New Year’s Day Worship SERVE-ice
What a fun and appropriate way to start the new year — by SERVING the wonderful folks of Cypress. Since New Year’s Day fell on a Sunday this year, LifeBridge decided to do something a bit unique. We gathered very briefly for a devotion and prayers, then sent people out all over town to serve. Some went to a local nursing home to visit with the residents. Others stopped to talk with the guys selling newspapers, then went and bought them shoes/jeans/whatever they needed. We worked at the local animal shelter, bought breakfast for people at the donut shop, and all sorts of similar types of projects. Then, we gathered afterwards at the Franke home to enjoy pizza and share stories.
Here are a few pictures from some of the service projects. A couple of our families visited with the residents at a local retirement center. They just LOVE visitors, and especially the children.
Others were given $70 to go buy donuts for people at the local donut shop. Some were suspicious at first, but ultimately warmed up when they heard we were buying breakfast!
Best of all, though, was how we were able to bless one very hard working guy. We had pre-arranged with the pizza delivery company to bless one of their drivers with a car full of groceries and a really REALLY big tip. They made sure our delivery was assigned to an individual who was particularly hard working, but who had experienced some challenging circumstances in 2011. What a joy it was for us to be able to start his year off on such a note of encouragement and a reminder of God’s love for him. I think it is safe to say he has never had a delivery like this one before!
When all was said and done, we had met some amazing people and had a whole new list of names of people that we could be praying for. Best of all, it was another affirmation of how rich life is when you love people the way Jesus did.