COMMUNITY

Enchanted Rock is a beautiful if not strange outcropping many of us have climbed who are from Texas. In some corners it is almost a right of passage to get into a van with a pile of friends and journey out to the wooded state park and spend the day exploring your way to the top. That was the plan for many of the smaller community groups with the student ministry of Riverside. The question that floated around in everyone's mind was Nissi.

Nissi is physically bound to a wheelchair. She can't climb to the top and her friends hearts couldn't leave her behind. Through prayer and conversation the answer became clear. They would take Nissi along and do as much as they could. Turns out a handful of loving teenage girls are much more able than most may expect.

Down the trail and around the corner they came to the place where the wheelchair could no longer go. So, simply and lovingly, they each took hold of Nissi, lifted the chair, and began to climb. Soon their was a rumor making rounds in the park that there was group of girls carrying a girl in a wheelchair up the rock.

Nissi is a 16 year old girl with a beautiful smile. She loves to rock climb, tube down the river, go on mission to New Orleans, laugh with her friends, and do her best to grow up. She is also in a wheelchair, needs help to eat and drink, and other things we all take for granted. The difference for Nissi? COMMUNITY. She needs our bodies to help her do a few things. We need her to teach us what it means to be a community in which Jesus is the most valued member.

Thanks Nissi.

We believe in Community with God and each other. The Kingdom of Heaven is born into the world through community. We are created for interdependence with God and each other. The final authority in this community life is scripture. Scripture is both life's guidebook and love letter. The library of God''s word compels us together with Him to grow into the people we are created to be. We believe in community in our homes as extended family and submitting ourselves to each other in mentoring relationships that will develop us as followers of Jesus. We are a body. If one of us hurts, we all hurt. If there is joy for one, there is joy for all. We believe in being a community in which Jesus is the most valued member.