2 minute read
COMMUNITY & CONNECTIVITY
about the cover— Unless you’re venturing out of your city or state or country—sometimes it feels as if your neighborhood is the center of the entire world, like the sphere on the cover (and perhaps everything outside of that world seems unimportant). Yet Lord of Life’s neighbors are in Maple Grove (Pages 4-5), across town at FreedomWorks (Page 11) and also in the Dominican Republic (Page 12). We live in a global village where—especially thanks to technology—our connectivity and caring create positive change in communities and neighborhoods around the globe. May it be so as disciples of Jesus Christ that we’re loving all neighbors!
—Bev Mello
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COMMUNITY & CONNECTIVITY..............................2-3 BIBLE 101: LEVITICUS 19:18................................... 4-5 community life / LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR.......... 6-7 SIX PRACTICAL WAYS TO LOVE NEIGHBORS........ 8-9 INTRODUCING SONJA NELSON ..................................10 FREEDOMWORKS OPEN HOUSE / CONTACT US ........11 PRAYER FOR LOVING OUR NEIGHBORS ....................12
by Kirstin Delp, Children, Youth & Family Executive Director (kirstind@lordoflife.org)
COMMUNITY & CONNECTIVITY
When you walk out your front door and look around, what do you see? Are you looking down the hallway of an apartment complex? Are you on a cul-de-sac? Can you see the lights of the house through the woods? Our house sits in the middle of our block, so I can see houses to either side plus across the street.
Who are your neighbors? Do you know them? Do they know you? As I sit on my front porch and look up and down our street, I think about the people I know and the stories they each live. I see people with stories of careers, of kids, of parents. I know of life’s joys: high school graduation, family vacations, the birth of children, the softball game win, the newfound significant others. I see the heartaches of cancer, memory loss, job loss, struggles with mental health.
More importantly, I see the caring.
The young people who take care of the neighbor’s pets while they are out of town. The shared cup of coffee while tears are shed during times of heartbreak, the circles of people on the driveways around a fire, the groups of kids on the trampoline, the neighbor checking in on the injured child home alone next door, touching base when neighbors meet out on a walk, letting the person across the street know they left their garage door open late at night—all these are acts of being a neighbor. Neighbors care for each other. Neighbors ask for help. Neighbors listen to each other and celebrate with each other. Neighbors belong to a community simply because of their physical address.
Lord of Life is also a community. While most of us don’t walk out our front door and see each other—or the church building—we still belong to this community. This community is not bound by the confines of the building. Haven’t we learned that since March 2020? Not only are we joined by Zoom, livestream, email, and social media—we are also joined by our faith. When we walk out the front doors of apartments/cabins/houses, wherever we call home, we walk out as a community of faith. We are called to greet our neighbors everywhere, supporting them as we can, being present in good times and tough times, and sharing God’s love with all we meet. As we practice being good neighbors, we strengthen our bond with each other, living out the promise that we are loved by God, sent to serve. This is God’s community. This is Lord of Life. This is us. 3
