Our stops on Saturday morning, visiting our friends living outside continue to decline! Yeah! Really only Turner remains and some scattered callings from old friends meeting them in various places is the extent of our visits now. Wonder what is next in God's plan for us?
Matt, Vicki and Chuck continue to mold our young people with basketball skills as well as life skills. Just about everyday you will find the blue house full activities of doing homework, eating or talking about life.
Being around the center everyday, I am amazed to see all the activities that take place. We now have office hours, being manned mainly by Joey. There are people from all walks of life stopping by. Some to give us food, shoes, clothing. Some needing groceries, clothing or for someone to listen to their struggles. Groceries are dropped off by some, others come every week to sort them out and put them up. Clothes are dropped off, while others sort through them, hang and organize the clothing room. Food is prepared just about every day. Boys are always hungry! Men learning about God needs to be nourished after a hard day of work. The community looks forward to a meal every Thursday. The center is always busy now.
Our afternoon activities of learning will begin next week. Lots of preparation has been going on. Please let Lisa or Allison know you would like to help out. All sorts of help is needed. We have a great group of returning teachers and helpers, but we can always use more servants.
Thursday was a great time of sharing the Word and singing, eating and meeting new friends, gathering clothes and groceries. The center was busy all night long. Bryce did an outstanding job in leading our singing, while an old friend Jacoby shared the Word. It was a special night, because we got to talk about our birthday girl, Ms Abbie. Joey wanted to buy her a cake, but I said to Joey, with all the candles on top, I was afraid, the chapel might catch on fire! Ms Abbie was not in chapel when I said that, so don't tell her I did! We had an old friend rejoin our community, Ms Dawn has returned, yeah!
We have come a long way from where we have started, handing out groceries from the trunks of our cars or the backs of our trucks, going through bags of clothes, preparing meals when no one came, being asked to leave a church building having no where to go, having no budget, no monies to buy food, groceries, no books for the children to learn by. There was no planning committee, no plans for tomorrow, we were just trying to meet the needs of our community that day!
So God has brought us this far, where is He leading us now? What is our next step in this journey? Is there something God has placed on your heart, that we need to know about, let us know? We do not want to be just another nonprofit among hundreds in the city, we did not start off that way, we were led by Christ to do what Matthew 25, 34 says, "Then the King will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world". 35, "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me".
We are a community of followers of Christ, lvoing others when nobody else does, sharing the grace of God when it is many times hard to do, holding up those who have never experienced hope and peace in their lives. We are set apart, to do God's work in a community where there is very little light shinning of God's majesty. Let's work together to change that! Amen!
Have a great week! We are blessed to be a part of God's Kingdom, let's boldly live our lives that way!
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