FAITH IN ACTION

Douglas Senior Services asked us to do the impossible: provide a wheelchair ramp for the Jordan family.  Mr and Mrs. Jordan recently fell trying to get down their front steps.  They live on Social Security.  The DSS caseworker wrote:

“We realize FIA is a group of volunteers and do not have unlimited monetary resources to cover such costs.  We know there will be referrals we make where there is no solution.”

Charles Price with our affiliate ministry The Work of Our Hands visited the Jordan home and did a materials and labor estimate exceeding $6,000.00.  An impossible sum for FiA since we do not solicit cash donations.  Paul Zachos sought a grant from Home Depot.  Then we visited Atlanta Revival Center to shared the FiA vision, and Summer Leonard felt a call to serve with us.  When we visited her home, there was a u-shaped wheelchair ramp with a landing.  The ramp was no longer needed and she agreed to donate it without hesitation.  Charles visited both sites and said it would work.  We planned for July 31-August 1 and recruited a team to cut the ramp into three pieces, transport it from Paulding to Douglas, and reassemble.  Also, members of ARC agreed to pressure wash the ramp in preparation for painting and a youth team agreed to paint.

But how would we lift and move the ramp, which weighed almost two tons?  Even though we had no clear solution to that critical issue, we moved forward stubbornly in faith.  Sometimes you can’t plan everything.  Sometimes you have to leave room in your planning for God to do the impossible.  Three days before the project commenced, Mark Denyse of Denyse Signs volunteered his time and a company boom truck.

Is it coincidence that within days of being given an impossible task, Summer appeared with a wheelchair ramp she did not need?  Is it a coincidence that Charles determined the ramp would fit the Jordan’s home perfectly and it did?  Another coincidence that Mark Denyse had a boom truck and heart to serve? If you think that after reading this, I wish you had been with me and saw what I saw, and felt what I felt as I watched God use Mark and our small faith to move a mountain into the sky.

Alan and Kelli Penn have followed Jesus for a long time.  She is a well known and well liked educator in our community who now leads the elementary program at a Christian school.  Alan works at Delta and was stunned when he realized the Lord was telling he, and his wife the same thing at the same time.

The Penns had moved from their old home to a new one. Rather than sell or rent their house they were amazed that God was sharing with both of them independently a vision to create a small residence for homeless single women.

The vision was simple: a housemother and several single women finance the house by paying the Penns the equivalent of mortgage, taxes, and utilities.  The women would access existing programs and ministries along with eventual self-sutaining employment to transition out of Blair House.

I think it helped when I called Kelli that FiA had provided a washer/dryer set for Blair House along with women’s toiletries and other items. Another thing God has taught me along the way is to seek and nurture relationships with no agenda other than the relationship itself.  God brought me and Charles and Sandra Price together so that when Rebecca came into our lives, I got the call and then, after the government proved to be helpless, kelli got one from me.

And Rebecca is home.

God has taught me many things in the past few years.  One of them is as Jesus said, “the things that are impossible with men, are possible with God.”. The government was powerless to save a retarded young woman from homelessness. What would God do?

As you read this story, please don’t think that I just didn’t know who to call, or what to say. I am pretty resourceful, never give up, and having been in government 30 years, know it well.  After spending almost a day on the phone and internet, I confess to being angry that the government had nothing, and that this problem was mine.  Not because it was a burden. The anger was that my inadequate self was all there was between a retarded young woman and homelessness. That did not seem like any kind of way to run a so called social safety net.  Me? I’m it?

Of course amongst the phone calls there was much prayer and the realization that we needed a short term plan first and then a long term placement for Rebecca. To get into a group home where she could have supervision, Rebecca needed to be “funded,” through Social Security or other means.  In the meantime, she would be on the street in 48 hours.  Douglas County has a ministry for homeless men; it has a shelter for battered women. For Rebecca there was nothing and I started thinking about MUST Ministries in Cobb or City of Refuge in Atlanta.

Then, it hit me: what about Alan and Kelli Penn?

Part 3 to follow…

Neil and I were at Shakira’s home to bring her a chest of drawers. Some time ago we had brought her a beautiful king size bed and met her family. Yet another single woman with children doing her best to make it, part of an endless supply we have in an America where fathers disappear.

Before we prayed, I asked her, “do you know Jesus?”. She became upset and said not like she should. So we prayed and I think that the Lord gave me a word the burden she carries. Neil has followed up and we are praying that Shakira says “yes” to our offer of relationship.

The same weekend Paul and I were at Jill and her mother’s small home shared with others to bring a sofabed. Jill has been sleeping with her new baby in a recliner because there is no room. Her husband left her and his baby daughter for his “first love,” they said.

I asked Jill, “do you know Jesus” and she smiled. “I talk to Him every night.”

“My retarded sister is going to be homeless by the end of the week and no one will help me,” the young woman said.

Sandra Price of Loving Hands and FiA called me and said we had to do something. I spoke to Rebecca’s sister who explained that she had an IQ of 70 and petit mal seizures fairly well controlled by meds. “She can’t work but Social Security turned her down.  We don’t know why. We got her a driver’s license at age 27 but three wrecks later decided that was a bad idea. She can’t cook except in a microwave she has no hand eye coordination.”

Rebecca’s husband divorced her, DFACS took her two children and gave them to her sister, and her mother was unable to take her in.  So mother and sister placed her at a hotel but they were almost out of money.

I called the local mental retardation association and an extremely kind lady said she was sorry but they had no funding. She gave me another number and the person who answered said to call a different number.

This happened four times. Finally I got to a human being with the goverment who listened sympathetically.  Then she said: “we will assign a caseworker.”

But what could the government do to save a retarded young woman from being homeless in the next 72 hours, I asked.

“Nothing.” She said. “There is nothing we can do.”

Part Two To Follow……

Mark, Randy, William and I traveled to Carrolton to bring Ungela a queen bed, sofa set, dryer, and other items.  She is a very sick woman with lupus and nearly blind and she felt so poorly during the visit we only spoke to her for a few moments before she went to bed.

Out in her front yard a pretty young woman dropped off a young man who sauntered by us rather smugly and it appeared to me he was intoxicated. I greeted him by paying his lady friend a compliment. He laughed and said, “its p—sy. If you want it, get it.”

I smiled back and said, “we follow Jesus, we don’t do that.”

He turned his head in shame and quickly walked away. Mark spoke to him and prayed for him but we don’t think he accepted the Lord. “You really convicted him,” Mark said. “It upset him when he made that crude remark and you came back at him with Christ.”

Very often I despair at how the church fails at doing what the Lord would have us do.  What would happen if each of us carried Christ within us and His light shone so bright that the rest of the world could see nothing else? What if our praise of Jesus drowned out popular culure? What if the Lord’s peace was in so many of us, the world would turn away from drugs and alcohol and turn instead towards Him?

If we know Jesus, the only thing stopping others from knowing Him, is us.

Now when they came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and much people of the city was with her.  And when the Lord saw her he had compassion on her and said unto her, Weep not. And he came and touched the bier and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, arise. And he that was dead sat up and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother. And there came a fear on all, and they glorified God saying that a great prophet is risen among us, and that hath visited his people.” Luke 11:12-16

Scripture records many instances where the Prophets, our Lord Jesus, and the early church ministered to single parent families.  Should our response to them be judgment and condemnation, because either sin or circumstance has brought them to a place of brokenness, grief, and poverty?  Or should we offer the healing and saving mercy of Jesus Christ, whose compassion for a single mother caused Him to raise her son from the dead?  The church is too often indifferent or hostile to the needs of single parents, who thus feel out of place and unwelcome.

We have noticed how frequently FIA ministry serves single moms.  This past weekend Mark and I were blessed to visit Lakeisha, her daughter, and baby Gabriel, whose response to the bed we brought him to sleep in was, “for me?  For me?”  During Mark’s prayer for this family, Lakeisha was moved to tears and shared with us how it’s hard sometimes for a single woman to be responsible for a home, children, and finances.  It was not lost on us that Lakeisha’s son Gabriel is named after the archangel who is described in the Gospel of Luke as being God’s messenger announcing the birth of John the Baptist, and our Lord Jesus Christ.  Gabriel means “the strength of God.”

We were so blessed to help Lakeisha know that she is not alone, that “the strength of God” is with her, always.

Faith In Action seeks to grow the local church in accordance with Christ-confessing and Biblical principles.  Most church members are committed to congregational growth but frequently do not understand how missions work serves that purpose.  Instead, many focus on marketing techniques, multimedia worship presentations, and youth-focused programs which invite new members through the “front door” of the church  However, Pastor Rick Warren points out in “The Purpose Driven Church” that loving unbelievers the way Jesus did is the most overlooked key to church growth.

Last week Ephesus Baptist Church FIA leader Missy Holmes discovered how outreach to people in need can be the “side door” entry point for your church:

We got a call from a couple that was in need of food… they had been to Celebrate Recovery at the church a couple of times and later spent some time in jail.  Upon release, they called us for immediate need of food.  I arranged for an FIA team member to bring the couple a small grocery giftcard and food from our church pantry.

Last Sunday…a couple came up to join the church and I usually help them with the member card they fill out…..IT WAS THEM!!!!!!   I was so excited not only that they came down and joined but that I was the one “signing them up!”…When I saw them fill out the card and realized it was them -I immediately introduced myself (again) as the lady that called her that day.

I talked to Ann (Celebrate Recovery Leader) about it -I told her how amazing it was that our Celebrate Recovery Program and FIA had reached out and possibly made an impact on their decision to join the church!!!

Because many churches are part of FIA, we have a unique knowledge of the various worship styles, traditions, and ministries of numerous Douglas County churches.  When we serve a family in need and spiritual discernment opens an opportunity to make a church invitation, the FIA member can then promise to meet the family at the side door—or the front door, and welcome them to your church.

FIA team member Mark Denyse of Douglasville’s Denyse Signs ran across this picture and created a poster that will soon begin appearing at FIA partner churches and ministries.  The idea is simply to make us think about what our actions say to those around us, and to raise awareness within the local church about FIA. 

When you accept Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the only means by which we are saved, there is no escaping the fact that following Him means putting your Faith In Action.  Jesus told the disciples in Acts what their mission, and ours has to be: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  Acts 1:8.  Why do you suppose the Book of Acts is called . . . the Book of Acts? 

John said this: “But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth”    1 John 3:17-18.  This past weekend, FIA teams went from home to home in Douglas County, bringing a crib to a single mother, a bedroom suite to a family in great financial stress, a bed to a single mother who gave her children her bed to sleep in, two twin beds to children sleeping on air mattresses.  At each home the Gospel was shared, an invitation to church was made, and prayer given.  Most of the families we serve are part of the 150,000 who live within 15 miles of the center of Douglasville who do not attend church or have an active relationship with Jesus.

 FIA is not the only way to put your Faith in Action, of course, and part of our mission is to serve other Christ-confessing ministries.  But the question remains: as followers of Christ, what do our actions say about us? We hope that you will visit our web home for the next few weeks, as we share stories of FIA and how actions speak louder than words.

Most of the time the stories of Faith In Action center around the people Christ has brought us to serve.  This past weekend we were privileged to meet Rob and Alison Long who worship at a Church of God, have lived in Atlanta all their lives, but will on Tuesday leave us for a new job in Raleigh, N.C.  The Longs shared with us how this new job just seemed to fall in place so easily that they are certain it is the Lord’s will they relocate their lives.  We were also told how they found us on the internet and how other ministries were unable to make a pickup that accommodated their moving deadline until they spoke with Tina of Faith in Action.  Mark, Neil, Mike and I received many blessings from Rob and Alison during our visit. There was the washer and dryer, sofa, desk, chair and other items, Rob’s help in loading our trucks, Alison’s help cleaning, four Ginger Ales, the prayers they gave for our ministry, and the prayers we offered for their new life in North Carolina.

There was a presence of kindness and hospitality about this couple, who accounted us not as an interruption or inconvenience, but a joy to spend time with fellow believers who would put their gifts to good use.  We went straight to Debra’s house with the washer, dryer, and desk, for which she has patiently waited several months.  FIA served Debra’s family some time ago and learned of an additional need for these items.  When we served Debra, her entire family learned of The Pantry where they now serve as volunteers.  Atlanta’s loss is surely Raleigh’s gain, but part of the Longs remains here to bless Debra and her family.

So today we are sharing the face of the giver with those who have received.  This past Saturday we looked at the faces of Rob and Alison to see Christ in them.  Do others see Christ in you?

Within hours of the devastating floods that struck Douglas County on September 21, 2009, FIA began to receive calls for help.  Even now, six months later, we are still doing flood-related work as long-term recovery continues.  From time to time, we would like to share some of our flood stories. 

In the week after the flood, Paul Zachos and I visited a kind lady who lives in Douglasville’s River Walk Subdivision to receive a trundle bed.  During our visit, the donor started crying and said, “I need to give you something.”  She returned from her house and gave us an envelope marked, “To Someone Special.”  She said that the suffering of the flood victims had gotten to her, she found a misplaced $100.00 in her home, and gave it to us knowing that we would give it to the right person.As time passed, we served many flood victims but the $100.00 remained un-given. 

Then we came to the West Cobb neighborhood you see in the attached photograph.  We were there to bring Karla a bed for one of her children, and she told us how the water inundated her neighborhood.  She was separated from her children and the fire department refused to let her go home as vehicles were starting to float off the pavement.  Two firemen were sent into her home to rescue her children.  Every house on her street was submerged on the ground floor level.  It looked like a war zone with debris scattered and workers at all the homes cutting sheetrock and putting it in dumpsters.  Karla is a single mother on Social Security Disability, her sole source of income.  As we stood in her driveway surrounded by wrecked homes, I knew she was “The Someone Special.”  I gave her the $100.00 and said, “Jesus loves you and your family very much.”  Karla started crying and drew her children close saying, “See, I told you that God would answer our prayers.”

At the point of leaving Riverwalk, the Holy Spirit touched someone special to give us a misplaced $100.00 and sent us to a flood-ravaged West Cobb Neighborhood to someone special for whom the money was an answered prayer.  This is what we love about putting our faith in action; we get to be that answered prayer for someone special.

In September 2009, a flood struck Douglas County, Georgia which claimed 9 lives, caused millions of dollars in property damage, and prompted a Presidential disaster declaration.  Now that the emergency response is over, the long-term recovery must begin. 

The Douglas Disaster Recovery Coalition (DDRC) includes the United Way, the Salvation Army, the United Methodist Church, Faith in Action, and many other groups committed to helping flood victims where FEMA, insurance, and other assistance has been insufficient.

Affected by the flood and in need?  Contact DDRC  We are building case files to assign to volunteers for one-on-one work with families or individuals in need.  If you or someone you know is seeking assistance for unmet needs associated with the Flood of 2009, please call the Needs Assessment Line at 678-623-2859  We will also update this page in a few days with information regarding locations of walk-in centers, including days and hours of operations.

Do you want to volunteer to assist flood victims? Contact DDRC  We are accepting volunteers to serve as case managers for flood victims and to assist in performing recovery work such as clean-up and reconstruction of damaged homes.   DDRC also accepts monetary donations to assist flood victims and can provide a 501(c)(3) donation letter.  If you want to help your community recover from the Flood of 2009, call us at 678-623-2859 or email us at gafaithinaction@aol.com

“On a lone winter evening, when the frost Has wrought a silence,” as Keats said, the servants of Seven Bridges To Recovery minister to homeless men and women, www.7bridgestorecovery.org bringing the life saving gospel of Jesus Christ to the streets and under the bridges of Atlanta.  7 Bridges ministry teams go out on three evenings and Saturday afternoons weekly to bring food, clothes, blankets, hygiene kits, hope, and a work of front-line rescue to the homeless, with placement into recovery programs followed by next step resources.

One of FIA’s core missions is to serve other Christ-serving ministries.  A few days ago, Faith In Action was offered an abundance of winter coats, and immediately we thought of our friends at Project One who serve our Douglasville’s homeless men, and our friend Bob McGinniss at Seven Bridges.   After Project Ones was blessed, an SUV load of winter coats went to Atlanta.  We prayed over the coats and I asked Bob what the donation would mean to his ministry.  He paused and responded simply: “A homeless man will not freeze to death tonight.”

If you google the phrase “homeless man freezes to death,” you will get 153,000 hits.  It is so very cold, dark, and lonely under the bridges of America.  And yet because of these good people, Jesus will not freeze to death tonight.  Our Lord lived as a man, and felt everything we feel, from hunger in the desert, to the loneliness of Gethsemane, and the agony of the Cross.  He is even cold, and under a bridge, but He will not freeze tonight, because He has a coat.  Jesus told us he was that man being served by Angie, Chris and Bob:

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me . . . I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”  Matthew 25:37-40

Kim is a single mom with a 6 year-old son who lives in a Douglasville trailer park, and moved here from North Carolina to be with her boyfriend but they split up.  She works as a front cashier for a local restaurant but they cut her hours.  The “welfare” that she receives consists entirely of food stamps, and she can no longer afford to pay a local rental company for her refrigerator and furniture which cost $400.00 a month.  With nowhere to turn, she called Faith In Action and left a desperate message: “I have prayed so hard.  They are coming to get my refrigerator and furniture this weekend.  Please help me.”

Tina Boggs of First UMC coordinated an FIA team consisting of Mark Trow, Church at Chapel Hill, Jack Clay, Ephesus Baptist Church, Paul Zachos, First UMC, and Beau McClain which over the course of two November 2009 weekends supplied a refrigerator, washer, dryer, two beds and linens, dressers, television, dinette set, side tables, a sofa and loveseat.  An unexpected blessing was meeting Kim’s next door neighbor Briana who needed a dryer, refrigerator, and living room set which FIA also provided.

An empty trailer was filled by the full heart of God, whose love for His children is boundless, for it is written: “I am your Father, and I love you even as I love my son Jesus,” John 17:23

Each year Douglas DFACS coordinates a Secret Santa program for children in our community in foster care. At the end of October FIA received a request for help which read, in part: “In our nation’s current economic condition, the need is greater than ever, and we expect to receive fewer donations than in prior years.”

A few weeks ago, we received another fearful solicitation: “Due to low response, only 32 out of the 150 children in foster care have been sponsored.”

Thanks to unsolicited financial support from our mission partners at Atlanta Revival Center and First United Methodist Church, Faith In Action purchased, wrapped, and delivered numerous Christmas gifts for our community’s neediest children. With that delivery we were informed by DFACS that all 150 children had been sponsored and would wake up Christmas morning to find the same gifts under the tree that more fortunate children will receive.

As hard as these times have been, there is good news for us this Christmas: “Do not be afraid, for I bring you glad tidings of great joy for all people, for unto you this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

We rarely venture into Atlanta because there is so much to do in Douglasville.  This past Sunday, the six degrees of God—sort of like the six degrees of Kevin Bacon trivia game that connects everyone to the actor in six steps—made multiple connections between people which brought us to a rough section of Boulevard after dark, to help a single Jamaican mother of three children.

Tina serves FIA and works for a Fortune 500 company in Atlanta; she overheard a co-worker talking about how Alpharetta mega-church Northpoint sent a ministry team bearing food downtown and met Nadine even though she was not on their list to be served that day.  The Northpoint team helped her anyway because she and three children had no food other than a small amount of milk.  The apartment was also empty except for a TV and clothing.  Tina asked The Pantry to provide a Thanksgiving turkey and trimmings which her brother Israel gladly took to Nadine, who has no transportation.  Then Tina asked if we could furnish Nadine’s apartment and somehow the Holy Spirit moved because we said yes to something we don’t normally do.

The six degrees of God continued to bring us all together to serve Nadine.  Somehow Tina connected donors from Douglasville to Alpharetta, Roswell to Decatur with all of Nadine’s needs and as we arrived at donor homes, the blessings overflowed.  First we were given numerous wrapped Christmas gifts, “for the children.”  Then we were given a large food basket plus $100 in gift cards “for Nadine and the kids.”  We realized that the ladies had been talking and there was far more to this than picking up and delivering furniture.

Paul and I had quite a time dealing with the street folk and navigating the four doors and stairs leading to Nadine’s tiny apartment on Boulevard.  We have to admit it was a little scary being down there after dark, being accosted; one of Nadine’s kids said, “there’s some weird people out there.”  Of course we were apprehensive about something Nadine lives with every day.  But somehow, the six degrees of God connected us all together, from Northpoint Community Church, to the offices of a large corporation, and to a small ministry in Douglasville, holding hands, crying, praying, and realizing that the Lord Jesus Christ had come to be with us and this little family in the dark of Boulevard in Atlanta, on a Sunday night in December.

Where is God on Sunday?  Do you find Him only in church? Or do you find him in the hands of a middle class woman in Norcross wrapping presents for children she will never meet, or in the hands of an Alpharetta grandmother buying gift cards, or in the gurgle of an autistic boy?  We think we found Him that day, just six degrees away, and all we had to do to find Him was touch each other.

During and after the September 2009 flood which devastated Douglas County, Georgia, Faith In Action has received over 1,000 phone calls and requests for help. This past week Tina spoke with Joan Drake and was moved to ask that we give her needs priority. “Joan touched my heart,” Tina shared, “we really need to meet her needs. She is a 70 year old lady who is cute as a button.”

An FIA delivery team consisting of Jack Clay, Mike Clousing, and Beau McClain visited Joan in her new Austell apartment November 22 and delivered a new full bed set with sheets. Joan lives alone and supports herself doing telephone sales and marketing. She was living in the Cross Creek mobile home park in Austell which was literally submerged in flood waters. Joan told us of standing on her back porch in shock as the torrent suddenly rose and carried her away from her trailer into the floodwaters. “I was underwater, gasping for air, trying to grab something when this black man picked me up and pulled me out,” she said. “There were some people there and I asked them where the black man was who pulled me out. No one saw him. I think he was an angel.”

Later that evening we arrived at 8 year old Anthony’s modest duplex in Douglasville off Central Church Road, where his family had fled from the flood waters. Anthony was ecstatic when he learned that the bed lost in the flood was being replaced and that he would have his very own bed again.

What do we do, after the flood? Jesus said, “Behold, I make all things new.” When the flood waters have taken everything Joan and Anthony had away from them, our simple answer is to replace those things and do so in a way that honors our Lord’s love for His people.

On Tuesday, November 3, Jackie’s Douglasville home was destroyed by fire and arson is suspected.  Jackie, her sister, and six-year old son lost all their possessions in the 3:20 a.m. blaze, including the little boy’s Royal Rangers Pinewood Derby car.  Within 4 days and by God’s hand, Jackie and her family were moved into a new rental home furnished with beds, kitchen table and chairs, entertainment center with television, and a living room set.

The FIA Team involved included Mark Trow of Church at Chapel Hill; Mike Clousing of Grace Presbyterian Church; and Beau McClain.  As we moved through Jackie’s new home on Saturday, her son Donovan could hardly contain his excitement as he jumped back and forth from bed to sofa singing Christian songs.   Even the little boy’s Pinewood Derby car was replaced.  Praise God, who provides for His people, even the smallest things.