The Blessing Closet

                                                       VOLUNTEERS
Wednesday night the Lifeway Haven ministry for women was visited by some eager volunteers.  They have heard of the new transitional home for incarcerated ladies to transition into for the 2 yr. program.  Second changes are wonderful for us all AND we ALL need 2nd chances.

We have 12 beds ready, an EX-Large kitchen, screen porch, gathering room for games, and a living room for meetings and movies.  There is one last room that is VERY much a necessity....the clothing closet.  Since most of our items are donated, we call our closet the Blessing Closet. It has been transformed from a broken down, drab room and had an upgrade!  Coach painted the dull walls light blue.  Roy, our handyman, built the racks.  After Coach painted the boards for shelves, stained the rods, they put them up together.  Wow, it's BIG!

Our director, Melinda, has been washing, ironing, and hanging boxes of donations.  We brought 5 black garbage bags full also from our church, Covenant Church, in Willis, TX.  Now, we had to put this room together.  Of course we got that special call that a group of ladies wanted to come and do a project for us.  Melinda and I knew what it was....the Blessing Closet!!!!!   It was overwhelming to think of organizing all those clothes.  Coach put together too large shelving units from Sam's Club for each of the 2 rooms.  Now, we only needed the ladies.

Volunteers working in the Blessing Closet

Wednesday night after a nice dinner together, we attacked the room.  (lots of hormones in that room !!!)   What would have taken us days together, it was completed, tidy, and all finished in 1 1/2 hr. !  Amazing work done by these ladies.  Thursday, one of our Mennonite volunteers, Leon, came and she and I cleaned about 70 pairs of shoes and boots.  Now, we're headed to the other room to begin filling it too for our ladies.

It really was like watching Gideon's army at work in that room.  We are So grateful for this level of participation and helping hands.  We all believe that the baby is soon to be delivered!  We're ready for sure.

This is only 1/2 of the 1st room !!!!!

TY volunteers and donors of these BEAUTIFUL clothes, shoes, and so much more!!!!! How awesome is our God.  How deeply He cares for us all no matter our circumstances.  Most of the ladies will come in a set of men's clothing given to them by the prisons.  Don't you think they will smile when they see what their Father has arranged just for them !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

Fields of Sudan

                              Grace and Her Brother

Our 9 months service in Sudan in 2008 has continued to be a blessing to us.  The 10 years laps between our service and now has amazed us at the blooming of many seeds planted by so many those months in the Harvesters Orphanage.

Grace was one of our young ladies in the orphanage.  Recently, she connected with us on FB.  We just love seeing her photos and smile.  She is attending secondary school in Uganda after fleeing Yei, Sudan from the fighting there.  Grace mentioned her younger brother is in a refugee camp and she is housed in a group setting for students.  She has no parents and no support.  We have been praying if we were to help Grace.  The knock on our hearts came a few weeks ago.

Grace

In a conversation over texting, she asked us to pray for her.  She was anxious and fighting depression .  When I probed more, she said she could NOT locate her little brother who is in a refugee camp.  We prayed together for God to locate him and in 5 days, she found him.  We continued to write and we felt the Lord direct us to send Grace only a $100.  Now, here in the U.S., that is not much, but in Sudan, it is a large amount.  Grace was speechless when we got her contact info to wire the money.  She immediately sent money to her brother for food and medical help.  He was very sick and unable to get medicine.  Then, we got this picture of the cooker!

Grace's cooker for meals

When I asked Grace if she only boiled water on it, she said, "No Mom, I learned to cook.  When I get home late from studies and have no charcoal, I can cook on this and it's such a help!"  We received many thank yous from her and her brother.  I stopped, remembering the wood stoves we cooked on in Sudan, and thought of my own new kitchen appliances in our log home.  I was so concerned to get just the right color, size, and convinces.  Here Grace is concerned with no charcoal!  Oh Lord, help us we prayed!  She then added she kept the rest for food money.  Grace has known hunger, abandonment, and separation.

Thank you Lord for sending us to Sudan to see how spoiled we are.  Thank you for letting us live their life and feeling their pains.  Now, we pray Father, we will NOT forget those in the Body of Christ who need us so deeply.  We are reminded that a generous giver, one who waters well others, will be watered in his time of need.  Enjoy Grace, and thank YOU for the reminder that all the world is not like we are.  Thank you Lord for our abundance and show us how to help others.  Thank you for the Fields of Sudan.  May we never forget that field.

Workers Coming Together

Mennonite Servants                                               

There is a strong Mennonite community near our new ministry with Lifeway Haven.  They have their own church and school.  Sunday, we visited their service and ate lunch in one of their homes.  The men have done work in our facility.  The women are volunteering for Bible Study, cooking, sewing, and quilting.  We are hoping for some gardening from them also.

Our directors have been 20 yr. in this area and live next door to some of the Mennonite people.  They are VERY community oriented and helpers.  They are a wonderful, humble people who we are finding to be true lovers of God.  Some of them do go into the prison units and minister in a program known as Bridges For Life.  We are excited to be going to the graduation in the unit near us this Thursday.

As we sat in the service Sunday, I could not help but feel the smile on God's face.  Coach sat
with the men on the right and I tucked into my pew on the left.  The ladies all had their white caps on and long dresses.  The men, mostly with beards, had long sleeve shirts and ironed slacks on.  We came simple, but in our usual dress.  They accepted us with GREAT joy!  We had a real home cooked meal with such gracious hospitality in the assigned person's home for guest.  As the service ended, they gathered around us asking what they can do to be a part of the new ministry!  There we were, the Body of Christ, coming together for the burden on the Lord's heart.  They came the next day for tours and dinner with us.  We laughed at our stories of salvation, honeymoons, marriage, and whatever came our way.  Such a delight.  We have found some precious people, set apart for God with all their hearts.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       It will take us all to do the work set before us.  Some are hands, others the eyes, or the head.  We each have an assignment and purpose. The Mennonite community do drive cars and use our modern technology, but many of their traditions and habits are molded by their Amish relatives. We are neighbors with them, and it seems, they are ready to work beside us to open this transitional home for our ladies coming out of prison.  We need their man-power, skills, and knowledge for basic, economical, and life skills to enrich these ladies.

We NEVER can know the plans of God or the Gideon team He will put together.  We welcome our new Mennonite brothers and sisters as we labor in the field God has provided at Lifeway Haven.

The War Room

War Room of LWH

Our first visit to Life Way Haven several months ago was for a tour of the facility.  Our director, Steve, took us to this room FIRST!  "Have you seen the movie War Room?" he asked us???? Yes we said.  Well, it seems that the Lord had impressed Steve to build a War Room in the ministry home for the ladies to continue their routine of prayer and intercession.  

What I love about this room, is that it is located right next to our apartment!  I hope to hear the cries unto the Lord from our ladies, coming out of the War Room in early morning hours.  What a GREAT way to wake up!  The wood has been selected and stained with a high gloss coating and is so beautiful.  Those are live plants in the planter box.  I remembered the select wood, curtain material, gold, sliver, used to build the Tabernacle.  These ladies will have the best opportunities to continue their spiritual walk while in the program.

Prayer is the foundation of any new work.  If the foundation is not solid, the house will be built on sand.  There will be much to pray about among our residents from the past, present, and future.  What an awesome room to be included in our new facility.   Please continue to pray for us and the ministry as we begin to fill the beds soon. 

Field Workers....cotton pickers

The fields are ripe for harvest

Cotton Pickers

As we have prepared for our new field of work for the Lord, we heard Him speak a word of clarity to us. We have worked in several areas for Him. None of the areas or fields, seem to match, yet we saw God do GREAT works in them all.  We have swung from foster care with abused children, an orphanage, unwed moms, human trafficking, and now women who have been incarcerated.  

The common thread is people who have been broken.  We love working with broken people no matter the area they are broken in.  We have had the greatest joy living with them in community living.  Sometimes people just need us to do LIFE with them.  Often people ask what on earth do y'all do and feel we are doing something so great.  It's very simple, not big or great at all.....we love, live, and laugh with them.  We live the Christian life and model the Christian marriage before them.  As we deal with our life stuff, we add Jesus to the problem, act real, and share the victories and struggles.  We show them how to do Life with Jesus.  I guess you can see us as a "rabbit" on the track, running in front of other newer runners to show them how and encourage them.  

God shared with us that when we step back we will recognize that we are field workers.  We do not own the plantation where we work as some are called to do.  We work the fields for them, holding up their arms, assisting others who are put under us in the field.  We KNOW our fields well and how they need to be prepared, worked, and harvested for the BEST results.  Often the plantation owner comes to see the fields and talks to the worker and ask how all this came to be, how it's made into something productive, how the field is kept viable.  It is often that the plantation owner invites the field worker inside the plantation for a night of celebration and honor for his work.  That's the part we wiggle under.....going into the plantation house with the finer things of life, the upper living, and servants waiting on us!  We do not know this part of the picture well.  Our comfort is in the fields themselves.  Our joy is being among the workers and in the trenches where the fields are worked day in and day out.  

The Lord simply said, "you are both cotton pickers".  Wow, yes we are!!!!!!!  Cotton Pickers for Jesus.  We love, love, love the fields.  We live to work them when we are called upon and to teach others how it's done.  We take great pleasure in presenting a crop that is done as unto the Lord himself to those who have asked us and entrusted their fields to us.  To keep in mind why we love the fields of the Lord so much, we put a stem of cotton in our kitchen window as a reminder.  We do not feel of less value than the plantation owner, not more elevated than other workers.  We simple accept our call, our equipping, and use it to the best of our abilities.  It's a new concept, but it's true.  We are just plain and simple cotton pickers and we serve Jesus in the fields He sends us to.  The harvest truly is great, but the workers are few........Luke 10:2