Soup-er-Bowl

I'm sure most of you watched the Giant's beat the Patriots in a great game that went down to the wire. If you weren't interested in the game itself I would imagine you tuned in for the commercials or to see an aging Madonna put on a much anticipated performance. Most of you who know me even a little know that I am a sports fanatic and look forward to being glued to the screen every year during the super bowl. However, this year I don't think I saw one commercial and I missed most of the game... and I'm so glad I did!

One of the first ways we felt led to serve the Evergreen Neighbors (the community around our facility) was to throw and Intentional "Soup-er-Bowl" Shindig where everyone brought their favorite soup or chili and invited their families, neighbors and friends. Some people even met up the day before to go door-to-door inviting our neighbors to the party. The whole purpose was to develop relationships, love our neighbors and share the gospel. And boy did God ever bless the shindig. He is so faithful and so good.

I missed most of the game because we had so many new faces come to the party. We had people from the neighborhood, we had people from outside the neighborhood, we had a great number of our church in attendance and we even had many of our people bringing their family members for the first time. It was so amazing.

One man that came was named Dave. He's an older gentleman with a cool style... probably in his late sixties or early seventies. We sat and talked for a while and he said he doesn't go to church anywhere but does believe in God. I got to share the gospel with him and explain to him the difference between believing in God and following Jesus. He told me that he often wonders why he is still on this earth. I got to share with him that he's here because God loves him, wants a relationship with him and wants to use him for his glory and mission. Dave told me that was a very deep idea & that he thought it was good. I got his number so we can talk more.

One of our men had been praying that his wife would come with him and she did! We had two of our ladies bring their mom's for the first time. We had more new faces than I could count and had a great time in the name of Jesus. At half-

time we muted Madonna (or whoever was on at the time) for a few minutes to let people know who we are and to tell them that everything that was going on was about Jesus. It was an amazing opportunity and we're praying that God brings salvation, life change and Kingdom growth as a result.

Best of all, we got to model for all our future Intentional Community Leaders what it looks like to be the church and serve our neighbors. God was graceful to us and we pray and trust that he was glorified through our Soup-er-Bowl Shindig! Intentional Community really is a beautiful thing.