Engage Your Neighbors

My husband, Eli, and I moved to the small town of Morton, Mississippi the last week of June in 2019. We were eager to get involved in the community and local church. I had been hired as the Youth and Children’s Minister at Morton United Methodist Church and he was going to teach 9th grade at the local high school. We were pumped and ready to get to work, doing ministry as a team in the community and school. 

The week school began the town of Morton was flipped upside down. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided numerous chicken plants in the town leaving many families without loved ones and no source of income. Eli and I knew that we had to do something, these were his students, our neighbors, and friends who were hurting. The night of the raid, we stayed on the side of the road with our neighbors waiting for their loved ones to be released. I rocked a baby who had not seen his mother all day and was completely unconsolable. This moment of holding this little boy changed my entire life, it was in this moment that I realized we had been brought to Morton for a purpose beyond our imagination. 

Our church, along with others in the community, quickly stepped in to help families fill the financial gap. We spent the next several months handing out food, helping people pay their bills, and building deep relationships with our neighbors. It has been chaotic and hard. It is hard for the people living in this state of not being able to work and separated from family and it has been hard for the community to adjust after a crisis of this magnitude. We have really seen the church step up to care for the community in a real way. It is one thing for a church to be community oriented but it is completely different when the community is truly relying on the church as a means of sustaining their lives. I am thankful for the church, I am thankful for the way God’s people have stepped up to love others. 

In this new year, how can you be more mindful of those around you? Maybe you do not have a crisis in your community, but how is God calling you to engage your neighbors in 2020?