I drive home this Wednesday and my heart is celebrating. We hit an all time high attendance this afternoon at mini-Methodists. And I keep thinking I need more hands. More hands to prepare snacks, and direct kids...more hands to put on bandaids and drive vans...more hands to put glue on paper and smile and love and offer Jesus. If you would have told me five years ago that one day I would not know all their names. That we would need a database and not a list, that we would need nine options and three vans and a bus, I would have thought it was a pipe dream.
And I wonder church do you know the impact you are making in the community and the world?
Have you heard that they come on Wednesdays from all walks of life, all colors, all life circumstances?
Have you heard that some are being raised by grandparents or single parents or two parents?
Have you heard that it takes every room in the church to make this work? And every staff person as well?
Some come from our own church family and other church families...but many come from no church family.
Some come because they want to, because their parents make them, because their friends come.
One came today by accident. He got on our bus and rode to the church. And before I knew it there he was standing in the commons area.
"What is your name?" I asked. This name I had not heard before. No paperwork or call from a parent.
"Does you mom know you are here?"
With the shake of the head I wonder if that Mom is panicked and so I called the school to let them know he was safe with us. Precautions have been put in place to prevent this but God, he doesn't always heed our precautions. It is the first time we picked up a child by accident.
I greet his mom when she arrives and apologize for the confusion. We talk a minute and I invited her to let him come again. I give her the paperwork for enrolling her children and she asks, "How much does this cost?"
I smile and tell her there is no cost.
"This Wednesday thing is our gift."
I had never said it quite like that but this Wednesday thing we do... this is our gift to kids, to the community, to the world. It is not an accident or a program or just a place for kids. It is a place where Jesus becomes human hands and feet. This is church.
I walk out to begin the pick up line and the cars they stretch out onto the highway waiting. Imagine a line of cars waiting...to get to church. It is monumental and I wonder...
have you heard?
