Gathering

The theme for our Missional Community this fall is "Gathering." Part of that is gathering people. That's hard to do, though, if you don't meet them first. Recently I've had some very encouraging conversations with people I've met through Meetup groups. These are groups that gather people from around Las Vegas who have common interests or are in a similar life stage (the picture above is from a mini-golf outing with one of these groups). Most of these people are new to Vegas, looking for new friends, and hoping to find a community where they feel at home - a few have even voiced interest in what I'm doing as a church planter. I've also found that I meet someone new every time I go play disc golf at a local park, go watch a Husker game with the Alumni association, or go out to Karaoke "Sweet Caroline" with folks I know from my Improv class. I've been encouraging others in our MC to consider their everyday experiences as chances to meet and connect with people that might one day be a part of the church we're wanting to plant in this part of town.

"Gathering" also means gathering food. We're pursing the possibility of adopting a local Title I (economically disadvantaged) elementary school. One school in particular has over 130 students who qualify for food assistance through a local charity. 30 of them are refugees. A number of them are homeless. But, since the donations are shared among over 200 schools in the district, there is only enough food for less than half of these children to receive their weekly "backpacks" of food that allow them to eat over the weekends. One woman in our MC is a teacher who regularly sees the effect this has on her students. While further donations would be spread out among all 200+ schools, we believe that gap can be made up by local communities "adopting" their neighborhood schools to fill that gap. We're attempting to start the ball rolling here in the Paradise community in the next few weeks.