friday update

Blessed Portion Friday Update 12-1-17

James 4:13-14 "Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes."

Hello Everyone,

As the verse states above....... our lives on this earth are very short even if we don't realize it. We can tend to think we have years to live and while we may- we also have to understand that we may not, and that's why each day we are alive we need to honor the life God has given us. Its very easy to fall into the "half empty" state of mind and from there spiral down very quickly. Life throws at us hardships, heartbreak, loss, hurt feelings, illness, death, and yet the only way a person can endure such times is because of God. One volunteer tonight said that she is thankful for the trials she goes through, because it helps her keep her focus on God and how He pulls her through them and how right she is. There were many tonight sharing some hard things going on in their lives, and yet there remains hope because they know who God is. One friend though said that with everything she is going through she is questioning if there a God? Is He Real? That for her she feels there is a demon on one shoulder and a angel on the other and she needs the truth... one thing she also said is that she was watching us. Watching to see what we all believe in and if its real or not. She talked about her past and how hard it has been to see where she is at right now compared to years ago. However she has somewhat of a plan started to get off the streets and for that we are thankful and have said we are here to help however we can.

We also saw an old friend who at the end of the night was hunched over rocking back and forth because he was cold. Another friend of ours came to us early in the evening and mentioned this man and asked if we would bring him some warm blankets and so we did. Walking up to him and seeing how he was in the elements and cold was hard....and harder because if he would have moved just a few more feet over he could have had the cold wind blocked from him some...and yet he couldn't see it I suppose. Made us think that there are so many of us who God has given the way out, the answer, some much needed help and comfort IF we would just move over a couple more feet so to speak...its called drawing near to Him. We may not be able to stop the trial we are in, but with God He always provides comfort and healing to endure the storm and when we don't move towards Him I'm sure it breaks His heart like it broke our hearts last night to see our friend. We wrapped a thick blanket around him and told him we laid another comforter a few feet from him if he wanted to move...and he just said he was cold!! Not sure how he slept after we left but I do know he was given provisions and hopefully he took them.

As we gathered tonight to pray at all of our stops we talked about how life is so short....and how are we honoring God with the life he gave us? For me it struck home as I was shocked by our 220 volts from our stove this week and knocked on my rump---then two days later was hit by a cement truck which totaled our van ( I was not hurt just a little sore). Walking away from both freaky incidents in one week made me even more realize life is SHORT--and we cant count on tomorrow being here. Whatever it is that we (I) need to do in this life we have left we need to honor God and help further His Kingdom. One of our friends tonight after we shared the freaky week for me closed us out in prayer. He prayed the verses in Matthew 6: 26-27 "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they. Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" It was powerful and beautiful because HE gets it! He thanked God that his needs were met by food and clothing, by encouragement and support and he recognized the source was Jesus....and that is what its all about.

We go and feed, give out items people need, but I can assure you as I always state we are about recovery and pointing people to going into a shelter etc. More important than that is we do our best to show them that Christ has not forgotten about them. That it doesn't matter where they sleep--they still have a plan and purpose for their life and there is always hope. That while family members or friends may have given up on them God HASN'T! One friend said it perfectly tonight. He said that when we saw him on the streets and got him into a shelter he cried later on. He said that he couldn't believe a total stranger would offer to help him....because his whole family had given up on him. To this day he is still clean and sober and serves with us!!!!!!!!! God is good everyone and we are thankful for all of you who support us, who support what we do and all who help. For those groups who each and every Sunday make sure our friends have lunch afterwards THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! To all of you who donate financially THANK YOU, to all of you who drop off items for us THANK YOU and for all of you who pick up for church THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Remember our lives are meant to count for the Kingdom and we are not promised tomorrow so lets make a DIFFERENCE!!!