[instagram url=https://instagram.com/p/4zQyhLn0xH/?taken-by=moplychurch] Have you felt as if your body is ready to collapse into your bed but your mind just won't stop turning?
Exhausted but excited.
That's how most of us feel as we attempt to adhere to lights out after our first day at service sites. Our bodies are longing to rest on our camp mats and air mattresses (You know you're tired when that sounds delightful!) but we can't stop reliving our favorite moments together, from meals, Club and Church Group Time, and especially from our service sites.
Despite rain keeping us inside most of the day, we were able to engage in a variety of Duluth communities. Many windows were washed, bathrooms scrubbed, food shelves stocked and organized, furniture moved, fingernails painted, Bingo cards filled, and board games played. We saw God in Duluth's diverse communities, ages 6 to 106. From the Boys and Girls Club to assisted living homes to private residences, we were invited into individuals' lives and offered an opportunity to hear their story. Did we take that opportunity?
Each evening we are fortunate to spend time with one another in small groups, "family groups," to reflect on the day and dwell in the Word. Our dwelling for this evening was Micah 6:8
He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
For the next three days we will continue to participate in charitable acts of service. With compassion and love, we will aim to meet the immediate needs of the organizations and individuals we are invited to engage with. But what will happen in these communities when mission trip season is over and all the vans and youth groups head home?
We challenged ourselves to take time tomorrow to hear someone's story. To stop and listen. It's a simple task, but can be so hard to do, especially when you are in an unknown and possibly uncomfortable place.
By taking the time to hear, getting past the nervousness and slipping into familiarity, we will begin to discover new and bold ways we can be an active part of God's work in the world. We will begin to figure out how we can respond to God's call to do justice. While we continue to support charitable organizations and stock the shelves of food banks, we will begin to explore how we can play a role in eliminating the root causes of hunger and poverty.
We will aim to be voices for change and justice.
"We do justice when we give all human beings their due as creations of God." -Timothy Keller