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

Mobile VBS Meeting Tonight

We're going to have a quick little meeting at our house tonight at 7 to discuss more specifics of our mobile VBS.  I've worked up a lesson for the kids for the 2nd night (Not Of This World) - and I'm going to run it by everyone to see what they think.

We're going to be discussing games, snacks, locations, and needed supplies.

Feel free to come if you'd be intersted in helping out :)

We Are Still Here!!!

Yes I know I should probably be sent to "Time-Out" since I haven't posted in so long....but I promise we're still alive and still getting plenty done!  We took the opportunity with the winter down-time to get some organizing done and also some planning for the spring/summer season.  (We still did lots of food and clothing distributions during the winter, but didn't get to do our regular evening visitations in the trailer park as much.)

The winter clothes are all boxed up and on the shelf for next winter season....

The kids summer clothes are all sorted and folded by sizes and ready to be distributed to neighborhood kids during our summer outreach activities.....

We are working on getting the ministry supply shelf stocked back up.....

And we have our aliens ready to hit the neighborhoods.....

Wait.....aliens??  Ready to head out to the neighborhoods?? YEP!  We're getting our ducks in a row to start our alien-themed VBS.  This VBS will be MOBILE :)  We're hitting the streets with these lessons and planning to teach the local Granville County kids how they can be aliens in this world by living for Christ. 

We have a couple of folks already volunteering to help and we're getting excited!  We'll be going with the flow to start and seeing how God leads us to tweak areas, but we plan on having games, snacks, skits, music, lessons and lots of learning about Jesus.  We plan to go into a neighborhood for 2 nights in a row - about an hour and a half each night.  The first night's lesson will be "Take Me To Your Leader", where we'll take a common alien-themed saying and turn it into a lesson about who our leader in this world should be....JESUS.  We'll give the kids the basics of Jesus and how someone can "get to Him", through repentance and faith.

The next night will be "Out of This World" or "Not of This World" and it will be based on the verses in John and other places in the New Testament, that instruct us to live as if we're aliens in this world, because it is not our home.  This lesson will help teach the kids how living differently and changed is what happens when a life is given to Jesus.

Please join in and pray for us as we start out this new summer mission!  We will continue to distribute food as the Lord provides - but we really want to make sure that we take advantage of the opportunity to get out and share the Gospel this summer!

If you want to be a part of this in any way, just let us know!  We'd love to have you!


Loving Radically Through Christ,

Melissa

A Big Need for a Big God!

I just want to say Thank You in advance to the person that's going to read this blog post and respond because they know that God is laying it on their heart.....

Thank YOU....

 A little over a week ago Dean's mother's car completely died.  What they thought was just a spark plug problem turned out to be a cracked head, which we all know is a BIG problem - taking lots of time and money to fix.  The car eventually overheated and completely died on her on Hwy 85.

She pulled over to the side of the highway and had her son come and pick her up.  When she called the tow truck to go and pick up the car the next day - it was gone!  She called around to the highway patrol, the DOT, the police department....they had not picked it up.  Someone had stolen the car.

Now she didn't just have the cost of an engine to replace - she has the cost of the whole car to replace!  Unfortunately she only had liability insurance - which does not cover theft.

Marcia is believing that the Lord already has her taken care of in this matter though.  She loves the Lord with all of her heart and is an essential component to our ministry.

Right now we are letting her borrow the Jeep on the weekends and other times when we don't have to have it for travel to work and ministry pick ups.  She is very thankful for that - but we would love to come through for her in a BIG WAY and show her that the body of Christ, no matter the distance or denomination, can and will pull together to help a Sister and widow in need....just as the Bible commands.

If you think you can help in any way - whether it be a monetary donation, a car to borrow, or a full vehicle donation....please contact us immediately!

Dean's cell is 919-665-8997 and our home number is 919-529-2486.

Loving Radically Through Christ,

Melissa

Supplies Needed for Cancer Patient

Please join us in getting together items for a cancer patient beginning chemo on Monday.  Karen Benton's full story can be followed on her CaringBridge website. 

Her daughter has also created a Facebook event to give further details and list certain needs.

Karen has been diagnosed with breast cancer and at this point has no medical insurance.  Her husband is a long haul driver and is trying to come home every 2 weeks to visit - but as we all know, whenever he is home for even one overnight visit, it greatly cuts into their income (which is paid by the mile).

We as Christians should ban together to help this Sister in need...in prayer, encouragement, and with our giving of needed items.

The list of items needed are:

Moisturizer (unscented)
Mouth Wash (with no alcohol)
Orange Gatorade
... Banana. Strawberry or Orange Popsicles
Individual Jello (Strawberry)
Imodium
Senekote
Tylenol
Thermometer
Acid Reducer Medicine
Baby Wipes
Sturdy Plastic Utensils
Toothbrush
Scarves/Head Coverings
Satin Pillowcase
Sanitizing Wipes
Warm Pajamas (lg/xlg)
Warm House Slippers/Cozies (Sz 9)
Poise Pads (Moderate/Long)
Hand Sanitizer (Unscented/All sizes)
Shower Curtain or Liner (Clear)
Flushable Moist Wipes
Renew
Non-Latex Gloves
Crackers/Animal Crackers
Dried Fruit

Please contact me for further info - or feel free to follow the event on Facebook.

If you are my Facebook friend, you can see it under the event titled "Team Karen Benton".

Thanks in advance for your support,

Loving Radically Through Christ,

Melissa

Not Sure What's Up

At this point I'm not really sure what God's up to - but I'm just gonna keep my ears open for His voice.

I really feel like He's been speaking to me for a while now about doing some type of middle school girls study/fellowship.

I'm not sure if this is a one time thing (sorta like a weekend event) or an ongoing study.  But He placed the idea in my heart and mind a few years ago....but that was WAAAAAY before I was ready.

I know He's going to use my past experiences with sex and relationships - the heartaches and dramas - the sin and redemption....but I just don't know how yet.  Right now He's just got me studying up and getting my ideas down on paper.

Ya'll please pray for me to be receptive - to do His will - not mine.  And even though pre-teen and early teen girls are super scary for me, He can work through me for them.

Loving Radically Through Christ,

Melissa

We're Still Here :)

I promise we haven't quit the ministry :)

We're still here and busier than ever!

I'm not sure if I had updated everyone to let them know - but we have been blessed with so many clothing and household donations lately that we had to get rid of all the furniture in our living room and bring in shelving units to make it solely a ministry room! 

We love it and are so thankful.

If you know of families or individuals that are in need of clothing in our area, let them know about our ministry!  I have been getting clothes together for many people during the holiday break - and delivering them - even to Henderson, Roxboro and Durham areas.  But sometimes it's easier for the person/family just to come into our clothing closet and pick out what they want or can use.  So please send them our way!

Everything we receive is by donation and is directly from the Lord.  I have people contact me on a regular basis to ask if we are taking clothes.  At this point in time I don't have the volunteer hands, or the money, to wash everything that comes through....so we are trying to ask that we only take clothing donations from non-smoking homes.

We are still doing our regular food pick ups - bread and milk.  We got some ice cream and some meats within the last month - and those were great helps!  We also received a huge donation of Hunger Boxes from Pastor Terry at Bull City Outreach.  We haven't been out in the trailer parks weekly like normal...only because of the daylight.  By the time I get home from work it's already dark - and the people don't normally come out to hang out with us when it's already dark.  We've been trying to go on the weekends and when we get bread pick ups at least to let them know we're still here and still love them!

We are still working on the planning stages of our alien-themed kids outreach - and when the time comes for that - we'll need some grown-ups to help!  So keep your eyes and ears peeled for that.

We are also working on t-shirt ideas - on getting some official t-shirts made up for our ministry.  We want something bold and to the point - that sums up what we're about and to get people's attention.  Dean is a genius when it comes to thinking up ideas like that - but we just haven't come up with the perfect idea yet.

There are so many more things I should probably update everyone on, but right now I can't put them all together.

We helped quite a few families with toys and food and clothes for Christmas.  We've helped a family get a much-needed stackable washer and dryer for their home.  Dean was able to furnish a needy man's home in the blink of an eye....didn't even have to post the need publicly.  Now that was an amazing story right there!  We've helped quite a few families that are getting ready to have precious little babies.

But again - we're just the middle men....the Lord provides everything we get....and He continues to prove Himself faithful.  It's all His anyway - we're are just His hands and feet in our local community.

If you would like to contact us for anything - please feel free to do so! 

If you have an outreach idea and want to see if we can help accomodate it - please let us know!

Loving Radically Through Christ,

Melissa