Who would have ever thought flipping pancakes could make heaven come closer to earth?

Well, it’s true. On Saturday mornings, people in need of medical assistance in Shepherd Community Center’s neighborhood can come and get assistance from Grace’s health care ministry. While they’re waiting to be seen by our medical team, another group of Grace volunteers is in the kitchen serving up some delicious-pancake-goodness for breakfast.

The volunteers serving through Saturdays at Shepherd prepare and serve a nutritious breakfast to Shepherd’s neighbors in need of medical assistance. It really is a beautiful thing…friends, small groups, families, kids all serving together to bring the kingdom of God here. Today.

If this sounds like something you’d like to do, check out the registration page for Saturdays at Shepherd. If your serving plate is full, would you consider praying for Saturdays at Shepherd this week?

There’s definitely a buzz in the air since our ongoing serving opportunities are back in full swing. Join us in this Kingdom momentum if you haven’t already.

Have you ever wanted to make a difference in someone’s life? Be Jesus to someone? Teach someone something that will stay with them forever? Change the future?

Starting today, you have that opportunity.

Shepherd after school tutoring kicks off for the fall semester today at Shepherd Community Center. Volunteers from Grace tutor every Monday and Wednesday afternoon from 4:00-6:00 p.m. and preschool helpers assist with Shepherd’s preschool program every Friday morning from 9:00 a.m.-noon. If you answered “yes” to any of the questions above, this may just be for you. Click here for the logistical stuff.

If you are already involved or don’t think this is for you, will you pray for tutoring at Shepherd this week?

What always floors me is that I approach serving opportunities like this after answering “yes” to all of the questions in the first paragraph, and those things do happen, but here’s what happens to me (and you):

We aim to make a difference in someone’s life, and then God makes a profound difference in ours.

We aim to be Jesus to someone, and then we see Jesus in them.

We aim to teach someone something that will stay with them forever, and then their story becomes part of ours.

We aim to change the future, and ours is changed.

Dive into serving this fall. You won’t regret it.

We’re happy to be able to share our most recent justice seminar, Justice in the ‘Burbs, with you via the wonders of the internet. You can go to Grace’s website by clicking here and listen to and download the three sessions of Justice in the ‘Burbs, with Will Samson. Feel free to share it with anyone who you think would appreciate it.

Enjoy!

We had a great Justice Seminar this weekend, with guest speaker Will Samson raising some challenging questions about how we ought to live as people following in the way of Jesus. About 80 people from all over the Indianapolis area gathered in the north auditorium to discuss and learn about the definition of biblical social justice. Thanks to everyone who came.

Our next Justice Seminar will be in January 2011…we will post audio from Will’s talk sometime this week on Get Compelled.

As promised, here’s the second half of the Outreach and Leadership Development team’s summer reading picks:

Denise Adair: Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

One day while at work, my co-worker recommended the book Three Cups of Tea.  I was initially intrigued by the title and did some research to learn more about the author and off to the library I went!  My family absolutely loves the local library and all of the wonderful books, movies, CDs and resources they offer for FREE!  It really is a great concept and within a few weeks I received an e-mail notification that Three Cups of Tea was ready for pick-up.  The funny thing is that I went to pick it up, I realized that I requested the “young reader’s edition”, but I think God planned it this way because it was right up my alley with lots of pictures, maps, a timeline, glossary and a reader’s guide.  After all, I am a kid at heart!

I have since finished reading Three Cups of Tea and absolutely loved learning about Mortenson’s journey of adventure, courage and determination.  An avid mountain climber, Mortenson begins the book describing his expedition to reach the summit of a mountain called K2, which is the second highest mountain on earth.  During his hiking journey, he got lost and ended up in a village called Korphe.  He may have been “lost” on his expedition to reach to top of K2, but in turn he stumbled upon God’s purpose for him on earth.  From this day forward, his life was changed forever and his journey began.  This book represents what one person can accomplish, regardless of the challenges and obstacles they are up against when they keep faith in God and they don’t give up.  If you live in Indiana and would like to meet the author, Greg Mortenson will be at a speaking event in Indianapolis on September 27^th.  I encourage you to pick it up today…and if you are a kid at heart, feel free to get the young reader’s edition!

Here are Keith Carlson’s picks. I don’t think he sleeps, because he has more books than the Library of Congress…

Evangelism without Additives, by Jim Henderson

Jim takes a refreshing new look at evangelism, helping us see that evangelism does not have to be fear-inducing or only for the super spiritual.  Evangelism is more about having conversations and sharing part of who you are with people you know.

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The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge, by David McCollough

David writes the history of the making of the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the monumental feats of engineering of the last several hundred years.  The amount of sacrifice and perseverance it took to complete this project over the course of a decade is breathtaking.

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The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch

Interesting read of this brilliant man’s “last lecture” to his children and students before his life was taken by cancer.  The lecture was surprisingly down to earth and touching, a collection of pithy statements and advice that he wanted his kids to know since he wouldn’t be able to see them grow up.
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The Amateur Marriage, by Anne Tyler

Another brilliant and insightful story from Anne Tyler who weaves a poignant tale about a marriage between two seemingly mismatched people, and what happens to them and their children through the years.
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It’s Only a Demon, by David Appleby

David writes about his insights after years of teaching, counseling, and praying with people who are demon-possessed.  His advice to pastors is very helpful, but rarely talked about in understanding demons, how they affect people, and how to help people be freed from their destructive influence on their lives.
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Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder

Tracy writes about Dr. Paul Farmer, a doctor who serves the poor in Haiti.  This is an excellent and insightful look at the problems of health care in developing countries, but ultimately is very hopeful and inspiring in seeing the progress that Dr. Farmer and his colleagues have been able to make.
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[I read this book before I went to Haiti with World Next Door last October. This helped me immensely to understand the state of a country like Haiti. If you're interested in pre-earthquake Haiti, definitely pick up this book. -CH]

That’s about it for our summer reading list. Oh, of course, I almost forgot one book we’re all brushing up on…Justice in the Burbs, by Will and Lisa Samson. Will is coming to Grace on Saturday, July 24 to speak on this book. It should be a great conversation, and it’s FREE! Tell everyone you know and register by going here.

What are you reading right now?

Hi all. If you tried to register for our Justice Seminar, Justice in the Burbs, and had trouble, we’re going to try it again:

Registration Link

Sorry for any issues you had registering. As a reminder, this is a free seminar with special guest speaker Will Samson, co-author of Justice in the Burbs, happening on Saturday, July 24, from 9:00 a.m.-noon in the north auditorium at Grace.

Hope to see you there.

…having to spend each day the color of the leaves.

Maybe that’s true for Kermit, but it’s not true for our Shepherd Bag Hunger program at Grace.

In fact, it was as simple as partnering with Shepherd Community Center to order some new, neon green reusable grocery bags and taping the word “green” over “brown” and “yellow” on our signs. While our Shepherd Bag Hunger bags have had a bit of an identity crisis over the past two years (first yellow, then brown, and now green), I think we’ve landed on some bags that will work for a long time coming.

Here’s what the bag stands looked like before this past weekend:

…and here’s what they all looked like on Monday morning:

That poor bag stand looks like a shaved dog after a bath…or, more accurately, a tree in the middle of winter. Whatever the case, the people of Grace once again came through and took home approximately 500 bags this weekend to fill with grocery items and bring back next week.

As a side note, I really hope people bring these bags back…they’re really nice. Bring them back, people!

We’re having to scramble around here to re-stock all of the bag stands (which is a great problem to have). We’re really excited that Grace attenders embraced this new “green bag” initiative, and hopefully will continue to do so. More than being green, the important thing about Shepherd Bag Hunger is that we can provide food to our neighbors in need. Simple as that. Thanks for being so generous and eager to serve others.

Having to spend each day the color of the leaves

This week is strategic partner week on Get Compelled.  Grace’s 3 strategic partners teach us a lot.  Today we can learn from Tim Street with Shepherd Community Center.  Tim walks the talk.  Listen to his story.  

I honestly never thought I’d write a post about National Train Day on Get Compelled.

On Saturday, the Indiana Transportation Museum, which is in Forest Park (Noblesville) hosted an event to celebrate National Train Day. They offered free admission for participants who brought bag of food to be donated to the Hamilton County Food Pantry Drive.

What a success! Results: three BIG boxes of food donated by Hoosier train enthusiasts. Food donations were taken to Third Phase (one of Grace’s Frontline Ministries) in Noblesville.

Not an exciting picture, but these boxes are loaded with food.

People at the Transportation Museum got it right. They put on a big event to promote their own business while thinking of others first. They could have easily scrapped the idea for the food drive, but they created their event with the least of these in mind.

If you’re reading this and you’re in Hamilton County, are there any ways for you to collect food like this? What ways can you help others in the midst of everyday happenings?

Jay Height, executive director of Shepherd Community Center (one of Grace’s strategic partners), wrote an article featured in yesterday’s Indy Star on the reality of hunger in Indianapolis. You can read his article by clicking here.