A New Vision

I am a road weary warrior today. I have bloodshot eyes and sore muscles. I know that just trying to focus on today's task will be a struggle. However, all of it is worth it.

After attending the SBC in Indianpolis last week, my husband and I met a group from our church in Iowa for a family mission trip. We were working with Crossroads Community Church in Grimes.

We all hit the ground running on Thursday morning. Some of the men tackled remodeling a home of a church member. The rest of the crew began setting up for the community Funtastic Days. We also did some painting at a community center and handed out fliers for this weeks FCA sports camp that the church is hosting.

Saturday we spend all day at the festival. We walked the parade route and told people about the sports camp. After lunch we worked the church booth at the festival. To draw kids in we played a question and answer game show. From there many kids came to the face painting booth. I believe this is where the real ministry began.

Our adults and kids sat for a few minutes talking with the kids and parents. While they painted the faces of the children, our team was sharing the simple gospel represented by the colors of black, red, white, yellow, and green. Many of the children and parents did not attend church but they willingly listened. Several families wanted to meet Bro. Jason and hear more about the church and their ministry.

Crossroads is a small church that meets in a high school lobby. They do not have pews, hymnals or other items that many of our churches have. However, this group of about 70 people have a wonderful fellowship and are open to the outside world. They are so involved in the small community of Grimes that when you mention Crossroads Church everyone always said, "Oh, I know that church. They do alot for our community."

Our group came back with a new vision for ministry. We are a larger church and we are often set in our ways. We want to step up our ministry and be more open to the community around us.

I think it would be great if our church work in our community was so significant that the response from the people would be "Oh, I know that church. They do alot for our community."

So girls, what is your church doing to reach out to your community?