Hello all. I pray that you are having a good week. I want to again thank everyone that was able to come out last week for the Thanksgiving. This event was huge and the love shone that day has really spilled over. This week we were able to see the fruit of that love. Starting with the sandwiches that we were handing out. Recently we have been having different groups making the sandwiches, this week on Thursday we had two different groups making them. In one batch we had a group of eight year old girls who put the lunches together. I was told that they really enjoyed doing it, and they must have, all the bags were decorated and said Jesus loves you. It was really neat to see. The other batch was from the Celebration small group. They always do such a fantastic job, I am always so thankful for their willingness and love that they put into doing the lunches. They always have members think about, pray and print up scripture verses to go into the bags. Something very real and personal and from the heart. We always put verses in but this is different than the verses that I have made up by a printer and buy in bulk.
So there we are heading out with more sandwiches than normal. As we prayed before we left I wondered just what God was going to do with all these sandwiches on this day. But as I assured the ladies that dropped them off to us, “We haven’t brought a bag back yet, God has planned a place with someone who needs it.”
I thought with more lunches, I would take the opportunity to drive around a bit first and give some out before I go to the study, I saw a few people I had not seen in a while, or so I thought. But then went to the area where we have the study. On our study street there were really a lot of people gathered. We actually had just missed Mike Fretto and Chris Lewis from and they had just been there to give Glenda her new walker. They sold enough of the shirts and God allowed them to raise the money and today was the day. The first thing Glenda said to me was. “How do you like my new wheels?” Love them, It was nice to see somebody that gives and sacrifices so much receive something that is really going to make her life a lot easier day to day. God is Good.
So after handing out a lot of sandwiches, A couple young, rougher looking guys came up to me and gave me some money handshakes. I looked at them puzzled and said “This isn’t what this is about, We are just here to give.” But with pride in there eye they told me “keep it, give it to the church so you can keep doing this” alright then I certainly will. It really is amazing how God keeps doing new things through different people in ways that you would never think. This kind of led into the study, we talked about so many things in the study this week. Everything from Jesus and his patience for us, and how we should in return have patience and forgiveness for everyone around us. No matter how bad we have been hurt by someone else we have sinned against God just as bad and He forgave us and He calls us to forgive them. We also talked about that we need to be obedient to God and what he has called us to do. Jerome started using me and this ministry as a example as we were talking, and he was giving me more praise and credit than I deserve and I stopped and told everyone that the ONLY thing that I did was that for ONCE in my life I stopped looking at myself and what I could do for myself, I was obedient to what God had called me to do. He told me to go and make sandwiches and hand them out to people. It did not make any sense at the time but God gave me what I needed and off I went. The only thing He really asked me to do was and is to be obedient. And now look what He has done with that obedience. I am not blowing my own horn here. I wanted everyone to see that it was God and not me and that my part was very, very small, I just did what I was told to do. That’s it. No magic, no religion degree, no experience, no nothing, on my part. It was and is God in all parts. So don’t be afraid just be obedient to what he is asking you. Now at the end, Ernest came up to me (I have seen him there a handful of times, he knows the Bible very well and actually is a little intimidating with his knowledge of it) and he told me, I have been called to this, just what you are doing here, street ministry. I know that is what I have been called to do, and I have been disobedient. So I talked some more to him and other people around like normal. We were packing up and getting back to the car and I noticed we still had like 10 bags left to hand out and I thought we will just drive around real quick and find some new people easy, no big deal. Right then Ernest came up to me as I am putting all these in a box, and as he is talking to me, I feel urged, I stop Ernest mid sentence and say to him, “guess what, your ministry starts today. Here take these lunches and go give them to people that you know need them, and need to know God’s love” He looked at me and at first he was hesitant and then you could almost see it wash over him and turned his head up and looked at me and said, “OK” he turned and off he walked with purpose in his step.
It is amazing the things that God has given me the privledge to see. I can’t say in words what this does to me. I come each week and afterwards I try to sit and write and tell you about them, because God is so good you just have to share. There are even a lot of things each week that happen that I don’t write about, people come to me and share with me very personal things that it would not be right to share with the world. But every day, God is at work and He is doing amazing things. Maybe you are like Ernest, I know I was for a long, long, long time. My only part in this is that I listened and did, and you can to. To whatever God is asking you to do, do it. It is by far worth it. The benefit to your heart, mind, body, soul, is immeasurable. Let God work through you, It will be more that you ever thought or dreamed possible, because it is not you, it is Him.
Keep Ernest in your prayers, and again thank you for your prayers, they make a difference. Thank You. For His Glory, Mitch
