I was in bed by 10:00 pm on a Friday night and prayed to wake up early the next morning. On Saturday mornings I enjoy sleeping in, but not that Saturday.

I had volunteered to help with the set up of the Fall Festival for a nearby church and my shift was from 8:30 to 10:00am. Earlier that month, I was unloading pumpkins for their pumpkin patch and both are a part of their outreach to community. A Farmer’s Market was setting up in the midst of the organized chaos of the Fall Festival, so being around this many people this early on a Saturday was different, but rewarding. When 10:00 am rolled around, the organizer asked if I was staying for the next shift, but I said, “No. I’m just here for the grunt work.”

If you’re not familiar with the term ‘grunt work’, that is what happens before and after every event. The grunt helps assemble what’s needed for a successful event and when it’s over disassembles it, putting away every speck of evidence that it was there. The grunt creates magic in my opinion.

This church hosts something almost every day on their property. During the week, they host homeschool co-ops, afterschool programs, a men’s breakfast/study and a women’s study. They have a gathering on Wednesday evening in which I’m fond of. It’s a small group of people who eat dinner together and listen as the preacher takes a deeper dive into the sermon topic. I go there once a week to help with their landscaping, which trust me, it needs help.

But I think that’s a good sign. It says they haven’t been concerned over what people see when they walk up to the building, such as dying plants, but they have poured all their love and attention inside. Sometimes I attend on Sunday morning, but if not, I watch the sermon online. This little church shows me that what they have to offer is so much more than Sunday mornings.

Feature Photo by Grant Whitty on Unsplash