It never ends...

Amidst a very busy d.s. weekend, I presided at the charge conference at Oakland for Buckner and Oakland UMCs. I will blog about the content of the conference and other Sunday happenings on the http://www.heartlandnorthnews.blogspot.com/ blog tomorrow hopefully (hard to know sometimes how to differentiate the two blogs) but wanted to share one thing that happened there. Ann Farmer spoke, who along with Julie Yokum from Buckner UMW started the Baby Grace program for young moms, mostly students at Fort Osage High school. I've written about this before.

I believe the program is nearly two years old now, and Ann reported today that they have helped 44 moms and 46 babies counting also the young moms that are not at Fort Osage. Wow. They give a whole laundry basket of items that have been gathered by church members and also items collected from local businesses---I remember being told before that an insurance company gives a baby medical guide book to go in and lots of other stuff is given too. They have a lending service for larger items like baby beds and other equipment. It is SUCH a wonderful program. At least three other churches have taken this ministry as a model for their ministry.

Anyway, I was really moved by something Ann said that I had not heard from her before. She said that what is happening is that these relationships that the UMW members are building with the young moms ---well, the relationship doesn't end. Just because the baby gets to be three, that doesn't mean that the UMW wants to say, in any way, "okay, now we are done with you." It just doesn't end. And you know what? That's what it is about love. It doesn't. Really loving someone is a huge risk emotionally and sometimes monetarily too! When you really love, you don't stop. That's because what you initially thought the relationship was going to be morphs into something usually deeper and richer than you could at first imagine. Like UMW members at a part-time appointment and young girls that needed them. Or like a sweetheart that no longer is around but who lingers in your mind and soul even though you no longer see him. Or your own mama who might have died over eight years ago but mysteriously shows up now and again when you don't expect her to and makes you laugh and/or cry. Or your own kids who first you carry inside your body, and then in your arms, and then into the world and then and then....that love keeps growing and changing and shaping us. Or that love for vocation that takes you to people and places you once never knew existed (there was a time I did not know where Oakland church was....as hard as that is to believe).

Yes, dear Ann and those Buckner Women, you have taught me again what the nature of love is, with its heartbreak and with its joy, through this marvelous ministry. It is just so very right, and so very wonderful. Thank you so very much.