Loving People and Laying a New Foundation

This week, my last week of summer, I took a bit of a risk.  Traveling alone I left Jax, hopped on two planes, rented a car, booked a hotel room and then drove two and a half hours to a tiny town in the middle of the woods; Mashulaville, Mississippi.  Why was I here?  Great question, my friend.  So I signed up to be a project leader with AIM.  Basically, that means I lead short term trips within the states and essentially am the planner, coordinator, and liaison between the ministry partners we are staying with/ serving with, and the missions team that is coming in from a different town to serve.

 

My role: show up two days before the team arrives, get the lay of the land, introduce myself to the ministry hosts and start making some plans and connections with how we can serve.  Let me give you a recap if you didn’t follow that: I get sent to a seemingly random town, meet some very kind but also random strangers, and then two days later lead another group of random strangers and get to do cool ministry.  It was the greatest opportunity!

 

I went in with no idea what to expect, and as these things normally go, I’m coming out the other side with a grander picture of God’s kingdom, of His people, and of how the Lord views me as a daughter.  Gosh, am I ever grateful to do this life with the Lord.  I’ve gained a greater understanding of what it means to be a daughter of the Father and what it means to be a member of the family of Christ.  I’m so glad I showed up.

 

So the missions team that I got to lead and serve alongside this week was an incredible youth group from First Assembly of God church in New Port Richey, Florida!  What a kind nudge from the Lord to send me with a group also from Florida; Florida people reppin!!  This group quickly nudged their way into my heart, and left as people I now get to pray for forever. 

 

The group was pretty young, a mostly high school group with ages from around 11-15.  These kids showed up!!!  I watched kids that were insanely nervous to be in front of people, be bold and share their stories, share about Jesus, run games. Incredible.  We had a lot of unique opportunities to serve and it was a blessing to get to see this team rise to the occasion, pursuing Jesus and relationship along the way. 

 

We got to hang out with a lot of the local Choctaw kids from the Indian reservation nearby.  We got to do crafts with them, play games, share some bible stories and mid week we hosted a huge cookout for them! 

 

Another cool opportunity that the group got a chance to partake in was a program here in Mashulaville called Meals on Wheels.  Essentially we cooked 90 meals, boxed them up and drove them around to elderly people in the community.  This is a program that the Mennonite community center here does to serve people weekly.  It was so cool to see our Florida group stepping out of their comfort zones and being bold in engaging with the people we were getting to serve.

 

We got to rebuild a ramp that was falling apart for a wheelchair bound woman in the community.  This was pretty cool because people had tried to fix it before but just put the new boards over the old wood, causing it to be more unstable than it was previously.  In order to fix the ramp, we had to gut it.  We had to take the old boards, rip them out and lay a new foundation.  As the metaphor lover that I am, it hit me like a brick as we were dripping sweat in the hot Mississippi sun; Lord I need you to do this gutting process in my heart every single day.

 

In 1 Corinthians 3:11 it says; “for no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

 

Jesus; lay the foundation of my heart.  Anything that needs to be torn out, take it and rip it out.  Create in me a pure heart.

 

 

As I walked around this week, I talked to God a lot about what He had for me there.  I thought about what was important and what was not.  Traveling hundreds of miles away from my house for only a week with groups of strangers (now friends.)  Why me, why them? Why were they sent here?

 

We often ask “why me?” We often wonder why we are in the spaces we are in, with the people that we interact with day to day.  Let me pause that thought for a second and I promise I’ll be right back to it.

 

So there was a local woman who cooked dinners for our group while we were in Mashulaville this week.  They often have someone cook dinners for groups here, because it allows more time for groups to do ministry.  The cook’s name was Jonni May and for some reason the Lord simply impressed her on my heart this week.  She was an older woman, with 3 grandkids, and she had lived in Mashulaville all of her life.  

 

Jonni May was quiet, kept to herself, stayed out of the way, and also God used her to deeply impact the way I view humility.  She would cook for us, we would all get food, and she would quietly sneak outside and eat her dinner on the porch.  I was drawn to her immediately.  She radiated Jesus and it drew me to her.  It wasn’t because she was loud, it wasn’t because she was overly complimenting or outgoing, it was because she was a daughter of Christ and her biblical meekness and humility spoke of our Creator.

 

Two of the nights I found myself sitting on the porch with her, we got to talking some, but we also just sat in silence for a little bit.  I think she understands contentment in a way I can only hope to emulate one day.

 

Surprise, I’m back to the “why me” questions. So why did God send a team of high schoolers from Florida to Mississippi for a week? Why was I sent as a leader to a place I’ve never been with a group I’ve never met?  Sometimes the answers to all the pressing questions fade to the back when you sit in the presence of someone who sits in the presence of Jesus regularly.  Sitting on the porch with Jonni May for a couple minutes kind of felt like the whole point.  

 

God is the point, bumping elbows with people is the point.  Sometimes it takes going somewhere new, and meeting people different from you for the Lord to speak to you about who you are and who He is. 

 

Getting to watch this group from New Port Richey step out in faith has been a joy and a blessing.  Those kids are bold, and they are so deeply loved by the Lord.  As they go home and take what they learned back to their community, I hope this truth sticks with each of us:

 

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)

 

To my new New Port Richey friends, thanks for welcoming me in, keep being bold, you got this!  Thanks for reading!