Thanks For Being a Friend

Last Saturday, 69 Bethany friends spent half of the day serving others. We painted a trailer for a friend whose trailer needed some sprucing up. We cleared a yard whose owner had been unable to work on it (almost 2 tons of green waste was hauled away!). We put up some drywall and did some painting at Kingdom Causes' new community center (helping get it ready for them to move in later this week). We did some roofing work at a home that is being rehabbed for a low income family. And we threw a block party that allowed a neighborhood to get to know each other.

We did most of our projects right in the neighborhoods that we live. Our desire was to be a good neighbor...a good friend.

As I went from project to project, I was struck by a couple of things. First, I was amazed at how much can be accomplished in such a short time. In a matter of 4 hours, our work crews made a huge impact. And the impact was noticed by those that we were working for. At the trailer park, several neighbors were amazed that the painting was being done without charge by the resident's church family. "I wish I was a part of a church like that!" was said more than once.

Secondly, I was struck by how much fun it is to serve together. The work crews were genuinely enjoying what they were doing. It feels good to bless others. And serving with friends makes hard work much easier. I've never seen so many smiles and laughter coming from a group that is cutting and dragging tree branches and overgrown ivy to a flat-bed trailer that was filled 6 feet high...twice!

It was also fun to see the age diversity of our work crews. The Bethany family was out in force...we had some retired folks working alongside 6th graders. We even had a group of high school students working on projects in the midst of a 30 hour fast!

Often after a hard day of work, people don't want to think about "the next time". Not so this time... several members of our work crews said, "We need to do this again soon!"

Servant Saturday was 2 days ago...but the memories of our day of service keep bringing smiles to my face. Bethany Church, thanks for being a friend!