April 21-28, 2012- M&Ms and Plenty of Sugar!

I suppose I should blog about our MHMR meeting on April the 21st. There was just Robert today. My family and I had a family responsibility on the Saturday prior so it was Sunday when we went to visit them. 

Chong had gone home with her son Owen, and Robert was present there. He went on to tell us, us being Caleb and I, about several things going on. It was a pretty full day, because I had just finished running a triathlon, so I've been up since 4am. We had worship and then I had the Bible study. Let's just say I wasn't fully there. Thank God for Caleb. 

Robert told us that Chad needed prayer as his health has gone south. Larry, a new patient at the place is suicidal and severely depressed. Diana had a severe meltdown during the week, so she's at the hospital. Her release so that she can move to Denton, TX has been put on hold. The property is also having problems as the city is upon them for having too many patients in one home. Since it's just a group home, the maximum they can have is 5, even though they all pay rent. Please pray for them during this time.

 Our following visit will start at 1pm as games will be played with them and Bible study will promptly being at 2pm. We went through the last chapter of John 21 and prayed with them.

 If you're still following along on this blog, I commend you!

 Today, on the 28th of April, we took off to visit our homeless friends on the street. Diana, Michelle, and Churee joined us for the trip down the street. Thankfully we could be the mobile church on the move. I praise God for Northwood as they sent a good number of middle/high school girls to help us out. We had a small group of 10 along with a group mom who helped us out with the Mindieta's. They took them to a small playground and played with their children, fed them, as well as spend good quality time with them.

Here are the Northwood Kids with the children.  

A small group of us then took off and headed down the streets. We hit first the Texas Car Wash station where we ran into a couple familiar faces. I met Alan and shared the hope of Christ with him. Unfortunately, Connie has cancer, his wife, and he needs lots of prayer for her. I also met another man, Fernando, who's been traversing this area for a few weeks. He has a warm heart. We prayed and spent some time talking about him looking for a job.

Fernando

Alan

 We moved on and headed to the day labor area near Southside Church of Christ. There we park nearside and serve tons of people. It felt like about 20. We saw Luke and I prayed for him and his friend Chazby, who is struggling with post surgery rehabilitation. He was also taking money from buddies down the street for abusing and drinking alcohol.

Fortunately, Liz was there, but she looked awful. She seemed unfit to be standing or walking. She stumbled a couple times we were there. We fed the rest of the people and took off towards Lancaster.

We moved on to Lancaster. Lancaster was busy as usual. We still don't have a good enough reputation to help out as much as we could, but we passed out food, tracts, candy, and some love. There were several people, but our food ran out so fast that it was hard to get ministry done. We are continuing in different ways to see in what other areas we can help them at.

 For the time being, we will be faithful in passing out the food that we have. Our day ended on a prayerful note. I'm truly thankful in having so many arms and feet to help out each week. I'm thankful for each one of you. I pray to see ya'll again soon!

April 14, 2012- Weather or Whether?

The whole week I was dealing with whether or not the weather would put a damper on our outreach this week. It absolutely did not! We had an incredibly cool day, with cloudy skies, and ample of volunteers!

A couple of new folks from NFWBC as well as new friends showed up to help. I was accompanied by Churee's family, as well as old friends, such as Jason, Ashley, and other old faces.

I have to admit, I was distracted and out of focus today. I know my heart was just struggling with so much going on. I forgot to get a friend, I had a lackluster devotional time in the morning, and I just felt swamped. Obviously, I needed more of the Spirit's power. Nonetheless, the whole time I felt guilty without having more preparation in sharing God's Word openly. So, that being said, I apologize for not setting the pace.

On other news, we quickly sped out with loads of eggs, candy, hot dogs, sandwiches, water, bananas, and some women clothing. We took off to the Mindieta's first and spent some time there playing with the kids and the family. From there we took off to the street and hit the Texas Car Wash and met about 5-6 people there. We fed quite a few of them and I had the opportunity to speak with Claudia.

She needed some help to find her birth certificate and we met a man, Miguel, who spoke with Pastor Ruben at Southwayside Baptist Church and we got him hooked up with some help.

The third stop took us to the church near Southside Church of Christ. There we all restructured to make sure we are able to serve more effectively. We sent several teams with guys to pass out food and help out the neighborhood. There are very few familiar faces there. It could be that we're getting there later than usual.

Our final stop took us to Lancaster. There we served well over 50-60 people coming through to get food, candy, and some clothes. Unfortunately, two cars had issues. My car was overheating, which led to some trouble. Thankfully, there were several good conversations, plus some time for prayer. We all got back and was glad for another great outreach!

Somethings to think about:
Big Brother-Big Sister
The Mindieta's want 6 of their kids involved
1. Jason- 7 years old
2. Aaron- 6 years old
3. Elexus- 11 years old
4. Mia and Mya- 10 years old
5. Haley- 9 years old

If you're interested please email me, by clicking on this link.

Or, you can private message me on the Facebook page or leave a comment below with your email and i'll contact you back. Thanks!

If you're interested, we will be meeting next week to help out at MHMR. Till next time...

April 7, 2012- MHMR #9

I went out to our 9th meeting at MHMR. We had 5 people sit in for Bible study. Robert, Chong, Paul, Diana, and Sue Lee sat in for Bible Study. It was good timing that the death and resurrection were the chapters we focused on, in John. They asked many great questions about Christ. There's no denying the historicity and the emotional trauma Christ went through. I was thankful that many of them were present and was able to pray for them all.

Prayer List:
1. Robert's eye is still recovering from a cut. He's also applying for Medicaid which he's having difficulty in receiving.

2. Pray for Chong and her family, especially her son.

3. Pray for Diana and Charles as they look ready to head back to society. Hopefully God's word is engrained deep into their minds.

See you in two weeks!

March 31, 2012- From Street to Street

We had a handful of youth from Thai's church this week help out. There was about 9 of them. Then my wife, Abbie, and John took off to go out. We were armed with over 80 hot dogs, water, fruit, and tracts.

Our first stop took us to the Mindietas. They are doing well, but they have alot of needs. They expressed to us the desire of their kids to have role models. Abbie, one of our helps suggested that we could adopt some sort of 'Big brother', 'Big Sister' module that may help. This would allow for more parents and volunteers to invest in the lives of these children. On average there's about 10-12 children in that house, but last Thanksgiving we served well over 20 children in that one house.

The second stop took us to the car wash area where we helped 4-5 homeless. We got to serve them and give them some food. We also heard Jesse play his guitar. Once again, he played very well and we were treated to a free concert. Our next stop took us to the gas station near Southside Church of Christ. Fo stopped by, so we gave him some food.

Our last stop led us to Lancaster Street near Union Gospel Mission. We stood there as we passed out tracts and water. There were so many there, that I spent most of my time praying for them. Some of them were familiar with the gospel, and we're glad to have served and help them.

Till next week!

March 24, 2012- Two and a team

We had a group from NFWBC led by Janice to go get the Mindietas and the children. They played for a while and were able to minister to the family. I'm thankful for their approach.

Here's the account from Janice:
"We made cookies and PB&J sandwiches for the carwash. There was only two and we visited with Ernesto and another man. Then we went to Mary's. We stood inside for a few minutes because she told us CPS wouldn't let the kids outside. Apparently, one of their moms was trying to take them back.

After a few minutes, she said, "No one will touch them with all of you here," so we went to the backyard and played with them for about an hour. Football, cheerleading, cartwheels, talkng quietly on the steps. It was beautiful to see four girls who invested their lives with them and who love Jesus.

Next we went to the park a few blocks west on Bolt and played on the playground with the kids. We passed out much of the food and there was lots of smiles and sharing."

I went to MHMR at 2:00p and spent some time with Robert and the crew there. We have 5 meet as two new people came about to do Bible Study. One is Jojo, she's a young lady who's very bright and fun. Unfortunately, there is a strong sense of lostness within her. She stayed a bit and heard us go through John 18 and 19. We also had Pete, who's a new guy. He loves going to church, so I'm thankful he's a believer.