Two Thursdays ago, almost our entire GCR Church was inside the Methodist church building, worshiping with the Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians. Four years ago, almost none of us had ever heard of Maundy Thursday, but now, for many of us, it has become a vital component of our walk with Christ.

Last month, some of our GCR singers teamed up with singers from the other three churches to sing at the funeral of a Midland High School student. His mom requested the combined choir because she and her family are so inspired by our 4Midland partnership.

Now, our four churches have come together to bless a Spanish-speaking congregation just south of downtown Midland.

Temple Penial, a small church with a huge outreach ministry in Mexico and Central America, suffered some terrible vandalism at their building near the Salvation Army. It was a random act of destruction by a young man who lives on the streets and struggles with drug abuse and mental health issues. He’d been charging his phone on the outside of the church building and, when his phone went missing, he took it out on the church. He threw bricks and rocks through 18 large windows on the church property, doing thousands of dollars in damages. Temple Penial does not have building insurance and the cost of repairs is way more than they could afford.

So the 4Midland churches went in together and paid for the whole thing. The windows were all measured and ordered and they were installed at Temple Penial yesterday!

I’m not sure yet how, but we are certainly going to celebrate this together — all five churches! — soon. We know that all five of our congregations are, by God’s grace, working to love and serve our Midland community in the name and manner of Jesus. So maybe God has something even bigger in store for us than just windows. It’s something to pay attention to, something to pray about and carefully discern. Regardless of where this might or might not lead in terms of cooperative ministry here or in Mexico somewhere, what a joy and a privilege from our God to be able to come together as disciples united by our Lord to help bear our brothers’ and sisters’ burden.

I continue to thank God for the blessings of 4Midland.

Peace,
Allan