When grown men weep. . .

This month the Faith based self-worth class I teach for the homeless grew to 31 people!  (We started in January with 9 people).  As exciting as that was for me it also opened my eyes to how little I truly have to offer.  When we minister to the middle class there is not a whole lot of risk involved.  If someone has lost a job and a bill is late, the Sunday School class can take up an anonymous offering to help out with the need.  If a friend has a teenage child that is rebelling we can go have coffee, listen and pray.  (All of these are good things BTW!)  But ministry for those who are TRULY destitute is a whole new ball came.  After my class I had two grown men break down weeping.  One had been attacked on the streets and severely beaten.  His leg was broken in three places.  He has no access to re-hab and lives in constant pain.  The other has been in a battle with intestinal cancer for the past 13 year and has just been denied all medical aid for treatment.  He is only 29 years old and separated from his family.   I look into the eyes of so many others that have no hope.  I felt , in a small way, as Moses must have felt with the armies of Pharoah on one side and the Red Sea on the other.  Moses had nothing in him that could save the Israelites.  This was a God moment.  It was a position that if God did not move, they faced certain death.  The needs Downtown can never be met or filled by my human efforts.  The man with cancer cannot get medical aid.  If God does not heal him supernaturally, he faces certain death! I hear this and feel helpless.  Then I realize, I am!   God has not asked me to free any of them from bondage; that is His job.  My job is to be a yielded vessel for Him to flow through.  When giants come will I stand firm in Christ, or will I surrender to the flesh and either run away or try to solve the impossible on my own? 

 What is He asking you to surrender to?  What mighty act might He be ready to do through you? Will you surrender to Him or run from Him?

The gods must be crazy

Does anyone remember the old movie, "The gods must be crazy"?  If I remember correctly it's about an African tribe that has a soda bottle fall out of the sky (from and airplane) into their community.  This soda bottle upsets daily life.  They don't know what it is or what the "gods" want from them.  They think the gods must be crazy!  I have had the same thought recently of the ONE TRUE GOD.  He must be crazy when I look at the path He has sent me down.  Me, a trainer and health nut.  He has sent down and odd looking "vessel" that I didn't really know what to do with.  The odd looking vessel He sent is a group of homeless and impoverished people in Downtown Amarillo.  What am I suppose to do with them God?  Are you crazy?  You want me to preach the gospel and reach outside of what I know and am comfortable with.  You want to upset my "village" life by this odd call to preach the Gospel to the poor?

Yes, that is what He was saying!  I have dozens of amazing stories I could tell about this journey but I just wanted to share with you the most recent. 

I currently oversee serving two meals a month in Downtown Amarillo.  The first is open to all at the Guyon Saunders Resource Center (Serve 70 to 80).  The second is for the Biblically based self-worth class that I teach each month at the center (20-25 people).  Next month is Passion Week (April 13th-19th) and I wanted to have a Spaghetti Dinner to serve on Good Friday.  I always pray and the Lord sends the "Laborers" to His vineyard and for this meal He has sent the United Methodist Women to help make and serve the food.  My desire has always been to offer more than 'daily-bread' but to also bring the "True Bread" which comes down from Heaven. . .after contacting the Resource Center they have reserved the large room so that I can bring in a team to hold a Good Friday Service right after the meal!  Is God crazy, or is it that He knows how to accomplish His purposes across the earth even if it takes His people some time to understand the blessings He is sending down.  What if we all just decided to trust and obey even if we didn't understand?  What might God do through us if we fully surrendered instead of question His sanity when He calls us?

Please be in prayer for the service to the Homeless on Good Friday and when God sends something "odd" your way, ask Him why, don't just throw it away!

HELP WANTED!

    Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.   

(Exodus 1:8)

 

 

I wonder how Moses felt about this commission? Too small?  Too insignificant?  Was he over- whelmed and afraid?  I think so.  He spends quite a bit of time arguing with God about it.  (See Exodus 4).  The story of the Exodus has spoken to me a lot this year because I have been on a similar journey.  If you have kept up with my blogs then you know God has been calling me away from "tending sheep in the wilderness" (aka- Personal Training) and into a new call.  A call to minister the Word of God to the Homeless and Impoverished of Downtown Amarillo.  Like Moses I argued with God about my qualifications and my "calling"  but the cry of the people became too great:

 

"The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob".

(Exodus 2:23&24)

 

 Finally I gave Him my surrender.

 

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

(Isaiah 6:8)

 

As of January 1st I am no longer taking new training clients in order that I can step fully into what the Lord is inviting me to do.  This year I have had the opportunity to share the Isaiah Challenge with multiple Churches and Outreaches.  I have been able to preach the gospel to the poor (literally!).  In December I was invited to be a part of a new program at the 2-1-1 Resource Center Downtown.  I teach a Biblically Based self-worth class to the homeless and impoverished.  I have been given opportunity to help bring in a Christian Addiction Recovery program with other faith programs on the horizon!  God has done many provision miracles and sent other laborers into His vineyard to help with the work of Isaiah 61.

 

"the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,"

(Isaiah 61:1)

 

This call is to Christ and His Church. If this passage has ever burned within you then this is a HELP WANTED call!  I have many open doors and am praying the Lord to send forth laborers into His vineyard.  Roman and I are expanding NMI-Network (the itinerate ministry we have had for the past four years) to include this work of God's Spirit to the poor.  Over the past several months we have had several meals and "fellowships" to get to know the people being ministered to.  Special gifts such as Valentine Candy and Prayer Beads are part of how the Lord has led us to show His extravagant love to those society calls the "least of these" but He calls "the greatest in the Kingdom".  If you would be interested in helping in any way with this work please contact us! (E-mail challenge@angelaasbill.com)   All ministries need financial support (we are non-profit and tax deductible) but they also need MUCH prayer.  Another need I have is for those who would like to be a part of serving the people, giving a testimony, organizing an outreach, etc.  We are not going Downtown to offer physical bread (though that is a part of it) we are going to offer the TRUE BREAD WHICH COMES DOWN FROM HEAVEN! 

 

This is a new and scary venture for me but:

 

Where He leads me, I will follow!

 

 

(My 2nd self-worth class.  First class 9 attended.  2nd class we increased to 22 people!)