Today, I took the day off of work and we ventured into the city to help one of our sister churches with some projects. They have a thrift store and needed some help sorting and pricing there. They have a garden...in the middle of a not at all nice part of the city, they found a vacant lot and made it a beautiful garden...we didn't have any work to do there today. And they have a new meeting place. They are retrofitting the first floor of a building that was built back in the early 19oos. It's an interesting place but A LOT of work is needed there. I had hoped to be working on framing out some walls or putting up drywall but today was not a day for that. Today it was about cutting up PVC pipe (which was fun), cleaning up pipe and wires and what-have-you from all around, and tearing the wood off of windows and letting the sun shine in and air breeze through.

It doesn't look like much...but they can see the potential there - and I can see it too. Through all the dirt and dust and...well, junk...I can see a space where people can come, in the middle of a not so great part of town, and find the Lord there, through his people who care enough - care so much - to make this a priority, to put in their time, to put in their money, to put in their sweat and probably their tears.