“’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with

The Palm House exists to reach our community with the love of Christ through the simple act of making ourselves available and building relationships with our neighbors. Jesus was once asked, “Who is my neighbor?” His reply blew all cultural norms out of the water. “Who is my neighbor?” Not just the person who looks like me, thinks like me or acts likes me. Not just the person who lives beside me. Not just the ones around whom I feel comfortable. “Who is my neighbor?” The one I see in front of me. The one God puts on my heart. The one He calls me to reach. It doesn’t matter if he or she lives next door, down the block or across the ocean. Am I being obedient to God’s call on my life, my day, my moment?

This past month, we saw the beauty of simple obedient love play out in our backyard. A congregation in our city reached out to us to ask if they could provide school supplies for the children who have been coming to our after-school program. We set out to meet each family and hear their needs. Twice in one day, I heard a mother say, “We were just talking today about school supplies and wondering how we would afford it.”

What a beautiful picture of the provision of our generous Father God reaching out to meet the needs of His children! How? Through the body of Christ stepping up and stepping out of their own building and their own comfort zones to come across town and love a group of people to whom God had drawn their hearts. On Saturday night, children and their families showed up at the Palm House for a cookout and to receive the gifts God had sent just for them – each backpack marked with a specific child’s name and filled with the exact supplies he or she would need, according to grade level and school. We were so blessed by the generosity and spirit of excellence we saw in our brothers and sisters in Christ who were obedient to God’s call to help us love our neighbors!

What is God asking you to do? Who is your neighbor? Have you walked across the street this week? Has God put someone on your heart? Maybe it’s a coworker or a family member. Maybe it’s someone you pass on the street or the kid next door. Why don’t you ask Him?