Restored faith...in the Church

This past year I have changed and changed. There is no better way to say it. I talk to people who knew me sophomore year and they bring up instances where optimism, idealism and fun was all the personality I had. I won't say I've become a cynic, because that's definitely not in my nature, but I've flirted with cynacism and pessimism especially concerning certain issues; the Church being one of them. But this week, I got a new vision of the Church; what it could be and what it should be.
I co-led a spring break mission trip to the city right near campus (about 8 miles actually). Jackson is a city with an unemployment rate that will knock your socks off, teenage pregnancies are commonplace and people generally live in poverty, but it goes unnoticed by many. So 17 SAU students and the Jackson community came together to show the community we care. Grocery stores donated 120 units (loaf of bread, dozen eggs and 1/2 gallon milk) so we could go door-to-door and give out groceries. We opened up laundromats so people could wash their laundry for free. We worked in 2 homeless shelters: painting, cleaning, fixing odds and ends. We also 'adopted' three "at-risk" families. The families were recommended by the Public School system as needing serious help. We went to their houses, cleaned, painted, got new mattresses, built bunk beds, and took each family out for an evening of fun. And with these families comes my restored faith in the Church.
Two families were without vehicles. We went to Westwinds Community Church (the church we went to Alissa when you were here) with this need and their youth group jumped aboard. We got one car donated but needed about $800 of work on it. The youth group raised $2000 for our families: fix their cars, help with insurance, tickets owed, registration, got them expense paid trips to Cedar Point and gave blankets, pillows and bedding. Wednesday night was the big reveal and I bawled my fricken eyes out. THE CHURCH FINALLY GOT IT!! Jesus was more concerned with caring for people's physical needs before he even touched on their spiritual needs!! And when the cars were given away, they didn't ruin it with Jesus crap, they just simply said: God loves you, and we love you, and we knew this was the right thing to do. Oh my gosh guys, it was beautiful. I love this church. I don't love everything about it, but they recycle, they build houses for widows in Uganda and South Africa, give cars and care for people in their backyard, care for the old people in the home across the street, and they LOVE each other. It makes me want to stay around here to invest in this church, but I gotta get the HELL out of this place. =)

Anyway, I had to share this with y'all, as I know many of you struggle with the Church, and I won't pretend I have it all figured and squared away--but on this Easter Sunday, I feel like people are beginning to act like Jesus.