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Quiet Obedience

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A humble and quiet mama of a bunch of littles contacted Grace Klein Community about committing to serve regularly with their family. They all wanted to come, even the daddy, and could they come on Friday afternoons. You are kidding, right?? Everyone tries to sneak out on Friday afternoons and you want to come? And you would love to come clean and tidy the loose ends? Yes, absolutely yes. Please add us to your routine, to your schedule, and come help us finish the weeks strong.

Tessa Jones and her family have been coming on Fridays for over a year now. Often she is wearing one of the babies and littles are scrubbing compost buckets. They are teaching the kids to sweep and mop, to wipe down shelves, to sanitize containers and fridges, to look for anything that needs to be put away or straightened. Her children have sorted cans, packed and displayed the food shelves neatly, broken down boxes, packed bread in freezers to maximize space, sorted veggies, brought in donations, folded clothing, etc. They happily organize the Give and Take Room, maybe pausing occasionally to play with an interesting toy they find, but they always leave things at GKC better than they found them. It’s very entertaining to see their little hands push the broom around the place. The obvious point is they are willing to do anything to help and Tessa and her husband are teaching their children the value of serving and the extra blessing of serving unseen.

When many of you come to Sunday market, you have no idea who prepared the way, swept the floors, cleaned the counters and prepared the space. Tessa’s crew and other ladies of our community come faithfully, at the end of every week, to tie all the loose ends into beautifully intricate masterpieces of order, laced together with love.

Many of you will never show up at Grace Klein Community on a Friday afternoon so you may never meet this family. So let’s talk a little more about Tessa so you feel like you know her. She lays down her life every single day for her family, calm and non confrontational, slow to speak and slow to anger, a scripture loving memory verse queen, an encourager who takes people to God’s Word, she intentionally seeks God in everything and the fruit of the spirit is evident in her day to day life. She loves schedules and she uses it not to confine, but for freedom. She builds space into all the days so each little moment has purpose.

She serves her family healthy options and a random fact is her kids eat raw bell peppers every single day. Her garden abounds with fresh basil and she makes many batches of homemade pesto to give away. Another way she enjoys loving others is making homemade scripture cards to encourage those who need a little special dose of the Word of God to hide in their hearts. She even donated both of her homemade goodies as door prizes for our April 28th Drum Circle. Her kids enjoy trail life and basketball and somehow she jogs almost every single day.

When the door locks behind them, after their time is done, they have scattered peace in every nook and cranny, tidied up the forgotten they found here or there, and prepared the office back to ready for what is to come. We are so much better that Tessa and her family sneak in when everyone else is trying to sneak out.

“But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” – Matthew 6:3

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