My children and I attended a team planning meeting for the Lighthouse Family Retreat last night. The Lighthouse is a retreat for families who have children with cancer. Volunteer teams come and work a retreat and serve these families to give them a chance to just laugh and live life for a week, forgetting about cancer. We will be serving on a retreat this spring.
This is an amazing ministry that has served hundreds of people for over 9 years. The founder is an exceptional woman who was an oncology nurse and saw all these families go through and wanted to offer them a “vacation” from it all. The Lord led her to establish this ministry.
During the training time we talked about ways to serve these families who have no sense of “normal” in their world. With one diagnosis, the world as they knew it disappeared. My daughter, Laura, asked if there would be sad times. She is very tender hearted and sensitive to others. I told her there may be some sad moments, but our purpose there was to share joy and laughter and help these families have fun. We were going to help lighten their load for a time.
Jesus told us in Matthew 25:45 whatever we do for others, we do for Him. When we serve others as He called us to do, we are serving Him. When we bless others, we are blessing Him.
Look around your sphere of influence today and see if there is anyone you can be a blessing to today. Is there someone you can give a smile to or a hug to or an encouraging word? Is there someone you can pray for? It may not be easy. It might require you to step out of your comfort zone, but remember, when you do it, you are doing it for Jesus! Who can you reach out to today?
Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.”
What a cool event!! I had no idea something like that existed. I bet volunteering at it is so awesome!!
Check your link to the event. I think you left out the ‘y’ in family. I eventually got to the site but had to be re-routed.
Leah