God always has a plan.
It may not work out on my time schedule, but it always
works out on His. I am amazed at His timing.
Three years ago, my husband, as one of the church
elders, was asked to help oversee and develop the
Community Impact Team. As a church, our vision is to
help impact our community for Christ outside our church
walls, to love others until they ask us why. He began
attending workshops to learn and apply ways to get
better connected with our community.
A team was formed and
we began to pray and brainstorm what to do next. One of
the exercises was to write a fictional story about The
Fellowship at Cinco Ranch in 5 years. As the story
unfolded, we were very excited and a bit overwhelmed. We
continued to pray, but it seemed that we were trying to
push a very reluctant elephant. Yet we knew that this
was God’s heart.
Things began to turn in
ways we would have never expected. When Katrina hit
Louisiana, we mobilized and Compassionkaty.org was
born. I was asked to head it up. Donations flew in and
our church went to work to help meet the needs of
evacuees. As the Katrina and Rita needs subsided and we
stepped into a new year, the goal was the same: “To
become an indispensable blessing to our community.”
We began to research and network with different leaders
and agencies in our community to identify the greatest
needs. Our focus began moving towards a “Serve Katy
Day” to help area churches pull together to make a
difference.
In the meantime, our
Pastor had challenged our congregation with Kingdom
Assignment I. Each volunteer was given $100 and told to
go out and use it to further God’s kingdom. The
response was tremendous and the impact is still being
felt. There was even an extensive write-up in the
Houston Chronicle.
Kingdom Assignment II
is now underway. The assignment is to sell something of
$100 value or more that might be standing between you
and God and then bring the money on Easter Sunday to be
contributed to Compassion Katy. The stories will be
such a blessing and we will be ready to step out yet
again as God leads.
Where will that be?
Our preliminary plans have been for the “Serve Katy Day”
to occur at the end of the summer with helping children
being the consistent theme. As we met with others in the
community, we saw our elephants beginning to move.
Then Jerry went to a
pastors’ meeting and came back with information about
Cityfest Houston to be held October 7-8. There will be
one component that is different from any other Cityfest
done in the world. Houston’s Cityfest will have
compassion service projects citywide to be held at the
end of the summer. Compassion Katy – a ministry that
did not even exist a year ago – has been appointed to
organize a Cityfest project for Katy!
Suddenly our elephants
are not only moving, they are beginning to skate. Our
God is beyond anything we could dream and He amazes me
everyday. If the elephants had moved on my time, we
would have been all out of sync with God’s time. In His
timing we have a Compassion Katy, fresh funding coming
in from Kingdom Assignment II, and plans for a community
service event already underway.
Excited is an
understatement as I imagine our church members boldly
stepping out of our comfort zones. Lives in our
community (and our own as well) are going to be changed
as we continue to pray and stretch toward becoming all
our wonderful God wants us to be.
Diane Walker - April 9, 2006
Galatians 6:10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let
us do good to all people.
