Archive for January 17th, 2009
Wow-Thanks
I was totally unprepared for the volume and depth of response to the questions of yesterday about community to the homebound. I will try to get to every response next week, and also collect a set of ideas that we can share together. Of course, I am delighted to say that our little exercise was an example of how we can share as a community even if we can’t get out of the house — after all, this started as some questions from those who faced those challenges.
Over the years, I’ve been humbled by the very emotional and open testimony of folks who talked about the role that Heartlight.org played in their lives as they faced difficult challenges. A couple came back to Christ after a wreck through friends who served them, made sure they had access to the web, and introduced them to Heartlight. A sweet sister in Christ, dying of bone cancer, wrote about how precious the devotionals and articles and emails were as she faced the growing limitations of her failing body before she went to be with Jesus. A note from a wife whose husband had been baptized one year around Christmas because he read of the devotionals focused on Jesus’ birth and and what that really meant. Three native Hawaiian young adults that had subscribed to Today’s Verse as part of their spiritual quest and ended up baptizing each other in the Pacific off Ohuau. African Christian schools using the content of Today’s Verse or What Jesus Did! to teach their young students the practice of daily devotionals. A Philipinno businessman using Heartlight articles and an Internet Cafe to share his faith with his friends. And many, many, who face the challenges of age or mobility and depend on our resources and community to connect with them.
But it sure seems to me that we need to take that community to the next level and make sure we do what real communities do: encourage each other, care for each other, include each other, and bring each other to Jesus. We’ll be working on ways to do that and hope you will stay in the discussion!
Thanks for all the feedback!