Project Square Mile Harvest Time

What is happening over the next several weeks with Highpointe opening its doors to James Dennis Elementary while they are repairing their storm damaged classrooms is awesome. The response of the congregation last Sunday morning was exceptional. The amount of work that it will take to see this done successfully is unimaginable. But the opportunities are limitless.

As I sat in the congregation Sunday morning during the introduction of the principal at James Dennis, I reflected as I am fond of doing. Although the storm which caused this collaboration came up suddenly, this is not a new story in the history of Highpointe. It is a point in the story of Highpointe which was begun several years ago.

Remember a few years ago when Project Square Mile was announced with the intent of offering the church as a resource to our community? We discussed at that time the question each church should ask itself; If our church burned to the ground today, would anyone but the members miss it? The project started slowly with some confusion , as is common when a new direction is charted. But without planting the seeds of reaching out to and resourcing the community that were sown into the membership of Highpointe, this opportunity would not have come our way. The teacher's lunches, football breakfasts, opening the FLiC for testing of students all were signals to the school that Highpointe cares and is available to help. If we hadn't been doing that, Dennis Elementary wouldn't have even thought to call to see if we might be able to help with this emergency. They would have assumed that we wanted to keep our clubhouse to ourselves. So those small gestures which seemed as though they weren't accomplishing much were working underground so they could bear fruit at the appointed time.

We overestimate what we can do in a year, and we underestimate what we can do in five. Planting and reaping don't happen on the same day. Many are present for the harvest who weren't present for the planting and that's okay. That's the way of the harvest. This harvest work of allowing 2nd and 3rd graders to use our classrooms will be much harder than anything Highpointe has done in quite a while. It will be aggravating and messy. Our rooms might not look quite as nice as we are accustomed to. But it is incredibly important. Because to plant seeds and then not harvest the fruit would be inexcusable. And there is no way to estimate where this harvest time will end.

Never despise small beginnings. Project Square Mile didn't seem like all that much while it was going on, but the harvest from the seeds planted then are just now beginning to bear fruit, both in us at Highpointe, and in the community.