Following this revelation, the person asking the question wanted some clarification. He asked “who is my neighbor?”. The Bible says that he asked this question because he wanted to “justify” himself. Maybe he was looking for loopholes. In reply to this second question Jesus tells what we call the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

The entire parable can be summarized in this. If you see someone in need, and you can help them, that  person is your neighbor. And if you want to inherit eternal life, you will love that neighbor as yourself.

We get a lot of opportunities to serve in many different ways. Next Saturday, we have a very special opportunity to serve and make a real difference in people’s lives.  As a church, we have the opportunity to volunteer and partner with H.O.P.E.Worldwide and the American Red Cross to help save lives here in Champaign.

The American Red Cross has identified local fires as the #1 natural or unnatural disasters in America. That may be hard to accept as we normally don’t hear about house fires. Yet when you think that there are many, many fires taking lives and property every day across our nation you can see how it really does effect more people annually than any other disaster.

Saturday we will be going house to house distributing information on fire safety and offering fresh batteries for smoke detectors and even taking names of those who don’t have smoke detectors so we can come back later to provide and install them. We will be doing this in the neighborhoods in which 70% of the fires in the Champaign/Urbana area  occur.

This simple yet very important effort has the very real potential to save lives. Unfortunately, fires will occur. The only hope some have is to be prepared when they to happen. It is our goal to help them be prepared.

This Saturday, from 12 - 3 PM we will be going out as a church to do this. We will meet at the building at 12 noon for a rally, training and organization. Then we will go out from 1 -3 PM, door to door, trying to spread the word of fire safety. We need EVERYONE who can to help with this.

Attached to this bulletin, is a volunteer sign up form. If you would like to join us on Saturday and did not sign up last Wednesday night, please fill out the sign up form, rip it off the bulletin and place it, along with your contribution, in the collection plate as it comes around near the end of the service. Knowing how many people to expect will be very helpful in organizing our teams and preparing supplies.

Thank you in advance for your hearts and sacrifice and your willingness to serve your neighbors here in Champaign/Urbana.

-Tracy