On May 5th I had the honor of volunteering at Vineyard’s Single Mom’s Spa Day!! What sounds like a rather Phoo Phoo event is nothing short of miraculous and certainly birthed straight from the Heart of God into the heart of Alecia Manes.
Alecia, who was not a single mom, had a passion for single mom’s and all the hardship they dealt with. Spa day started a lot of years ago with a few volunteers and a handful of single moms….fast forward to May 5th, 2012……334 Single Mom’s, over 200 children watched and cared for, and over 200 volunteers giving of their time and talents and other resources under the caring leadership of Rebecca Turrigiano. The love of God being poured out all over the Vineyard campus.
I volunteer in the cafe each year along with 2 of my sisters and a niece!! That alone is such a blessing to me; serving the Lord with my family alongside me, but in the cafe things go fast and furiously. We get to see a lot of the gals and the volunteers but not the one on one experience that many others live. Yesterday I walked into the huge room where the pedicures, manicures and paraffin wax was going on and just observed. It made me want to cry.
I don’t have the exact numbers but just the manicure area alone was set up with table after table …..of one manicurist and one single mom receiving the manicure. All the tables were filled and all the volunteers were busy working away, with a line of gals waiting. This is the way it went for all the services. And yet the whole room has a feel of holiness to it. It was quiet and the lights were dimmed and it felt good just watching what God was doing.
With each volunteer that I spoke to I would ask them, “so what do you see God doing?” or “what have you noticed that God is up to?” and each time I heard from more than one person that even if God just touches one person through them it will have been worth it.
Even if God just touches one person….
I think that is exactly what Jesus thinks. Luke chapter 15 tells the parables of Jesus that talk about the one lost sheep, or the one lost coin or the prodigal son.
“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?”
…..”Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
Luke 15:4 & 7
It’s hard to imagine that every single volunteer did not touch at least one of the single moms in that way. Showing them God’s heart towards them with no strings attached. Love. We were God’s hands and feet and heart in a very tangible way. Women who came for one thing, I’m sure left with far more than they could have imagined. I know that their outsides were changed. Their hair was cut and styled, makeup was applied and sore, overworked bodies were massaged and cared for. Food was abundant. Hands and feet were buffed and polished and washed. But….. their souls and their spirits were also fed and it’s what we can’t see that I know the Lord is so pleased with. All the seeds that were planted and the spiritual activity that went right along with each and every physical action in that place yesterday. It brought such glory to God!!
The motto for Single Women’s spa day is “Bloom for a Day…Blossom for a Lifetime!”
How true that is. We have no earthly idea how many seeds were planted and how much fruit just this one day, each year, will bring to bear. But the Lord knows and it is recorded in His book. Every single woman, man and child who took part in yesterday’s spa day will be rewarded…someday.
Acts 8:26 – 40 is the story of Philip being told to “rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down fromJerusalemtoGaza. This is a desert place. And he rose and went..”, by the end of this story Philip has found, mentored and baptized the Ethiopian eunuch. It was a “desert place” no longer.
And what I observed yesterday was the same. A lot of volunteers heard the call of God to go down the road to a “desert place” to serve and love and listen and pray. By the end of the day the river of the Lord’s Love was flowing and it was no longer a “desert place”.
My heart is so filled with love and wonder for all of the volunteers who gave sacrifices of time, money and energy. He is so good and His blessings go on and on.
“He turns a desert into pools of water,
a parched land into springs of water.
And there He lets the hungry dwell,
and they establish a city to live in;
they sow fields and plant vineyards
and get a fruitful yield.
By His blessing they multiply greatly,
and He does not let their livestock diminish.
Psalm 107:35 – 38
Love,
Kim