Teh Scottie

Life is going good. Not because anything really extraordinary happened, but because as of recently I woke up and remembered that the world is awesome, and I had somewhere along the ways gotten myself an attitude that distracted me away from the fact. It really does feel like waking up from a long sleep. I had lost my joy for a bit there.

Well its all done with now.

So lately i've been going to a church out on the very edge of Waterbury that goes by the name of Christ Church. It's a warehouse church meaning its a small church that doesnt have the money to build itself its own church building, but not so small that it just like, meets in someones house or anything like that. So they rented out a huge warehouse property and basically just converted the inside of it into well, a church. And theyre expanding by the month, so except for the warehouse outside, it pretty much just feels like any other church on the inside.

Anyways, its affiliated with the DreamCenter of LA, which is a church organization that does outreaches to the poor in the LA area as well as provide temporary housing for the homeless and people down on their luck. Its also a soup kitchen too I think and other stuff like that. Despite its cult-y name, its quite awesome.

So anyways the church that I'm going to, having this affiliation, is all up ins helping the community. They do outreaches every so often in really low down places in Waterbury. Every summer they collect over a hundred backpacks filled with school supplies to help out kids in need who dont have the money to even buy basic school stuff for the upcoming school year. For kids that only get handmedowns year after year, a brand new backpack filled with brand new pencils, notebooks, etc. is like a dream come true. They also take old bread from bakerys like Freihoffers and etc. and then redistrubte them to the poor in the area. In fact, my mom has been one of the people that weekly collect the bread and then distributes it.

The thing Im getting here to, and really the only reason I mention my church, is that the church has maybe like 150 people tops, that come. And i mean, thats everybody, so Id say not counting kids and teens, theres not that many adults. So when they have an outreach to try and touch the lives of the really run down people in the area, almost the whole church goes out. And it is just crazy what the church manages to accomplish, and how many lives are touched. I could really go into specific detail, but I really just dont feel like writing a 8 page LJ entry haha. I should also mention that the pastor of the church, along with everyone else that helps out the church, are not working full time. As in, the pastor isnt being paid, he has to work a regular job during the week to make meets end. Everything the church does is simply out of the kindness of their hearts.

Now this isnt an ad for my church or anything haha. Im simply just amazed at what so few people can do, for free, to touch others lives. Think of how many churches there are today, with elaborate sanctuaries and hundreds of members, and think of really how little they do for the community. I don't care what denomination you are, the fact of the matter is that today in America churches are all about self edification. Little do we look outside our walls to the world around us with compassion. If we do look outside, which is rare, it is only to point the finger or to argue our way is best.  And I hate that.

Many of the members of my church are much worse off than me and my single divorced mother are. Yet they are there in the stores right now, buying school supplies for kids they dont know. Im not even going to begin to try and say that I contribute as much as I should. I could give excuses about how im only home for the summer and all that, but really, I should probably be in a Staples right now.