Tonight I had the privilege of helping put on a dance for the mentally challenged members of the Center for Enriched Living, a day program in Lake County. As a church we sponsored their summer dance, "A Night in Las Vegas." One of their board members, Laine, attends our church and helped dove-tail this event into our vision of outreach. This was our first community contact since Matt became the lead pastor. We provided food, drinks, decorations, and chaperones for a 2-hour dance. It was a blast! I haven't danced that hard for that long... ever.
I've mentioned in the past that I have a mentally and physically handicapped older sister. Every dance she's gone to she's been the prom queen because she's one of the most gregarious, bubbly people that you've ever met - and she can shake her bootie!!! I think she would've been proud of me tonight, because I was able to hang in there for almost two hours, 8-months pregnant, sweat and all. (Two cups of coffee and a bag of chocolate cookies helped boost my resolve.) Thankfully, the DJ had choreographers to follow, so I was able to look better than I actually am. Many, many times during the dance I thought, "If my sister were at a dance I would want someone to treat her with joy and excitement." So it helped me overcome being shy, and taking a member by the hand to help them swing their arms to the beat. I thought, "This man is someone's son, someone's baby boy," and it helped me overcome feelings of awkwardness in order to slow dance with him as he sat in his wheelchair.
The marginalized, the "least of these", is who Christ commanded us to love. It was truly a joy to do the electric slide and hokey-pokey with a group of individuals that didn't need my presence tonight nearly as much as I needed theirs.
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2 comments:
What a delight when one can be a blessing... and be blessed at the same time. You are!
Very cool.
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