A Little Extra

I(names of givers and recipients will not be shared) was blessed with a "Pass the Hat" opportunity the Sunday before Thanksgiving. A co-worker has been through radiation and chemotherapy...twice.

When she came home the second time and shared the unfortunate news with her family, her husband told her that he was divorcing her. Currentl several months have passes since she finished the secnd round of treatmens, her divorce is final and her fmaily has been turned upside down in every aspect (financially, emotionally, physically, etc). She is now adjusting to being back to work full-time plus overtime (as her body allows, to help with bills) and being a single mom to her two sons (one is living at home going to college, the other is a senior in high school).

When I approached her on Monday, I explained the "Pass the Hat" at South Side and that I would like to 'share this gift and for her to know that Jesus loves her. That's it, plain ans imple."

Needless to say, she started to cry and for me the tears started when I was approaching her, so I began to cry a river whe she said "Thank you." She continued on, "You don't know what this means to me. My oldest son has a part-time job and I had to borrow money from him yesterday to buy groceries for our Thanksgiving meal. He gave me $100. and that's exactly what I spent."

I replied, "As God always does, he has given you a little extra." The total she received was $110. We shared tears and hugs and then returned back to our desks, both having been blesses bigger and better than either of us ever could imagine.

Pass the Hat

Today my son from Independence Mo called & asked me why I wasn't posting any more. He told me that there was a portion of the churches web site, 'Pass the Hat' that took him here to my 'Notions', and when he got here & found nothing, he was quite disappointed. he encouraged me to start setting aside at least 3o minutes a week to post 'Pass the Hat' stories. So here's the 1st one.

Last October I was at a conference and heard about a church doing something similar to our passing of the hat. I felt God nudge me toward instituting this in our church as a way to teach & encourage the church to be the church, be a blessing to others & create an opportunity to share Christ's love with others at the same time.

I came home wondering about it & still praying about it. The next day, as I was passing through the sanctuary, on the front pew hung a old, black cowboy hat I have never seen before. Laughingly I said to God, "OK, since You provided the hat, we'll see where it goes.". That Sunday we began

'passing the hat', and we collected $110 to give away as a blessing to someone in need. I felt God lead me to someone in the church to give it to to pass on to someone else telling them that Jesus loves them , which they did later that week. I set that old, black cowboy hat on a desk in my office & left for home. The next day when I came in, that hat was gone. To this day, no one has fessed up to taking it. It's just gone. I since have gone to using another hat that I found in the ushers closet that no one has claimed. It's still being used used. To date we have given away over $5,000 to 32 families, who have mostly been strangers in need of hearing that Jesus loves them. Knowing, that the one's who have been blessed the most is us, as we get to hear the 'Pass the Hat' stories every week.

So starting this week I will try to post those stories for you to share in our blessings from God. And if by His design you happen to be a recipient some day, know it's because Jesus loves you & wants to bless you with a gift from a church that loves Him.

Pass The Hat

Our church is becoming missional minded. Yes, we support missionaries. Yes, we help those in the congregation who need help. Yes, we support the local food bank. But those things are allocated into our annual church budget. How do we intentionally get past ourselves to see what Christ sees? To discern the needs around us and be willing to be uncomfortable to meet those needs?

One of the ways we learning the answer to these questions is by Passing the Hat. Every Sunday after the tithes and offerings are taken, we pass a hat from pew to pew. People are encouraged to put whatever little bits they can spare into the hat. For some it is the cost of a cup of coffee, for some it is spare change, for some it is a five, a ten, or a twenty. No one is expected to give more than they can afford but all are encouraged to think of those less fortunate than themselves.

At the end of the service, someone is chosen from the congregation to take the money and ask God to reveal who they should give it too. The only requirement to giving the money away is to tell the recipient that Jesus loves them. We will try to accurately record stories from week to week to keep you all informed of how God is using Pass the Hat to help others and to help us learn the joy of giving and living missional minded.

The first week a little over $137.00 was tossed into the hat. A gentleman from the church was randomly picked to give the money away. A big smile crossed his face. He already knew who God wanted him to give the money too. He selected a young couple who were going to have their first baby. The husband had recently lost his job and this gift couldn’t have come at a better time.

God is good. Stay tuned for the next installment of Pass the Hat.

Yeah, I know it's been a while again. I was walking with a friend the other day up my favorite trail & they were talking about their life situations & how God has been at work in their life. The trail can get rather steep, and it was during the steep part my friend began to doubt they could make it to the top without a stop, whether or not they were in shape enough for the climb. I told them, you determine how good of shape you're in by how fast you recover from the exertion. Dawned on me the same is true in our spiritual walk. How good of shape we are in spiritually is determined by how fast we recover from our lapses in sound judgment, otherwise known as sin. Do you wallow around in it, or do you set your heart on getting right with God again so you can continue the climb. That's the mark of a spiritual growth.
PJ

More

Last night we where at Muncher & Randa's picking up Carole's computer, which gave me a chance to play with my grand kids, Braska & Kinlee. Kinlee, who is only 14 months old, came over to me as I sat in the couch & lifting her arms said, "Up." Instead of just lifting her unto my lap, I tossed her into the air & caught her. She loved it & laughed with delight. So I asked her, "More?" Which she quickly responded to with her sign lamguage & the word, "More!" Everytime I tossed her up she would laugh & squeal with delight, and as soon as I would catch her & set on my lap she would sign for & ask for "More." After a while I got tired, so I quit & put her down. Wasn't very long before she was back, lifting up her arms to me & asking for "Up?" And as soon as I picked her up she signed for & asked for "More." Of course I complied.
That's how God wants us to be with Him in life. Coming to Him with outstretched arms wanting "up", and when He stoops to comply, asking for "more". More of His love, His grace, His hope, His peace, & His joy. God loves to make us laugh & squeal with delight; and He loves it even more when we return again & again asking for "more' - MORE of Him.
PJ

Last Sunday was my birthday & almost my whole family was over to help me celebrate it. Xander, my 13 month old granson, who has justed started to walk managed to find his way to the open patio door, which is 2 steps off the ground. Yep, he went for it & landed squarely on his forehead on the cement patio. Immediately all of us adults rushed to his aid & began to swoon over him & doing whatever we could to tend to his what would prove to be a minor injury, feeling absolutely lousy for allowing it to happen & for him being injured.
That's the way God is with us when we take steps we shouldn't & fall down & injure ourselves. He rushes to our side to pick us up, doing all He can to help heal our wounds, feeling lousy that we choose the steps we did, wanting to protect us from all wrong; but knowing because we get to chose, we will continue to fall down & get hurt; which in turn hurts Him as well. Makes you think a bit, doesn't it.
PJ

Together

Last Sunday I dismissed the kids for children's church like I do every week. This week my 4 year old granddaughter & another little girl a year younger than her were walking down the center aisle together, just the two of them. You could tell by the way they walked they were unsure where they were going, but they were going there together. God spoke to me right then. We often don't really know where God is taking us, where we are headed; and in truth it really isn't that important. What is important is that we are going there together, with each other, and most importantly, with Him!
PJ