Banded Together

This morning a small band of volunteers, under the direction of a veteran of performing random acts of kindness, met at the downtown Garland DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) Rail station at 6am to pass out bottles of water. There were no tracts attached, no business cards, and no additional labels of any kind on the bottled water. We didn't even offer a reason why we were passing out the water unless someone asked. Then we would try to mentally organize a quick sentence with "Presbyterian" in it at 6am and hope it made sense! Luckily we were wearing t-shirts with the church's logo so it helped fill in some of the gaps. Most people were grateful for the water, some people left scouring the label looking for the promotion they were sure was the reason of the gift, and some people took alternate routes to bypass us all together. We were stationed near one of the street lights so most people were funneled from their cars past us to get to the train. One woman reached for a bottle of water as she approached us, and within in a matter of seconds of connecting we were both screaming and jumping up and down. One might think that perhaps with my reputation for graceful actions that I had spilled water on her, but luckily no, it was just the unrestrained joy of finding an old friend. Linda attended our church for many years and was one of the original women’s retreat formation team. I admire that small band who dreamed of organizing a retreat for the women of the church, weathered the initial queries, determinedly asked for money to be included in the budget, and built a retreat model (that has barely changed in ten years). These women prayed regularly for the retreat, the vision of the retreat, the impact on the women who would attend, and for the leadership of the congregation and the retreat team.

My prayer for the congregation?

Dear God, Today we were able to share small acts of kindness as an extension of the free gift of grace given to us. We have also received gifts of prayer, wisdom, dreams, encouragement, and hope from our own community. We have a model of praying actively, seeking spiritual growth, relying on God's will, and creating new trails. It is wonderful to reconnect with old friends, yet we are hopeful to connect with new friends; all of us bringing a gift for our common table, where all are served. Let us review our models so that we do not have to reinvent the wheel, but let us have an enterprising spirit to form new models to reach other untapped sets of people. We give thanks for those who have the clarity to hear and are impulsive enough to accept your call. Let us pray with renewed dedication, because others have prayed for us, before they knew us, because they wanted the best for our congregation. We are blessed. Let us pray for the next generation and for their relationship with the Church. We ask blessings for those whom we have yet to meet, because we too want the best for our congregation. Amen