Practical Christianity: Learning lessons from my younger sister

Wow! It's been more than two weeks since my last post. Just when I thought I was back on the blogging track...well, that didn't last for very long.

And tonight's post isn't really my post. It's taken directly from my little sister's Facebook site. In the title I called her my younger sister, and that probably sounds better since she is married with three kids...it's just that I still think of her as my little sister. (Hope you don't mind, Mary.)

I also hope that you don't mind that I'm sharing this with my readers. It is inspiring to me and I hope that it is inspiring to others.

Here's what Mary wrote:

I have been wanting to reach out to the community in a way that is helpful and practical. It isn't always easy though.

Well, last week I asked my small group if they would like to rake leaves in the neighborhood of our church after services on Sunday. 2 of the adults were able to join me, Chris, and our kids. One of the adults brought her teen son and daughter (9 or 10).

So - come Sunday morning I still didn't have a house in mind. I left church in search of the perfect home, while the others prepared lunch. "Please, Lord, let me get the right house on the first try."

I didn't want to knock on doors. Who does? I passed several houses with yards full of leaves, then stopped in front of C's house. Again, I prayed a quick prayer and got out of the van and knocked on the door. Through the glass of the storm door, I spoke with C, a senior (she later told us she is 80), asking if my friends and I could rake her leaves later in the afternoon.

She asked "how much?" (smile)

"Oh, we don't want to be paid. We just want to help people in the neighborhood." She stepped out onto the front porch to find out more. After I explained what we were doing, She shared, "My husband died in December. He used to take care of things like that."

Yeah...I'd say God got me to the right house. She insisted I come inside to meet her visiting daughter, who was skeptical, I think. Anyway, I left C's house happy with my one stop find (thank you, Lord) and returned to the church to eat lunch and get the team together. Once back at C's we attacked the yard work quickly. As I was working I noticed that just two doors down, a lady was staring at her leaf piles, hands on hips, looking...like she wished we were helping her instead. So, Joe and I headed over, followed later by Gary and we helped her bag her leaves. As Joe and I were working I said, "it feels good to help people, doesn't it?"

He said, "Yeah. it's hard work, but it's a lot of fun, too." He's right.
It didn't take much time. 4 Adults, one teen and 4 children filled about 20 bags of leaves in ONE HOUR. We met a couple of nice women and their adult kids and learned a little about them. We had a lot of fun and we were able to share God's love in a practical way (and teach our kids how to show God's love, too). I'd say it's been a pretty good Sunday.

Yeah, that's my little sister.

I am so proud of you, Mary. Way to go!

John