"Bless Your Neighbor" Inspiring Stories

A little over a month ago – during the first sermon in our “Party Planning” sermon series -- I offered an invitation and challenge to reach out over the next month or so and to “bless your neighbor” using one or more of the ideas shared in the bulletin insert that day (Click HERE for the posting of these in this blog). 

Then, I invited you to share some of those stories with me as a form of inspiration and encouragement to/with your fellow church members.  While many of you verbally shared things that you did to “bless your neighbors,” as promised, here are a few of the stories that I received via email:

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We had to take some trees down in our yard, and went ahead and paid for the neighbor’s tree to come down too. Not a random tree, of course, one that needed to come down anyway.

We had a woman in our neighborhood whose house was repossessed last week. She’s older, with 2 full time jobs. She was caring for her autistic adult son was living with her, and I guess he’s now living with his dad, which is a bad situation for him. She was also the main caregiver for her grandson, and other random family. She’s currently sleeping on a friend’s couch,… and I don’t know if we can go that far to help her with GDOS. I’m trying to get to the bottom of what services she may need (besides money, of course) so we can get her on the docket.

There are many children in our neighborhood that have absent parents. I am so blessed to be the neighborhood “mom” to many of these children. They come over just to show me their new shoes, or share a good grade, play games with [my husband], or just hang around with a family who accepts them in with real generosity of love.

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Pastor, I dropped off this blackberry cobbler and card at a new neighbor's house Sunday. I had thought of doing it before the sermon series began and once you preached on it, well, it was a done deal.

I got to meet our new neighbors from Kansas and their two preschool daughters. It was a front porch visit that only lasted a few minutes. Pretty painless - for me at least - don't know how that cobbler tasted!

Thanks for the extra "nudge!"

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A few days later, this same member shared this note…)

This one moved in next door and got a pineapple crisp. Look what you started!

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My wife and I just moved to a new neighborhood, so this sermon gave us the “excuse” and nudge we needed to introduce ourselves to our new neighbors. We learned not only the names of the families around us, but where their kids went to school and where the parents worked. It was a great way to get to know our new neighborhood! Thank you!

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Thank you all for the blessings that you shared with your neighbors!  Keep up the good work throughout the rest of this year and the next!