Isaiah 65:16-17, 24 Because the former troubles are forgotten...For behold I create new heavens and a new earth...It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear."
Tonight is GCISD night at the Texas Rangers baseball game. Kids earned free tickets for reading books, families and staff were offered discounts. Nice spring weather – I wanted to go! Dialing the sales office number during my conference period, I expected to place my order – oh no! – “All our ticket agents are busy; please stay on the line.” You know the rest of that quote. I kept the line open on speaker phone the whole 50 minutes and never got through to a live voice. Well, maybe I won’t get tickets for Friday night?
The church sends out a weekly email newsletter providing a calendar of upcoming events, encouraging notes from staff, reports on various activities and requests to fill needs in our local community and beyond. One request that caught my attention this week was to help support firefighters who were battling wildfires around Possum Kingdom Lake. Many of us know the area well, have seen our skies clouded with haze from the smoke and smelled the fire blowing in the west Texas wind, have been there for fun times, have friends with lake property…After reading my emails I drifted on to Facebook to look at news from friends. The first post I saw was from our friend Mary – pictures of the fire and devastation around the lake. Oh, Darrell, I think we need to do something to respond to this – they need hot dogs to feed the crews – do you think your Grapevine Ambucs group would have extra hot dogs? He started scrolling through his cell phone contacts and calling people. Everyone was responding YES! He contacted the emergency coordinator listed on the link from the church email and plans started falling into place for donations and delivery.
On Good Friday evening, Darrell is on his way home from transporting goods from Grapevine to the Methodist church in Graham TX where volunteers were working to serve food to shifts of 75 firefighters at a time. Food is sent to staging stations to feed near the fire fighting sites and also to Young County Arena in Graham where sleeping quarters are set up for the workers.
Hot dogs, hamburgers and the fixings came from Grapevine Ambucs and Cross Timbers Winery while hundreds of dollars in cash was generated from the Back Porch Tavern karaoke crowd on Thursday night as well as donations from Don Bigbie of Cross Timbers Winery, Kim Newton co-owner of the The Back Porch and city councilman, Roy Stewart. Darrell used some of the cash to buy bottled water and Gatorade and the remainder was given to the pastor of First Methodist Graham to purchase further supplies as needed. God has a wonderful way of involving the willing to do his work. He calls us to be observant, obedient, compassionate and connected in community. A small window closed on my timing to purchase discounted Ranger tickets while a door of opportunity fell into place to do something good.
This is the song that played on the radio on my way home from school today. Blessings and peace to all as we celebrate Easter weekend!
http://new.music.yahoo.com/josh-wilson/videos/view/i-refuse-official-music-video--221539674
Also here's a link to a blog that I follow. Her topic today was closed doors.
http://www.loveserveshine.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment