I work as a Buckner Children and Family Services Community Minister, which means, I have many coworkers across the nation in local churches doing the same kind of community development work that we are doing at FBC Norman. Below is a story that one of my good friends and coworkers shared with me of her ministry at her local church in Knoxville, TN.

 She writes...

 "I wanted to share something with you that happened this week that reminded me about why we do this. One of our community ministry clients is an elderly, mildly retarded man who goes to our church and has NO immediate family. I assigned my MSW intern to work with him. One of her jobs has been to help him get on a budget, because he sometimes runs out of money at the end of the month. And when that happens he completely panics. I had him bring in all his bills so that she could go over them with him. In that process, the intern found out that he has been paying $118 a month to ATT for phone, internet and every other service they offer AND he doesn’t know what the internet is. A sales person at ATT ripped him off. The intern called and with Lifeline his bill will now be $13 a month. This week we really did make a difference in someone’s life."

This is what we do as Christ followers.  We advocate for the orphan, the widow, and the marginalized.  We are continuing the picture that Jesus began painting of Heaven coming to earth.