Outreach

[Boaz]

For a small church we do a lot of outreach type ministry. Theres a really big older rundown motel we set on Fridays every two weeks and have a feed with a service and music . Mainly drug users , indigents , bikers , I think you understand . Thats where we were this evening .
The teen group puts on the music and serves food , we are blessed with these young people willing to do the Lords work . Had hot/chili dogs , potato salad , chips , beans , cake , cookies and plenty of it .

http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g353/chuckr1952/IMG_0804_zpsmno9sink.jpg (http://s1097.photobucket.com/user/chuckr1952/media/IMG_0804_zpsmno9sink.jpg.html)
Teens setting up .

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Band set up .

http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g353/chuckr1952/IMG_0810_zpsgw5yxift.jpg (http://s1097.photobucket.com/user/chuckr1952/media/IMG_0810_zpsgw5yxift.jpg.html)
Serving line set up .

http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g353/chuckr1952/IMG_0806_zpsf2o2rsxv.jpg (http://s1097.photobucket.com/user/chuckr1952/media/IMG_0806_zpsf2o2rsxv.jpg.html)
Becky setting up seating .

Start serving................and the battery died on my camera !

Had a lot of folks , they look forward to us coming , Before we leave we always pass any food left door to door . It was a good time for all .

[rl69]

God is good

[Boaz]

Agreed rl69 , GOD is very good !

[Blackwater]

This is the kind of thing we really need to do more of. Thanks to you and Becky and the rest of the young folks. Give young folks something of real value to do, and it's amazing how their attitudes change so quickly and markedly. Just sit and preach at them, and they get bored. Like most, they've heard it all before. But give them a chance to really DO something, and maybe learn a bit about the real world around them, and their focus and understanding goes up dramatically and very noticably. Faith without works is .... well, you know. Good job. And I bet it was all done on a real shoestring budget, too. When the folks you mention see Christianity in real action, it's a lot harder for them to remain cynical about "religion" and "God" and the rest of it, and that'll never be a bad thing. Get the old and the young together, doing something good, and it's amazing how much they find they have in common, too. There's a lot more to Christianity than just going to church and Sunday school and complaining about the world around us! Y'all did good, Boaz. REAL good!

[shoot-n-lead]

Good work!

[Boaz]

Tim is a lay preacher at our church . He and his wife were using drugs when he came to our church . Tim and his wife were saved by the grace of GOD . Saw him go under and come up with conviction . He preached the service here with the teens , he runs our addiction ministry with good success . His message this times was on scars in your life and Christ's love with the promise of GOD"s grace and redemption . He and his wife are good people , I respect him greatly . Always ready to help , always ready to lead , always ready to encourage .

[Hickok]

Soldiers in the Army of the Lord!

[Boaz]

We had representatives from two VERY large churches there to learn how we do it . They were interested in starting a similar ministry , they were impressed with the amount of of effort put into it . Said they wanted to check out another service we hold at a women's refuge . No pictures or carry allowed there , they have armed security 24-7 . Then maybe they will want to check out the Pregnancy Help Center and the Mission and the .........LOL .

The sign over the door leaving the our church's main entrance on the way out says ;

.......YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE MISSION FIELD

[buckwheatpaul]

It is great doing God's work.....it is the shepard leaving the flock to look for the lost sheep....Thanks for the post.....May God bless them all....Paul

[Blackwater]

Tim is a lay preacher at our church . He and his wife were using drugs when he came to our church . Tim and his wife were saved by the grace of GOD . Saw him go under and come up with conviction . He preached the service here with the teens , he runs our addiction ministry with good success . His message this times was on scars in your life and Christ's love with the promise of GOD"s grace and redemption . He and his wife are good people , I respect him greatly . Always ready to help , always ready to lead , always ready to encourage .

It's always amazing to most folks how so many CAN come to Christ after giving themselves over to so many temptations and vices, but they're just as much flesh and blood people, full of hopes, dreams, fears, loves and all the stuff all the rest of us are filled with. They just for some reason, often mysterious to us, have a problem pulling themselves out of the many mud pits laid out for us to fall into. And they certainly WON'T if we Christians don't reach out to them. Now, this doesn't mean we can be unwise in our approach to people who might actually be dangerous, of course, but we DO turn away from people like those, and simply put them down, at times and in places where we might at least just speak a word or two that might let them know we're not afraid of them (many expect us to be), and wish them well and are willing to support them if they're willing to accept it, or at least try it on for size. Stuff like this is simple Christianity, and its good will, in action - just like we're SUPPOSED to do!

Thanks for caring enough to extend a hand to folks who need it, and for at the very least giving their bodies nourishment in hopes it might sustain them until they find a point where they're simply willing to accept truths they've probably been denying and running away from for a long, long time. And all of them will never respond, but some will, and we can never know, and often seem to be surprised, at who it really IS who DOES respond.

It's a lot like fishing. I remember Dad and I were bottom fishing once at the river for redbreast and bluegill and catfish, and Dad got a really strong fighting fish of obviously bigger size than normal, and he wrestled with it and just held on as it crisscrossed the river seemingly inteminably. Finally, though, after nearly losing it in the bushes several times, he got it up to the surface and saw it was about a 2-3 lb. fresh water mullet! He thought it was a stiper, and so did I after a while, and neither of us had ever caught a mullet of that size in the river. But he got it in, I netted it, and that night, he ate the whole thing! He was the only one in the family that really liked mullet, and the rest of us ate the other panfish and were very happy. That was one night that the fish, corndodgers and grits, left him at the table after dinner, while he just relished the catch, the meal and the satisfaction of it all.

Working with folks in the situation you describe is an awful lot like Dad's mullet. You just never really know what you're going to get when you cast your bread upon the water. All we really know is that it's what we've been directed to do, and it's always worth it. After you've seen the results a few times, and been appropriately humbled to find that things like this just don't often go quite the way we think they will, it becomes a much more genuine and heartfelt activity on our part, and our faith and trust is multiplied many times by the results IF we but cast that bread upon the water, and do it to the best of our ability, and after much thought is put into it.

And it's so simple. All it takes is simple genuineness, and freely giving without expecting anything in return unless it comes from within THEM. Isn't that, after all, how most of US work? And how God has always dealt wtih US, who've made our commitments already? In truth, things like this just mirror how God so often and typically deals with US. And really, it's kind'a funny how we are surprised it works with folks like this as well.

Boaz, things like this are some of the rarest and most truly fruitful things we Christains can do. Ya' done good, friend. REAL good!

[USMC87]

I love seeing God work in ways like this!

[Boaz]

Seems like a lot of people don't want to dirty their hands with these folks . Irregardless as to what is thought about them or even what they think of themselves they are GOD"s children . You don't get a lot of takers , these folks are entrenched in this 'lifestyle', probably grew up in it . We are instructed by Jesus Christ himself who by living example did this very same thing .

I show up and carry , there are at least 3 carrying from our group at these programs . The teens do the work as it should be , they will soon be the leaders . I thank you for the great comments !

[Blackwater]

And we thank you for your efforts and example! You just read the book, understood, and took to the task. Just like we're supposed to, but so often don't, and go with our wills and concerns rather than the good advice we get in the Book. It really means something now, when people do things like you have. I can feel God smiling on you, I think.

[tinhorn97062]

I was a cocaine addict, and quickly moving into the world of meth before I got saved. I was on my way to Seattle one day, and while traveling up I-5, I saw a billboard off to the side. It read,"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ". I hated that sign. What I hated more than the sign was that those words haunted me day and night for a couple months. I couldn't get them out of my mind. I frequently was awakened during the night with those words consuming me. Then one night as I was cutting up some dope on the counter, I had a moment of complete clarity and I caught a glimpse of my life from the outside looking in. The other thing I caught was some words I heard from a preacher years ago, and they suddenly came back to remembrance. Those words were "I set before you this day life and death...". Right after that, it was like somebody was standing next to me and yelling in my ear, "make a choice!". Somehow, I knew I wasn't going to have that opportunity again and it chilled me to the bone. So I chose life. Right there in my crummy little apartment, lines of dope still on the counter, my knees hit the carpet and I repented of the life I was living. That night, I was born again.

I really enjoy working with those folks who are addicted to drugs and such, because I know Jesus can break that addiction and transform their lives in a split second. If He could do it for me, He can do it for others. I have no doubt that there are people in that crummy little hotel who can't sleep, because the message of the Cross won't leave them alone. There's fruit from what ya'll are doing....most definitely. Just like the guy who paid for that billboard along I-5, you may never actually see the fruit....but it's there. Keep it up. You're doing exactly what Jesus told us to do.

[Boaz]

Thank you for your testimony , thank you for standing up .