We call it “LC2” (“LC Squared”) at our church. Each year, in July, we devote Sunday nights to Ministry Service Projects for our community and beyond. “LC2” stands for “Loving Christ and Loving Loudon County”. The purpose is to apply the love of Jesus Christ to our community and the world in His name.
This year’s projects have included landscaping and painting classrooms at local public schools, delivering food to local police and fire departments, prayer walking, visiting nursing homes, packing goody bags for local hospital patients, and the like. Last evening, I was privileged to deliver fruit trays to the nurses in our local hospital and ER rooms as a way of saying that we affirm and appreciate what all they do for others.
One of the biggest blessings my wife and I experienced through this year's LC2 program was an earlier Sunday evening spent processing plastic shopping bags for the making of sleeping mats. It takes around 1000 such plastic grocery bags, flattened out, cut into strips, and then tied into lengths for crocheting. The finished project is a waterproof woven plastic mat that can be rolled up and/or unfolded for a bed.
Each one takes about seven days worth of "man" hours from start to finish. So far, our church family has produced about fifty of these mats altogether. Once completed, they are taken by Mission Teams to Guatemala and distributed to the poorest of the poor.
The organization we have partnered with there is called Clubhouse Guatemala. Started in 2003 by Mike and Carla Parker, their ministry objective is to reach the lost people of Guatemala by going into remote villages and ministering to children and adults through shoe distributions, block parties, face painting, cotton candy, Backyard Bible Schools, and many other creative ways to show the love of Christ. You can read more about Clubhouse Guatemala and their various ministries here: http://www.clubhouseguatemala.com/.
The pictures below detail the process of making the mats, as well as the finished products. The picture that perhaps speaks the most is the last: that of a homeless man in Guatemala actually receiving one of these mats by a volunteer missionary.
In truth, this is what makes the whole process worthwhile. As Jesus Himself said (in Matthew 25:40), “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
This year’s projects have included landscaping and painting classrooms at local public schools, delivering food to local police and fire departments, prayer walking, visiting nursing homes, packing goody bags for local hospital patients, and the like. Last evening, I was privileged to deliver fruit trays to the nurses in our local hospital and ER rooms as a way of saying that we affirm and appreciate what all they do for others.
One of the biggest blessings my wife and I experienced through this year's LC2 program was an earlier Sunday evening spent processing plastic shopping bags for the making of sleeping mats. It takes around 1000 such plastic grocery bags, flattened out, cut into strips, and then tied into lengths for crocheting. The finished project is a waterproof woven plastic mat that can be rolled up and/or unfolded for a bed.
Each one takes about seven days worth of "man" hours from start to finish. So far, our church family has produced about fifty of these mats altogether. Once completed, they are taken by Mission Teams to Guatemala and distributed to the poorest of the poor.
The organization we have partnered with there is called Clubhouse Guatemala. Started in 2003 by Mike and Carla Parker, their ministry objective is to reach the lost people of Guatemala by going into remote villages and ministering to children and adults through shoe distributions, block parties, face painting, cotton candy, Backyard Bible Schools, and many other creative ways to show the love of Christ. You can read more about Clubhouse Guatemala and their various ministries here: http://www.clubhouseguatemala.com/.
The pictures below detail the process of making the mats, as well as the finished products. The picture that perhaps speaks the most is the last: that of a homeless man in Guatemala actually receiving one of these mats by a volunteer missionary.
In truth, this is what makes the whole process worthwhile. As Jesus Himself said (in Matthew 25:40), “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
