What if the cultural norms changed because we started giving away eggs? Wouldn’t that be “Egg”cellent?
In Manukau, community programs such as sports, art, and music are rare (such as those offered by the YMCA, Boys and Girls Club…etc) and for those that do exist, they are unaffordable. The churches here actually step in to resourcefully engage the community to fill that gap.
At Redeemer church for instant, they get about 200 trays of eggs per week from a free-range organic chicken farm for free. We drove around the gang communities, knocked on doors, and offered trays of eggs to provide for needy families and to invite the children to enrichment fieldtrips. They have done this for over a year and have built trusted relationships with the community. Because of the trust that’s been built, we are able to take out 25-45 kids from those families every Monday to Thursday to educational field trips, the beach, and the park to play with them, love on them, and share with them about how they’ve been uniquely gifted and created by God for greatness in the world. Because of Redeemer’s investment and God’s work in the community, the cultural norms of negativity towards life, apathy towards education, and broken relationships in families are being transformed through a model of love and by encouraging the children to become the best individuals they can be- to use their talents for good.
What would it be like if churches in America dared to love by engaging in the social issues of human trafficking and violence in America? What if we actually chose to love the people in our community consistently. Really, how many of us even KNOW our neighbors? What if, we choose today to invest in other people, even if the people were different or will turn their back on us, even if it was dangerous -whatever the “even if” may be, if even we tried, it would be worth that “egg”spression of love.
