What happens in Vegas...

I recently received an invitation to attend a missions trip to Las Vegas, Nevada in December of this year.  You may remember from this entry  my first up close encounter with Current.  When I received an e-mail detailing (or at least beginning to outline) their Vegas mission I was intrigued.  Despite long years of church attendance I have yet to serve on a missions trip.  I'll leave explanations and/or excuses to your vivid imaginations and say simply, my time has not yet come.

Now Current isn't just an organization for  Christians so why are they doing a mission trip?  Isn't that a churchy thing?  I imagine the answer to this lies in the mission of Current itself to Grow, to Give, and to Go.  And go they will - to Vegas to partner with 'Strip Church', located on 'the strip' in Vegas and servicing what I can only imagine is the very definition of a lost and hurting world.  It earned the title Sin City, did it not?

You may recall that what I fell in love with during the laundry love experience was needs being met.  In the crisis that our country is now experience it is more clear than perhaps ever before that their are needs in our country.  We think of Africa or Asia as being the places where people starve or in desperate need of our assistance and that is correct, many countries have needs greater than ours.  That being said, there's plenty of need here in our country as well.

The Vegas trip will be people like you and I meeting real needs of the people on the strip.  Feeding the hungry.  Building shelter for families and orphans.  Helping provide dental and doctor services to those in need.  Giving personal hygiene products to those currently going without.  Nearest and dearest to my own heart, they will also be providing resources and 'spiritual aid' to those who have a desire for it.

For a slew of reasons that I don't go into I won't be able to lend my own person to this adventure BUT I am trying to work with Current to girl them assistance in any way possible as they prepare for this journey.  

The bigger picture here is that whether or not you have time to go commit time to de-worming orphans in Somalia or nursing Aids victims in Africa - there are great organizations paving the way for you to do something here.  When I see people on the side of the road begging for work it pains me to imagine my own father ever having to experience that.  When I think of what it would be like to watch one of my sisters have to go without food or medical care they needed - I ache for those in this country that experience this reality.  Most of all my heart hurts for those who lives are lacking in love.

'The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved, ' - Mother Theresa

It boils down to this: making a difference in lives of people requires that you meet the very real needs in their lives and that your motivation can be reduced simply to love.  

Love,

B

I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. - Matthew 25:40