Last Saturday night was going to be an amazing evening. Months ago, Janet Hayes and I reserved the Splash at Fairview Park as a Back to School event for families in Sherman. This would be a free event, a gift to bless the kids of our community. I created an event page on Facebook. This was just meant to communicate that it was happening. It was not a paid advertisement. Surprisingly, 349 people said they would attend (the place only holds 400!), and 1,500 people indicated they were interested. 1500! About three hours before the event was to begin, thunder rolled and lightning crashed. Eventually the City of Sherman closed the water park and the event was cancelled.
I was not in a great mood for several hours. This was the kind of gift I had dreamed of the church offering the community. As I posted the news on Facebook, people said things like, "Thank you and bless you. This was a great idea." I hope we do something like this again next summer.
On Monday of this week, a dozen or so Grace folk showed up at Wakefield Elementary to hand out popsicles to the kids and their families as they met their teachers. It was great to see many of them leaving the school with brightly colored tubes of (mostly) frozen liquid.
Our expectations in offering these gifts were only to share the love of Christ. These families may never worship at Grace. But they received some sense of God's love this week. I am proud to be part of a church that has a heart for its community. Thank you to everyone who showed up, but also the many who contribute financial gifts to Grace. Your generosity helps us to live out what we believe.
Let's keep thinking of new, creative, un-churchy ways to bless people outside of our walls!
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