A phone call changes everything. You put your life on hold and temporarily move to another city ten hours away, trusting God for what is around the bend and hoping that you will somehow meet some Jesus family, fit in and be encouraged. You visit a local church and ask for a small group. You don’t ever actually visit that group, until months later, but through that one email you come across Grace Klein Community. An abbreviated version of a very amazing story.

The garage door must have been open because in walked Mary Grace. Many will share of their first encounters with our new sister and her infamous question, “how did you get here?”

Mary Grace could never wrap her mind around the diversity of Grace Klein Community. She kept trying to put the pieces together, thinking surely all these people must go to the same church, but everyone she met that first week went to all different churches or did not go to church. How were all these people united and how were they all coming together in the same place at the same time?

No one really knows the answer except to say Jesus. He seems to handpick all of us and bring us together in a finely woven tapestry of love. Oh, don’t misunderstand, nothing about the Grace Klein Community tapestry is perfect, full of a million broken pieces that make up the brokenness of our lives. But somehow God is teaching us how to tie all our broken threads together into something beautiful. He will flip the tapestry over one day and only then will we fully understand this beautiful experience we have all shared together.

And just like any of us and all of us, Mary Grace came in and shared her real and broken and how Jesus is gluing it all back together. She has no pretensions, honest about her weaknesses, a friend to everyone, and a worker bee.

She always has a big smile on her face and somehow that smile sets you at ease. Before you know it you are happy about sorting slimy cucumbers and you are setting up the display table like a fancy store. She’s told you the dignity you are giving to the people who will come for food today, how your presentation will minister to their heart and how the food is evidence of the Giver.

If you know her, you may be laughing about now. She stopped you to hug you and pray for you. She could not help it! And she got in that Give and Take Room and folded clothing like her life depended on it. She gives everything because that is all she knows to give – everything. She wanted to meet you for coffee, but she will catch you on the next visit because she already had plans to go love on someone else. Or she brought her notebook to ask you questions. She may always be trying to figure it out. If she has not asked you a question, you have not met Mary Grace.

Maybe Mary Grace came to demonstrate that anyone can come. Everyone is welcome, for real, welcome. Come as you are, broken, fragile, scattered, silly, fun. No matter if you live five minutes from GKC, ten hours or across the ocean, once we meet, you are in the family. We choose you because God chose us. We believe all we need is more love, more grace and more listening. You have a story to tell and we all want to hear it. We want to learn from you. Where did you come from? What’s your story? Where are you going? Can we walk beside you and be your friend?

Maybe she is always trying to figure it out, because Jesus wants each of us to keep wanting to figure it out. The more questions she asks the more amazing it becomes because 80 cases of strawberries given away in a day really doesn’t make sense. Or that time we gave away 600 dozen eggs. Jesus wants us to realize how amazing He is and how tasting His goodness leads to more questions. And the more we know Jesus, the more we want to know. His love runs deep and the deeper we go, the deeper still.

Maybe she came because she needed to remember she has a family. Sometimes we all forget we have a family. Death happens. Or betrayal. Shame. Regret. A lot can happen that can have us believing we do not have a family. But we all have a family. Jesus gave us a huge family and we do not need to forget to live with the family. Sometimes we need to be chased down for a Mary Grace hug or we need a good laugh. And we need to chase her down for a hug and give her a good laugh. We need each other. Jesus made that pretty clear.

The point is not to figure out why Mary Grace came. The point is to realize everyone comes. We need someone to meet us when we come and we need to meet the next person and the next that will come after Mary Grace. We all come. We come for friendship. We come for hope. We come for provision. We come for laughter. We come for courage. We come for love. And hopefully in our coming, we find the One who came for us! Jesus.

In December 2016, Mary Grace wrote a “love letter” for our monthly food boxes. Click HERE to read her story.

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the peoples. Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations you do not know will come running to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.” Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.” – Isaiah 55:1-13

A phone call changes everything. You put your life on hold and temporarily move to another city ten hours away, trusting God for what is around the bend and hoping that you will somehow meet some Jesus family, fit in and be encouraged. You visit a local church and ask for a small group. You don’t ever actually visit that group, until months later, but through that one email you come across Grace Klein Community. An abbreviated version of a very amazing story.

The garage door must have been open because in walked Mary Grace. Many will share of their first encounters with our new sister and her infamous question, “how did you get here?”

Mary Grace could never wrap her mind around the diversity of Grace Klein Community. She kept trying to put the pieces together, thinking surely all these people must go to the same church, but everyone she met that first week went to all different churches or did not go to church. How were all these people united and how were they all coming together in the same place at the same time?

No one really knows the answer except to say Jesus. He seems to handpick all of us and bring us together in a finely woven tapestry of love. Oh, don’t misunderstand, nothing about the Grace Klein Community tapestry is perfect, full of a million broken pieces that make up the brokenness of our lives. But somehow God is teaching us how to tie all our broken threads together into something beautiful. He will flip the tapestry over one day and only then will we fully understand this beautiful experience we have all shared together.

And just like any of us and all of us, Mary Grace came in and shared her real and broken and how Jesus is gluing it all back together. She has no pretensions, honest about her weaknesses, a friend to everyone, and a worker bee.

She always has a big smile on her face and somehow that smile sets you at ease. Before you know it you are happy about sorting slimy cucumbers and you are setting up the display table like a fancy store. She’s told you the dignity you are giving to the people who will come for food today, how your presentation will minister to their heart and how the food is evidence of the Giver.

If you know her, you may be laughing about now. She stopped you to hug you and pray for you. She could not help it! And she got in that Give and Take Room and folded clothing like her life depended on it. She gives everything because that is all she knows to give – everything. She wanted to meet you for coffee, but she will catch you on the next visit because she already had plans to go love on someone else. Or she brought her notebook to ask you questions. She may always be trying to figure it out. If she has not asked you a question, you have not met Mary Grace.

Maybe Mary Grace came to demonstrate that anyone can come. Everyone is welcome, for real, welcome. Come as you are, broken, fragile, scattered, silly, fun. No matter if you live five minutes from GKC, ten hours or across the ocean, once we meet, you are in the family. We choose you because God chose us. We believe all we need is more love, more grace and more listening. You have a story to tell and we all want to hear it. We want to learn from you. Where did you come from? What’s your story? Where are you going? Can we walk beside you and be your friend?

Maybe she is always trying to figure it out, because Jesus wants each of us to keep wanting to figure it out. The more questions she asks the more amazing it becomes because 80 cases of strawberries given away in a day really doesn’t make sense. Or that time we gave away 600 dozen eggs. Jesus wants us to realize how amazing He is and how tasting His goodness leads to more questions. And the more we know Jesus, the more we want to know. His love runs deep and the deeper we go, the deeper still.

Maybe she came because she needed to remember she has a family. Sometimes we all forget we have a family. Death happens. Or betrayal. Shame. Regret. A lot can happen that can have us believing we do not have a family. But we all have a family. Jesus gave us a huge family and we do not need to forget to live with the family. Sometimes we need to be chased down for a Mary Grace hug or we need a good laugh. And we need to chase her down for a hug and give her a good laugh. We need each other. Jesus made that pretty clear.

The point is not to figure out why Mary Grace came. The point is to realize everyone comes. We need someone to meet us when we come and we need to meet the next person and the next that will come after Mary Grace. We all come. We come for friendship. We come for hope. We come for provision. We come for laughter. We come for courage. We come for love. And hopefully in our coming, we find the One who came for us! Jesus.

In December 2016, Mary Grace wrote a “love letter” for our monthly food boxes. Click HERE to read her story.

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the peoples. Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations you do not know will come running to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.” Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.” – Isaiah 55:1-13