Catching my Breath....

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.