Batavia Apartments

Were you moved this Sunday? Want to serve? Do something about your faith at the Batavia Apartments.

If you would like to volunteer, there are a lot of ongoing and one-time opportunities:

• Homework helper/after school tutor-- M, T, W or TH 3:45- 5pm
• Check and maintain computers/printers are in working order-- 20 minutes a month
• Mentor residents for job readiness
• Organize Book Shelves in Resource Room (time and day flexible)
• Food Pantry help- Thursdays 11:30-1pm
• Stock Food Pantry- Wed 10am-11am

If you cant offer your time but still want to help there are some materials that Batavia Apartments need as well:

• Two dozen memory sticks (R)
• Area rugs for Resource room
• Picnic tables for west end of property
• Storage bench for garden supplies

Contact Lynn Barus lynn[at]barusfamily[dot]com for more information about these or other ways to help at the Batavia Apartments.

Sunday Sneak Peek

This Sunday, one of our partners will be coming to tell us more about her ministry, and how we can help. Be sure to show up! We're so excited to see how God uses this partnership for His glory.

Human Trafficking: our generation's human rights struggle

Today is Human Trafficking awareness day.

Human Trafficking is a world wide injustice tearing the very fabric of humanity. Though this injustice is a problem all over the world, it is happening closer to home than you may think. Just last month the Ohio News Network released a story about a woman they called "Sarah." She was trafficked into sex slavery right here in Chicago and then taken to Ohio where she later escaped. "Sarah" is not the first or last victim that this has happened to in Illinois, and certainly not the last woman to find herself going willingly back into this kind of slavery.

Human Trafficking decimates a person's self-worth, it can seem nearly impossible for some of these victims to ever lead normal lives again. This is why we have to do all we can to prevent trafficking from happening in the first place. We need to preserve everyone's right to their humanity.

This problem requires a 3-step response.

1) Educate Yourself. Without educating yourself you will not be able to know why or how we should even be involved with this issue.

Below are 3 ways you can educate yourself:

International Justice Mission is an organization made up of Journalists, Lawyers, and Law Enforcement who have made it their mission to eradicate injustices like this one. They have many resources including their Injustice Today feed which informs you of a new injustice every day that you can pray for.

UMCOR is also a fantastic resource. For us as United Methodists we have a system already in place and this issue of Human Trafficking is very important to our denomination. UMCOR is always finding ways to inform us of their work and this issue is no exception. Read Anna's story, one of exploitation, evil, and in the midst of it all HOPE and JUSTICE!

Finally World Vision too has been fighting the evil of Human Trafficking for years has put out some of the best and most respected literature on the subject check out their eBooklet, "10 things you need to know about Human Trafficking"

2) Create Awareness. Others need to learn about what you just found out. Pass it along, use facebook, twitter, or even the good old fashion telephone. There is so much we can do just by expanding the awareness of the problem.

3) Advocate. We need to be telling our law makers what we care about and tell them why they should care about it too. The help of the government is only a piece of the pie, but it is still a very important piece and we can affect it in so many ways. Finally there is one what to advocate for this cause that we so often forget. PRAY! We have a high priest who cares for our needs and prayer is so powerful. I know it doesn't feel like we are doing anything, but we can't see just how powerful prayer may be. Just as we would go before politicians to advocate for our cause, we have a King to whom we can go and advocate for our cause. And, the best part about this is, He actually cares!

Looking forward Do Something is working on creating more opportunities for us as a group to advocate for this issue, but for now you can spread awareness and advocate through prayer!

There is no justice issue today as scary and as wretched as Human Trafficking. This day, do something to raise awareness about this issue by digging a little deeper yourself, read one of the links above and share that information.

Lessons from the dark

Funny how God chooses to speak to us. I find Him using every little thing He can to teach me valuable life lessons. Here's one I wanted to share with you today about poverty and justice.

http://kristen-arnold.blogspot.com/2011/12/lights-out.html

World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day. I wrote about it on my personal blog (click here) if anyone is interested in reading it.

In this first week of advent let's find to share the HOPE that we've been given in Christ.

Today's Advent reading:

Romans 1:1-7

"Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3 the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, 6 including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, 7 To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

Boy scouts are coming back!

The Boy Scout Troop from Chicago will be joining us this holiday season. But, we need your help. We need people to sign up and bring fruits and vegetables. So here's how you can do that.

1. Click on the Serving tab

2. Fill out the form

3. Select the "Boy Scout Luncheon" in the [event] field

4. In the comments field tell us what you're going to bring

Thanks so much for serving. Blessings!

Sheep caring for the Shepherd

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells us of those who will "inherit the kingdom." He says in this passage of scripture that he will place the sheep on his right, and these will inherit that kingdom because they fed, welcomed, clothed, visited, and cared for him.

I often find myself wondering about this passage of scripture. There are so many implications within it, judgement, motivations, actions, etc. The list could go on, but this weekend what struck me was that Jesus called these righteous people "the sheep."

What I find odd about this is that sheep are cared for by a shepherd, and in this passage Jesus tells us that these sheep cared for him, the Good Shepherd. But, even beyond the oddity of sheep caring for the shepherd, it all happened visa-vie the sheep caring for other sheep.

It was this point where I saw something in this passage more clearly than I think I ever had before... the attitudes and actions of the sheep are the same as the two greatest commandments:

1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul.
2. Love your neighbor as yourself.

When I saw these principles in this passage so clearly, I had three realizations.

First, I found it interesting that in many ways Jesus seems to spend much of His time reiterating these two commands, yet they seem to be so simple and straight forward. However simple the concepts may be, Jesus must have known the execution of them would be something that His followers would struggle with constantly. Thus, the reminders throughout His ministry that this is what the Kingdom of God is about.

Second, I realized that because "the sheep" didn't realize that they were doing all these things for "the Shepherd" (or King), they must have been doing them naturally out of love, not obligation or duty. This means that they were caring for others because they saw the Shepherd doing so and they were simply following His lead or rather becoming like Him, thus loving those whom He also loves.

Finally, I noticed due to my second realization that the two commandments are completely interdependent. In other words we cannot love our fellow man if we do not love the Lord, and we cannot love the Lord without loving our fellow man. I see this in the fact that as previously stated loving the Lord will naturally lead to becoming like Him, and if we become more like Him we will love people as He loves people. Likewise, we will not truly be able to love others from a pure heart if we do not first rid ourselves of selfish motivations, and the only way to do that is to love God and become more like Him.

I saw how in this passage Jesus gives us a clear blueprint for the Christian life and explains that when we live our lives in fulfillment of these two commandments we naturally serve and give to anyone who we see that has a need.

So, when I read Matthew 25 this weekend and reflected on it, I realized how important serving others truly is. But, not as the means of loving God and others, rather I saw how serving is merely the vehicle by which we know how deeply we do love God and love others.

In this way, I felt so blessed to be a part of a community of believers at Flowing Grace where our mission and core values are to...

• Love God
• Love Others
• Serve