Love your neighbor

It's amazing how central this concept is to the heart of Jesus' teachings and how badly I've glossed over it in the past. In our global economy I believe the definition of neighbor has changed drastically but I'm pretty sure Jesus would still want us to love the people that literally live right next door to us.
Well as many of you know...Alyssa and I are extremely nomadic (5 residences in 7 years in Riverside). We've always meant to make relationships with neighbors and we have with a few but we never made it a priority until this last move. The week we moved in we walked up and down the block and introduced ourselves to everyone. (Hint...write everyone's names down because after a week you forget everyones names!) At Christmas we took cookies to everyone. We spend tons of time walking around our neighborhood and out in front of our house playing with the kids. We are especially close with our neighbors directly to our left and right. Aaron (neighbor to the right) injured his back badly and has been on disability. He is also in the construction business which is really hurting in a lot of areas. There's been about 6 times that he has come over to borrow money or has asked me to take him to the gas station to get some gas. He pays me back most of the time, he's just living bill to bill, behind every month. I love that my neighbor feels close enough to me to come over to ask for help.
Last night he came over at 11pm and asked to borrow my phone. (he does this often because he runs out of prepaid minutes.) He told me his wife went to a wine tasting with her work and was supposed to be home 3 hours earlier. He was clearly scarred and had no idea what to do. He would call...go back to his house...come back 5 minutes later....call someone else...go back....and the cycle continued. Finally I went over and gave him my cell phone and told him to call her and leave this number. I said he could have it till whenever. I told him if he needed to leave that I would come over and watch his kids. And finally I asked if I could pray for him. He agreed. We prayed. Kim showed up 2 minutes later. God is awesome.
Love your neighbor. Love the people in Africa but love the people in your neighborhood first. You know them and understand their situations better. I am so bummed it took me 7 years to start making these relationships with my neighbors. Learn from your dumb friends like me and say hi to the people you see everyday. They may actually come over when they need someone to minister to them.