This weekend we kicked off the Mission @ The Mission Weekends at the Long Beach Rescue Mission that Rock Harbor Church will be hosting through the summer for their lifegroups. My role was to lead this first weekend and train Rock Harbor's summer intern, Caleb, so he is prepared to take over my role for the next few months. Caleb and I met earlier this week for a morning coffee conversation just to get to know each other, and I was pretty concerned I wasn't gonna be able to make it this weekend because I wasn't feeling very well. Ironically, I got a whole lot better, but come Thursday afternoon, our two-year-old ended up puking in the car twice and running a pretty high fever, so I took her to the emergency room. Thank GOD for our new neighbor who graciously watched our two other foster-children while I was at the hospital and until Deb got home from work.

The next morning, our youngest woke up with a fever, as well, and I took the two younger ones to the emergency room again, while our oldest went to visit her bio-mom for their weekly visit. So now we've got two children on antibiotics and cold medicines, and BOTH Deb and I not feeling a hundred percent to say the least. Regardless, I went out to lead Caleb and this first group of participants at the mission with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. Thankfully, no one was concerned over my request to go home to be with my family after my facilitation was done both Friday and Saturday evening.

As it was, come Sunday morning during the closing session, the participants shared their "Personal Mission Models" with the rest of the group and described the significant impact the weekend had on them. It was a BEAUTIFUL testimony for Caleb to truly grasp the potential for these weekends. Each of the participants walked away with an inkling to pursue God's calling, and each had communicated very real shifts in their perspectives, paradigms, and world views regarding their theologies of service, their understanding of homelessness, and their ability to engage the world and its needs.

I had a slew of scripture verses stream through my mind as these participants shared their closing thoughts, but the one I chose to encourage them with was from Ephesians 2:10:

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

That word "workmanship" is also translated "masterpiece" or "handiwork" and originally was used to positively describe poetic verse. What struck me about this piece of scripture is how frequently I will read poetry and get caught up in the rhythm of the poem and lose sight of the meaning its conveying. As it applies to this scripture verse, and specifically to these participants is how often we see either the poetry or the plot-lines of our lives, but we lose sight of the ways God is poetically using the plot-lines of our lives to accomplish great things in this world, or preparing us to do so in the future.

Each of these participants, and I reasonably suspect the same of all the participants this summer, now have a taste for what God could do in and through their lives as they allow God to use them as the masterpiece they are. They also seem to better understand how God uses the homeless community at and around the mission to impact the lives of these participants, and how He uses these participants to impact the lives of the homeless community. Neither impact has much to do with offering handouts or serving each other as much as simply offering the time to enjoy and get to know each other as people. This weaving together of so many lives from such radically diverse backgrounds helps everyone involved to see the poetry being written in their midst.

Don't know what you have planned this summer, but I would LOVE the chance to introduce you to the rescue mission so you can see and experience at least a taste of what these participants are enjoying this summer! Who knows what could come of it!!?! God may reveal a bit of the masterpiece He's created in you, too!