24 Jul Displaying & Declaring Love
This is the SummerLINK Ann Arbor team happy to be back for another post. These past 4 weeks have not been easy but they have been helpful times for Treasuring Christ Church, as well as their ability to serve the community. Much of our daily activities still vary between community service projects, giveaways on campus, and spiritual interest surveys/ evangelism. These activities have been instrumental in giving opportunity for our team to meet college students, share the good news of Jesus Christ, and spread the word about Treasuring Christ Church. Our giveaways have looked a lot different these past few weeks as we have transitioned out of coffee and granola bars to giving away popsicles in the afternoon! We have been encouraged by how much people enjoy them, and they have been a great way of showing students and others that TCC is a church that desires to serve them.
Our community service projects have been refreshing as well as we have been able to build meaningful relationships and connections through Peace Neighborhood and Maize and Blue Cupboard. Peace Neighborhood has been a partnership we have been involved in since our arrival in Ann Arbor. As a community center, offering child care and activities for local families, we have been volunteering for their extended hours in the afternoon. We care for the children in order to alleviate much of the staff since some children stay later than others depending on their family?s work schedule. We have been able to have fun and love on those children as part of a great service offered to this community. Maize and Blue Cupboard is a new area that we have been able to serve in on campus. Maize and Blue Cupboard is a food pantry on the University of Michigan?s campus offering support to students who are faced with food insecurity. We help to unload delivery trucks that drop off produce and other foods, and then arrange them within the facility. We have been able to work alongside some incredible students who do this as a part-time job and establish a great relationship with that campus service. We have been able to build some meaningful relationships through many of these outreach opportunities. The Lord has used these relationships for his glory as individuals have been able to be a part of our bible studies and have been able to hear the gospel through us meeting up with them.
As a team we have been studying through the Ephesians and have been challenged in our call to love each other as chapter 4 instructs us to. We see here that we are to love one another and forgive one another as Christ has forgiven us. He has forgiven us and we then have no condemnation before the Father. What an example set for us in forgiving one another regardless of any circumstances. We have also been challenged by Romans 12:1-2 :
?1. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.?. As we consider this passage, we see that we have been called to a life of worship through laying down our lives to the Lord. As we see the weight of these commands, would you pray with our team that we would be imitators of these things; delighting in, declaring, and displaying Christ to the world around us.
Evan Ward
Summer LINK Ann Arbor Director