Intergenerational.

I was recently asked to contribute to an article in The Reporter with thoughts on the benefits of intergenerational ministry.  It's funny how God brings forth the "selling" points I should be using when talking about Mountain T.O.P.  Just one week prior an AIM camper suggested we market AIM by emphasizing the intergenerational experience. (Yes, of course we read the evals!)

Missy Buchanan, author of "Talking with God in Old Age," is a contributing writer to The Reporter. (She's also been on Good Morning America!) We connected partly because she's my boyfriend's aunt.  See how connections make a difference!

Anyway, I'll share that link when it's time.  For now, I wanted to share about someone who motivates me.

Mrs. Alice Shaw is from Longstreet UMC in Memphis, TN.
Alice is a hard worker, a mother, a good friend.
She likes big bows in her hair.
She is 82.

The Thursday night she arrived this fall for AIM, we had a great talk on the new Fellowship Porch. We talked about her sons, Doc and Richard, and her daughter-in-law, Terrie.  We talked about how long she's worked on hospice service (12 years), which she thinks is very therapeutic.  And then after about 30 minutes, she reached into her pocket to show me the note she was holding onto.  It read, "If you're wondering if your mission on earth is over ... if you're still alive, it's not."

That one note said a lot.

Alice's note indicates a lifestyle of service. Her fearlessness models one.  She isn't held back by age or lack of mobility or feelings of inadequacy.  If you're alive, serve. Don't succumb to fear. "Fear breeds a deadening caution, a holding back, a stagnant waiting until people no longer can recall what they are waiting for or saving themselves for.  When we fear failure more than we love life; when we are dominated by thoughts of what we might have been rather than by thoughts of what we might become; when we are haunted by the disparity between our ideal self and our real self; when we are tormented by guilt, shame, remorse, and self-condemnation, we deny our faith in the God of love." - Brennan Manning, The Signature of Jesus


If you're alive, serve.