Tonight is our Mission Gunter Board Meeting. Most people dread board meetings. Not me! I usually leave our board meetings excited, focused, energized and ready to do the impossible! Mission Gunter is truly a heart dream come true. God has blessed me with a kindred spirit who partners with me and together...with God at the helm, we are trying to make some kind of eternal difference in our town. Currently we are working on Feed the Need and getting ready to do some exciting things in 2009.
The Mission has been very instrumental in helping form my view of what our community really needs. Unfortunately, what eases the mind and heart of most Christians is to give food and clothing, pay a bill or buy new tires for a family that is in need. While I agree there is a place for this, and certainly am involved in meeting tangible needs, I am finding that giving a handout isn't what they really need. They need education to make better decisions, which means we need volunteers to teach and mentor and befriend. They need to know Jesus loves them, which means there needs to be intentional friendships formed to be sure that someone tells them. They need someone to breathe life into their discouraged bones, which means they need spiritually mature people to encourage and love them. What does this mean? It means that more than food, clothing and money...we need people. People who want to do more than ease their conscience by giving instead of being. Don't get me wrong. I am very thankful for those who do donate tangible things....but we need both! And right now more than ever...we need people. Men, women and teenagers who want to volunteer themselves. There is no easy fix for poverty.
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