Greeting Holy People of God, “Let your hope make you glad. Be patient in time of trouble and never stop praying. Take care of God’s needy people and welcome strangers into your home.”
–Romans 12:12-13 (CEV)
Commissioned on Sunday and sent into the world, we get to live out the gospel of Matthew in our first intergenerational mission trip to the Salyersville, KY. We are sent with your prayers and God’s blessing as we learn again and anew what it means to love our neighbor. Just like Jesus prepared his disciples, over the last few months our group of 18 have met together to prepare ourselves for working with Appalachian Service Project. We will be the strangers welcomed into homes to do home repairs and we will get to help each other in our times of need.
Paul’s words from Romans are good for us to hold before us -Let your hope make you glad. Think about that for a moment. It is hope that has propelled us to not only offer mission trips to our youth but also to extend that invitation to our adults. Our hope does make us glad that we can work together to love and serve our neighbors. God’s hope makes us glad as we pause for a moment to think about God’s relentless desire to come to us and make His home with us and I think a bit of that happens when we go trusting that God goes with us into a new place with new people.
It is the gladness of your hope that propels you to give food in our Thanksgiving in July food drive month. And we invite everyone to participate including our VBS students and crew. It is that same gladness that moves you to donate undies and socks to support the mission efforts of First Lutheran Church in Columbus, IN. The generosity of God’s love and hope move us to go, to give and to trust that God goes with us.
I am sure there will be moments for us to be patient in time of trouble and we hope you keep praying for us as we pray for ourselves. This is a new adventure for us all which comes with some apprehensions and worries. But as we are reminded Christ’s strength is made known through our weakness. So we go, knowing that God goes with us, as tiny Jesus will remind us. We go knowing that you are praying for us and what God will do through this mission trip. We go to love our neighbor and help those in need. We go with joy and delight to be on this adventure together!
Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,
Pastor Connie Spitzack
