Last Sunday I shared with the congregation the situation of a young woman who is new to worshipping with us. I had prayed with her on her first visit to the church because she had been told by the doctors that one of her legs was going to have to be amputated. Unfortunately, it was. While visiting her at Lakeshore Rehab, I discovered that she needed a ramp to be built at her home or else her home would be unaccessible to her in a wheelchair.
She told me that her father, who is in the construction business, would not build the ramp because she is a “lesbian” and her roommates are also lesbians. I tried not to show my outrage. I hope I was successful in doing so; but inside I was just seething. What kind of religion or society causes parents to turn away from their children especially in critical times such this one just because that child dares to live fully as the Child of God that God created them to be?
Well, I told the young woman that I would try to see that the ramp got built. Not knowing anything at all about construction, I foolishly assumed it would be a couple of hundred dollars. I never even considered labor and all the things other than wood; not to mention specifications that affect the cost and all of that stuff which means nothing to me; as I made that gesture. But as I was relaying her story to the congregation, Marty, a member of Covenant, who knows a lot about construction, was watching the service by live stream and sent word that she would build the ramp. Praise God, my job was done!
Not quite: it seems the cost of that ramp is considerably more than I envisioned. However, God is opening hearts and hands and providing generous gifts of time, services and resources from our family of faith at Covenant to make this ramp becomes a reality. We don’t have it all covered yet, but we are getting there.
We are in the middle of our annual stewardship campaign and I couldn’t have written a better stewardship story of how the “Open Hearts” of our people are leading to “Open Hands” in meeting a very critical need for someone in our community. That’s stewardship, vision and mission at its best!
So join us at Covenant this Sunday for worship. I will be preaching a sermon called “Open Hearts, Open Hands” based on “II Corinthians 9:6-8.” So, if you have a few dollars over your normal gift of tithes and offering, how about helping us finance that ramp for a young woman named Laura.
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