Our church got stirred up this past weekend.

Operation In As Much is an initiative of churches coming together for the purpose of serving our communities and showing the love of Jesus. It’s based on Matthew 25:38-40 which reminds us that when we are compelled by the love of Jesus to serve the least around us, then we are actually serving Him.

Take hold of that truth for a moment because this is HUGE.

In red letters we hear Jesus saying, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. ”

This next verse reveals some confusion…. “the righteous will say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go visit you?’

His response?

The King will reply, ‘I will tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.‘

See what I mean? It’s true – when we serve the least (take note of who the ‘least’ are in this context: prisoners, strangers, those who don’t have money to buy clothes, food, or drink, ) we are serving Jesus himself.

This is where it’s at – serving those in need and doing it because of our love for Jesus. Not serving our community in order to promote our church programs. Or serving so we can check off the “outreach” box on our year-end church goals. But serving the least in our community because that’s what it means to serve Jesus.

And OIAM is a wonderful platform for a church to serve its community.

God led our church this year to participate in OIAM and we, along with other churches who partnered with us, took on a project that involved collecting, sorting, and giving away over 1,000 pairs of shoes and over 400 coats at a local park. Row after row of pews were filled with shoes and coats for the last two months at our church. We had clothes racks on the stage with coats that were coming in as donations. It was an awesome wreck of a church auditorium but such a beautiful reminder of what we were doing.

Rainbow loom, face painting and a lemonade stand made for fun for the kids – ALL FREE. The Christian school our kids attend made 300 Rainbow loom bracelets to give away at the park. They put them in little snack size bags and we had slips of paper with a verse on them of God’s love and the kids colored a picture that reminded them of God’s love on the back. The kids at the park loved them! It was such a hit. We also had 7 looms at a table and were teaching kids how to make them.

Hundreds of people came out on a cold rainy day to wait in line for free shoes, free lunch, and fun for their kids.

We couldn’t even speak the language of many of the people who came out for this event. But the amount of hugs, smiles and Jesus love transcended those barriers. We learned in action that the love of Jesus is truly the Universal language. We met the “least” and we served them the best we could. The Spirit of God was hovering over this place in an amazing way. A few conversations led to an invite to church and that was super exciting because the least of these were curious to know who we were and why we were doing this. They asked where we went to church and many asked if we had a bus to pick up people. We were not prepared for this but it opened our eyes to the need in this area. We are praying for God to keep leading us and showing us if He has something for us in this area of ministry. How cool is that?

Randy met a man just out of prison and another man in our church got his number. He asked about our church and he’s supposed to be coming. Scary awesome, right?! (update: he came this morning. whoo-hoo!)  The least of these…..it’s serving Jesus when we serve them.

The other big project we took part in was collecting housewares for our local Domestic Violence Shelter. We collected dishes, silver wear, baby items, etc. for this group of the least. The shelter’s director came and spoke to us at church one Sunday and so we were able to get a better understanding of what these women go through and how we can help them. Other churches collected goods for us as well and then we threw a shower on the day of OIAM and their representative came and picked up all the stuff.

The Youth Group in our church took on a project to plant a garden at a local elementary school and they worked really hard and got a lot done. The school was so appreciative. Other groups did repairs at a widow’s house and our praise team sang at the nursing homes.

All this took place on one Saturday. And we were only one church of about 60 that took part in our community. We all wore red OIAM shirts with Matthew 25: 38-40 on the back. So there were hundreds of red shirts floating around our town last Saturday all in the name of Jesus. It was purely awesome.

Our church was on a high because we saw God do some amazing things. We had things planned out one way but God made changes based on the plan He had for us and it was beautiful. We were so excited that on the Sunday after OIAM we all wore our red shirts again and celebrated all that God had done the day before. We shared testimony after testimony of what we saw God do and how we saw the impact of the love of Christ.

And I’m reminded once again that when we serve the least and lost in our communities it feels amazingly good because we’re doing what we were created to do.