Ordinary People, Extraordinary God

This past weekend, two other staff members and I had the pleasure of attending the One Conference, a Miami, Florida gathering of 6,000 Christ-followers who are passionate about seeing the Church “Unite, Ignite and Impact” the world.

FMSC was featured along with 6 other incredible nonprofit organizations: charity:water, Samaritan’s Purse, Gospel for Asia, With Open Eyes, A21, and Acres of Love. Staff and volunteers of Calvary Chapel Kendall (the hosts of the conference) designed and produced beautiful interactive displays for each nonprofit. We shared the mission of FMSC with so many people who had never heard of us and made some great connections. It was amazing to see Miami Christians take up the mission of hunger-relief as their own.

One was an extraordinary event with some incredible key speakers including Francis Chan, Christine Caine and Franklin Graham and worship by Hillsong UNITED. One of my favorite take-aways from the event was a quote from speaker and author James MacDonald: “We are ordinary, but God is extraordinary.” This very truth was illustrated to me through the volunteers from Calvary Chapel Kendall who went out of their way to serve us and powerfully share the mission of FMSC with conference-goers.

Calvary Chapel Kendall is a relatively small congregation full of ordinary people who answered God’s extraordinary call to host the ONE conference. This was their first year doing the conference yet they dared to believe that the City of Miami could be eternally changed through it. Through their devotion to Jesus, they are seeing this happen before their very eyes.

In our short time with them at ONE, they showed us such a clear example of what it means to be the “hands and feet” of Jesus. It was a blessing to meet these brothers and sisters in Christ and to witness Christ’s spirit working in and through them. It reminded me that the work done by FMSC staff and our partner organizations is never done through our own strength. It’s solely dependent on the extraordinary God whom we serve.