Mission Aurora, a Blessing to Those Who Were Served & Those Who Served

My church, First Presbyterian Church in Aurora, has been spending quite a bit of time the past months preparing for ourselves for something new for us. Every summer for the past I don't know how many year, my church has done a Family Church Camp at a conference center in WI for a week during the month of July.  However, this year we didn't stick with tradition.  Last fall the idea started as whispers and then grew into something I don't think anyone really imagined.  Church leaders began to ask, "What if we stayed in Aurora for a week & served our neighbors?" What indeed would happen if we veered away from what we were familiar with, was a truly great time of fellowship & worship, to try something different, something new. Well I can say that when you step out in faith, trusting in where God is leading you, some pretty amazing stuff happens.

The slogan for Mission Aurora was "Go, Serve, Tell" & that is what we did for a week at the end of July.  250+ First Pres volunteers ventured into the areas of Aurora where the lost, hurting, & broken were to serve them through mobile food pantries, backyard Bible clubs, habitat for humanity, landscaping, nursing home visits, spa day at the local women's shelter, helping at the homeless shelter, & much more.  All the while our volunteers, young & old, were taking time to not just love like Christ through their deeds but through their words as well.  People would stop to pray with some of the ladies in line at the mobile food pantries, Bible Club volunteers were inviting neighborhood kids to accept Jesus into their hearts, kids were helping other kids that have special needs so they could experience a Bible Club & learn about Jesus, adults  were talking to the parents attending our various events inviting them to church & to hear their story... God was at work through His Spirit in every person, sharing His hope, His love, His peace, His healing, His saving grace with each of those people we came in contact with. God is so GOOD!

But what I found truly amazing was watching the people I was serving along side as the week went on. I saw light bulbs rise up & hearts change.  People started to talk to each and say, "You know we could get 10 families together & host a mobile food pantry. We could even get the Jr Highers to help volunteer." "You know we could volunteer at the food pantry more often." "You know there is an opportunity we could help serve (insert group here) coming up, who wants to join in?" "You know we could do this on a smaller scale over a weekend." As people served the lost & hurting in our community, God did an amazing thing in our hearts.  He opened eyes to see the need surrounding us & breaking our hearts for the hurting & spurring His hands and feet on to do something about it beyond Mission week. Little did we know that when we signed up to serve those in our community that they would serve us also by calling us to be a part of God's mission in our city. What a joy being part of such a great reminder of God's call to His people.

As the week progress, our theme song's chorus started to become more real.  Not just a prayer, but a desire to take part in it ourselves, in being God's hands & feet to a hurting world.

Build Your kingdom here.

Let the darkness fear.

Show Your mighty hand.

Heal our streets and land.

Set Your church on fire.

Win this nation back.

Change the atmosphere.

Build Your kingdom here.

We pray.

~"Build Your Kingdom Here" by Rend Collective