Today’s guest blog post is from Anna Henderson, a student at Judson College. She and other college students from Alabama are serving in the ForColumbus effort in Columbus, OH during this years Southern Baptist Convention.
Today began bright and early as we headed out to our second mega project to serve the city of Columbus. We worked with a local church planter to run a free car wash for an upscale suburban neighborhood.
As we pulled in my first thoughts were, Why are we here? They have what they need, right? But immediately I felt the Holy Spirit convict my heart telling me that this wasn’t true at all. I was just looking at the outward appearance. I saw that these people’s physical needs were met and that they seemed to be living a fairly comfortable lifestyle while those in the inner city were in need of basic necessities. God reminded me so beautifully that He sees each of their hearts which is something these people had in common with those living in the inner city — they were broken and in need of a Savior. This is something money can not buy.
By serving the people in that community we were able to demonstrate God’s grace with something as simple as a free car wash. Yes, we were offered money multiple times (and in large amounts) but I was thankful to be able to say, “No, we’re doing this because we love you and want to serve your community.”
This brought to mind something that is echoed throughout Scripture: Jesus calls for all to come! He’s not asking for any stipulations, He’s just saying if you’re thirsty, come! If you’re heavy laden, come! Undoubtedly Jesus has called us to come and we got to be a part of that call today as we served the community in such a simple way.
Throughout the day there were many Gospel-centered conversations and invitations given with information about the new church plant. Our prayer now is that many would hear Christ beckoning them and come.
