Turkey’s recap…
November 24, 2008
What an amazing time on Saturday. Our ‘receive turkey dinner crew’ were sorting dinners at 8am at 9:30am they received, checked and repacked 150 dinners that were dropped off for the 10am outreach.
At ten am 350ish people showed up… with their dinners. The buzz in the place was off the chart…The first timers were nervous, asking the, ‘What are we going to do? Wow do we do this? Where are we going? Whatz up?’ They were directed to the three tables where they could choose their location, grab a map, a tips sheet and a name tag. We then all gathered in the main room…
We reminded people about the two great commands…Love God with all…and Love your neighbor as self…we connected the thought to Heb 13:15-17 …worship and serving others gladdens the Fathers heart… They go hand in hand, and when they collide …God things can happen.
We worshiped, prayed, picked up our connect cards and ‘we’ve been here’ door stickers and headed out.
Stories are now coming in. People at the right door at the right time. Mom’s weeping. Kids excited and many, many people receiving encouragement through prayer. One guy was so moved that he knelt down beside his boxed dinner to receive prayer.
Here are two stories:
At one house there was a woman, her daughter and sister, both about 8 y.o. They were so incredibly happy that we had food for them. She hugged all 5 of us several times, allowed us to pray for her, hugged us all again. After we left we could hear them all shouting and singing…singing something like “we got turkey dinner” over and over. It was funny.
The third house was where a lady named Earnestine lives. She was pretty shocked when we said why we’d come–as a way of sharing God’s love. She said it made her feel really special and then she just started to cry. She said it was such a wonderful feeling to know that somebody cared.
I told her that God knew that she needed some encouragement today,and that we’d been to a lot of houses where no one answered and that we had ended up waaay in the back of the quads where she lived, We are here because He wanted her to feel His love. We prayed for her too. We hugged her a lot. I told her to call the number on the card if she needed someone to talk to. It was obvious that she was struggling with something. I told her about that church up near the entrance…Destiny.
Anne
At my work, I shared what we were doing this weekend. A co-worker (Jorge) decided to buy a turkey and trimmings for us to give away. When we were near the end, I picked a dinner up and said “OK God, this is Jorge’s dinner”. As I was walking back to the quads, a lady came out of nowhere and asked me if we had food. I said we had a few dinners left and asked if I could I carry a box to her house? She seemed very thankful and told me she had three kids (14, 16 and 18).
It turned out that she was originally from Mexico. What is really cool about that is that I was able to share with her that the guy from my work who paid for a dinner to be delivered was named Jorge and is also from Mexico.
That really touched her and she started crying. I told her out of all the dinners given out today, God had appointed that one to be hers. I was able to pray with her and with one of her daughters. She cried through the whole prayer. I asked her daughter what her favorite Thanksgiving food was. She said it was pumpkin pie. As we looked through the dinner box together, there was not one, but two pumpkin pies. God cares!
Thanks to all for making this opportunity happen again this year. See you tomorrow.
Jeff
As a friend of mine says, Good deeds creates good will that opens hearts to the good news.
steve bowen
Outward Focused Christmas Gift
November 20, 2008
Hi there – I live in Cleveland and borrowed the book “The Outward Focused Life” from a friend (her sister goes to Vineyard). I am pumped on it and decided that for Christmas this year instead of buying another silly dumb gift for my family members…I am going to give everyone a copy of this book. SO after giving away 10 or so of these I am praying it will impact the world for the better. I hope to keep my radar on for God to use me from here on out!! Thanks for making Christmas shoppiing a pleasure this year!
Nellie S.
Christ in Action
November 18, 2008
Just wanted to let you know about some great news that could have only been pulled off by our God, our Christ Jesus and man, was it awesome!
During LA La Viña, an outreach which reaches out to the Hispanic poor in our community, one of the families we serve had one sole immediate need – three kids under the age of 10 in need of beds. The mother, who works very hard couldn’t afford beds for her children and it wrecked her to the core. For her kids to sleep on the aged carpet and warmed only by thread-bare blankets…well, how would it make you feel?
But here’s how God shows up: Two people, who’d never been on that outreach felt they “needed” to see what it was all about Saturday morning and when the mother’s needs were known, each one had a missing component – one had a toddler bed, the other a twin bed for two. And another first-timer had sheets and pillows for the twin bed.
And while the mother was embarrassed to tell us her family’s needs, the people who had the items were bursting with excitement, joy and were more than ready to help. (I think there was a suppressed high five floating about the room amidst the tears of joy.)
So today, twelve people, most of us strangers, regrouped again after meeting each other for the first time yesterday, to go back over to deliver two beds and bedding for three kids who’d been sleeping on matted, worn out carpet for over a year.
And that….that…is Christ in action, kids. Princess bedding for the girls. Batman bedding for the little boy.
And let me say, this is not about a good deed, or about a “warm and fuzzy” at the end of the day, it’s all about Christ in action. Period. And how He puts the right people in the right places in the right time to help three little amigos in others path just to so He can say, “Sleep well tonight…for you..are a child of God.”
So to Kimberly, Jennie and Railey. “Jesus te ama.”
And we do too.
Fun Note…
November 4, 2008
Serving the Vote
November 4, 2008
Just another average day of voting and serving in our town of Mason.
Emily and I were standing in line at a church in Mason at 6:30 waiting to vote. It was pretty chilly inside the church too. After about 40 mins we made it to the table where the volunteers were working and they were talking about how cold it was in the church. Someone said something about Starbucks and one of the workers said she wished she had gone to get a coffee before she came to work.
I wish I could have opened up the café that was there in the great room of the church seeing that I have a “degree in coffee making on the hospitality team” J I could’ve whipped up some lattes in a hurry to help warm them up. Well of course couldn’t do that…
After I got done voting and walked out of the church maybe that little voice just said… this is Byron’s New English translation cause I don’t remember exactly what the thought was J “hey Byron, go to Starbucks and pick up some hot chocolate and coffees for these folks to warm up and thank them for what they are doing as volunteers”.
Couldn’t ignore that thought… so I drove to the Tylersville Starbucks where if you wore the I voted sticker you get 10% off your drink. Well I actually got 12 coffees and hot chocolates for the volunteers. I think my drink (13th) was actually free today… how cool!
Of course I had some VCC serving cards in my car just for occasions like this. And wouldn’t you know there were exactly 12 cards left in my car, one for each cup of drink.
So I took the drinks back to the church and let the 2 table leaders know that I got hot chocolate and coffees for them and thanked them for what they are doing.
Don’t know what they thought or how they reacted… but they will know that God was a part of their day in a little hot drink sort of a way…
Thanks for what ya’ll do and how you lead our church! It’s a blessing and a blast to be a part of the mission!!
Blessings
Byron
turkeys giving away turkeys
November 4, 2008
This year is our 20th year for turkeys giving away turkeys.
Last year we adjusted the outreach in order to involve more people, create a safer environment (morning instead of after dark), create less stress (we were creating exact maps from hours of phone calls usually from the same people who were playing the system) and to create a greater sense of team (over 300 people showed up for instructions and to do the outreach last year).
here’s what we have discovered:
- people want to make a difference….this year over 300 boxes went out the first weekend in November. Yes we are ordering more.
- people like simple…people grab a box as they leave a weekend service. The box has the instructions placed inside the box to help guide people as they purchase the food items.
- people enjoy the sense of togetherness…We encourage participation: families packing the box together, or to join with friends, or joining as a small group to fill the box. This year we will be adding a worship set and breaking up into small groups for prayer…then introducing team leaders, and receiving instructions and maps.
- some people like to participate but don’t want to go on the outreach…that’s ok, participating at any level is appreciated. The ‘no go but want to serve people’ will bring their filled boxes at 9am instead of 10am and placed into trucks.
- people like the fact that we go to the areas we have consistently served in the past…we will be dividing up into three huge teams, caravaning to the location in order to reach out to 3 low income apartments in Huber Heights, Fairborn, and Centerville.
- people like the adventure… we go to homes unannounced, offer a Thanksgiving meal and offer prayer. When we leave the home we place a small sticker on the door notifying the rest of the team that the stickered door is a home we have served.
- people who serve begin to see life through an outward focused lense…One family went to a home and offered the Thanksgiving dinner. The single mom invited the family inside to place the dinner on her table. The family noticed…all she had in her apartment was the table. Their perspective changed. Their hearts were softened through the experience and began to view life through a different lense.
