The summer is over and college students are returning to their dorms. School buses are on the road and the leaves are starting to fall…wait, that’s wrong. The weather has not realized that summer is over! This past summer Mission Indy was packed with new experiences! We had a record number of attendees each week. God provided enough food to feed everyone and enough workers to help with all the things on the “to-do” list. Matt was indoctrinated into a summer with Mission Indy. Ron was able to leave after the final week and serve with a mission group in Alaska. Niccole was able to help the lead intern with all the job sites. Things continue to run smoothly…well, as smoothly as things can in daily life.
This summer was hot, not just because of the sun, but it was also heated with God’s love. His love was shown through the interns and staff onto others, and held the hope of many in the service for the King. We had people who never experienced a Mission Indy week learn new skills, new ideas, and new churches that were able to learn about MI as a whole. It was exciting and we pray that it continues to be exciting. If you are interested in any particulars like pictures, comments by participants and comments by leaders of churches who participated in the week, please visit the Facebook page. We were so blessed by many returning churches and returning faces from previous years to continue the relationship. We are excited to see who returns next year. We are blessed by the relationships that were made during the weeks and hope to partner with many of the ministries to continue in helping to teach others how to love those that are lost.
When thinking back over the summer, it could not have been a great summer without our staff of interns. Each one added their own element and area of passion. It was a joy to get to know and work with each. We are already thinking toward the summer of 2011 and praying for our next group of interns. We are setting our focus on the fall and the groups that are already booking their weekend retreats, group trainings and service projects. We are hoping to equip others in their areas of service by being a catalyst for the change they desire. We thank all the people who helped this summer to create a change in others. Though you might think your area of service was small, nothing can be compared to that moment of compassion that you took with another.
Philippians 1:3-11
3Every time I think of you, I thank my God. 4And whenever I mention you in my prayers, it makes me happy. 5This is because you have taken part with me in spreading the good news from the first day you heard about it. 6God is the one who began this good work in you, and I am certain that he won’t stop before it is complete on the day that Christ Jesus returns.
7You have a special place in my heart. So it is only natural for me to feel the way I do. All of you have helped in the work that God has given me, as I defend the good news and tell about it here in jail. 8God himself knows how much I want to see you. He knows that I care for you in the same way that Christ Jesus does.
9I pray that your love will keep on growing and that you will fully know and understand 10how to make the right choices. Then you will still be pure and innocent when Christ returns. And until that day, 11Jesus Christ will keep you busy doing good deeds that bring glory and praise to God.
Do you have someone who helps push you on toward the goal of Christ? Niccole, here at MI, would ask: do you have someone pouring into you? While in college, these words that Paul writes in the opening of his letter to the church of Philippi were words that were used by one to express their feelings towards another. I had a friend who handwrote these words to the person they wanted to marry. They were hoping to be able to “pour” into another more through a God centered relationship; helping push them on toward the goal that Christ has set for us. However, it feels like years since I have thought about these words as a form of personal expression. It is with these words that I am reminded of the faces of the people in my past. It reminds me of people that I was busy doing good deeds with during our times of serving others. It is through these times of doing that I have come closer in connecting with the rest of a person’s life. Through the action of manual labor, I have connected more with others than just simply sitting by them. Don’t get me wrong, there are times to listen and talk over food, but while doing labor, planning and plugging through the harder times of doing good, I have found true friends and have gotten to know the life of another.
This past week we had students from Milligan come share their Spring Break with us and serve the people of Indianapolis as the hands and feet of Christ. During this time of labor is when I got to know these students best. We would joke and have fun, working together; doing the good deeds that God calls us to do daily. No matter the act of labor: cutting, measuring, mixing or simply eating lunch together, we had fun working. We thank these students for giving of their time to be working instead of doing something else that typically is thought of as Spring Break for college students. They were giving to the body of Christ and expressing it not in words as Paul did, but through their physical presence and giving of their time and gifts. These students will have a “special place in [our] heart that is only natural for me to feel this way” because of the work that we have done together.
My wife is reading the book Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. She was noticing how the main character, a young girl who must go to work as a maid for a master painter, leaves her home to travel just a few streets away from where the she has lived her whole life; yet, she had never ventured into this part of the city before. One of the reasons appears to be because of the traditions and customs of religion or faith. The girl’s family is Protestant, which is the traditions and concepts that she understands and finds comfort in, and she must now work for a Catholic family. Reading the book, you hear the girl’s perspective almost like reading her journal, and she describes this part of the city as if she had never seen it before, as with new eyes. This idea of seeing the city with new eyes relates to me. I have lived here in Indianapolis now for about a month and I still feel lost most times. I take the same roads to get the same places, because I am not sure if a few streets over I can make it back to where I started. I don’t know if anyone else feels this way, but I am pretty sure that if you take a look at your life, you will see that you too find the comfort in your own traditions or as we call them today, routines, and thinking of traveling a few streets over just does not fit into the routine.
Being new to Indianapolis, my family and I are working on making our own routines or traditions. We are excited to see where God leads us as a family during this season of life. We get to make new traditions and new routines. I get excited for the Spring Break trips, the Saturday Work Days and the Summer to begin. This city and organization is new to me, but with a willing heart I am serving right where God wants me. We will have many churches with youth groups, college aged mission minded students, families, and groups of all kinds that have never been to this part of the city. They will see with new eyes something different. They will learn something new. They will be taken a few streets over from the comfort of what they know and be brought to another place; prayfully, a place filled with different traditions, different routines, different people, all working together for God’s kingdom! I see that working with others just a few streets over will help me be able to get used to being in this new city, a new routine for me. I see that just a few streets over I will get to know the neighbors, the people of this city. Just a few streets over I will become a better part of what God has in store for me.
We here at Mission Indy have been praying for you and your plans for this summer. We pray that as you begin to make your summer plans and get an idea of what you can do, that you include showing Christ to others, just a few streets over.
By
Matt, February 14, 2010
Hello everyone! My name is Matt Cutler and I have come on board with Mission Indy. I will take a little bit to introduce myself and then tell you where you can catch up with Ron and I on the road. I have been married for 13 years to a beautiful woman named Jana. Right now I have four children with hopes to have more, if God allows. I got my undergrad degree from Great Lakes Christian College and my M. Div. from Cincinnati Christian University. I have been in Associate Ministry for over a dedcade working with youth, college age, young adults, and families from Michigan, Illinois, and most recently Florida. For the last 10 years we have lived in Florida, so the cold and snow is an exciting change for our family. This past Saturday I experienced my first Work Day at Mission Indy. It was a good day!
We have a visit coming up on March 14th at Heartland Christian Church in Marion, IL. It will be at their evening service. If anyone is in the area that night and wants to find out more about what Mission Indy does and what we are planning, come on over for the visit. It will start around 6pm that evening. Hope to see and meet lots of new people!!
Comments (1) 
