Pardon my going off the liturgical train of thought for a moment. Besides my theological studies and leisure activities, my main work is being the director of Holy Cross Blind Outreach. Like any other outreach center, we are hosted by a local church. In our case, I belong to that congregation, Holy Cross Lutheran Church. www.holycrosskc.org
Our desire is to declare God’s Word to blind and visually impaire people through our genuine care for them. One way we do this is through a free monthly meal. Today, over twenty-seven blind and visually impaired folks and sixteen volunteers–not counting guide dogs–met in our church’s fellowship hall.
The Rev. Mark Stirdivant had a wonderful study on the forgiveness o sins. His text was Ephesians 2:1-10. Folks gathered today got to hear favor Dei in Christo proclaimed, no holds barred.
Pair that with bratts, burgers, and bingo!–And you’ve got the perfect Saturday afternoon. I always enjoy coming into the meal as folks get driven to the church. One of our organists is usually practicing for the next day’s service. So, hymnody combined with small talk, the Word, food, and so on makes for a great day.
I was pleasantly surprised afterward when one of our atttendees, Ruby, offered to be my assistant. I was going to ask her and Shirley to fill capacity in acouple weeks. but, since they asked, I was happy to offer the positions right there on the spot.
Well, tomorrow brings us another foretaste of the Lamb’s feast to come in heaven. You can’t get better on this side of heaven than Christ giving us His body and blood through the service of His called and ordained savants of the Word.
By the way, if you want to find out more about mission and human care to blind people or if you want to see where other outreach centers are, go to Lutheran Blind Mission’s website. www.blindmission.org
