community

what is my community? this is what i'm thinking about tonight. what does it consist of? it consists of work, people i meet at work (patients), people in the community in which i live, friends, family, church family, and reaching out outside of my comfort zone. i also see my community as a place where i see God in the midst of trying times. i see it as everyone bringing in and acknowledging brokenness and encouraging one another and pointing one another to the author and perfector of our faith, Jesus Christ. i pondered those things today sitting in our lunch book study at our office.
last night, my Bible study had the opportunity and privilege of seeing what the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home is about. we were planning on doing the prayer walking tour, but instead ended up getting a tour by one of the house parents and then just seeing her cottage and meeting her husband and two small children. we asked question after question about this ministry, just trying to learn more about the situation there. what baffled me the whole time is how close in proximity this place is to my work, church, and where i live. i mean, i drive by it every morning, not even knowing it has been there! what it consists of is 8-9 cottages with "house parents" who take in students and children that they are "assigned" that they basically care for and love on. there is so much more than that that takes place on campus, but that is it in a nutshell. what an eye opening thing, though, to see this ministry at work literally in my backyard. it blew me away that one of the set of "house parents" has been there 27 years. amazing.
so my prayer is for the Lord to keep my eyes and heart open to my "community"- my family, friends, coworkers, and the world around me.