I Saw God Today

Well, the big event happened a week ago now. Our community picnic was AMAZING!!! I can't think of any other word to describe it. It went so GREAT! What a picture to see our church come together to bless our community. The whole event was such a success. People of the community were surprised, blessed and truly touched by our event. At one point, I just sat on the hill with Josiah and watched everyone. People eating, having a good time and being blessed. We figured that we served about 1200-1400 people that day. There have been already many stories that have come out of the day but 2 stand out in my mind. One is there was a man that came over and got some popcorn for him and his wife at our popcorn stand. As he was walking away, I knew I couldn't let him leave. Something about them told me that if they weren't homeless, they were close to it or at the least had some needs. I followed him and told him that there was whole meal that he and his wife were welcome to. (You couldn't see the food stand from the popcorn machine.) He said thank you and I watched him walk back to his wife, give her the popcorn and turn around to come back up the hill to eat. I am crying just thinking about it. They ate at the picnic and as they were leaving, the gentleman said, "Thank you and God bless you for this today" to one of our church members. You could truly see how touched he was. The second story is that a family came because of a sign that was up. One of our pastors put up 50 signs that said things like, "Welcome PC users", "Welcome MAC users", "Welcome Red Sox Fans", "Welcome Patriots Fans, "Welcome Facebook friends". The idea was to make sure that everyone knew they were welcome at the event. One guest who apparently never goes by the park on a normal basis happened to pass it that day and saw a sign that said, "Welcome Masons". He was a mason and of course felt welcomed. Him and his family came in and had a good time at the picnic. This week he went online to find out about our church and e-mailed one of our pastors to say thank you for th picnic and say that he had been looking for a church and was so blessed the kindness of Mt. Hope at the picnic. The best part...I got to meet him today...him and his wife sat behind me in church...what a moment. And he had said if the picnic had taken place on the original day, he and his wife would not have been in the area. WOW! There really are reasons for everything. No, this event was not about bringing more people to Mt. Hope. It was about bringing people to Christ in a new and different way. Rick has been quoting Andy Stanley over the past year in our church, "To reach people nobody is reaching, you have do things nobody else is doing." Again, the tears are welling up in my eyes. The work was hard, the days were long, time was sacrificed but it was all worth it. People were touched. I am excited to see how many more ways God is going to use this picnic. To some it up, we saw God at the picnic. It reminds me of this song. Check it out...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7NDLJca-Xw

So, the picnic is over, now what??? This weekend we have been working on a wedding that I am coordinating tomorrow, then I am going to attempt to potty train our little Siah man and then Sunday is Hannah's first birthday...I can hardly believe it! It's a busy week ahead of us so I will post again when I get a moment. Have a great week everyone and thank you so much for all your prayers for the picnic. I know God heard them all...