Jesus Next Door

Last week from Wednesday to Friday we had an outreach going on at our church. It was called "Jesus Next Door."

Before hand, we went to all different neighborhoods in the Martinsville area and went door to door inviting children to a VBS like program at our church.

Then, Wednesday to Friday we went in buses and vans to pick up the kids who wanted to go and took them to church for games, music, lessons and dinner.

We had about 80 or so kids each night coming. These kids were not kids from our church, they were all from families who did not attend. Martinsville is a pretty low income area. Many people are quite poor and there are not many well paying jobs in the area. That being said, many of these families have it rough.

God did some amazing things through these kids. We saw that through their parents. On Saturday we had a big cookout at the church where all the parents were able to attend and many of them took us up on it. It was such a blessing to see so many families enjoying themselves.

I considered it a true success when some of those families even showed up on Sunday to attend church.

Our mission is to be salt and light in the earth and share God's love with others. If as a church we are not doing that on a regular basis, we are missing the mark!