Tuesday SHINE....
Today's Reading: Mark 16
Good morning, SHINE girls! We are finishing up Mark today, and heading straight into the gospel of John tomorrow! Yay!
Today, we continue with our SHINE girls serving stories. Let me just say this: I know there are many, many of you with serving stories! I would LOVE to hear them all some day. These are just from a few of my friends that are in my everyday life. :)
My friend, Erin, is sharing her story today. I know you will be blessed, inspired, encouraged and spurred on today. Grab your coffee, a blanket and snuggle up to her story.
My story
by: Erin Spinks
Last year while driving my children to school, I would pray
with them/over them that God would USE us THIS day to be the hands and feet of
Jesus. Each of my children(I have 4)
have a different gift. I pray their
specific gift over them so that they hear how I believe God can use
them-example, I pray for my Mae girl’s helping hands.
Anyway, I would pray this for them and then
talk to them about the people God would have in their lives that day. That just today they could be a gift to
others by simply offering a smile to everyone they passed. I would say, “You may be the only smile that
someone sees or you may have the words today to change someone’s day.” “Find something you can do to show God’s love
to someone—you can always find something good in a person.”
I’m not sure if they caught on, but by me
changing my morning routine, God started to change me. I would think through out my day about how to
BE the person I was praying for my children to be. I would pray to God to STOP me. In January last year, my husband and I
started to talk about how this could be the year that our older boys learned
about serving—maybe a mission trip? They
were 7 and 8 at the time. This would be
a great learning adventure for them. My
husband always wanted to go on a mission trip to Mexico , so this is where our heart
started to look into.
We started going
to a closer church-the 2 week they offered the opportunity to go on a mission
trip to Mexico ,
wow! We looked into it and signed
up. Then—the amount of the trip proved
to not be something we could do this summer.
We decided that Chuck would go, this was his dream and he would be
finally able to serve. Still, my heart
was shaken because we really wanted to be used this summer. We really wanted to show our children the
world—hurt, suffering, different life styles, etc. So, I prayed.
In the meantime, school was coming to an end. The month of May flies by and holds so many
activities. I was room mom for my son’s
class and it was time to collect money for teacher appreciation week. I did my duty of sending in a letter to the
class to collect the money and I would buy the gift. Rhett’s teacher though, know more about our
class. She sent the letter back and
talked to me in carpool line about the class—several of the classmates had
needed food and several had needed clothes even. She could not pass the letter to the
parents. My heart broke. I remember being so humbled by her
statement. You see, I live in the #1
small town of Georgia —really,
there has been a vote.
We moved here to
get away from the trouble of living closer to Atlanta .
I walked around like everyone here had it together. You mean, here in our town, in our school, in
our hallways there really are hurting children?
This moment changed my life!
I
cried to Chuck wondering how in the world we could help. School was ending in 2 weeks! I prayed.
Two weeks later a friend called me and told me of another situation in
our town where she was involved and that she wanted to teach her children this
summer about serving others. I was so
tuned in. I was already starting a
summer camp for my children and their moms.
We could teach this there. Then,
she stated that we should take what we do there and teach it to the kids in the
projects—what? I almost wrecked the
car!! How in the world? Where are the projects?(yes, I have been that
unaware!) Won’t it be dangerous? Won’t
people think we are crazy?
I finished
the conversation on board-ready to tell the world and have them join me. Not so much.
Those questions that I had, they(my friends) had. Those fears, they were shouted to me. But, I knew from the peace I felt that this
was EXACTLY the plan. That Jesus was
saying, you do not have to go to Mexico —it is HERE. Your children sit beside it daily. They smile and play with hurting
children. So, summer started and my
summer camp started. I knew that I would
have to present this to the moms that showed up (32 moms the first day!) I stepped out and told them my heart all
while I argued with God that this couldn’t be the right timingJ I had no plan. I had no resources. I just knew that I would be going. In all this time of my worry, our community
was serving breakfast and lunch in two locations to children. Churches were organizing volunteers to serve
to one location and the other was at the school. After I told the mothers of my plan to lead a
Thankful Thursday, whatever that looked like to their family, one friend told
me it was her church’s week and that I could join them. So, this was easy! I could just go serve and love. It was just a way in, little did I know. I signed up to serve THAT THURSDAY—this first
week of summer camp. I went, I
loved. I went back at lunch. At lunch, I talked to the children about the
camp I was doing. I knew they couldn’t
come. I knew I couldn’t pick them
up. So, I offered to bring the camp to
them. I would come on Thursday and do
the camp with them—not knowing who would come with meJ By the time another week came, I had a group
of volunteers! It was awesome! New friends, God knew all the time who could
help, I did not.
So, through out the
summer we met. We taught. We played. We loved. Summer was coming to an end. I wanted to know what happened when school
started. Where will these friends
be? I found out that they come back to
the community and do not really participate with the after school program at
school. So, we decided to create a place
that could be their very own. An after
school program that would be there for them.
Once school started, I had time to plan and organize the program. Also, to find new volunteers. The apartment complex GAVE us an
apartment! We cleaned, renovated,
painted and made it into a kid friendly environment. We now serve 15 kids on Monday and Thursday
afternoons. We take 15 boys to the local
recreational department on Monday nights for supper, mentor/bible study, and
play.
God has taught me to STOP. To listen.
To SEE His people. God wants to
use us all. It has to be in us to listen
to His plan and to Faithfully step out not knowing the plan. I still do not have a clue what I am
doing. I have had fears. I have had heart ache. I have been overwhelmed. I have be very frustrated. BUT—I have SEEN Jesus because of these
children. I have been changed. We all need hope, love, and a constant
reminder that God loves us all no matter what.
“Your love never fails.
Never gives up. Never runs out on me.”
Step out in faith.
God will never leave you—you will be stronger through the struggle.
Love,
Erin Spinks
How can you help?
*The number 1 thing you can do is PRAY! We talked about prayer this morning at church
and how Moses stood on the mountain top while the battle was being fought. As long as his hands were lifted, the battle
was won. He even had others helping him hold
his hands up. This is HUGE to me! If you would vow to be a prayer warrior, I
would gladly appreciate it! Exodus
17:8-16
*We need volunteers!
If you could volunteer your time, that would be awesome!
*If you want to come teach a subject/skill—contact me. This is going to be a place where kids
complete their homework and get tutored, but it is not there yet. I read a story and do an engagement game with
them. You can help!
*We feed our basketball guys every Monday. If you want to help out, contact me. We always need water bottles, food, and sweet
treat.
*If you are a man who loves basketball and can help let me
know!
Thanks friends!!
