He is another member that I truly like a lot.  We are supposed to go raid our parsonage for historical material that is supposed to be stored in the basement.  Right now, we have another pastor from another church temporarily staying there, so I have to make an appointment to go into the house.  She's been so hard to get a hold of.  

But our pastor has threatened to seat Donny and I far away from each other during services (jokingly) because we aren't exactly quiet. 

"It's Donny's fault -- I swear!"

But I had a wonderful time this morning. 

It feels good to do something for the community.  I suppose that my actions aren't unselfish, because if I were to pick them apart and analyze them, I would see (and wholeheartedly admit) that my actions could be seen as selfish.  I DO get something out of it.  I get a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. 

The letter "L" stands for lazy, which about sums up the rest of my day and that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I'm not sure where the Mission Committee will go from here.  I haven't figured that out yet.  I do have an idea tho!  I would very much like to raise money to fund the education of Congolese children.  I will presenting this idea to everyone else tomorrow.   I hope that it flies.

I've been doing a lot of reading about the Congo of late.  The violence that exists over there is heartbreaking.  The countless rapes of children, women and the elderly literally makes me weep.  I pull away from my reading with tears streaming down my face.  I tried to explain to my husband what I was reading, but the words were caught in my throat and I couldn't. 

I wish there were a way to stop the violence.   I wish there were a way to change things there.  To make the fighting stop.  To make it known, believed and felt that it is wrong to do these things to these women.  To make them love one another instead of living with such rage.

I pray for a solution.  I pray for an answer.  I pray for a lot.