Change +Laundry=Love

 

A while back I shared about a local missions project called Laundry Love.

In March we spent some time in the Laundromat across the street from our church with people from our community.

We joined up with the Laundromat’s neighbor, a day care center, and we utilized both places to help love on parents and their children through laundry,  arts and crafts and a little dinner!

I think that the really fun part is when someone walks in to do their laundry and you tell them who you are and why you are there! They usually say, “You are kidding, right!? YOU want to pay to do MY laundry?!”

This lady really had a hard time grasping the concept, but what a blessing it was to love on her a bit!

We were able to feed her and her daughter and then found out that she’d been struggling with the loss of her mom. What a great opportunity to just talk to and pray for her and to see her be encouraged!

It is awesome to see people of all ages join together for one purpose. God is able to use each one of us to bring someone to the knowledge of Christ and we loved working together for one common purpose!

Here we are with the Laundromat owner…

Our youth helped play with and feed the children…

… and we had a chance to share with a man who is of the Hindu faith. He had many questions about our faith and about our church so we were excited to share with him.

We got to interact with about 13 families that night. We pray that it made an impact on them and that they will see the love that the Body of Christ has for them. We didn’t see anyone pray to receive Christ, but we know that seeds were planted. Now, we wait. We are asking the Lord to water and nurture those seeds so that lives might be changed for Him!

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him…” Psalm 37:7

More and more I am realizing that God does NOT NEED me to make things happen. He does, however, INVITE me to join Him in making a difference in the lives of those around me. I am so slack in so many ways and I really have nothing of worth to say on my own! As I continue to walk with Him I am realizing the value of being still… listening… waiting on Him. People are becoming more valuable to me and things are falling by the wayside. Don’t get me wrong! I love a cute shoe with the best of them! It’s just that they aren’t the first thing I look at anymore… He’s changing that in me.

Local missions is becoming more and more a part of me and my own mission in life. I LOVE IT! Seeing the light in people’s eyes when you say, “I’m here to help!” can give you a hunger to serve like never before! Funny how that works! That whole, “Love your neighbor as yourself” thing. You know? God is pretty smart.