Thursday, September 11, 2008

Exercising Cooperation

In the morning I like to get my blood moving. Three days a week I go over to "Snap Fitness" to use the circuit training equipment. The other days I still get out. This morning I walked a few miles with Toni.

I'm glad I did that because now I'm sitting. I'm in a meeting with area ELCA pastors at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Maple Lake. We're learning about the "Crop Walk." It is one way to help people to share and to learn. C.R.O.P. began after WWII with grain collections as "Christian Rural Oversees Program." In 1969 a Lutheran church youth group sponsored a "walk" to raise funds and help the world's poor. This tradition continues with a 2-3 mile "Crop Walk" in Hutchinson on Sunday, September 28.

A Crop Walk is one way of exercising together. Someone at today's meeting said "It feels like you are walking with the rest of the world." After all, most of the world's people walk instead of ride. "We walk because they walk" is one of the themes. The funds raised are channelled through agencies in the countries where there is need. The Crop Walk website says the funds "help empower people to meet their own needs. From seeds and tools, to wells and water systems, to technical training and micro-enterprise loans, the key is people working together to identify their own development priorities, their strengths and their needs -- something Church World Service has learned through some 61 years of working in partnership around the world."

If you want more info on the local crop walk happening in Hutchinson later this month, email Pastor Mark Little of Stockholm Lutheran Church. Just click that link or use this address: stocklc@xtratyme.com Mark says:
The walk begins at 4:00 pm on Sunday, September 28 in Hutchinson. We gather in South Park, just west and north of Faith Lutheran Church on Main Street.

On another "cooperative" subject...

On Tuesday Sam Clark from First Baptist Church stopped in to ask that I promote the movie "Fireproof." It's by the same people who made "Facing the Giants" which was shown at a local church in 2007. Sam says his goal, as a youth group leader, is to "encourage the youth to stay pure and follow Jesus Christ." One way to do that is to cooperate so good wholesome entertainment is provided. Families and youth are going to go to movies, whether they're good or not, so we may as well help good ones get shown.

Sam says that if 1,000 people commit to buying a movie ticket, it can be shown in our area at a Hutchinson Theater. It looks like a good story - about a fire captain who "lives by the fire-fighters creed: Never leave your partner behind" but "at home he lives by his own rules." A life changing commitment to the love of God through Christ changes his life. Then he goes to work to save his family.

If you are willing to give this movie a try, commit to buying a ticket by emailing Sam Clark. Just click that link or use this address: tyezen_kun@hotmail.com

As we exercise our faith together, cooperatively ministering to body and soul, the body of Christ will stay strong.

No comments:

Post a Comment