By Joey Candillo, Pastor of Grace Church in Independence
Labor Day weekend is traditionally a low-attendance Sunday. This year we started a new annual Labor Day tradition. Instead of our weekly worship service, we spent Sunday morning serving the community. We met at the church at 9am and had breakfast. At 9:30am we prayed and divided up into teams and went out into our community to accomplish the following projects:
Project 1: Laundromat Pay it Forward. We went to 3 local laundromats and offered to pay for people’s loads of laundry, which opened up fruitful conversations.
Project 2: Yard Work. We mowed several lawns for elderly people and a man with Leukemia.
Project 3: Tree Trimming. We trimmed trees for elderly and cleaned an empty lot next to the church.
Project 4: Trash pickup. We cleaned and pulled weeds in the alley behind our church. Then we went cleaned up trash along 24 Highway and around Chrisman High School and Ott Elementary.
Project 5: Rachel House. One group stayed at the church to put together gift bags for Rachel House, a Christian crisis pregnancy center.
Project 7:Kids Area. We offered childcare during while the adults served – and the kids served, too! They made cards and crafts for elderly people in a retirement home in Lexington and put together a care package for military.
At noon we all met at a local park and had a church picnic while sharing about our experiences serving. It was an amazing day of serving our community!
