Thursday night church in the street...

Tracy is a woman in the church who runs a daycare in the rough area of our town. It has always been rough. Anyone who has grown up here has lived there at one time or another. Every town has this neighborhood in it. Ours is no different than any other. Except that we love people here. Some of us have family here. Some of us are still here. Some have friends here. We all have some connection to this place.

The Friday morning church in the park service takes place at the edge of this neighborhood.

There are gangs, drugs, alcohol problems, poverty, racism, inner city stuff...there's a lot of anger here, and depression. There's also a lot of hope, but it is hidden deep within the hearts of the children here.

Tracy knows this, so she ventured out awhile back and started a gathering. Another simple concept that God has blessed because of her obedience. Her brother lives here. Every Thursday night she sets up the bar-b-que, the bounce house, and the chairs. After everyone gathers she feeds them, sends the kids to bounce, and does her bible study with the adults. Simple. They all need to eat, the kids need to have fun. They all need Jesus.

Tracy gives them all three. But last night, hundreds showed up. The word got out that Tracy was going to do something a little different. There would be a bounce house and a water slide for the kids and a trackless train for them to ride in. There would be school supplies given out (school starts next week). There would be hot dogs, chips, and soda. Tracy got permission to close the street off.

Literally hundreds showed up. Tracy was nervous. She didn't have enough food. She certainly didn't have enough school supplies. We didn't have much time to think about it though because we were serving food and the line seemed endless.

Everyone kept asking for us to start handing out the school supplies. Tracy kept hesitating. There just wasn't enough.
Pastor Elias said we should pray for the Lord to multiply. There they were, all the kids and parents lined up to get their supplies. Someone explained to them there wasn't enough so we would hand them out until the supplies ran out.

I took Pastor up on his suggestion. We asked everyone to join us in prayer as we asked the Lord to multiply the school supplies.

Then they started handing out the supplies....it took forever to finish. Finally everyone was taken care of. Everyone was taken care of! AND...there were supplies and food left over!!!!!!!!
What is so excellent about the whole thing is that every man, woman, and child there got to see the miracle. They became an integral part of the mercy of God being poured out into the community. They prayed, they said, "Amen". They got their need met. I am blessed...truely...to know women like Tracy and Misty who are not hesitant to see their vision through.

Tracy is on the worship team with me. There you have it again. Yes, we come together at the start of each week to celebrate what God is doing OUTSIDE the walls of church.

I am awestruck at the simplicity of Luke 17.5-10. We work out in the field, we enter into the worship of God, then we get ministered to by Him...this is no extraordinary thing...this is what He has called us to from the start...
The disciples asked Jesus to "Increase our faith" in verse 5. Look at his answer! We struggle so much with what we believe. We ask God to increase our faith..His answer is: Get out into the fields, bring in the harvest, come and serve Me dinner, and then you may sit down and eat.

Lord, teach us to keep You uncomplicated. Teach us to simply do what you have assigned to us.
Acts 4:29-30 is my prayer for all of us.