Steve's Serve

Steve Garcia - our fired up, passionate new Worship Pastor! - was telling me about an Encounter he had on Sunday and I asked him to give me a blurb so I could blog it. Here it is. Thanks Steve!


Serving Sunday! I arrived to "the building" with much anticipation! I could hardly wait to get out in the community and body slam somebody with the Word of God. I had visions of how I would do that and world peace would follow:) That's not what happened though.......something completely different happened actually. We went to house #1 and no one was home, #2 the same,#3 the bag and card were still on the door, #4 no answer, #5.....I was beginning to get a little worried and then someone answered the door. Here was my opportunity, body slam #1....she stopped me mid-sentence, closed the door and returned a couple of minutes later with some food. I said thanks, and she immediately shut the door. No body slam. That's ok I thought, there are plenty more houses! Well,the rest of our journey was pretty much the same.....nobody home, bag and card on the door, no answer. I was getting kind of bummed about the situation and then I met George. What a neat guy! I explained who we were and what we were doing and he honestly said that he didn't have any food to donate at the moment, but maybe we could come back another time. We struck up a conversation about his lawn and then all of a sudden he was Mr. Jabberjaw. Here we were, locked in conversation, and the lights were all green for my first body slam of the day! The body slam turned into a handshake and a gentle pat on my shoulder from George. I put him down as my first person to visit the next time we do this. I may even visit him again before that! We had made a simple connection with him about something he had a passion for, his lawn, and as I was about to lean in and give him the body slam I realized that getting to know George was the first step in our connection. Sure, it was a tiny conversation about his lawn, but it was also a door opening to his heart. I don't know all of George's story, but I do know he wanted to talk to someone and I'm glad that God put me there at the right place and the right time. Did you notice at the beginning of my story there were a lot of "I"'s? I this, and I that..... I, stepped out of the way, and God moved into our midst. He connected me and George. Serving Sunday has shown me that what we are doing out in the community is building relationships. Living in each others lives and really being the hands and feet of Jesus. Relationship is the first step.

"Anyone who welcomes you is welcoming me, and anyone who welcomes me is welcoming the Father who sent me. " MATTHEW 10:40