A GREAT GIFT TO GIVE!

With the cold weather we've had lately (and snow yesterday...for 10 minutes or so), I am reminded of the brutally cold weather we had last year.  If you were around then, you might remember that we quickly set up a shelter for the homeless at the Annex.  We put out a call for blankets and food, and the Crossroads community responded like a well-trained army.  We got cots from the Red Cross, and had everything we needed to make a cozy shelter from the cold weather for those in need.  Everything except permission from the City of Enterprise.  And they shut us down after one night.

I vowed back then (as I wrote HERE) that we would have "the most effective mechanism for meeting the needs of the under-resourced that the City has ever seen".  Monday night we took another step closer to that goal as I took as seat on the board of Love In Action Ministries. Love In Action is the single most effective homeless ministry in the Wiregrass.  Part of the reason that I have been asked to participate is because Love In Action will be opening a branch in Enterprise.

Here's the great thing about Love In Action: it is not a church, it is a parachurch organization.  Parachurch organiztions work outside of and across denominations to engage in social welfare and evangelism.  Too often, churches have a difficult time supporting one another in our singular efforts for outreach.  One of the reasons for this difficulty (and it's such a shallow reason - but real nonetheless) is the problem of ownership...territory.  In other words, "If we get involved in what your doing than we're supporting your church with our money and our time and our people and our logo isn't on it so it's taking something away from our church".  Sounds stupid, but it happens all the time.

Love In Action knows how to help the homeless and those who are ravaged by poverty.  Love In Action opening a branch in Enterprise, and Crossroads hooking up with Love In Action means:

1. We don't have to re-invent the outreach wheel.
2. We can help an existing organization, already good at what they do, go farther faster.
3. We have access to service opportunities for our congregation that didn't exist before.
4. We're able to put resources to work right here where we live.
5. We get to do the things Jesus said to do.

In 2011, we're going to break through some barriers.  Aligning ourselves with Love In Action is one of the ways we'll do that.  Last year, in addition to the hundreds helped, clothed, fed, cared for LIA got 35 people off the street, into homes, and back to work.  Those are HUGE results.  No one at LIA gets paid.  No one.  Their administrative costs for an entire year didn't exceed $1500.  Guys, that's amazing.  These folks are the real deal.  They are motivated by the call of God on their lives.  They all work full-time at other jobs, and volunteer their time (from the top of the org chart to the bottom) selflessly.

Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord,

and he will reward them for what they have done.

(Proverbs 19:17)

This Christmas (hey, you're gonna buy something on-line anyway), consider "making a loan to God" by lending support to Love In Action Ministries.  You can do it right HERE.  Now there's a gift worth giving!  Here's another suggestion: tell someone who's planning on buying you a gift this Christmas, "Make a donation to LIA fo me!", it just might be the best gift anyone ever gave you.