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Where Are You Leaving Your Fingerprints?

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by Brandi Pillow

Mark 12:31 “The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

I have never felt called to the mission field, at least not in the “traditional” sense. I never imagined living in a foreign country, or felt the pull to serve in an inner city somewhere. Once I became a teacher, I saw the classroom as my mission field and where I had been called to serve. Still, when the opportunity to join the Missions Team here at Westminster came up this summer I excitedly signed up. I saw it as a great opportunity to assist the people who had been called to serve in the mission field and as another way to help serve in the church.  

Honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure what all it entailed and did not know what to expect at the first meeting but I quickly learned so much about the Mission Team. Gary, Lee, and the longer serving members of the team shared about its goals and the groups that it helps support including Reformed Theological Seminary, French Camp, the local RUFs, foreign missionaries, and local groups like Delta Streets. In addition to helping these and other larger mission efforts that Westminster supports, it became clear over those first few meetings that an effort we wanted to undertake was to give shape and action to something called “Go Love Greenwood.” The group wanted to find a way to show Christ’s love to people in our local community, to go out and be the hands and feet of Jesus. After some discussion, we decided that our first event as part of our “Go Love Greenwood” outreach would be a school supply and backpack drive to benefit three of the local elementary schools, which will be held August 5 in Downtown Greenwood. I was so excited that this was how we had chosen to kick off our outreach, with something near and dear to my heart in helping students and their teachers!

The first Saturday in July, members of the Mission Team met at the church to wrap boxes that would be distributed around town and collect donated supplies from our community. As Watson and I handed each other strips of packing tape to tape down the blue paper on the boxes, I noticed the fingerprints we were both leaving behind in the sticky tape. And it occurred to me that we were leaving little imprints of ourselves in these boxes and in this effort to help people in our community. I hope that each child who receives one of our backpacks and the supplies they need to start the school year see that we care about them but that, more importantly, they have a Heavenly Father who cares about them and loves them more than they can imagine. For these little ones, this may not be something they see right away but I hope that just like the fingerprints we left behind in those strips of tape these small gestures done out of Christian love will leave an impression that lasts a long time. Please be in prayer for this “Go Love Greenwood” outreach and the other efforts the Mission Team supports. And if you feel lead to help leave your fingerprints on something, come see the Mission Team. We’ll be glad to have you!

 

1 Comment

Brandi, I love the creative analogy! Your post reminds me of Nordman's song "legacy". Thank you for your perspective!

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