Go Beyond

Kids, even little kids, can make a big difference in the world. While all of our teams of big people served throughout the community last Sunday during our annual Caring for Katy initiative, our preschool kids were hard at work assembling bags of hope for the homeless. The youngest among us stayed behind and filled brown paper bags with useful items for the homeless in our community — including a paperback copy of John’s Gospel.

This afternoon, our dear friend Officer Jaime Giraldo stopped by to pick up the bags prepared by our kids. Officer Giraldo and those who serve with him on Houston Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team will distribute these bags to the homeless over the next couple of days. In addition to providing these needy individuals with some much-needed items, these bags will also remind the recipients that someone cares for them.

A very important component of our missions ministry is to fulfill our church’s purpose statement of “equipping the next generation, one home at a time.” We are intentional about providing opportunities for even the youngest among us to use their little hands to serve others. We want to help equip a generation of kids who love God and love people — who understand the importance of not merely looking out for their own personal interests, but for the interests of others as well.

Martin Luther King, Jr. once preached a sermon in which he challenged his listeners to “develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness” — like that demonstrated by the Good Samaritan. King said that we should not ask what will happen to us if we stop to help others. Instead we should ask what will happen to others if we do not stop to help. And that is exactly the kind of questions we want to teach our kids to ask. We want to raise a generation of kids that will develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness that can change the world.

So, many thanks to our preschool kids and those who helped them to prepare bags of goodies for the homeless. The work of their little hands is currently en route to those in need in our community. I believe that every person who receives one of the bags they filled will be blessed and that God will use this simple act of kindness to remind them that they are not forgotten.