Yesterday, our church was able to have a significant event in our town. As some of you have seen over the past couple of months, I have been taking the students down to Commercial Street. You can see a little bit of what it looks like based on the ad our Communications Pastor, Mark Byerly, made.

There are a lot of hurting people in the area. Whether they are homeless, hurting, addicted to drugs, needing a boost, whatever, it's a place in need of Hope (yep, I made it cliche). I have had the opportunity to hook up with some business, people and the neighborhood in general. We were able to take our annual church event, the Block Party, and move it to a park on the block. We shut down the traffic, brought in a jazz band, face painting, balloon makers, the Red Cross, a street full of inflatable fun for young kids, a skate park for older kids and TONS of food. When I was leaving church at 1pm (event was starting at 3), it was raining and that doesn't go well with outdoor events and electricity. After a few minutes, the clouds left, rain was done and it got ridiculously hot. So hot, that people were asking we pray it be a little cooler (sounds like Missouri right). As the party started, more and more people began to show up. The best part, the majority weren't from our church. The even best-er (real word?) part, there were a lot of smiles.

When I talked with the staff of our church about making it happen, I didn't think it would be this month, I didn't think it would be the Block Party and I didn't know how it would go. After seeing it yesterday, I couldn't have been more pleased. This is one of those times where God showed me an idea and when it happened, it looked just like what He showed me. That feels good. And when I looked around to all the people of our town and saw a lot of smiles and fun going on, I knew that He was happy about it just as much as I was. We have had a bunch more opportunities to help with some of the local businesses as well as a LOT of really good relationships. The LORD has really opened our church up to a new way of living life and how to live in our community. And now our community is starting to see us as a benefit. Now that's what I'm talking about! Have a great day all. I'm still riding the coattails from the good one yesterday.
----------------
Now playing: The Almost - Amazing Because It Is