Upon reflecting on the wonderful week of GIC, many thoughts come to my mind. First, how the Lord loves us all so much to give us the gift of Himself on the cross and not allowing us to stay “comfortable” or “blinded” in this blessed country that we live in. He has been revealing some of my blind spots for quite some time now and challenging me on how I can be more a part of His Kingdom work this side of heaven. Living in Charleston, SC where we are surrounded by simple comforts such as food on the table and shelter over our heads, can easily contribute to our blindedness. Even though my husband and I have been on a few mission trips to third world countries, we find ourselves changed by what we have encountered, but still falling back into being easily blinded by the material comforts in this nation. Greater than this, we ask ourselves “How can we intentionally teach and show our children the cries of God’s own heart for His people in these deprived countries (both physically and spiritually) when we have so much?”
Well, this past week during the GIC, I saw my children as well as countless others sit at the feet of these beautiful missionaries and watch the Lord stir compassion in their hearts as they heard the stories of starving orphans, hurting widows, and spiritually dead souls who are in desperate need of the healing touch of Jesus Christ! Not only in the “10-40 window” that my daughter, Margaret, has a heart for, but for those right under our noses in the Holy City of Charleston! There are not only homeless and hungry people here that God is calling us to minister to, but spiritually hungry and lost folks who walk our streets everyday and live among us in our neighborhoods, schools and community at large. They may even be dressed in nice clothes, but on the inside they are in desperate need of the Good News of Jesus Christ!
Last Saturday, several of us gathered at St. Michael’s with 25 children to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ to the folks who walked right in front of our church! We taught the children about being the hands and feet of Jesus to others… not to bring us all of the attention, but to bring God the glory! To demonstrate this, Jessica had the children paint one another’s feet different colors. After this, each of the children washed the paint off of the other to show that we don’t tell the Good News in order to get attention and to bring us the Glory, but for God to get all of the Glory! After this, we all marched over to the narthex to eat pizza and talk about our mission for the day of reaching out to those who passed by with the love of Christ. Beth Webb Hart had the children engaged and captivated as she showed them the Evangecube, which is a way to tell someone the story of the Gospel thru pictures. You can purchase these at the Saints Alive Bookstore. The kids were ecstatic to hear that they would be receiving one at the end of the day. They were all encouraged to think of someone whom they could share it with and challenged to then give it to that person.
We then set up hot chocolate and water stations and handed out mints with scriptures on it as well as tracks which talked about how much God loves them. It was amazing to see the excitement in these little children’s hearts and faces to be involved in this. A great many of the people were tourists and commented on how wonderful it was to see the children getting out into our city and ministering in this way. They were extremely touched and blessed! Others, kindly and not so kindly turned down the offer of free water, hot chocolate and tracks, but this didn’t discourage the children one bit! They didn’t give up, and kept on loving the people and serving them with no fear of rejection. Hmmmm… we could all learn from these little ones, can’t we? They surely come straight from the hand of God.
One of the greatest parts of the day was when several of the children asked when they could do it again? “Lord, continue to give these little ones a heart to know you, love you and to serve you more and more. Amen.”
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”- Matthew 19:14
In gratitude and thankfulness to Jessica, Beth Webb and Gina for all of your hard work in putting this together for our little ones.
Blessings,
Meredith Myers