Love Sends. What does that mean exactly?
This year at Breakaway we have been talking about how love is active. Love sends text messages when thinking of someone. Love sends money in a time of need. Love sends resources to those without. Love initiates. Love moves. Love sends. Love sends a beloved Son to give His life for others. 1 John declares that God’s love was manifested in this: that He sent His son that we might live through Him. John follows this declaration with another: “If God so loved us, we should love one another.” If God’s love expressed itself in action to benefit another, so should ours. That is what this blog-site is about.
Over the past several weeks we’ve been flooded with two kinds of messages. One type asks questions like: “you’ve been talking about going out and loving people, but how? How do I do it? Where do I go?” The other kind has included stories about how someone you know has been doing what we’ve talked about. Someone stops by to tell us about a friend who helps at a crisis pregnancy center. Another tells us about their inner-city ministry. Another sings the praises of the kids they work with in a Sunday School class.
Last year we organized the Shalom Project to raise money for local ministries. This year we didn’t feel like God was leading us to organize another project, but rather to celebrate what you have been doing in the thousands of little ways that many of you have worked to send the love of God to others. Our hope is that this blog-site will be filled with stories of people who are loving with movement. Whether it's local or international, we want to hear about how students and others are loving people all over this world. Our hope is that this might be a way to stir creativity and spur each other on as we seek to love those around us. So tell your friends, tell your families, and post your stories here! And keep in mind, love sends.
Note: This blog is designed to provide a venue for students to share creative ideas of how to love others. Breakaway Ministries does not endorse any specific organizations mentioned in the following comments.
10 comments:
My roommates are constantly defining "love sends" in such a challenging and encouraging way. We live nextdoor to a very young couple who have a brand new baby. We love having people over for dinner, but thought it would be nice to take our neighbors a meal. My roomies found a night they were free and just blessed them with a meal and dessert. The family was so appreciative and it was awesome to get to know them a little better.
Howdy!
I have been part of a program that goes down to downtown Houston with a group from my church with plenty of food, water, clothing, toiletries, and sometimes, Bibles... The group goes down, and parks underneath the Pierce Street Elevated bridge, and basically be there for the homeless. They only go down every 3rd Friday of the month. It is truly an amazing experience that I would like to happen more. This church group is run out of Huntsville. It would just be nice to spread the love elsewhere. Not just in Houston. I have been praying about it alot, and I feel like with the message of this entire semester, that I would like to either start, or be a part of something more local (BCS, Hearne, Navasota, etc.). If anyone is interested, please email mts10726@yahoo.com and let us know. We will continue to pray about this really hard. Thanks and Gig' Em
work at camps in RUSSIA
Last summer I went with a team of Australians to Vladivostok and worked two weeks at a children's camp. In July 2008, I'll be going back (hopefully with a team of Texans!) If you're interested or want more info, I would love to talk to you! This is definetly not for someone looking for an easy mission trip.
To read about my experience, go to http://glitterbug84.blogspot.com
I hope to hear from you soon. If you're thinking about it, you're exactly who God wants to use!
Serving Him,
Jennifer Spitzenberger
class of '07
glitterbug_84@hotmail.com
(979) 540-6165
I was experiencing some medical issues, but I don't have insurance so I couldn't get checked out. My roommates and some friends took up an offering for me without me knowing and gave me a check recently so I can get insurance for a couple of months! I am truly blessed!
Wouldn't it be cool if we could have done some kind of Breakaway in Austin?... I'm a freshman this year and I came here knowing no one. I attended Impact this summer expecting to make some new friends and maybe meet a cute guy but it was nothing like I expected. It literally changed my life. I'd always considered myself a Christian but I never even knew what it meant to have a relationship with God. Since Impact, I've joined a Christian sorority, a Bible study, I attend Church every Sunday and Breakaway every Tuesday. I take advantage of every oppurtunity to be with and talk to God. I've also made some major life-style changes and sometimes it's really hard. I love breakaway so much because when I'm there I feel like I'm at camp again. It's so encouraging to see so many believers so excited about coming together to Worship our Lord.
I have a bunch of friends who went to TU this year (don't know why but they did) and I'm always telling them about breakaway and how awesome it is but they can't understand what I'm so excited about it. I know I'm not the only one with friends is Austin... I think it would be sooooo cool if we could hold breakaway over there some day. We could car-pool to Austin and invite all of our Longhorn brothers and sisters... like sending our love to them. haha get it? love sends. haha anywho... I have no idea how that would happen or if anyone would be up for it. It's just an idea that I thought I'd share. :) Thanks and Gig 'Em!
Thursdays are trash pick-up days in my neighborhood and I always get home late in the evening those days. The last few weeks, my trash can is always pulled back up to the house by the time I get home. It's such a small thing but it really encourages me after a long day. I'm thankful that my neighbors would go out of their way to do that for me and reminds me think of little ways to send love to other people.
As far as ways that I have seen of people spreading God's love, I managed to come across a video of a group of Christians that traveled to a gay ralley and handed out roses to remind people that God loves them. The video can be found on YouTube under "Real Christians go to a Gay Ralley". I think you will find their idea to be insightful and effective. In fact, if anyone is interested in doing something similar at A&M, let me know and I would be happy to join you.
There is a lady who used to own and operate a restaurant in the northwest US, and now she has a culinary/hospitality school in East Africa. Tourism is a big part of the economy in those developing nations. Hotels and resorts are being built all over, but they are having a hard time employing people, because none of the locals know how to cook western style food, or even how to make a bed (they don't have beds to make themselves!). So this Christian decided to open a school in the middle of the bush that would prepare her students to work in the hospitality industry either cooking or managing/working in a hotel. This will enable her students to lead lives that never would have been possible without her. She also teaches her students the Bible, which is profitable in everything. I don't think the lady has a degree in hotel/restaurant management or a seminary degree, she just fell in love with these people over the course of a few trips and decided to pack up and go. Check out her website: http://www.tiptopwebsite.com/websites/index2.php?username=maggiejosiah&page=1
As far as I know she runs the only school of its kind in East Africa, and maybe the only one in Sub-Sahara Africa.
I was truly blessed by some other people tonight at the Sonic Drive-In. I was going through the Drive Thru and had already ordered, but when I pulled up to the window to pay, the cashier said the guys in the truck ahead of me had wanted to pay for whoever was behind them in the Drive Thru line. I asked if there was a reason why, and he said they said they just wanted to share God's love. Although I wish it was a non-Christian that could've experienced that, I was truly blessed by their act of kindness!
I was driving back to College Station after having spent a weekend in Austin with friends. We decided to stop at Starbucks before officially hitting the proverbial road and were excited to find one with a drive through. After placing our order and pulling up to the window to pay the barista informed us that the lady in front of us had paid for our drinks and that we owed nothing! She went on to say that that had been happening all morning, one person paid for the car behind him and the generosity continued throughout the day! Our barista exclaimed with a huge smile on her face, she wasn't sure why, but perhaps it was because it was Sunday! We could see that she had also been touched by the spreading of love and generosity that had taken place that day! So we gladly offered to pay for the car behind us and drove off feeling blessed to have been a part of a small example of the impact a community can have when they decide to "send love" to one another!
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