...and making a glocal impact

This is the last line in our church’s mission statement. I love the word glocal. It is not a word that you may have heard before but it you attend our church or have ever met Bob Roberts then you know what it means. It is the merging of two words into one: global and local. He believes that we should be ministering globally as well as locally. We often think of serving others on the mission field in a foreign country. He believes that we can do it here locally, in your own backyard as well as globally using whatever vocation God has gifted you with.
This past weekend I got to see that first-hand in the lives of kids! Yes, kids! Last year our church got involved with helping change the lives of 4 families through making over their homes. We meet their needs by making over their homes and in the process minister to them. I didn’t get to help out last year but Jon as well as the rest of our small group did. Many of us in our team have small children and for about 48+ hours last year the parents were out helping with the makeover. Once they saw the parents doing this the kids wanted to help too. Well, they are too young but that didn’t stop one mother in our team. When her son told her that he wanted to help she had to tell him that he couldn’t. Then her daughter had been saying that she wanted to have a lemonade stand. The wheels started turning and she decided to put the two together. She set up a lemonade stand where all the money went to the Haltom City Home Makeover (Green Team/Home-the team that we are on). The lemonade was free but donations were accepted. She made fliers and passed them out in her neighborhood and posted signs the day of. Before the day had even come she had collected $140 in donations! Some others from our team jumped on the bandwagon to bring our kids to help out and what a hoot! They were flagging down cars and yelling at anyone within range. FREE LEMONADE!!!

They were persistent little salespeople getting anything from $1 to $20 for a glass of lemonade. By the end of the day we had collected over $300 for the home makeover!!! Amazed, another mom suggested that we split up the money between the kids who helped and let them choose what they wanted to buy for the family. (At the church there is a booth set up where you can choose tags with different amounts going to different things for the family such as toys, furniture, cleaning supplies, pillows, etc. You pick a tag and give the amount listed.) It was a great way for the kids to see exactly what the money they raised went to. It was such a great way to let the kids be able to help in their own way. There is a worship service where we will get to meet the family and have a pep rally type atmosphere and a reveal as well. The kids are allowed to attend both of these and I am pretty sure that all of our kids will be there!
Click here to read the story of the mother who put this whole thing together! Thanks Penny L. for allowing us to be a part of it! What a blessing it was!!!!