Just wanted to touch base on the family I had posted about on facebook who lost everything to a house fire in Durham....
They are moving into an apartment in another part of Durham this weekend. Their older daughter Frances has graciously allowed them to stay with her and her two teenage children for the past couple of weeks.
I'm sure they are very excited about moving back into their own place though.
I just want to thank everyone that read my post and stepped up to help this family in need....Lesley Chaffin for lots of brand new toys for the little girl, Kim McNeilly for clothing donations, Erin Emory for a gift card donation, Tresa Lee for clothing donations, Cindy Brantley for various item donations, and any others if I missed you - please forgive me!!
The family is still in need of basic household items like queen and twin bed sets, new pillows, dressers for their clothes, and gift cards to local retail shops to get other needed items.
If you have anything you would like to donate, please just get in touch with me and I can put you directly in touch with the family.
Loving Radically Through Christ,
Melissa
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
We get to meet lots of people in this life....crazy people, wild people, smart people, sweet people, quiet people, leader people, follower people, needy people, hurting people, etc. etc. You get the point!
But my point is that they are all God's people....He created each and every person that we come into contact with. And they were all created for His purpose and for a relationship with Him! And they all are entitled to receive His love - because that's the way He wants it.
We don't know who we'll meet on a daily basis, but we can be thankful and grateful for each encounter. We can be on the lookout for Divine appointments - and we can be ready in and out of season to share His love.
I must admit that there have been a few times that I have gotten a little weary with certain types of people that we encounter....the overly needy people, the victims who don't want to help themselves. The people who always seem to need more than I have to give - the people who always have one thing after another going on. Sometimes I get tired, worn out, burnt out....but it is in those moments that God is finally able to work through me and shine, because I have come to the end of myself. And when we come to end the ourselves and He is all we have left to work with, it's when we're able to really get meaningful work done!
I am beginning to get very excited about our upcoming mobile VBS. The smiles on the kids faces...them dropping everything and running up to greet and hug us. It's priceless. They don't really know us. I mean - they've met us quite a few times. But they don't have a day to day relationship with us. They can't possibly love the real "us"....but they do love the Jesus that's in us. When we go out there and visit with these kids, it's Him who shines....not us.
The past couple of weeks we have run into a few of our local families....ones we haven't seen in a while. And they are all smiles and excited when we tell them that we'll be out there very soon with a little something new! We're really more excited than they are though :)
This week we'll take two boxes of clothes to a family that has 4 boys and is constantly in need of clothes and shoes - as we all know how boys can tear through clothes. And we love those boys...we've known them for a while now and no matter how little they have, they are always so joyful and eager to listen and spend time with us.
Last week we were able to put a few people in touch with a family and little girl that lost their home and all of their belongings to a house fire on Mother's Day. This family is still very much in need of a place to live and furniture/household good donations.
But to sit beside this little girl in church on Sunday, and to have her hold my hand and walk down the hall, and then have her ask her mom if she could please sit beside me....it just makes all we do worth it. She has met me twice but is instantly comfortable and happy around me. That's the Holy Spirit in me....it is surely not the grumpy, crabby person I am at 8:30 at night after a busy work day!!
I hope that everyone reading this will make it a point to reach out to someone else - to love on someone else - to get involved in someone's else's world besides our own....all in the name of love of Christ.
Loving Radically Through Christ,
Melissa
But my point is that they are all God's people....He created each and every person that we come into contact with. And they were all created for His purpose and for a relationship with Him! And they all are entitled to receive His love - because that's the way He wants it.
We don't know who we'll meet on a daily basis, but we can be thankful and grateful for each encounter. We can be on the lookout for Divine appointments - and we can be ready in and out of season to share His love.
I must admit that there have been a few times that I have gotten a little weary with certain types of people that we encounter....the overly needy people, the victims who don't want to help themselves. The people who always seem to need more than I have to give - the people who always have one thing after another going on. Sometimes I get tired, worn out, burnt out....but it is in those moments that God is finally able to work through me and shine, because I have come to the end of myself. And when we come to end the ourselves and He is all we have left to work with, it's when we're able to really get meaningful work done!
I am beginning to get very excited about our upcoming mobile VBS. The smiles on the kids faces...them dropping everything and running up to greet and hug us. It's priceless. They don't really know us. I mean - they've met us quite a few times. But they don't have a day to day relationship with us. They can't possibly love the real "us"....but they do love the Jesus that's in us. When we go out there and visit with these kids, it's Him who shines....not us.
The past couple of weeks we have run into a few of our local families....ones we haven't seen in a while. And they are all smiles and excited when we tell them that we'll be out there very soon with a little something new! We're really more excited than they are though :)
This week we'll take two boxes of clothes to a family that has 4 boys and is constantly in need of clothes and shoes - as we all know how boys can tear through clothes. And we love those boys...we've known them for a while now and no matter how little they have, they are always so joyful and eager to listen and spend time with us.
Last week we were able to put a few people in touch with a family and little girl that lost their home and all of their belongings to a house fire on Mother's Day. This family is still very much in need of a place to live and furniture/household good donations.
But to sit beside this little girl in church on Sunday, and to have her hold my hand and walk down the hall, and then have her ask her mom if she could please sit beside me....it just makes all we do worth it. She has met me twice but is instantly comfortable and happy around me. That's the Holy Spirit in me....it is surely not the grumpy, crabby person I am at 8:30 at night after a busy work day!!
I hope that everyone reading this will make it a point to reach out to someone else - to love on someone else - to get involved in someone's else's world besides our own....all in the name of love of Christ.
Loving Radically Through Christ,
Melissa
Sunday, May 20, 2012
We had another mobile VBS meeting last week and things are moving forward very nicely. We will meet again on Monday, May 28th and will tie up all of the loose ends and hopefully be ready to do a dry run. We're already very anxious to get out into the community and share the message with the local kids. If you don't mind, please go ahead and begin praying for seeds to be planted in the kids, and for a good harvest, whether it's reaped immediately or in the future with other Jesus-seed sowers.
We knew that the Lord had planted this alien theme in our hearts last year - but just in case we needed a little more confirmation that He wanted us to do this - He gave us a little supernatural provision last week. Dean got a call from the local Super Dollar store and they provided boxes and boxes and boxes of 2 liter drinks, cookies, chips and other snacks. We think it will almost be enough to make it through the entire summer's worth of VBS's that we're planning! I'll buy some fresh fruit right before we start, and we should be good to go.
Isn't God good? Here's to Him making another provision for cups and plates and napkins, right? :) We've got faith!
Right now we've got a little team going....but we'd love to have you help if you ever want to.
So far it's going to be me, Dean, Courtney, Alex, Marcia (Dean's mom), Carla (Dean's sister in law), Blake (Dean's nephew), Jean (Marcia's neighbor), and Kyle and Beverly Mulholland. We have a variety of activities planned, like skits, lessons, games, face painting, puppets and snacks.
We will be going to hand out flyers in the Twin Circles mobile home park on Tuesday, June 19th and weather promitting, we'll be doing the first VBS on June 23rd and 24th.
If you feel led to donate to this ministry in ANY way, we would greatly appreciate it. We like to order items from Oriental Trading to use for crafts and games and we always are in need of NIV or ESV Bibles, spanish or english. We also greatly appreciate gift cards to WalMart for food and supplies, or gift cards for gas.
Thanks so much for supporting us.
Loving radically through Christ,
Melissa
We knew that the Lord had planted this alien theme in our hearts last year - but just in case we needed a little more confirmation that He wanted us to do this - He gave us a little supernatural provision last week. Dean got a call from the local Super Dollar store and they provided boxes and boxes and boxes of 2 liter drinks, cookies, chips and other snacks. We think it will almost be enough to make it through the entire summer's worth of VBS's that we're planning! I'll buy some fresh fruit right before we start, and we should be good to go.
Isn't God good? Here's to Him making another provision for cups and plates and napkins, right? :) We've got faith!
Right now we've got a little team going....but we'd love to have you help if you ever want to.
So far it's going to be me, Dean, Courtney, Alex, Marcia (Dean's mom), Carla (Dean's sister in law), Blake (Dean's nephew), Jean (Marcia's neighbor), and Kyle and Beverly Mulholland. We have a variety of activities planned, like skits, lessons, games, face painting, puppets and snacks.
We will be going to hand out flyers in the Twin Circles mobile home park on Tuesday, June 19th and weather promitting, we'll be doing the first VBS on June 23rd and 24th.
If you feel led to donate to this ministry in ANY way, we would greatly appreciate it. We like to order items from Oriental Trading to use for crafts and games and we always are in need of NIV or ESV Bibles, spanish or english. We also greatly appreciate gift cards to WalMart for food and supplies, or gift cards for gas.
Thanks so much for supporting us.
Loving radically through Christ,
Melissa
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