by Nick Cleveland
I was spending some time with my family last week. One of my son’s favorite places to go is Toyrifix in Smithville by the Barn Restaurant. He loves to go in there and just play! As he was playing I was investigating all of the cool toys they have there. I made my way back to the scrap booking area of the store and found some stamps. One of the stamps jumped out to me. That morning I had been preparing for the Strongsville mission trip and what I might share with students and landed on Philippians 1:21. This stamp virtually paraphrased the passage. The quote said, “Dream as though you’ll live forever…live as though you’ll die today!”
Now we know that if we know Christ we will live forever, but what if you and I lived our lives like we were to die today? What kind of urgency would we live like if there was no tomorrow? I think our students displayed the kind of on-mission living we would want to live like if there was no tomorrow. This weekend 75+ students participated in at least one part of our ministry weekend. We had students serving in so many ways and living to make Jesus famous in the moment! Here’s a taste of what students of Grace did this weekend:
- painted at the new building,
- organized a hope closet at Wayne County Children’s Services,
- handed out water on W. 130th & Royalton Road in Strongsville (inviting people to come to church),
- mulching the Oaks Family Center (a pregnancy care center in Strongsville),
- blazing a trail at the Christian Children’s Home in Wooster,
- helped a family at Grace move into their nursery,
- connected with children at Sowing Hope,
- participated in the bucket brigade (walked up to random businesses in Strongsville and offered to wash their windows & bathrooms free of charge to display God’s love),
- collected wheel borrows full of canned goods to give to the less fortunate through the ministry of Village Grace in Cleveland,
- Cleaned a nursing home and visited with the residents interviewing them (asking their greatest and worst moments in life),
- launched into our new Student Ministry Center by commissioning the space (we prayed for each chair and couch in the building and then prayed the same prayer, “God help me to reach” and filled in the blanks with names of people we want to see come to know Christ!),
- and then on Sunday took the bucket brigade to the north end of Wooster and blessed many of the businesses on the north end.
While there were so many neat stories we could share from the weekend, let me share the result of intentionally blessing someone. On Sunday we had to order pizza for 100 students and it was a demanding order for Dominoes. Knowing they would deliver it to a church representing Jesus we wanted to make sure we tipped them well for their hard work. The delivery man was so amazed at how he was treated and tipped he returned to Dominoes telling his co-workers about it and shared the tip with all of them!
Seriously, if you think students are the next generation you might have missed it! Paul’s challenge to live each day like there’s no tomorrow was modeled this weekend by our high school students. I am so proud to be their pastor! They lived the reminder… "Dream as though you’ll live forever…live as though you’ll die today!”
I was spending some time with my family last week. One of my son’s favorite places to go is Toyrifix in Smithville by the Barn Restaurant. He loves to go in there and just play! As he was playing I was investigating all of the cool toys they have there. I made my way back to the scrap booking area of the store and found some stamps. One of the stamps jumped out to me. That morning I had been preparing for the Strongsville mission trip and what I might share with students and landed on Philippians 1:21. This stamp virtually paraphrased the passage. The quote said, “Dream as though you’ll live forever…live as though you’ll die today!” Now we know that if we know Christ we will live forever, but what if you and I lived our lives like we were to die today? What kind of urgency would we live like if there was no tomorrow? I think our students displayed the kind of on-mission living we would want to live like if there was no tomorrow. This weekend 75+ students participated in at least one part of our ministry weekend. We had students serving in so many ways and living to make Jesus famous in the moment! Here’s a taste of what students of Grace did this weekend:
- painted at the new building,
- organized a hope closet at Wayne County Children’s Services,
- handed out water on W. 130th & Royalton Road in Strongsville (inviting people to come to church),
- mulching the Oaks Family Center (a pregnancy care center in Strongsville),
- blazing a trail at the Christian Children’s Home in Wooster,
- helped a family at Grace move into their nursery,
- connected with children at Sowing Hope,
- participated in the bucket brigade (walked up to random businesses in Strongsville and offered to wash their windows & bathrooms free of charge to display God’s love),
- collected wheel borrows full of canned goods to give to the less fortunate through the ministry of Village Grace in Cleveland,
- Cleaned a nursing home and visited with the residents interviewing them (asking their greatest and worst moments in life),
- launched into our new Student Ministry Center by commissioning the space (we prayed for each chair and couch in the building and then prayed the same prayer, “God help me to reach” and filled in the blanks with names of people we want to see come to know Christ!),
- and then on Sunday took the bucket brigade to the north end of Wooster and blessed many of the businesses on the north end.
While there were so many neat stories we could share from the weekend, let me share the result of intentionally blessing someone. On Sunday we had to order pizza for 100 students and it was a demanding order for Dominoes. Knowing they would deliver it to a church representing Jesus we wanted to make sure we tipped them well for their hard work. The delivery man was so amazed at how he was treated and tipped he returned to Dominoes telling his co-workers about it and shared the tip with all of them!
Seriously, if you think students are the next generation you might have missed it! Paul’s challenge to live each day like there’s no tomorrow was modeled this weekend by our high school students. I am so proud to be their pastor! They lived the reminder… "Dream as though you’ll live forever…live as though you’ll die today!”
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