National Night Out Follow Up

This past Tuesday evening October 2nd the street I live on had a National Night Out Gathering in the park across the street from my house. It was a great deal of fun. The mayor of Missouri City came and spent time with us. A ladder truck from the local fire station showed us around their fire fighting apparatus. And then a pair of policemen on bicycles spent time with us.

Between these appearances all of the people from our street had a good time interacting with each other. I met the 3 families who have moved onto our street in the last few months. I was able to catch up on the health problems my next door neighbor had earlier this year. I learned the stories and backgrounds of many of my neighbors. We all talked about what an amazing diversity of people our street has. We literally have people from all over the world; China, Philipines, India, Indonesia, Russia, Turkey, Germany, England, Jamaica...

I helped organize this event because it is good to know our neighbors and as a Christian it is a great opportunity to be a light for Jesus on the street where I live. Our goal as Christians is not to isolate ourselves from anyone else in the world but instead to live among the world without being of the world. When we sequester ourselves from the world we become focused on ourselves and what we do. When we live as a light in our community we don't have time to be self focused but instead must continously listen to God and recognize how he desires to use us at any given time.

We are already planning for National Night Out 2013!