Scraps

Mark 7:26-30 "The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." "Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter." She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Jesus walked 70 miles to have this conversation with this lady. At first glance it sounds like Jesus is telling this woman she is a dog, when in reality he was just giving voice to what the disciples and all of Israel thought at the time. He tested her and after she kept pressing in with her request He healed her daughter. At one of our 10MEN tables it became clear
to us that even the scraps that fall off the table can accomplish far more than we could ever imagine. We know that our tithes and offerings need to go to our home churches to help fund home-base for ministry. So we took this challenge of giving our scraps to God by deciding we would all give up something we enjoy (buying coffee at the corner store, going to a car wash, having the neighbor kid mow our grass of us) and by doing without or doing it ourselves we would in turn give God these SCRAPS.

With these scraps over the last two years we have run water pipes to a small village in South Africa; put shoes on hundreds of barefooted Hondurans feet; helped but a Hindu girl through school, paid for her training, set her up in
a micro-business, and helped pay for her wedding which caused her to become a Christian; bought 15 water coolers for 12 orphanages in Calcutta; did scores of local mission projects for single moms and those at the margins here in America; and are currently building a significant addition onto an orphanage in India. The best part of this story is that we have just begun to see what God can do with a few dollars tossed in a hat each week at a growing number of 10MEN tables around the Washington Metropolitan area.

Local Ministry

NEW DAY SERVING PROJECT:

Cara Day's uncle lived alone in a row house in Baltimore. Shortly before Christmas, 2006 a fire broke out in his home leaving a lot of fire damage on the first floor and Uncle Bob severely burned. When Cara asked the Waterboyz for help cleaning up the mess we had NO idea what was waiting for us. There was a two foot layer of trash and debris from the front of the house to the rear. We found the same sort of rubble on the 2nd floor and we were unable to even get into the basement it was so packed with junk.

During the cleanup we uncovered dozens of guns, some loaded with live ammunition, several cases of alcohol, and pornography all over the place. This man was clearly not saved. After the 20 or more volunteers were finished with two Saturdays of work all the junk had been taken to the dump. Cara's dad and his brother who were both pretty old told Cara that their name for the Waterboyz for Jesus was GOD'S SUPERMEN! Cara tells us that her family has gone from cynical about God to wide open to Him.

Serving simply out of love sucks the cynicism out of lost people!