Sojourning Pilgrim

Give us this day our daily bread

Several years ago, our small church decided that we couldn't possible do Bible School in the rather traditional manner - 3 hours for a week (or more - I remember back in the days - aw, never mind). Besides, we didn't care all that much for the literature that was out there for Bible Schools. So, we settled on a scheme, and it has worked for us.

We take on the kiddos for most of the day - 6 hours or more - but we do this five different days during the summer. Usually, it is more or less every other Tuesday. We do our craft projects and have our bible lessons in the morning, some kind of service project, and then we take a trip to someplace which has a connection to our lesson for the day.

This summer, we determined to walk our boys and girls through the seasons of the Christian calendar - Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week/Easter, and Pentecost. The first week we made preparation - which really is the focus of Advent. Its the first time we didn't take the kids anywhere, and they actually handled that little change quite well. The second week, we looked at Christmas and Epiphany in one setting. For the Christmas part of the lesson, they delivered toiletry bags that they had made to the Salvation Army for those kiddos who would be attending camp later this summer. Then in the afternoon, the made a trip to a lighthouse in a nearby city - emphasis on the light coming into our world (epiphany).

Today was our study of Lent. We had the children decorate small mirrors (during Lent, we take a good look at ourselves in preparation for Easter), and then we had our lesson. After the lesson, we made a trip to our local soup kitchen, and the children served those who eat lunch there everyday. This wasn't our first exposure to the Soup Kitchen (Our Daily Bread) - we helped them raise the funds about five years ago that allowed them to move into a new, more adequate facility.

Our children were superb. They behaved themselves admirably, and were true servants of our Christ - who said, "I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat." We saw people who are homeless. We saw people who don't have very much at all. We saw people who deal with disabilities and even mental illness. Our boys and girls saw things they don't see very often, and I pray it was a life-changing event for them.

I started adding up the numbers - Enid has about 43,000 in our city, and we fed around 200 this morning. That is nearly half of one percent of the people who live in our town - who don't have enough work to pay for the food they need. That's too many. Our society must do more to deal with hunger and homelessness.

All of us must do more.

posted by the sojourning pilgrim @ 2:39 PM