Why We Support Our Church....

When I was thinking of why I support Westminster Church, one thing became clear... it is the same reason as when we joined six years ago. Below is a speech I gave at our church last Sunday to show our support of the Church and donating time and money.

The reasons we contribute our time and money to the church is the same as it has been since in joined in a warm spring morning in 2000. It is because of the capital campaign. But this is not the capital campaign that just started about 18 months ago, it is not the capital campaign that has daily updates on the website, or even a campaign that involves boards, nails, insulation, and by the way, city inspections. No, none of that exists with the capital campaign I am talking about.

But there are similarities. They both involve building an infrastructure that will ensure our church is around for a long time after I am gone. They both involve setting a solid foundation for our church so that we continue to be such an important part of the community and our families.

The capital campaign I am speaking of is the Children and Youth ministries. From the day we bought our first son Dryver and dropped him off in the loving arms of Barbara in the nursery, we have been hooked.

We have experienced an amazing ride, yes it included being paged by the Sunday School team because Stryde was throwing toys at all the girls. But is has really touched our lives and reinforced why we give our time and money to Westminster.

We have been involved personally in working in the nursery, to teaching the children in Sunday school, note – if you haven’t tried gram-crakers and water you don’t know what you are missing. We also have been more recently involved in Creation Station. The time and money that is put into the program, pays off 100x when you see the children interacting with God with such as passion. If you haven’t volunteered for Creation Station, it is something you need to experience, if just once in your life.

Creation Station is a program that allows the children to learn about our church though building, art, crafts, and even cooking. Yes, cleaning is not included in that list. It is a real joy to watch these Kindergarten to 5th grade children really learn and grow every Sunday. It is amazing.

And of course there is the youth programs. I have been a Middle School youth advisor for over five years. The time I spend with both the middle school and Senior high youth is time I will cherish for my whole life. They are so engaged. They are so caring. They really are the future of our Church.

So maybe Harry Braswell is putting the nails in and hanging the drywall, maybe he is creating a solid building for our future. But I would argue that the youth are doing one step better, they are building the soul of our church family.

This is very sad, but it is the state of many countries in our world. Haiti has always had problems with sanitation and even keeping their basic water supplies clean from disease.

Even before the quake, Haiti’s water and sanitation situation was dire. This open ditch is just one example. It runs along the streets in Port-au-Prince, filled with garbage, drain runoff, food waste, animal waste and human excrement.

Here in the United States we take access to safe water and sanitation for granted. But this wasn’t always the case. A little more than 100 years ago, New York, London and Paris were centers of infectious disease, and scenes like this one were commonplace. It was sweeping reforms in water and sanitation that enabled human progress to leap forward.