THE JOY OF OUTREACH

by Sam Miranda

With so many in this world who live anticipating some kind of disappointment, discouragement or disaster simply because they know it’s happened so often to so many, it’s easy to think this world ins’t a place of joy. However, as believers we sing to the song of a different melody than this world because we understand God’s overall purpose. We know we’ve been forgiven and have a place in His purpose and now have His Spirit that can produce long lasting joy. Authentic joy being the sign that life has found its purpose. As the psalmist says,

“You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”

— Psalm 16:11

Last month there were a couple stories that came out the joy of yielding to fulfill God’s great creative purpose and seeing it accomplished. Consider several groups that came together and gave to “The Christmas Project” (an outreach by Touching Miami with Love to Overtown Miami) and the short testimonials that came out of it from those within the community. Kiondra Lee said,

“Thank you very much for donating. My kids will be very happy and pleased to have the gifts. You have saved me so much money so once again, thank you so much!”

Another long standing member of the Overtown community said,

“I’ve been a loyal customer for several years now and I’m very blessed to have this opportunity to shop here at TML for lower percentage pricing especially as a single parent. Thanks to all who donated…making families happy and joyful!”

Some of our community groups along with other churches helped give the dignity back to parents as it allowed them to have the joy of giving their own gifts on Christmas Day to over 225 kids and over 70 different families. Consider another story that came out of a “Christmas Party” the Thursday morning Brazilian women’s community group threw in collaboration with Debbie Petersen’s “Coffee Talks” resulting in over 20 women receiving Christ as their personal savior for the first time. Is there anything more powerful and life changing that can happen to a person than when God calls and completely awakens our understanding? It forever changes our perspective on life itself and on the things we formerly thought would give us long lasting satisfaction. Let the year of 2012 be a year of experiencing the joy of taking the gospel into our homes, jobs, schools and our neighborhoods. This is why we were born! Because of this, we can look forward to hearing Him say,

“Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”

— Matthew 25:21

Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 11:44 AM in My Story, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.