You might not think that looking at the 3 of their feet would be beautiful, but they are indeed.
Yesterday Karen, Nate and Tina gave their mission report to our congregation. As I was sitting in my seat watching these 3 young people; who stepped out of their comfort zone to go to Huaricola, Peru (which by the way is 2 miles up in the mountains) to help build a church in that village, I was struck by 3 very powerful things.
1. This trip changed them. The change was immediately obvious the first time I saw them. Karen, put the change into words….”The next time I go, I will pack differently, less for me and more for them.” They came face to face with poverty…not just poverty of material goods, though there was plenty of that, but poverty of spirit. They were able to be the hands and feet that brought the Gospel message of love and hope to a mountain Peruvian village. This message was in their willingness to grab a pick axe and dig up dirt to make the adobe walls and paint the roof sections. These were the feet that ran around and played ‘duck, duck, goose’ with the children.
2. The good news was shared and one village man who came towards the end of the project as they were putting the tin roof on the adobe walls, came down off the roof, stepped into that newly built church and gave his life to Christ. How beautiful were the feet of those who brought the good news of Jesus Christ to that man. Nate says “We will go back and build them a bigger church.”
3. The good news was shared with our congregation and God moved on the hearts of the people sitting in the congregation. We had made the decision to give away our offering this Sunday. We believe you cannot out-give God. Our give-away was going to be split between Peru and Haiti. The people gave over $1,300 for us to give to the work in these 2 places. God will multiply this because every American dollar is as $3 in those places.
How beautiful indeed are the feet that bring good news. We are celebrating at Crosspoint today.
Update to the give-a-way..we were able to send $1,000 to Peru and $1,000 to Haiti. Crosspoint people are some of the most generous people I know.