Reaching Out Where You Can (Even With Pancakes)

For four months out of the year, I have the opportunity to attend church six days a week, take communion every Sunday and Thursday, and meet some of the most inspiring ministers in the PC(USA). I work year-round at Montreat Conference Center (come say hello!), and some really cool stuff happens here.

A few times per year, the Assembly Inn invites the public to a free pancake breakfast. It's a great opportunity to connect with members of the local community, and donations support a great cause: the Employee Assistance Fund, which provides financial support to members of our staff in financial or medical crisis. This past Thursday, the staff of Montreat Conference Center decided to take contributions for the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance effort in Haiti instead of the EAF.

I thought it was a wonderful gesture of missional outreach. I mean, we're usually the ones asking for money.

Mission. Always one of my favorite things done at my home church growing up. The opportunity to support those with less, often finding they were able to give back with glowing personalities, wonderful stories, and heartfelt thanks. It's a two-way street, and you often get more out of it than you were expecting. To me, it's soul satisfaction.

So I humbly encourage you to discover what kinds of mission opportunities there are in your community, your country, and the world, faith-based or not. We might be able to help you with that last one pretty soon... In the words of the rapper MURS,

"If you leave the world a better place than it was when you got here,then we all win"

[end note] I totally credit my good friend Jack Jenkins with introducing me to MURS. It's also his birthday today, so if you're his Facebook friend, you should totally utilize that poke feature all day long. (He's the first search result for "Jack Jenkins")