Overwhelmed and a Summer Quest

Hola! Me llamo Melissa y nessicito clase de Espanol, por favor!

This post is probably going to feel like it’s going in circles… hang with me? We’ll make some sense by the end!

OH MY HEAVENS! I am excited and overwhelmed all at the same time! It seems that I am inundated with lessons in giving everywhere I turn lately! There is a saying in the Christian world, “You can’t out give God.”

It is based on scripture from Luke 6:38 that says, “give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.”

I started this post saying “Hello! My name is Melissa and I need Spanish classes, please!” because of the opportunity that we have to minister to the Hispanic population in our area and my overwhelming WANT and need to communicate with those that enter the clothes closet. Sometimes we have groups of people that come and we piece together a conversation so that they understand us and we understand them.

One thing that I love is their overwhelming  willingness to try. They want to learn English just as badly as I want to learn Spanish so they are very open and kind and they want to teach me… if I will teach them. They are willing to give of their time and their knowledge of the Spanish language and they want so much to do well.

This past Tuesday we were almost wiped out! We had so many people come into the clothing ministry that our outfits hanging on the walls were all gone and many, many clothes were given away. Once we closed for the day I felt like I had been through a whirlwind of just plain giving!! It was quite overwhelming and I wasn’t sure how Thursday would go since so many items were taken.

Remember that scripture above? Well, trust me! Today (Thursday) we had SO MANY DONATIONS that we could not stay on top of it all. The people of our church have been so willing to give and we’ve seen the exact principle that Jesus spoke of in Luke. We gave SO much away, but He brought SO, SO, SO much that we are, again, just completely overwhelmed.

The giving that we’ve seen has been on a church level. While the volunteers and I give of our time much of the giving comes from others and their willingness to give of their abundance to help others. It’s been a real challenge to me to begin to give more personally.

I have a friend who has set out to do a Random Act of Kindness each day. I have seen her posts on Facebook about giving cookies to firefighters with a note of thanks. She drove to a laundry mat and gave a random lady a roll of quarters to do her laundry that day. She also put a note of encouragement on the car of a coworker telling them that they are doing a great job along with other random acts. I have tried to imagine the overwhelming feeling of encouragement that those receiving the “Kindness” have felt, but I have also experienced first hand the overwhelming sense of satisfaction that I have received from giving in the clothing ministry. That sense of satisfaction needs to be passed on to my child.

This summer we are going on a quest. I am stealing my friend’s idea and we are adopting the Luke 6 scripture as our summer verse. We have already starting making a list of things that we are planning to do in order to get our eyes off of ourselves and we are going to be on the look out for people who need encouragement.

We do not have a lot of money to give, but what we will have is Summer time. Sometimes time is even more valuable and we need to make the most of it. I am praying that we overwhelm someone with love and that they might decide to follow Christ as a result. I can’t wait to see what God does!! He is JUST OVERWHELMING!!