Service

It is truly amazing how much I feel I have changed from this year of going to church downtown. I almost have so many feelings about it I don't even know where to begin.
I know our leaders think they asked us to go to church down there to help out but we have been given so much more than we could ever give. I am a different person. I serve differently. My mind thinks different about service. I don't wait as long to act as I used to. The words, "let me know if I can do anything to help" don't have as much meaning anymore.
I used to say that every week to the wife of the soldier who was injured and she would always say, "oh I will let you know" But then I realized it was almost more work for her to think of what I could do to help.

So a few weeks ago I made these. Little bags of treats for her 2 year old (who spends all day at the hospital with her dad) to pass out to the staff. The idea also was something I sent to my nephew's to pass out when they visit their sister in the hospital. At first I got kind of worked up thinking about it too much - will they think this is weird, will they want to pass them out... then I thought who cares! Who cares if they throw them in the trash, just something to let them know you are thinking of them.

We are already organizing Christmas for all the families in our Congregation and it is a huge undertaking. We will need to do this for more than half the ward. I know this will be such an awesome experience for us this year and has already had a impact on how I am looking at Christmas shopping this year. In one of our meetings we talked about finding the needs that are not as obvious to find. To serve where it is not as obvious to serve. It is an acquired skill for some and others a gift - to just get in there an do - and not wait to be asked. I think I have been given the gift to see the needs of others but don't know how good I am at acting on it. I want to work on that.

On the first Sunday of the month at our church(all over the world) anyone can get up and share their feelings and beliefs about Jesus Christ. It is a pretty awesome meeting in any church in the world but just amazing every month at ours. A sweet little sister who is 72 gets up every month and sings her testimony. She has poor vision and has no front teeth but has such a strong spirit to make up for both. She shared her gratitude for getting a job this past week.
Annie Kate got up to share her short testimony (first time she has done this in this ward)and it was very touching. She started off as everyone does, "Good Afternoon" the entire congregation says "good afternoon" back. As she paused to hear them say it, it almost looked like someone turned on a large fan and she blew back a few inches.

theme for the program is "I will follow Him in Faith"

We practiced the primary program and it going to be just awesome. Crazy but awesome. We had two visitors come to church that want to be in the program so we wrote them parts to come next week. They are so excited. If feels good to be so relaxed about it all and not so worried as I think I would have been in past years or other wards. We have a darling 19 year old girl who just moved in the ward with her husband and her second week here we handed her the written script and put her in charge. She is INCREDIBLE! She never thought twice or questioned it and has run with it and the kids love her. I think next Sunday is going to be pretty incredible.

photo of a bridge we biked over this summer in Germany

a friend of mine said the most amazing thing to me when our family was called to do this last year. She said, "you will be a BRIDGE to us of what we can do to help other members of our church downtown" I have thought of that so many times this year. She was right. There has not been a week in months that the back of my car is not full of books, clothes, dishes, bedding, toys,that my local friends have given me to take downtown. A few weeks ago I had noticed that our ward building had no floral arrangements. It was not two days later a interior designer called me and said she had 4 floral arrangements she would like to give me if I thought they could be used downtown. It was a miracle.
A couple hours before we left for church another friend brought over bags full of little boys clothing to take down there. I knew exactly who they would go to. There were a few suits just this one boys size. He is only 4 and often takes the metro and bus to church and comes with just his 3 brothers. Sometimes he sleeps on the floor in primary because it is such long day for him. I had wondered how I would get all these bags of clothes for him to his house. All four boys could not carry them on the bus. As we pulled up to church his dad dropped them off. It was perfect timing - a miracle really - he opened his trunk and I was able to FILL it with bags of clothes, shoes and coats for them.
I did feel like a bridge on Sunday and many other Sunday's. I love going home and calling those generous friends and telling them the reactions on people's faces when they see new toys in the nursery, new books to take home, a floral arrangement in the chapel or a trunk full of clothes.

I am quite amazed at how little the drive and difficult details of the day don't bother me anymore. It is second nature to us what once was such an inconvenience. It is really amazing! I don't know how long we will go down there and I would do whatever we were asked to do at this point. I think that is when we learn to master service, when it doesn't feel like service anymore. I told Jeff on the drive home that this year has been such an incredible one, I really don't want it to end.

Jill had a great Sunday Post (if you are not reading this every Sunday put it on your to-do list) about some of these same thoughts and it was awesome.