Wednesday night. Thursday night. Friday night.
Our ministry... along with those who gave financially... reached out to three families that didn't have a Christmas tree or dinner budget.
beINVOLVED (the "reach out" part of Audacious Faith) gave THREE Christmas trees, lights and stands; THREE Christmas TURKEY meals; a Bible and Matthew Barnett's new book: The Cause Within You, to a few different families.
Well, you know how God works. He's always just perfectly ON TIME. Not on mine though.
Believe it or not... the easiest part was receiving the money (still need $80 if you'd still like to be a part) and buying the "goods." Finding the families? Not so much.
Not until THE day of delivery... a couple hours before the time we wanted to deliver... did things swing into motion, realizing, people with no Christmas trees don't just stand on the street corner to tell you.
Thank goodness God doesn't depend on ME! It wouldn't have panned out so much. I would have had all three families chosen by Wednesday night... times given that we were going to show up at their doors and a big to-do list CHECK OFF by 9pm.
Nope.
We had ONE family on Wednesday night. We got there 30 minutes later than planned because of the Christmas tree (wait time... turned into blessing time) pick up. So, 7:30 turned into 8pm. But, low and behold, their 5 year old had to go to bed. She was sleeping when we got there. How much BETTER for her... to wake up to a TREE with LIGHTS in the morning? OMG!
And, we ended up hanging out for about 30-45 minutes... chatting... laughing... crying and praying with this amazing family! OMG!
Then... the next family we blessed only needed a meal. Then, our neighbor (right in front of our noses) needed a tree. Our other neighbor needed lights. And, after receiving brand new lights from a friend at work who over heard what we were doing, we still had a tree, lights and meal left to give.
Braedan... our AMAZING, AMAZING good hearted red head... went to school and asked his teacher if she knew anyone who could use a tree and meal. She knew her neighbor could. So, Friday night we went over to her neighbors and blessed them with the goods.
This 2nd graders face... when she opened the door... will aways be grained in my head. She jumped up and down and yelled, "A Christmas tree with lights!!!" We set it up and were on our way.
I'm leaving out SO many details!!!!
I'm blown away!
My eyes have been opened a small bit to the NEED of our community. Doing this "hands on" was so up my alley... but also so hard. I love to give... but, in the past I've liked to give and not be hassled with the details. Not anymore!
OH!MY!GOD! Our God is truly amazing. How He provides. How He loves. How He died for us! How He teaches us by His perfect example how to do this on earth too. It's NEVER too late to love your neighbor!
If you'd like to give to this cause... we are still in need of $80 measily dollars.
Go HERE to give!
And, if you'd like to give to FUTURE, beINVOLVED ministry things in 2012... just earmark your "gift" for that part of our ministry. We'll make sure it gets used in our community!
A special THANKS to ALL of you who GAVE. No matter if it was $50 or $5... it all added up and we were able to buy a ton of GREAT stuff!
We aren't done yet! We have plenty more to do... as 2012 is going to be a GREAT year!