Or Bust
I hate to complain, but you all didn't pray hard enough.
We four started out for Ft. Worth on Tuesday morning at about 9:oo, in David's van. We had only gotten as far as Osceola..... (O S C E O L A, Iowa!!!.... for heaven's sake) before the radiator started spewing. Actually, we weren't in Osceola quite yet. We actually had to limp to Osceola, 7 or 8 miles, stopping often to add water and anti-freeze (and using my only towel to remove the radiator cap). We got to a Ford dealership at noon. Of course everyone who could have worked on itwas gone to lunch, so we walked a quarter mile or so down the road to eat. By the time we got back, someone had looked at the problem we call a van and determined that it was the thermostat that was causing all the trouble. $450. Unfortunately, it was hard to get to and it was a 3 hour fix. So we were stuck there. Someone had the great idea to call the Disciple church in town. We did and told the secretary about our plight. She came with her van and took us all to downtown Osceola and dropped us off, promising to pick us up a 4:00 after she got groceries. We walked around downtown, which was actually fun, and stopped at the farmer's market and were lazing in the shade in the town square, when David got a call on his cell phone. We were hoping that meant the thermostat was fixed. No. What they said was, that in the process of removing the thermostat, they had broken the intake manifold. They couldn't get the parts to fix that until Thursday...... (Later, during Assembly, he got the bad news that this was all caused by a radiator leak, and so, $2000 later...)
What to do, what to do.
I called Marv and David called Meg. In a few hours (we were waiting at the Disciples church) Marv showed up in our (little) Mazda Protege 5 and David's nephew, Eric, came with David's little Tracker. Mary Jane, Darla, and I piled all our stuff in the Mazda. There was no possible way to fit David and his luggage (meager as it was) in too, so he and Marv and Eric took the boat we had been towing (yes, we were taking a sail boat to Assembly) back home to Ames. We three women got to Emporia, Kansas that night and David got to Ames. He drove all the way to Ft. Worth the next day in his little Honda.
My pre-assembly volunteer event was great. I don't necessarily want to go into great detail but I was asked to do an extended "invitation to give" for church on Sunday, so I will copy that here...
Oh. By the way... the scripture was about how Jesus admonished his disciples to feed the 5000.
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The pre-assembly volunteer event in Ft. Worth brought together a group of about 70 persons, all of whom had come to give of themselves to Ft. Worth and the surrounding communities.
They worked at food banks, boxing food. They worked at community gardens, weeding and watering. They drove to various low-income housing apartments, knocked on doors, and held bible school for the children living there. They painted over graffiti-covered walls. They put together a carnival for the folks who live at Julliette Fowler Home , a nursing home in Dallas. They worked at homeless shelters and women’s shelters, cleaning. They made dolls for small hospital patients and much, much more.
For some that came, this was not a PRE anything. This was The Event! They have come to every Assembly for years, just for the volunteer opportunities… to give of themselves and to help others. For others, this was their first Assembly and their first mission event.
There were two ladies, in their late 60’s I would guess (one with mobility problems), both widows – who came early to help.
There were two sisters there who cooked for us all.
There was a couple there, in their 60’s, from Arkansas, who have spent the last year and a half, or so, in Port Arthur, Texas, organizing the Disciple volunteers who come there to help with hurricane recovery. They had brought a group of youngsters from their home church in Arkansas so that they, too, might learn how to give.
There were two other youth groups in Ft. Worth as volunteers …, one from the gulf coast of Mississippi and one from Port Arthur, Texas. Both areas were devastated by hurricane Rita in 2005 and both areas are still rebuilding. These kids see everyday how everyday people can make a difference and they came to Ft. Worth, not just to enjoy the Assembly, but also to give of themselves.
You feed them. Jesus said, YOU feed them.
Don’t wait to see what someone else will do.
Don’t wait to see what’s left to do.
Don’t put it off and put it off.
You feed them.
Take what you have to share and you feed them.
Don’t turn the other way and nibble on what you’ve got.
Don’t pretend you don’t hear their cries of hunger.
Don’t ignore their pain.
You feed them.
Pull your resources together, have faith in tomorrow, and you feed them.
Please bring what you can… please bring what you are… to the table.
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The General Assembly itself was great, full of wonderful speakers, filling worship and friends I hadn't seen for a while. It all reminded me again just who Disciples are and what we stand for.
After a long day of driving and a stop in Oklahoma to visit the folk we HAD intended to have supper with the day we started the trip, we got home last night, about midnight.
Amen
