A few weeks ago the United Way Homeless Task Force came out, visited the encampments and offered help in the form of shelter and program resources to anyone willing to come out. No one did. So last night, Leila, Mark, Alma and I resolved to pray together than Cynthia and Sam would agree to come out in the morning; Mark agreed to drive them to Atlanta. Morning came and there was no relief from the cold. We started a new partnership between The Pantry, FIA, and Daily Bread that involved me making the bread and pastry pickup from Publix on Highway 5 and giving all the blessings to Daily Bread. For the first time Leila tells me, “everyone received, and they even got to pick what they wanted. What a blessing; thank you Jesus.” But Cynthia and Sam refused to come out of the cold.

Fast Eddie said he would; in and out of jail, three weeks homeless, sick, hospitalized last night, ready to leave it all behind this morning. One came out; not the one we prayed for to be sure, but one nonetheless.

It’s a start.

We were four short days out and I had not heard from my neighbors and got a little nervous.  Then they came over and showered us with abundance—remote control cars, some 15-20 wrapped gifts, everything Sandra had asked for.  Both families added a grocery gift cards.  The next day Paul and I were making our traditional FIA Christmas rounds delivering presents, a truckload of children’s clothes for the Loving Hands ministry—that’s another awesome story, then the rain came down and the traffic struck.  We made it to Sandra’s house late and she was gone with her mother to the doctor.

The next day I came alone, to find the empty tree, one of the children sick and Sandra exhausted from being up all night.  She was not expecting what God had provided for her family and told me how anxious the children had been about the empty tree. We thanked and praised God together in her front yard.

There are many stories like this one of God moving amongst our churches and ministries in Douglas County to fill the empty Christmas trees.  At FIA it is our blessing to serve with you, and we pray that God’s peace be with you and yours always.

Pastor Dave Divine of the Church at Chapel Hill led almost 60 men and women of his congregation to serve with us at FIA last Saturday

For the past three weeks the message at Douglasville’s Church at Chapel Hill has been “Be The Church,” by assembling in the house of God for worship; serving our community by acts of mercy and kindness; and representing Christ to all we meet. The sermon series culminated with Pastor Dave’s call to worship God by serving His people, and almost 60 men and women answered with a “here I am, Lord.”

We completed 40 projects, from clearing brush, cutting grass and weed whacking, to building a bunk bed, delivering washers, dryers, refrigerators, sofas, TV sets, beds. Families in need received everything from vacuum cleaners to coffee tables; dinette sets to bicycles. We served the Pantry by delivering food and information cards; we served Shepherd of the Hills UMC by picking up and delivering computers for their computer ministry to the church; we served Pastor Emeritus Hattie Dennis of Believers Harvest Church by building her a new deck.

There are plenty of people available to criticize the church. At FIA we believe our calling is to encourage and support the local church to be salt and light within the community, so that lost and hurting people can find hope and salvation in Jesus Christ. In the coming weeks we will share with those who care to read stories of the miracles in our midst—proof that the Spirit is rising in Douglasville, Georgia and calling us not to just go to church, but to be the church…..

Andrea at Douglas Senior Services told us that Mrs. White, age 80, lives alone here in Douglasville and is showing signs of early Dementia and other medical issues.  Her daughter who lives a good distance away but visits weekly is greatly concerned and DSS has put Mrs. White on the home delivered meals list.  Could FIA help with her yard?  It sounded like a job for the Rangers and Rick Cali visited Mrs. White, who happened to be receiving a visit from her sister, who was “not buying our selfless service hokum,” as Rick puts it.  When Rick proudly told the sister he was a member of the Church at Chapel Hill, she responded, “you church people, you’re always working an angle.  I suppose you’ll invite me to come, and if I don’t like it, what then?” Mrs. White told Rick later how the church had broken her sister’s heart.  It’s a story we have heard too many times.  Mrs. White was grateful for the Rangers’ help but directed them at her neighbor, and when the team came out after Rick’s reconnaissance, in addition to serving Mrs. White they cut the neighbor’s grass, trimmed, and cut down a small tree.  The neighbor came outside, hands on hips and couldn’t believe that a group of boys had come to take care of the yard she could not maintain having just gotten home from the hospital.  The boys and men prayed for the neighbor, who praised God for the strength she received.

On the return trip it just happened that Mrs. White’s sister was there to see the men and boys take care of the two yards and watch as prayer changed the neighbor’s return home from the hospital.  Rick knelt down beside her and said, “Do you think our lives would have been different if we had started serving people as children?” Mrs. White’s sister, for once, could not speak.  Then she said, “I’ve never known men like you.”

Rick and the boys understood that she was not seeing men, or boys; she was seeing God in them, making things grow.

As followers of Christ we hope you are encouraged by the ways the Holy Spirit is moving in Douglas County to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, visit the prisoner, and comfort the broken.  We hope you are blessed by our unity, as volunteers from the Daily Bread Ministry, First United Methodist Church, Crossroads Church, Faith in Action, Project One, MAC, and many others who came together to serve our people in need.  Finally, surely we are all blessed to think of a church with open hearts, open minds, and doors that open to the homeless as well as the fortunate.

The good news needs to be shared, and the faithful recognized and encouraged.  We would like to thank Leila Meyers and her team at Daily Bread; Angie and Chris Jeffers of Project One and most especially Pastor Max Caylor of First United Methodist Church, for showing us that we are most like Christ when we serve others.

You see, God was working a plan with Michelle, her family, and FIA that I didn’t know about and didn’t really expect to happen.  He was doing the impossible, moving the mountains of foreclosure, job, and car—all at once.  Grady was moved by the Spirit to speak on Michelle’s behalf and she suddenly has two very promising job leads.  Tina’s neighbors decided that their Mazda 626 with only 83k miles had found a home; and the foreclosure was stopped with a loan modification.

Michelle joined us at First United Methodist Church this past Sunday to share her testimony of God moving in her family’s life out of nowhere and in great power.  She told us that not long ago she had a dream of being given a silver car, very much like the one you see her standing in front of in this picture.  Her story teaches us much, most of all that if we are obedient and do what God has called us to do in serving others, He will show up and move the mountains.  He will cause the haves, to share with the have nots.  He will turn the have nots—into haves.

Chase’s smile and easy manner is infectious as he cheerfully helped us manipulate the couch out of his room and move the bed into his room.  His mother, on the other hand, is deeply afraid.  Her family may be homeless the first week of February when their home is sold on the steps of the Douglas County Courthouse.

Michelle’s unemployment has run out, she can’t find a job, and the kids’ father does not pay child support.  She’s more than willing to pull herself up by the bootstraps, but she can’t find them.  She visits the Pantry faithfully to gather food for her kids. She went through the Hope Project to become more employable, but there are simply no jobs out there to be had.  She looked to us for answers, and all we could promise was a week or two at an efficiency lodge while we place her family in a shelter, if it comes to that.  Meanwhile, we pray and look into the child support while Michelle feverishly pursues a mortgage modification even though its doubtful with zero income.

Hemingway’s book “To Have and Have Not” talks about how the Depression forced depravity and hunger upon the poor residents of Key West, some of whom end up doing the wrong thing just to survive.  Jesus Christ told us who have, to share our blessings with the have nots.  Compared to Michelle and her family, Paul, Grady, and I have many things.  We are not worried about being homeless in less than a month.  In America people tend to look at their material possessions and decide it was achieved by their own hard work.  But what if you get sick, or your company shuts down? What if the big pile of money you are sitting on that you think will keep you safe becomes worthless due to inflation and economic upheaval? The reality is that everything we have, including our lives, is a gift from God.  So let us who currently have, share our lives, and our things, with the have nots in Jesus name.

Alma of our FiA team asked Randy Stauffer to go with her and he kindly said yes.  Tina had spent the last hundred days or so in our jail, then with her boyfriend in south Georgia but her probation officer said she couldn’t live there because he was on probation as well.  She somehow wore out her welcome in Buchanan with friends.

She has children being raised by her mother.  Drugs, jail and other things that upset Alma to even think about. We convinced her mother long distance to fund a week at In Town Suites while we prayerfully searched for a shelter placement in Atlanta, since Douglas County offered nothing, other than jail. This is something we hope to fix someday, God willing.

So one day we are sitting in the nice leather easy chairs at Crossroads’ beautiful new cafe and Tina shares her story. Her demeanor is child like while she talks about being a consistent drug user over a course of years, being estranged from her family, jail, separated from her children.  She looks at me, face hidden in the afternoon sun silhouette beaming through the church front door and says, “you’re so serious! Why are you so serious? Skittles and rainbows, skittles and rainbows! You know, the candy! I like skittles, and rainbows are so pretty. I always say that over and over again when I am sad, it makes me feel better….”

Our sister Leila and the Daily Bread Ministry team simply love and care for the men. She doesn’t like the word homeless, “they have a home, its just in the woods.”

The more time Project One spent with William, the more helpful and reliable he became. This is miraculous considering how hard it is just to get the men to show up sober to wash their clothes free at a kind man’s laundromat. Leila has a blessing from God to love these men no matter how they behave.

We have gotten the men to visit with us at our Wednesday Bible Study and lunch at First UMC just down the street from where some of them live. They are visited several times a week and provided food, tents, sleeping bags, tarps, and other necessaries.

The men come and go. They move on to death, illness, jail, many things. Angie called me just a few days ago and said that one came out. William had decided to reconcile with his family and was on a bus headed home. One came out. I am praying for Angie, Chris, Leila, Troy and the so many others to find another William to encourage and strengthen them in this precious work.

Mark Denyse shared this story yesterday:

Just a bag of chips… It was just a couple boxes of chips I thought to myself. How would I come up with something to write about donating chips to a ministry. Little did I know that waiting for me to deliver was 2000 bags of chips!!! These chips were donated to Seven Bridges by Faith In Action. Seven Bridges goes out to feed the homeless and share the good word of Jesus! Their goal is to entice them with a meal and hopefully get them off the streets and into a rehab facility if they are willing and desire to change. As you can see in the picture the chips also fed the women and children in the shelter. It felt good to bring them a little food and smile really I think these kids put the smile on my face…

The shelter is called the Garden and is ran by Pastor 7. What God has done in and thru this ministry is nothing short of a miracle. For more information donations, information or to volunteer, please contact: 7 Bridges To Recovery (404) 361-2250, Pastor 7 (404) 644-6976

Or e-mail us @ 7bridgestorecovery@gmail.com www.7bridgestorecovery.org Mailing Address: 7 Bridges To Recovery 2875 Brownsmill Rd SE Atlanta, GA 30354

GO JESUS, GO JESUS, GO!!!