Ok - so, it is set - On October 28th, Friday, we will be having our Love Your Feet outreach from 8-4:30ish - More than more will be providing lunches for volunteers that day - at the YWCA (6th street and Cincinnati, in downtown Lafayette)with
dinner and campfire at our house afterwards!
the night before (the 27th) we will have a setup time and dinner from 6-9PM at the YWCA.
We need someone to help by taking charge of the dinner the night before - it is a huge process getting all this organized and running smoothly and to do the dinner the night before too is too much for Melissa - there is a full kitchen for your use at the YWCA and lots of refrigerator space. More than more can help with the cost of supplies if you need us to
If you are a part of More than more, we need your help - This is a really good time, it is great to serve and to help lots of people see their value - but, it is also a ton of work - we have given away as many as 1000 pairs of shoes in 1 day in the past and this requires lots of hands and feet helping out! This is mainly for people who are part of More than more though or connected in some way - and generally not just for anyone - it is our way of sharing all the things we are learning about and receiving in More than more with other people - our chance to give back, or forward...and our opportunity to form relationships with people who need to hear/see what being really cared about is like.
If you are going to be participating (it does not have to be all day), please let us know and especially if you have not been a part before, let us know early so we can get you a More than more shirt to wear that day!
Please note, there will not be any childcare on Thursday night, we are happy to have you bring your little children and hangout, but you will need to plan to watch them - no babysitters - on Friday, kids old enough to really help are welcome and even encouraged because it is good for them to experience a day like this. Of course, all kids are welcome for the dinner after Love Your Feet at our house!
It is going to be a great time together - hope you can all make it for at least part of the day!
keep noticing...
Jason & Melissa
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Medical Outreach September 2011
So, yesterday was another great day to be a part of More than more. We spent 4 hours sharing the perspective and love that is growing inside us with about 15 patients who were not able to afford doctor visits or medications or both, along with the great, dedicated workers at Bauer Center’s Durgan location, here in Lafayette. It is a wonderful thing to be able to just share some care with someone else. You see, in our society, many times having a lack of money, insurance, resources, stuff, etc, tends to carry with it a stigma that many times leaves people feeling as if they have no value at all to society and, even worse, to the people around them. This kind of despair goes right to the heart – it leaves many people feeling as if they don’t really matter to anyone.
When we give from our hearts and our skills – whether it is medical care and medicines or nail painting or face painting or balloon animals or playing games or even just smiling and laughing and chatting about life, we do more than give medicines or good advice or give nice looking manicures…we instill hope…we donate life…we give love and purpose and the very real sense that the person we are investing in actually matters – because they do. In fact, each of us has had times in our lives (or we will) when we doubted our value, we doubted our lives and someone, somewhere, decided that they would invest in us and show us that value and that has changed everything.
Now, investing in people is not easy. We usually come face to face with the reality that we cannot possibly solve all the problems of even one of these people, much less all of them, much less all of our community, much less all of our nation, all of our world. This can leave us feeling frustrated and hurt and sad. But, we also must remember that it is not ours, alone, to work out all this – only to share our portion in our time – the rest falls to the same God we learn about in More than more and who joins us in our lives. He is the One who made hearing – who allows us to recognize faces and connects us to each other in such a wonderful way. He is the One who gives us the perspective change that makes life More than more!
I do not know what the people we served and cared for yesterday took away from the time we shared. I do not know their impressions of us, nor what is happening in their hearts today. But I do know that for those 4 hours yesterday, we were doing exactly the right thing! I also know that I have seen so many peoples’ lives changed by this idea – that there is More to life than the usual American more. That More lies in seeing the Truth in life – noticing the amazingness of the God who made us and having Him be a part of our lives. It lies in sharing life together, accepting each other, as amazing and messed up as we all are. It lies in noticing each other and sharing the amazingness with those who have yet to see it.
It is a better way to live! And if it sounds interesting, tempting, we would love to have you join us tomorrow night – 9/22/11, from 6:45-8:00PM, at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette.
Hope to see you there – keep noticing…
When we give from our hearts and our skills – whether it is medical care and medicines or nail painting or face painting or balloon animals or playing games or even just smiling and laughing and chatting about life, we do more than give medicines or good advice or give nice looking manicures…we instill hope…we donate life…we give love and purpose and the very real sense that the person we are investing in actually matters – because they do. In fact, each of us has had times in our lives (or we will) when we doubted our value, we doubted our lives and someone, somewhere, decided that they would invest in us and show us that value and that has changed everything.
Now, investing in people is not easy. We usually come face to face with the reality that we cannot possibly solve all the problems of even one of these people, much less all of them, much less all of our community, much less all of our nation, all of our world. This can leave us feeling frustrated and hurt and sad. But, we also must remember that it is not ours, alone, to work out all this – only to share our portion in our time – the rest falls to the same God we learn about in More than more and who joins us in our lives. He is the One who made hearing – who allows us to recognize faces and connects us to each other in such a wonderful way. He is the One who gives us the perspective change that makes life More than more!
I do not know what the people we served and cared for yesterday took away from the time we shared. I do not know their impressions of us, nor what is happening in their hearts today. But I do know that for those 4 hours yesterday, we were doing exactly the right thing! I also know that I have seen so many peoples’ lives changed by this idea – that there is More to life than the usual American more. That More lies in seeing the Truth in life – noticing the amazingness of the God who made us and having Him be a part of our lives. It lies in sharing life together, accepting each other, as amazing and messed up as we all are. It lies in noticing each other and sharing the amazingness with those who have yet to see it.
It is a better way to live! And if it sounds interesting, tempting, we would love to have you join us tomorrow night – 9/22/11, from 6:45-8:00PM, at McAllister Recreation Center, just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette.
Hope to see you there – keep noticing…
Friday, September 16, 2011
Can you HEAR me?
So, last Thursday we had a great time hanging out, laughing and being together - if you missed it - you missed out, but you can join us next Thursday night, Seoptember 22nd!!
We talked aboout how amazing our hearing is this last week. You see about the only time that most people notice their hearing is when they have a bad codl and their ears are stopped up or when they try to talk to their grandmother and she can't hear them very well. But, some of themost amazing times in our lives are because of our sense of hearing.
For example, if you hear your baby cry for the first time...or if you have waited forever to hear the words "I do"... or if you heard the wind in the trees or the song of a bird or the voice of smoeone say, "I love you." You see, our hearing is always there, doing its thing, and we do not appreciate it. Nor do we appreciate the amazingness of the God who made it so perfectly. Ever considered how amazing it is that you can hear a sound and see a picture in your head? Maybe you hear a voice on the phone and you can picture immediately the face of the person you are talking to? This is because our brain immediately connects what we hear to our thoughts - it is amazing! God made you hearing amazingly.
I have attached a link for you to check out - do not know the web site well, but the diagram is cool and the descriptions of hearing process -amazing!!
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/anatomy/ear/
So, don't take your hearing for granted!! The God who went to all this trouble to make your hearing perfect did not make you to be abandoned - He made you because He wants to be involved in your life - so...thank Him. The next time you hear something just thank the God who made your hearing - and invite Him into your world - ask Him to join you in your day, to change what you notice and what you don't. It just might change your entire day!!!
If you are sick of like as usual - only noticing the things in life that you have to get done - always striving for more and more and more, consider joining us - we will be hanging out next Thursday night 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister Recreation Center,just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette - as always there will be laughter, acceptance, and free childcare - we hope to see you.
We talked aboout how amazing our hearing is this last week. You see about the only time that most people notice their hearing is when they have a bad codl and their ears are stopped up or when they try to talk to their grandmother and she can't hear them very well. But, some of themost amazing times in our lives are because of our sense of hearing.
For example, if you hear your baby cry for the first time...or if you have waited forever to hear the words "I do"... or if you heard the wind in the trees or the song of a bird or the voice of smoeone say, "I love you." You see, our hearing is always there, doing its thing, and we do not appreciate it. Nor do we appreciate the amazingness of the God who made it so perfectly. Ever considered how amazing it is that you can hear a sound and see a picture in your head? Maybe you hear a voice on the phone and you can picture immediately the face of the person you are talking to? This is because our brain immediately connects what we hear to our thoughts - it is amazing! God made you hearing amazingly.
I have attached a link for you to check out - do not know the web site well, but the diagram is cool and the descriptions of hearing process -amazing!!
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/anatomy/ear/
So, don't take your hearing for granted!! The God who went to all this trouble to make your hearing perfect did not make you to be abandoned - He made you because He wants to be involved in your life - so...thank Him. The next time you hear something just thank the God who made your hearing - and invite Him into your world - ask Him to join you in your day, to change what you notice and what you don't. It just might change your entire day!!!
If you are sick of like as usual - only noticing the things in life that you have to get done - always striving for more and more and more, consider joining us - we will be hanging out next Thursday night 6:45-8:00PM at McAllister Recreation Center,just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette - as always there will be laughter, acceptance, and free childcare - we hope to see you.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Just FACE it
Ever wonder about faces?
So, last time we were together, I placed a picture of a face in front of Deb’s face. I gave her 1minute to look at it. At the end of 1minute, I removed the picture and then asked her to describe the face in detail – traits and all – that it might be redrawn. She was not able to give any of the details to a significant degree. Then, i handed her a photo book and asked her, instead of describing the face, to simply identify the lady in the picture (who, incidentally, she did not previously know). She flipped through the pages and easily identified the lady.
Now, this may seem perfectly obvious to you that this would happen this way, but have you ever thought about why? Have you ever stopped to notice?
What is remarkable about this is that we can easily recognize the pattern of a face without being able to describe all the details of it. Why? Well, we were made to see the importance of and the uniqueness of, people! We were made to recognize the pattern that is a human and how it is different and wonderfully created. This, in fact, is the first step in any relationship! We see someone, recognize them as unique and wonderful and then begin to know them more from there!
This is a reflection of how God made us – it is not an accident – you see, God thinks that people are the most important thing in the world and he puts that in us – hardwired into us.
You ever see someone in the mall or something and you think, “Where do I know them from?” You probably have seen them before and you are recognizing their uniqueness! This is a beautiful thing!
So, the next time that happens, consider thanking God for making you so amazingly – and for putting this value of people in you. And, invite Him into your world – ask Him to share the day with you.
Also remember that the same God who made you so amazingly would not invest all that energy in this part of you, only to abandon you in the midst of your circumstances – He made you like this because He loves you so much and that will only continue – He will not let you go! No matter how bad your circumstances are, he will be with you. And this is way cool!
Now, i realize that it might be hard to imagine that something like this could actually change your life, so many of us have so many difficult times, and this just seems so small...but at More than more we are determined to live life better than the everyday, usual American way of get more, buy more, achieve more, etc. We have found that in order to live for More, it helps to notice - and as we notice, to invite God into our lives - as we do this in lots of different places - we find that life opens up and even though our circumstances are still not necessarily any different, we see life differently.
If you are sick of the usual American life and are looking for something More - even just some people who will accept you for who you are - we would love to have you join us this Thursday night, September 8th, 2011, from 6:45-8:00PM, at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette.
So, last time we were together, I placed a picture of a face in front of Deb’s face. I gave her 1minute to look at it. At the end of 1minute, I removed the picture and then asked her to describe the face in detail – traits and all – that it might be redrawn. She was not able to give any of the details to a significant degree. Then, i handed her a photo book and asked her, instead of describing the face, to simply identify the lady in the picture (who, incidentally, she did not previously know). She flipped through the pages and easily identified the lady.
Now, this may seem perfectly obvious to you that this would happen this way, but have you ever thought about why? Have you ever stopped to notice?
What is remarkable about this is that we can easily recognize the pattern of a face without being able to describe all the details of it. Why? Well, we were made to see the importance of and the uniqueness of, people! We were made to recognize the pattern that is a human and how it is different and wonderfully created. This, in fact, is the first step in any relationship! We see someone, recognize them as unique and wonderful and then begin to know them more from there!
This is a reflection of how God made us – it is not an accident – you see, God thinks that people are the most important thing in the world and he puts that in us – hardwired into us.
You ever see someone in the mall or something and you think, “Where do I know them from?” You probably have seen them before and you are recognizing their uniqueness! This is a beautiful thing!
So, the next time that happens, consider thanking God for making you so amazingly – and for putting this value of people in you. And, invite Him into your world – ask Him to share the day with you.
Also remember that the same God who made you so amazingly would not invest all that energy in this part of you, only to abandon you in the midst of your circumstances – He made you like this because He loves you so much and that will only continue – He will not let you go! No matter how bad your circumstances are, he will be with you. And this is way cool!
Now, i realize that it might be hard to imagine that something like this could actually change your life, so many of us have so many difficult times, and this just seems so small...but at More than more we are determined to live life better than the everyday, usual American way of get more, buy more, achieve more, etc. We have found that in order to live for More, it helps to notice - and as we notice, to invite God into our lives - as we do this in lots of different places - we find that life opens up and even though our circumstances are still not necessarily any different, we see life differently.
If you are sick of the usual American life and are looking for something More - even just some people who will accept you for who you are - we would love to have you join us this Thursday night, September 8th, 2011, from 6:45-8:00PM, at McAllister Recreation Center - just off 20th and Schuyler Ave, Lafayette.
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