// BLOG
Turkey Call
December 17, 2008
Turkeyfest turned out to be fantastic. Our small group had 5 baskets to deliver but we only took 4 names. We figured, somehow, we would be directed to the fifth family. We asked the first 4 families if they were aware of a family that really needed help. We were led to just such a family.
Four boys, ages 2,3,5,6 and Mom and Dad. All living in an apartment with NO, absolutely no furniture. All the contents of the apartment had to be destroyed because of bedbugs, that or pay $3800 that they did not have, for a “bedbug treatment”.
They were great people and they realized we were there to help. They were joyous over the turkey dinner and all the fixings, but we somehow realized a turkey dinner would not cut it,.
At our next small group meeting, we decided to try to “adopt” the family for Christmas. We didn’t really know what that meant, yet. We made contact with them and they accepted our offer. We asked for the children’s names, and ages and what they might want for Christmas. We also asked what Mom and Dad might want for Christmas.
The answers surprised us. The boys could each use one pair of pants and perhaps one “learning” toy. Mom and Dad said they had no needs. No needs. We were expecting more toy requests or “fun” things, but Mom knew exactly what they needed. Mothers somehow always do.
We dug a little deeper to find something that Mom could use. An iron and a blender said the father.
We divided up the list and each member of our group obtained the requests, and we all seemingly added a little bit more. We called to set up a time to meet with the family and Mom would be available on Tuesday night. She wanted to know how many of us were coming so she could serve us some coffee.
During this time period we have, through the generosity of a number of people, started to get some furniture for the family. The husband of one of our members delivers them bread each week. I think we found a calling here.
Tonight is the evening we are going to their apartment, to take our small gifts to help to change their world. While the gifts will be helpful to the family , the real gift is that, through the Turkeyfest, we found this family and I think we will discover that we are the real recipients.
I didn’t know a Turkey could be so powerful!
Thanks for the Turkeyfest and everything else you and The Vineyard do for us.
Regards,
Wayne
In-Step with the heart of the body of Christ
December 17, 2008
We have an awesome small group! We’ve only been together since “The Call” series but everyone gets along so well that you would think we’ve been best friends for years! Everyone is flexible in last minute get-togethers, fun to be around and serve with, and has a heart for spiritual growth and outreach.
Here’s our story.
I have a son who was brain injured in a car accident when he was a toddler. He lives in a nice group home with two roommates and 24-hour caretakers. About five years ago while at a Christmas party with him and other physically and mentally challenged adults Bill and I noticed that not everyone received a gift at the party. However, when another group home’s name was called for receiving the door prize gifts, the others clapped with excitement for those that won, even if they didn’t. We wanted to do something to make sure everyone received a gift at the next party but time got away from us until this year.
Last year one of our group members said that she thought we as a small group should take gifts to my son’s group home. This year we all took action and decided to collect gently used or new re-gifted items (nice gifts that were received but not wanted or useful and that may just be sitting in storage), wrap them and go as elves to give the gifts and serve at the party. The morning we shared our idea with Dan Henry was the morning the Vineyard announced their outreach that was similar to ours. It was exciting to see that our small group was “in-step” with the heart of the whole body of Christ!
Shortly after Thanksgiving lots of nice donated items started coming in. Soon our living room, dining room, kitchen and guest room was so full that I doubted that we could get them all wrapped in one evening and wondered how we’d ever get our home ready for Christmas with the “mess”. The evening before the party we set up “wrapping stations” at the kitchen table, breakfast bar, dinning room table and a folding table in the living room plus a folding table for our chili dinner before wrapping. Because I am a planner and one that functions better in an organized environment, the clutter of wrapping paper, ribbon and boxes and bags of stuff looked overwhelming. However, seeing how calmly and well everyone was working together made the task look easy! In less than three hours over 100 gifts were wrapped, the scraps of paper picked up and folding tables put away with the help of many hands!
I say all this to encourage those who may think such an outreach is too much when in fact, with God’s people working together to serve in any way, it becomes a great blessing!
The next evening our small group plus four other Vineyard volunteers put on our elf and/or Santa hats and served drinks and dinner to each table. The people were so excited and wanted pictures taken with us. It is difficult for one or two caretakers to carry drinks and help take each of those in their care through the food line, especially if they are in wheelchairs and/or using walkers in the crowded room so they were very happy to be served! Our volunteers then mingled with and danced with those with disabilities and helped everyone pick out a stuffed animal from the two tubs full. There were enough wrapped gifts and stuffed animals and new gloves for every single person, including the caretakers!
It was so much fun to serve these special people and we are looking forward to doing it again next year!
God is great!
Sue
Being Available
December 4, 2008
Our small group is in the midst of reading Dave’s book and are really into it! The chapter on “availability” spoke volumes to all of us. So, we have been praying everyday and asking the question “God, I am available; how can I serve someone today?” Well, needless to say, God is faithful and he has answered our prayers everyday and then answered them in a bigger than expected way. What I mean by that is our small group had the privilege of providing two different families in the Winton Terrace area Thanksgiving dinners. One family we took food over on a Wednesday night to a single mom and 5 children. The mom wanted to prepare the meal herself and requested all the needed ingredients to make a Thanksgiving meal. She wanted the meal to be a way of bringing her extended family together because she lost her mother recently. She was murdered this past June. To make matters even worse, the mother that was shot and killed was holding this woman’s 2 year old son (the 2 year old’s grandmother). In addition, two other children of hers were present and witnessed this terrible murder. This all sounds surreal, but it is true because I have staff members who are serving this family and attending to some of their needs. Fortunately, this mom was open to prayer and we got the privilege of praying with her and her children that Wednesday evening.
The second family we served was a single mom with 6 precious children ranging from 7 years to 7 months We took fully cooked meal to her on Thanksgiving morning. She too allowed us to pray for her. The small children were so receptive to prayer; we joined hands and prayed in our little circle. The mom specifically asked for prayer to pass her driver’s test. When we finished praying, the little 4 year old tugged on my shirt and gleefully said, “My daddy’s out of jail now.” The mom laughed very nervously in response to her child’s statement. What a heart break!
We did not leave either place feeling good about what we had done, instead we felt overwhelmed by the needs of our community and asked ourselves, what else can we do? Taking a few meals is just not enough!
Of course, we will continue to lift the families up and many others just like them and also continue to ask God what else can we do. Our small group is meeting again this coming Wednesday to walk through another chapter of the Outward Focused Life book. We know God has a plan for our group and we are praying that we pay close attention to His voice as we enter into this busy holiday season.
We are grateful for your prayers!
Annette (and Mike)
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.
