Friday Update

Hello Everyone,

Blessed Portion Update for 11-24-17

"Tonight I accepted the Lord-- I listened to what you were talking about and I just asked the Lord to forgive me of my choices and to be in my life."

Hello Everyone,

We had an amazing night tonight!!! Hamilton Church of Christ made the best ham and bean soup, cornbread, chocolate cake ever!!!!!!! Thanks to Nina and Stacy Hagerty and their whole crew for making dinner and traveling so far to serve with us--- still amazed at how much they do for us!!!! Again thanks to Dino Zurzolo, Chad and Karen Ann Weeks for allowing us to be in their building--complete now with several tables to sit down and eat at!!! Tonight was wonderful seeing people being able to sit and talk and eat....and be warm!!!! Baker Street was the topic as so many talked about the amazing Thanksgiving feast they spread out for us--thanks to James Khan and his team for again serving SO many on Thanksgiving day each year!!!

Tonight we saw our couple friend who is now in separate shelters and NOT IN THE WOODS!!!!!! A couple weeks ago she was in tears as she shared with us her struggles and how being on the streets is sooo hard........and now she calls us from the shelter and talks about how happy she is to be in there along with her friend who is in a men's shelter. Knowing them for 6 years has been wonderful, but also hard seeing what they have gone through and the struggle to try and stay together.....which meant one not going into a shelter if the other one couldn't. Knowing now that they are both ok and hopefully moving in the right direction makes us thankful. Remembering Friday after Friday seeing them in the woods, staying with friends on and off, sleeping in a friends garage, to then back out in the woods............ now to this..... is an answer to prayer. Many a times the questions are raised to us and others of "Why do you do this?" "Do you think if you quit helping them they would go to a shelter?" "Do you think you are making it easy for them?" Hard questions and there is no cut and dry answer because being homeless is complicated at best. I think of these two friends and what I know to be true is we would do it all over again . We would do it again knowing this is where they would end up. They had plenty of times to get in shelters and we ALWAYS point people to shelters, but at the time for them it didn't work out.....but now they are in one. So looking at her tonight it was ALL WORTH IT!!! There are many others who are in their own place and we are thankful that we along with others were there to help along the way as they navigated their way to recovery. Like our friend tonight who came out to serve with us--he also is in a halfway house and doing amazing. He came to Fort Wayne to get away from his past and slept outside for a few weeks until someone mentioned he come down and meet us at Old Navy Club--from there that night we took him to the halfway house and he's been ever since and like I said doing great!!! So some get it right away and some don't....but for those who take longer we are going to stick close to them and always encourage them to believe in themselves enough to get on the road to recovery!!

Also tonight we talked about the story of Elijah and how he wanted to give up....and even told God how he was the only doing things right and he had had it!! Thankfully God has big enough shoulders to handle our fits....He hears them and then pushes us gently up and forward. Thing with Elijah was the day he gave up he was alone...secluded, isolated and no one knew where he was EXCEPT GOD!! Sometimes we all can feel like were done and that no one cares. Yet God is always aware of us, what were doing and He knows how to get our attention and at the same time provide for us like He did with Elijah. As we were ending our time together we prayed as we always do and then started to gather our items up. Then we heard one friend say through tears that "She had accepted the Lord as we prayed." WOW!!!!!! So we talked further with her and she said how that she was listening to what was being said and she just asked God to forgive her sins, to come into her life." Well upon hearing that our friend Kenneth Billingsley Jr. said with a bottle of water in his hands "Well are you ready for the next step?" To that she said "YES" and so we baptized her in the name of the Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit and let me tell you what .............she was RADIANT!!!!!!!!!! God is so amazing and let me say again....we feed and clothe and point people to shelters and we also point people to Jesus and the Holy Spirit is always moving and we are so blessed to see Jesus move !!!! From there conversations went to people struggling with addictions, and some believing there are demonic forces influencing them and those conversations were productive as well and its wonderful to see so many people being raw and honest. Thankfully we have a team who is compassionate and who will always listen...so pray for us that we are always led by The Holy Spirit and that God gives us wisdom.

So we had a wonderful night, gave away most everything we had and didn't have to say no to anyone!!! We do have a need for a Large print Bible though that we didn't have on us so if anyone has one please let us know!! Thanks to Pathway Community Church, Hamilton Church of Christ, Grace Summit, Sarah Bigelow Lapadot, Auburn Massage and Wellness, Mark andJennifer Lynne Stebing, Mjs Apparel, Renee Eich- Curneal, Lori Williams,Jacquie Aldrich, Scott Wright, Chris Scheiber and Rose, Dennis Brown, all of you who donate each week THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Also want to give a BIG thankyou to Wible Realty- Michelle Cole Snyder and Andy Jagoda--- they DONATED 90 SLEEPING BAGS, AND A CASE OF TARPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Again how amazing is that!!!!!!! Thank you guys so much for your generosity in making sure people are warm this winter!! May God bless you and your business!!!