"How do you heal a broken world? You give it a gift in could never earn..."
These powerful lyrics from a version of Silent Night sung by Crystal Nichole have been on repeat in my mind (and my bluetooth speaker) throughout this Christmas season. I've been meditating on the power of the gift of God's grace and how it is making all the brokenness of this fallen world turn into the beauty of the new world. If God really did put on skin and move into this hood of a planet and live a poor man's life, die a criminal's death, rise from the dead and give us the gift of His very Spirit, then a gift that radical, a gift that generous would have to do something to move a heart, a community, a city. It would have to pull you outside of the temporal fleeting kingdoms of self we often exist for, and into the eternal Kingdom of God that our Savior has made a way for us to be a part of. In such a Kingdom, absolute healing and Shalom cannot help but begin to manifest. As we realize we are the beloved of the Giver of such a gift, and come to know more intimately the God who loves us to such an extent, how could we not long to please our heavenly Father with our lives.
Arletta Brinson, one of our board members, turned me on to Howard Thurman this past Spring, and when I read this poem the other day I was blown away by the implications of what the gift of grace brings forth in and through our lives being lived out in light of the Christmas reality. The work of Christmas described in this poem is not a burden for the one who has received this incarnational gift from God, no... it is ever becoming a joy. Why? Because as we receive this gift as followers, coheirs and co-heroes of Christ, we now become gifts to this world ourselves... gifts this world could never earn... gifts that bless and lift the least of these, the lost, the addicted, the hurting, the hopeless... we join Jesus in blessing instead of cursing, and lifting humanity out of the chaos of sin and death and into the Shalom of life, holiness and flourishing.
As this year comes to a close I want to make an end-of-the-year appeal to you my friends and family, to prayerfully consider giving a financial gift to God's work in Grove Park, and Atlanta, where we are watching Jesus restore many lives as His followers do the "work of Christmas" and live out the gospel we believe. The needs are far greater than we could ever meet, but we are doing what we can with the resources God has provided. We continue to faithfully sow seeds of mercy and justice and we are thankfully are seeing a harvest of restoration. Restore Life continues to grow in its impact and infrastructure, and as we go into our 3rd year as an organization, there are a few ways in which you could get involved in helping us be a gift to our community.
|
|
|
Our Current Harvest
Ministry maintenance is expensive. Our timing chain on our bus just broke, and we rely heavily on that for transporting youth to the various mentorship programs. We have a few building repairs and maintenance to our HVAC system that need to be addressed and we need $10,000 to meet these very real physical needs to keep our ministry going. Would you help us go into 2019 without these challenges?
|
|
|
Future Harvest
This is what gets me excited! As our impact continues to expand, we are bringing on three new staff to lead our cultural renewal ministry, our donor-development, and our youth development ministry. We have seen that investing in local heroes and leaders who love this community is a strategic place to sow, and as our leadership grows, so does our impact.
|
|
|
Iverson Family Support
As we transition off of staff at Perimeter Church, and with Shalom City Church ministries merging into Restore Life, we are now raising support as Urban missionaries. Below is our communication announcing this. We are hoping in the next few months to solidify our support team. If you are interested or want more information about this, please reach out.
|
|
|
|
|
|