Family Connection 04.06.2011

Family Connection
04.06.2011
“After a long time the master of those servants returned. He wanted to collect all the money they had earned. The man who had received $10,000 brought the other $10,000. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you trusted me with $10,000. See, I have earned $10,000 more.’ His master replied, “You have done well, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’”-Matthew 25:19-21
“You can’t do everything but you can do SOMETHING!” We have been saying that a lot in our elementary program over the past 5 weeks. As we have been talking through what it means to have humility and how to serve others, we have been talking about how each of us can do something to help others. What is even better than talking about this is hearing the stories from the children who are putting these things into practice; here I s one story I would like to share with you.
One family met together to talk about what they could do to help others. Their three youngest children (9,7 & 7) decided to hold a garage sale and use the money to help the poor. They spent time going through their house looking for items to sell. The day of the big event these children woke up at 5am and started selling. At the end of the sale they had earned $284. Their parents gave them a choice between going to Toys R Us or buying things for the poor; they chose to purchase things for the poor. They went to the store and purchased toiletry items we are collecting so we can put “Grace to Go” bags together to hand out to the homeless. These wise shoppers purchased 216 razors, 108 toothbrushes, 54 bars of soap, 36 tubes of toothpaste and 36 bottles of lotion. They also brought in all of the change to give to the children we support in Haiti. What an amazing story!
This week I would like to encourage you to talk with the children in your lives about some ways as a family you can reach out to the poor. Don’t feel that you have to have all of the answers; your children might come up with some awesome ideas by themselves. Please share your stories with me so we can encourage one another. Remember, you can’t do everything but you can do something!
I would also like to ask for your prayers because my son Josh and I head out next Wednesday to spend 8 days in Uganda helping out a ministry that reaches out to orphaned children who are infected with HIV. Please pray that Josh and I can be effective while we are there and can show the love, care and concern of Jesus by what we do and say.
Walking by your side,
Brett Humphrey
Pastor H

PS-I will be updating this blog from Uganda with pictures as often as I can