(this was written by one of the Pastors' here at Mars Hill, and I wanted to share it word for word with all of you)
How do we love our neighbors? That is the question that Nathaniel Blue and his community group constantly pondered in his home. Little did the Boulevard Park neighborhood know, there was a small group of their neighbors wanting to love them. As Nathaniel's community group kept learning to live out the Gospel, they were compelled to find out how to love their neighbors.
The group discussed the question with excitement and quickly became overwhelmed with many ideas; some of which were overly complicated. As ideas kept popping out of everyone's minds, God paraded a simple yet wonderful idea through Nathaniel's window. Just right outside was the busy strip mall with a Laundromat and a Thriftway. Nathaniel noticed that on Saturday morning the Laundromat was bustling with activity. All kinds of families, many of them immigrants, were cleaning their clothes.
The question of "How do we love our neighbors?" then became "What are the ways we could reflect Jesus to those who were doing laundry Saturday mornings?" From there, Nathaniel's community group decided to serve breakfast to the people at the Laundromat because many of the patrons did not have time or money to eat. The group figured that it would be a simple way to reflect Jesus' love for His people.
So on one Saturday morning, they served breakfast at the Laundromat to the pleasantly surprised patrons. Many people asked, "Why are you doing this?" And the group simply said "Why not? Jesus calls us to love our neighbors and this is one simple way we can show this love." One couple addressed the group and asked who they were. He responded by pointing to Nathaniel's house on the hill, telling them, "That's where we meet each Monday." The couple expressed that they would love to come visit the community group. After the group served more people, the couple that dropped by went home, picked up the kids, and came back. The group experienced tremendous joy serving the entire ear-to-ear smiling family.
In the end, 70 people were fed, but also had experience of being loved by a group of their neighbors. Nathaniel's community group decided to make "Breakfast at the Laundromat" a bi-monthly event, and a fruit of mission was born from Nathaniel's community group being disciples of Jesus in their neighborhood. All of our community group are learning to live out the Gospel by loving their neighbors. Boulevard Park happens to get a taste of that sweet fruit.
http://westseattle.marshillchurch.org/
...if you've got a story of how you're impacting your neighbors for Christ or want to share how you've seen evidences of God's grace in your lives, send it to me and I'll post it here to encourage all of us.
