Be a Blessing

I had meetings all day yesterday afternoon with other pastors and laity from our district in Anamosa. Two presentations stood out to me as I thought about leaning back and kicking forward.
The first presentation was by a leader from the Matthew 25 Ministries in Cedar Rapids that we have begun to work with. He shared about the ministries accomplished this past year through this group. Their main target was a school that tests in the one percentile (meaning 99% of schools in Iowa score higher then the kids of this school) and their free or reduced lunch rate is now over 90% of the students. So these are children in need of some encouragement and support. And this ministry has partnered with the school to do whatever it can to let these kids know they are a gift from God. And the results have been so well received that the CR school district has asked them to see what they can do with other schools in the district. How amazing is that!
The second presentation that spoke to me was given by a man from Nigeria. Our Iowa Conference of the United Methodist Church has a partnership with the United Methodist Church in Nigeria. So he was telling us about what the Lord is doing in his country through the United Methodist Church. I believe in 10 years they have grown from about 20,000 members to 160,000 members, so the church is exploding there. He offered that if any pastors wanted to come and visit they are welcome to come for a year or so to help minister to all of these people because they are having a hard time keeping up with everyone. He also mentioned a gift of $75 will cover one semester of a pastor's education over there. It is hard to believe such a small gift could give great results.
I could go on, but the point I wanted to share with you is that there are endless possibilities of what God can use us for to be a blessing to this world from here in Williamsburg. We hope to be a blessing to the people of our community, young, old and in between. We can bless our surrounding communities and people across our state and country. We can even be a blessing half way around the world if we feel God calling us to that ministry. We have connections through the body of Christ all over this world and we can make a difference, if we decide to be a blessing.

MISSION: Pray about finding a ministry you can be a blessing to. Whether this is a ministry within our congregation like Kids' Club or choir, or a ministry around the world like Nigeria or Matthew 25. Then learn what you can do to be a blessing there and let others know about the gift of blessing this ministry.