First of all, let me apologize to those of you who follow this blog faithfully. It has been two weeks since my last update. I won't keep you waiting any longer! :)
Last Week: (Feb. 2nd-8th)
Tommie, my director went into knee replacement surgery on Wednesday. Needless to say, Wednesday was a bit stressful. Put best, it was my "freak-out" day. I quickly realized what I was not fully prepared for. Moving along....by Thursday I had accepted the challenge and was ready to move forward. It was a wonderful day! Last week consisted of the normal ministry activities, as well as returning messages for Tommie because of the many people who were calling to check on her. She was very encouraged by this and I was comforted because of people who came by and let me know that if I needed any help at all to let them know. :) Last week seems like a blur so I will recap on this past week.
This Past Week: (Feb. 9th-Feb. 15th)
MUCHO GENTES! This means a lot of people! This was what I said Tuesday morning when I walked into the gym at 9:05am. Berta, who is a faithful volunteer, begins signing people in at 9:00am for food and clothing distribution. At 9:05am there were 36 people already waiting to be interviewed. Since I have been here, I have not seen this many people. To give you a better idea, normally in one day we serve between 35-50 people, 51 being the most we served in a day for the month of January. At the end of Tuesday, we had served a total of 70 people. Last month, we had a total of 61 new people who came food and clothing. In two days alone, we have served almost 40 new people.
We are all aware of the economy. For me, this definitely put more faces to the situation. We hear on the news constantly about foreclosures and unemployment. More and more people are in need, and I am certain that this trend will continue until the economic mess is straightened out. Please continue to pray for the leaders of our country. They are faced with a great challenge, but we serve a great God.
Some of you may be wondering if we did anything special for Valentine's week. We did. :) Each day, we have a different group of kids because they are broken into different age groups. We had a pizza party for every group. Also, we had two different groups of women who put much effort into making valentine treat bags for the kids, preteens, and teens. I talked with them about what it means to show love everyday, not just on Valentine's Day. Also, reflecting on this week. I was thinking about what love means to me, and what it means to show it. I am reminded of a passage in scripture. I'll share it with you below. I believe this puts action behind the verse, "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Acts 4: 32-37
32 All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. 33 The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. 34 There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them 35 and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need.
36 For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”). He was from the tribe of Levi and came from the island of Cyprus. 37 He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
The Weeks are Flying by!
Hola! Como estas? :) I hope everyone has had a great week! Also, I watched the Superbowl tonight and I don't know what it is but I normally like rooting for the underdog...too bad it didn't pay off.
Anyway, this week went by very quickly it seemed like. We had about the same amount of kids, preteens, and teens though this was not the case for our clothing and food distribution. My director informed my that we actually had over 60 new people come for food and clothing. I have no doubt that much of this is due to our economic situation. No matter the reason, we accept them and hope that each will come to a deeper knowledge of Christ through our ministry.
This week I focused on Peace with my teens and preteens. I used the story of when Jesus fed the 5,000. Most people would think, "what does that have to do with peace?" Have you ever been to a birthday party where the kids had a chance to break the pinata? Sure, they may want to pound on the thing, but their main motivation is to get the candy. As soon as it breaks, there is absolute CHAOS! :) Children screaming, grabbing, kicking.....OK, there are also adults involved in things of this nature as well. Go to a sporting event, and watch a home run ball fly into the stands and see what happens, or go shopping the day after Thanksgiving....I think you get the point.
God is not the author of confusion! God provided for over 5,000 people through meeting a basic need. Had he not, it could have been absolute chaos. The example I used with each of the groups was based on this idea. I told the teens/preteens that I had a few candy bars but not enough for everybody. I threw them on the table, and they did exactly what I expected them to; they did whatever they had to do to get a candy bar. While I was making the point of peace, I asked them if there was anything peaceful about what happened when I put the candy bars on the table. The obvious answer was no and that began a very good discussion.
One fruit or characteristic that the Holy Spirit produces in the life of a Christian is peace. When we are around other people, can they see peace through our lives or do we create chaos through gossip, back-biting, or whatever else it is that we seem to be very well known for? Do we bring peace to already chaotic situations or does the chaos overtake us?Unfortunately, peace is not something that people often see in the lives of Christians.
When I think about chaos I have seen created by Christians, I think of protesters outside of building or in the streets, who claim to be Christians, but are screaming at the very people that we are commanded to love, people who may never know the love of Christ because the Christians who claim to be passionate followers allowed their passions to turn into hatred when they took Christ out of the picture. That may seem confusing but think about issues such as homosexuality, eating disorders, cutting, abortions, and addictions just to name a few. (Yes, I realize I may catch flack from this but so did Christ as He spoke truth even though it was not popular.)
I have seen so many pictures, video clips, read articles, blogs, heard people and so forth that communicate everything but love towards these types of issues. I will be very clear and say that yes, these are sins, but so is lying, cheating on your spouse, stealing, using the Lord's name in vain, over-eating, etc..... The list goes on and will because we are not perfect.
Looking at the idea of peace, we should definitely be the ones who are peacefully speaking truth without using Truth (the Bible) to mask rage or hatred for the sin in another person's life. We are very quick to point out the flaws of others without looking at ourselves and realizing that we could just as easily be in the same situation. It's only by God's grace that we are who we are. So why not allow the Holy Spirit to produce peace in our lives so that others will come to know the love of our Father?
"But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, and SELF-Control. There is NO law against these things!" -Galatians 5:22-23
"....What is important is faith expressing itself in love." -Galatians 5:6
Anyway, this week went by very quickly it seemed like. We had about the same amount of kids, preteens, and teens though this was not the case for our clothing and food distribution. My director informed my that we actually had over 60 new people come for food and clothing. I have no doubt that much of this is due to our economic situation. No matter the reason, we accept them and hope that each will come to a deeper knowledge of Christ through our ministry.
This week I focused on Peace with my teens and preteens. I used the story of when Jesus fed the 5,000. Most people would think, "what does that have to do with peace?" Have you ever been to a birthday party where the kids had a chance to break the pinata? Sure, they may want to pound on the thing, but their main motivation is to get the candy. As soon as it breaks, there is absolute CHAOS! :) Children screaming, grabbing, kicking.....OK, there are also adults involved in things of this nature as well. Go to a sporting event, and watch a home run ball fly into the stands and see what happens, or go shopping the day after Thanksgiving....I think you get the point.
God is not the author of confusion! God provided for over 5,000 people through meeting a basic need. Had he not, it could have been absolute chaos. The example I used with each of the groups was based on this idea. I told the teens/preteens that I had a few candy bars but not enough for everybody. I threw them on the table, and they did exactly what I expected them to; they did whatever they had to do to get a candy bar. While I was making the point of peace, I asked them if there was anything peaceful about what happened when I put the candy bars on the table. The obvious answer was no and that began a very good discussion.
One fruit or characteristic that the Holy Spirit produces in the life of a Christian is peace. When we are around other people, can they see peace through our lives or do we create chaos through gossip, back-biting, or whatever else it is that we seem to be very well known for? Do we bring peace to already chaotic situations or does the chaos overtake us?Unfortunately, peace is not something that people often see in the lives of Christians.
When I think about chaos I have seen created by Christians, I think of protesters outside of building or in the streets, who claim to be Christians, but are screaming at the very people that we are commanded to love, people who may never know the love of Christ because the Christians who claim to be passionate followers allowed their passions to turn into hatred when they took Christ out of the picture. That may seem confusing but think about issues such as homosexuality, eating disorders, cutting, abortions, and addictions just to name a few. (Yes, I realize I may catch flack from this but so did Christ as He spoke truth even though it was not popular.)
I have seen so many pictures, video clips, read articles, blogs, heard people and so forth that communicate everything but love towards these types of issues. I will be very clear and say that yes, these are sins, but so is lying, cheating on your spouse, stealing, using the Lord's name in vain, over-eating, etc..... The list goes on and will because we are not perfect.
Looking at the idea of peace, we should definitely be the ones who are peacefully speaking truth without using Truth (the Bible) to mask rage or hatred for the sin in another person's life. We are very quick to point out the flaws of others without looking at ourselves and realizing that we could just as easily be in the same situation. It's only by God's grace that we are who we are. So why not allow the Holy Spirit to produce peace in our lives so that others will come to know the love of our Father?
"But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, and SELF-Control. There is NO law against these things!" -Galatians 5:22-23
"....What is important is faith expressing itself in love." -Galatians 5:6
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