Follow the Leader
by Kathy Keasler
One Saturday morning more than 100 members from Richardson, Texas, Church of the Nazarene traveled a few miles south to downtown Dallas. We had a "Community Work Day" at a homeless shelter, Dallas Life Foundation.

Over the next 12 hours, our members worked to prepare and serve meals, organize donations, paint murals in the showers, help residents wash and dry clothes, put on a children's festival, played with children, hosted a "spa" treatment for the women living in the shelter, and finally, worshiped together in song, prayer, and a message of hope from then senior pastor, Darius Salter. What a wonderful day it was full of work, exhaustion, and the joy of serving our Lord as described in Matthew 25.

As I went about the shelter snapping pictures of the service day, I watched as one church member, Donella Davis, painted the fingernails of a woman living in the shelter. Donella talked and smiled with the woman, and it was a beautiful picture. I glanced just beyond Donella and saw that Donella's nine-year-old daughter, Cecila, was painting the fingernails of a girl living in the shelter with her mother. Callie Campbell, an eight-year-old from our church, was watching and holding the bottle of polish for Cecila. I quickly captured it on the camera. I continued to walk around and eventually came back to the "spa treatment" on the women's dorm floor. I was captured by Callie, who now had an even smaller girl, and was painting her little nails a bright color.

My heart was deeply touched by the images that I witnessed: a mother who was serving the Lord by helping a homeless woman, a daughter who was watching her mother model the Christian life, and a little friend who was watching her friend "serve the Lord with gladness." These expressions of faith resonated in my heart.

Jesus hung out with the homeless, ate with sinners, and loved on the unlovable. As we follow our leader, God's Son, we should do the same.

Thank you, Jesus, for opportunities like this to witness your love.

Kathy Keasler is coordinator of missional outreach at the Richardson, Texas, Church of the Nazarene.

Discuss Follow the Leader in our forum
Post a Message | Read Messages (0) | Report Abuse