Street Ministry Expands Our Salimetry
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Let me tell you why you are here.
You're here to be salt-seasing that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.
Salimetry is the art of measuring the amount of salt in a substance. How salty is sea water, for example? And…how flavorful are you?
While it is not our job to measure each other’s flavor-fulness, one of the best ways to “get the salt out of our shakers” is through street ministry. Getting out of your comfort zone, walking the streets, going from house to house, not knowing if people are home or if they will answer kindly–all this challenges us to love others without conditions. You just approach them with disregard to yourself and with regard toward them.
Street ministry represents some of the most important values we want in our families, in our community, and in our nation. Some of these values we don’t even think about anymore! Finding ways to bless our neighbors, doing kind things for others just because, not shying away from strangers but approaching them, starting conversations, and learning to share the gospel in 30 seconds or less. These represent our Highest Education! Like Morgan Freeman said, “how do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time.”
Adventure Days families met at The Center to create “lolliflowers” and share Spring sweetness with the surrounding neighborhood.
We approached a house where a dear lady named Carolyn lives. We discovered she is the “bread lady.” Her mission in the world is to make bread and share it with others. Isn’t that awesome! We had a nice conversation with her and prayed for her needs. She invited us to learn to make bread. There we were, wanting to be salt and light to her, and she was seasoning and lighting-up our lives! That’s how God designed the world to work–when you give love and care, you get it right back.
We came upon a house of another wonderful lady who let us take a photo with her. She had a really cool urban garden. She had transformed her grassy front lawn into a mini botanical garden. Her smile was contagious, as we hope our smiles had been also.
Spending time with strangers like this gives us a heightened appreciation for the creativity God has in each human being, no matter if they are from our circle of friends or not. Interestingly, a perfect stranger very quickly becomes a perfect acquaintance. It’s like we’ve known each other for a long time.
Look at the wild flowers on the side of the street! It’s so easy to miss them when speeding away from one busy appointment to the next. The streets have a lot of beauty–even the broken beauty is beautiful in God’s eyes. And the people in the neighborhood are even more beautiful. Street ministry–with your children–helps both parent and child experience how Jesus loved people. And because a child and parent were engaged together, they can take these experiences back home and make them part of their family narrative. This is what the Adventure Days family co-op is all about! Family. Nature. Scripture. Emotional Intelligence. Service.
