GO There, Here and Everywhere!!

The past couple of days I have been tuned in more and more to what happens when people are willing to GO, whether it's THERE, HERE but ultimately EVERYWHERE.

Since our latest team got back from El Salvador (THERE) on Sunday night, it has been amazing to hear first hand stories about how God showed up in the midst of their willingness to GO (read previous seven blogs for stories and pictures).   I listened as a first time traveler shared, with tears welling up in his eyes, his experience of meeting his sponsored child for the first time; I saw a heart that was learning to love in a greater way than ever before.  I heard about the challenges they faced on this trip and was encouraged in how the team dealt with them, overcame them and grew as a result.

This weekend, HERE in our local community, I had the opportunity to serve a group of children who are considered part of the 20,000 homeless people here in Orange County.  With my daughter's college soccer team, that's visiting from British Columbia, we met this great group of kids at the local motel they are curretly living in and walked them up the street to a local park.  For the next several hours, I saw an amazing group of young ladies connect and play with these kids and others who were already at the park. I listened as one of them shared the good news about Jesus' love with all the children and was blown away when 9 people from our brief encounters at the park joined us at church on Sunday and loved every minute of it.  These types of things happen almost every weekend HERE.

But really the point of all this GO stuff is that we learn to GO EVERYWHERE!  As we GO, thinking more about God and others (The Great Command Matthew 22: 37-40), it forces us to put our selfish tendencies to the side and make space for God to show up as we serve others, and He does!!!!!  I have seen this happen time and time again, THERE and HERE, but my prayer is that as people continue GOing, GOing becomes a natural inclination for them EVERYWHERE!!!  That everytime they walk into their office, a local grocery store, restaurant, gym, school, or out into their neighborhood, they would prayerfully be thinking about how they could serve the people they interface with, share with them God's amazing love for them or even show them the kind of love He would if we allowed Him to live and work through us.

GO is not about HERE or THERE it is really about EVERYWHERE!!!!