City Sights/City Lights 2008 Review

City Sights/City Lights 2008 has come and gone. We here at FPC Owensboro had an absolute blast spending time with our fellow brothers and sisters of our Presbytery working hard with each other and getting messy with ministry. Personally I have no photos to share but I am posting a link to the Henderson Presbyterian Youth Group blog where you can see some of the photos that their YD took. Great pictures!

As for the work we did, we spend all morning at the Neblett Center helping them with their grounds, cleaning and putting things back in order. This facility is a unique shelter and organization for people to go to. It is a place where indeed it meets what Christ ministry was all about. Facilitating many life management skills, the Neblett Center provides a place where people can come and get a help with their second chance. Providing money management classes, rehab classes for those recovering from drugs and alcohol and to simply put it, a place where people can come and find rest, hope and love for all ages.

Finishing up with our work 2 hours early, we decided that it was too early to eat and too late to call it quits, so we gathered our canned food goods we brought and took them to the local food banks, the H.E.L.P Office. There we stocked the shelves of this organization that provides food, clothes and help to those in need. Doing so with a very in depth interview process, the H.E.L.P. Office helps anyone who comes to their doors, turning away no one, not even strangers. It was great to sit down and hear the testimonies of those who work their and how their lives have been impacted by the way they serve those who are in need of help. Getting hands on with food for the hungry was a great way to live into the Matthew 25 text, "when I was hungry you gave me food to eat." That too went by fast with 25 people working together!

From there we went to a near by park, English Park, where we ate lunch, sat by the river and played games with one another. The temperature was rather warm but no one really noticed as we stayed busy taking steps towards community. It was fun to interact with all of the different youth that make up the churches and begin developing some new relationships. When I say that, I speak on behalf of all the youth here in Owensboro.

Finally we arrived at our last work site, a Habitat for Humanity house, their 75th one or something like that. We were greeted warmly by the site head and were given a brief history of Habitat and the good work it has done in Owensboro. After this, we were distributed different tasks which included staining a picnic table, painting some furniture in the garage, weeding around the garage and in the alley way, washing the Habitat truck and working on the front lawn, removing excess gravel and dirt. Two hours the 25 of us worked, sweating in the hot June sun and drinking cool refreshing water as often as we can. Again, a great way for a group of strangers to get to know each other better by simply working together, alongside one another and getting messy with ministry.

Overall City Sights/City Lights was a success, if one could somehow determine what makes a trip successful. We didn't loose anyone, nobody was hurt and no skirmishes broke, out if one were to rank a success by these qualifications, then it was a success. However, although these are great pieces of a trip to celebrate, what makes a success is if a group of strangers could come together in the name of Christ and work side by side. That the love that was shared between strangers would show the love of Christ to those whom we ran into. After walking and talking, laughing and swimming, we could at the end of the day, turn to our brother and sister and say, "the Lord be with you," and they would reply, "and also with you." This is success to me and indeed the Western Kentucky Presbytery demonstrated the love of Christ not only to the places we worked at, but to each other.

Thanks be to God for such a great 2 days and for the new friendships made. See you all at Loucon in November!

Shalom!

City Sights/City Lights 2008

"Those who say, ' I love God,' and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also." 1 John 4.20,21

Being in communion with God is when we as God's people begin to love God. For it is a God we have not seen that tells us when we begin to love one another, then He will live within us, we can bring God's love to one another. Everyone is created in the imago dei, the image of God. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his site, we are all beloved children of God. We are called to love one another despite what makes us different. If anything, we should love one another more because of the differences. Imago Dei, the image of God, love. How can one love if they do not know the God of love?

Taking on the imago dei, today is liking being a fish swimming against the current. To go against the grain. To be different. Living into the image of God is for us to love each other, those we know and those we don't know . Not by seeing how many cool Christian t-shirts we can wear or by how many Christian songs we can remember no, God, through Christ, redeemed the world and sent Christ to bring a new humanity. To bring heaven on earth. We have a choice, to either embrace the imago dei, or to turn away from it and do the opposite, hate.

Our junior high students in the Western Kentucky Presbytery will have the opportunity to bring the love of Christ to local organizations in Owensboro. Next Monday evening beginning at 6 pm through Wednesday ending at 10 am, they will be in community with each other through the breaking of bread, through the reading of the great story, through working with each other and the redemptive grace the waters bring and around a common table, the youth will begin to take the light of Christ into a hurting world.

We ask that you pray for us Tuesday as we will leave at 8:45 am to go and do work at the HL Neblett Community Center here in Owensboro. Pray that our hearts may be tender, our eyes be soft and our attitudes reflect that of Christ. After we serve here, we will then take canned goods to the H.E.L.P. Office to stock their shelves and to learn more about poverty in Owensboro. After that, we will celebrate the day through story telling and breaking of bread around the table together. Then it will be time for a little R&R and swimming. On Wednesday we will wake up and begin the day the best way possible, with prayer and the Eucharist, followed by dinner and a departure.

Throughout our time together if you have not already picked up, the theme behind City Sights/City Lights 2008 is Love. Being influenced by pastor/theologian Rob Bell's Sex God, our liturgy will guide our liturgical movements providing a contemplative atmosphere for our youth and adults to pray about, contemplate and eventually, live out a life of love. So come and join us on this adventure, relearning what it means to love, relearning what it means to serve and relearning what it means to be a Child of God. If you can't make it, pray for us and take sometime to allow your lives to be shaped by the words of Christ.

May it be that both you and I, the youth and the chaperone's will come to encounter the holy and may it be that our hearts may too grow strangely warm in the presence of Christ.

"I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love." Mother Teresa