Fall is my favorite season by a long shot. I love everything about it. Crisp mornings with striking blue skies, hot bowls of chili, hayrides, football, and to top it all off, the leaves are just gorgeous. It kind of makes me sad when I hear people complain about them. I love them. I know, I know, they clog gutters and kill grass and are a fire hazard etc., etc.
But still, I sigh when I am forced to pile up my colorful little friends at the road and watch that vacuum truck suck up all my childhood memories. Those days of raking leaves into a huge pile just to dive in and mess it all up again were magical. Remember the rake? It ruled when I was kid, before the mighty leaf blower came to power. That’s when all the trouble began in my old neighborhood.
I had recently won an electric leaf blower in a sales contest, so caving to the pressure, I headed for the back yard where maple and oak leaves lay a foot deep. A hedge separated my back yard from the street where curbside pick-up took place, so the challenge was getting the leaves through the gaps in the hedge and down to the road. But me and my new leaf blower were up for it. I blew leaves over, under, and through that hedge with gale force winds. An hour later, I was nearly finished. And then I saw it, down at the other end of the yard, leaves were flying back up from the street, through the bushes in my direction! “What new devilry could this be?”
Unable to see over or through the hedge, I shut off my electric leaf blower to investigate. The deafening roar coming from the other side of the hedge left no doubt about the nature of my foe. I snuck to the end of the hedge row and peered around to discover my neighbor with a gas-powered, hurricane-force leaf blower! My electric blower was no match for this Balrog of leaf blowers, mercilessly blasting the leaves back through the hedge and into my yard.
When she spotted me, she startled, but recovered quickly and launched into a tirade about how the leaves in my yard were blowing across the street into her yard and how I should take them all the way around to the front yard because the truck wouldn’t pick up for another week and how I should be more neighborly and, and, and. Too shocked and amused to be angry, I just smiled in disbelief as she educated me on proper leaf piling technique.
Recalling the incident made me think about all the Gospel ministries in our area and the work we do at First Priority. I am happy to report that I have seen Kingdom minded churches, Kingdom minded ministries and Kingdom minded people, all working TOGETHER to “move the pile” in the same direction.
In Greeneville, First Priority has partnered with Holston Home for Children to train students at four different schools to share Christ with their peers at First Priority clubs. A recent partnership with another campus ministry in the Kingsport area resulted in 3 decisions for Christ. And just last week, First Priority coordinated volunteers for load out/load in and drivers for the Matthew West concert.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving and partnering, we invite you to join us in supporting this ministry with your time, talent, treasure and most of all, your prayers, as we Take the Hope of Christ to Every Student. God loves a cheerful giver and so do we!
A one time gift of $149 puts a club leader kit in the hands of a student leader to start a new club. Would you consider giving $149 or a monthly gift of $12.50 to to help provide the resources a student leader needs? Thank you for your generosity.
Happy Thanksgiving!
David North
