Celebrating Unprecedented Compassion
City Serve 2020 was an incredible, bar-raising, celebration-worthy, high-impact experience! For seven days, over 3,000 volunteers generously provided over 7,000 hours of unprecedented compassion in partnership with more than 130 Metro ministries and organizations!
Families worked with local schools to restore landscaping and repaint hallways.
Elementary children created and delivered over 1,000 pieces of artwork!
Parents and children renovated dilapidated houses.
Hairstylists provided free cuts for the community.
Blood Donors shared over 200 units of blood, blessing over 600 lives.
College softball teams cleaned and polished windows for senior citizens.
Small groups threw block parties.
Youth camps were prepared for the fall.
First Responders provided with care packs.
Neighborhoods beautified.
Foster Families blessed with meals.
Elementary schools showered with food and clothing.
And SO MUCH MORE!
One of our 30 City Serve coordinators celebrated that...
"This was the best City Serve yet, and imagine, it came in 2020!"
Within Reach, we believe that reaching the Metro for Jesus begins by loving the city in Jesus' name! And I am overwhelmed by the practical outpouring of kindness and generosity that was displayed by ordinary people, young and old!
The image above is one of my favorites from the week because it vividly demonstrates what City Serve is all about.
Many of us might balk at placing a paint brush into the hands of a young child; however, Jesus did just that. He took the world's greatest story, entrusted it into our hands, and commissioned us to take his Good News into all the world. In the process, he said, 'If you want to be great, become like a child!" Humble. Available. Expectant. Eager. Ready.
My prayer is that we would become more and more like these children in their joyful service, and that City Serve would become a catalyzing experience that ignites a wave of compassion around our city.
May you see and embrace opportunities to bless your neighbors with the kind and generous heart of Jesus, and in the process, may you become more and more like him.
Grateful,
Jed Mullenix
Within Reach