The Crusade that out-Crusades the Church

It is Crusade Weekend in Kentuckiana.  For those of you who live outside our immediate area, “Crusade” is a fundraiser more properly known as the WHAS Crusade for Children.  It is an effort of literally thousands of people, with local fire departments serving as the local collection centers.  The money raised is distributed throughout our area to benefit children in a variety of settings and who live with a variety of challenges.  Because of the money raised, thousands of children receive the chance for life, and wholeness of life. 

This year is the 59^th Crusade.  Over the years, the Crusade has raised 143 million dollars for children with special needs.  Last year’s total was 5.3 million dollars!  As of 7:00 p.m. Saturday night, the Eminence Fire and Rescue Department had already raised $26,000.00 from our small community.  By noon tomorrow when the collections cease, the total will near $30,000.00.

For the past few days, strangers passing through the towns and cities of Kentuckiana must have found it strange to see fire trucks, with lights flashing, sitting at most major intersections.  Behind or in front of the trucks, they saw firefighters and volunteers holding out firefighter’s boots to collect donations from passing motorists.  By late Sunday night or early Monday morning, those boots will have yielded up to 5 million dollars or more.

All that money is not collected in one week of concerted effort.  All through the year, fire departments, local clubs and businesses, and individuals and small groups work to raise funds.  Crusade Weekend is merely the collection time for a year’s work.  Many hands and many hours lead to life and wholeness for children in all 120 counties of Kentucky and in 50 counties in Southern Indiana.

As we gathered at Eminence Baptist on Crusade Sunday for a service focused on Communion, this pastor was praying that we who have received so much because of the One whose Body was broken and whose Blood was shed will grow to be a people most thankful—a people who are willing daily to take up our crosses and to so live that children and adults who have too little may have enough, that children and adults may come to know and experience a salvation that is both Whole and Holy.

Five to six million dollars will be raised for the Crusade and most of it will have been given without sacrifice on the part of the donors.  Most of us will have given from our abundance.  What might be the outcome were the people called Christian to give sacrificially of both their resources and their lives?

What indeed!