(3 word phrase Nike would sue me for using)

In the Reaching Out a Hand feature, we usually turn the spotlight on one particular organization/cause for a month.  This month has not really worked that way, and instead I hope to bring you ideas about ways to spy organizations in your own community you might want to support or become involved with.  Jessie, whose lovely sermon was posted here last week, saw needs in her community and built her own organization from the ground up.  Not of all of us have that kind of time, energy, creativity and sheer force of will. But we have this idea that unless we're doing something huge like that, we should just not get involved at all.

This past Sunday, our church did our "Rock the Routine." Instead of our regular services, we signed up for projects around our community and went out and served.  People went and planted onions (in the mud and rain) at the Matthew 25 farm .  People cleaned up a local park.  People visited residents and sang at the VA hospital service.  People organized and sorted at Rescue Mission stores.  A group painted a local fire house.  One group planted a garden with residents at Enable .  People put together lunches at the Samaritan Center .  My family's group went to the Salvation Army where half of us painted the daycare, and the other prepared and served brunch and played with some of the kids at the emergency shelter.

One of the things these Sundays do is open our eyes to opportunities to be involved in organizations in our community that are lifelines for our neighbors.  My 7th grader has never thought about the fact that some families sleep in a shelter in a borrowed bed until she saw it with her own eyes, for instance.  I was reminded of how quickly a daunting job can get done if a few people roll up their sleeves and work together. It's good to get out of our routine, expose ourselves to a new corner of the world, stretch some muscles we haven't used.

We often think what we have to offer is insignificant.  We aren't giving enough time.  Enough money. Enough passion. I could start harping on things like the "pay it forward" concept, the loaves and fishes story, the Its a Wonderful Life example, but I will sign off with a new favorite quote:

"If you can't do great things, Mother Teresa used to say, do little things with great love. If you can't do them with great love, do them with a little love.  If you can't do them with love, do them anyway.  Love grows when people serve." - John Ortberg