Give and It Shall Be Given. . .

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Luke 12:32-34

At the beginning of the week Chad and I felt blessed. We didn’t have any outstanding bills and the fridge was stocked with groceries. Chad worked Monday and Tuesday at a church in Norman resealing a concrete floor, earning us enough money to keep gas in the car.

Last night at dinner we had our nightly dinner guest. The little boy from across the way came in and took his place at the table. After dinner the boys went out to play. They came right back in with friends and said, “the kids were wondering if you were going to make cookies tonight?”

We had cooked all the cookie dough, but still had a case of applesauce from Sam’s which we handed out until it was all gone. Finally at around 8:00, we had to lock our door to slow what had been a constant stream of children all evening.

This morning the weatherman was calling for storms about the time we would be teaching this afternoon. Even if we wanted to brave the storm we had no food or anything else for the kids. I was doing good to make lunches for the boys to take to school.

Needless to say we were generally discouraged. It would be nice to wake up and have everything in order to do all the “great” things we want to do. It would certainly be easier to give food away if we knew how it was going to be replaced, and to spend time in preparation instead of worrying.

I took the boys to school and prayed all the way home. Chad had a meeting with a pastor in town and I stayed home with Ruby to get our house in order. We waited until around 11:00 then called our volunteers to cancel the Bible Club.

The pastor Chad met with said he would call Chad later with some news. On our way to pick up the boys from school he called and said their church wanted to pay our rent for the month of May. This was a huge encouragement and burden lifted off of both of us! Our apartment has become a place of ministry and we’re thankful for it!

We came home from school and I went straight to the kitchen to make brownies. I thought, even though we weren’t able to have Bible Club across the street we could have afterschool snacks for the kids in our complex.

Just then my phone rang. It was a friend from Amarillo who moved to Oklahoma City not long before we did. She asked how we were doing and said, “I’ve been blessed with some extra money and the Lord laid you on my heart.” She followed it up by saying, “You’re not discouraged are you?”

I told her we had cancelled tonight, but were going to do what we could. She said, “Why don’t you come over here and visit with me for a while. I want to give you something.”

SO. . .I did. I got back in the car and noticed we had just enough time to make it to Sam’s, buy some food and candy and get to the apartments on time.

So . . . that’s what we did. Chad went to our apartment and loaded up our equipment. I went to Sam’s. We had great food for the kids and still had enough money left over to fill up the tank in our car and buy groceries for ourselves.

Chad and I pray everyday for God to bless in abundance so we can be a blessing. We know God can and is making a way to do great and mighty things through us. Right now we’re learning to trust.

To follow the Lord’s principle of giving in Luke 6:38 takes courage! “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Obeying God’s principle of giving is the only way to realize His eternal rewards. While we work towards to "big picture" for Truth Baptist Church we realize it requires a daily dependence of our Heavenly Father. We have committed to working as hard as we can and using the resources God provides each day as far as they go. To be faithful with as much or as little as He sees fit to bless us with.

Tonight with the sun shining through the clouds and with thanksgiving in our hearts we praised Jesus for His provision, for His grace and for another week to tell The Good News.

I Will Bless the Lord At All Times, Continually

Saturday was my only day off after working the early shift for a lady who was on vacation all week. I woke up tired and was not looking forward tohaving to work on Sunday. To add to to the issues we were completely broke.

We rested most of the day. In the afternoon, Chad and I combined the cash in our wallets. I bought groceries for the week and put the last of our money in gas. Even though it took the last of what we had, I was thanking God we had enough. We certainly didn't two months ago.

I went to work Sunday. Chad called me on our break to announce that all the food for the first three days of lunches was in pantry and ready for us to make lunches. In one week the people at Quail Springs Baptist Church had donated all of this food. We also had emails from different Sunday School Classes who said they were planning to volunteer.

Monday morning we walked into the church kitchen at QSBC with our two volunteers from Truth Baptist Church and started unwrapping corn dogs. Other helped showed up and the lunches were made. Now it was time to deliver.

We started out at the Artisan Ridge apartments. Our first stop was to see the manager. We've learned in a short time that having a working relationship with the apartment manager is an important thing. She was very welcoming, we took her a lunch which she refused to take and instructed us to give it to a child. "We'll be working hand in hand.", she said so we asked her for the use of her empty tennis court for our end of the week outreach which she allowed us to use.

Everyday we had a new group of volunteers. It was great to see our families from Truth Baptist getting to know the folks from Quail Springs. Today the Executive pastor and his kids came out to help make and deliver lunches. They even did the tough work of helping us work a new complex which can mean knocking on five doors to find the one apartment with three children.

In the middle of our deliveries today, Chad got a call. The manager at Artisan Ridge was relaying a message to Chad to call the owner of her complex which he did immediately. The owner had heard great things about our ministry to his residents this week. He said they have plans to build a new playground on the property and wanted to know if we could make use of a new community room. He asked Chad to make a list of amenities we would need as well as the size of space we could use. They want us to help them create a better environment for the "section 8" families living in the complex. Chad hung up the phone and said, "You're gonna laugh!" "At what?" I asked. We both could not believe the door had been not only opened, but we're handed a key.

After delivering lunches I came home and took a nap with our children. Chad went to pick up the snow cone machine. He called me again and said, "You're gonna laugh!" "At what?" I asked. One of the ladies we delivered lunches to today called him. She said she had been praying for a month for God to send someone to her door to invite her to church. She explained she wanted to bring an offering to help with the kids lunches tomorrow and wants to worship with us Sunday. We praised the Lord together. . . again.

About an hour later Chad called me and said, "You're really gonna laugh this time!" We've been hyping up our party on the tennis courts all week. Chad said, "I went to pick up the sno cone machine and they let me take the whole CART!" The CART is the association's resource trailer. It has a moon bounce, sound system, sno cone machine, popcorn popper and cotton candy maker. We're also ready with an exciting Bible lesson, fun Scripture songs and a take-home craft.

Two of the girls who prayed to receive Jesus Sunday helped us all week. On Monday while we walked though the complex, Autumn said, "Miss Anna. I remember our Bible verse from Sunday!" "You DO?" She pulled out this little shred of paper. She had gone home and written it down. "Can you say it without looking?" I asked. "YES!" she said (with a little bit of attitude)

Then she quoted from memory without missing and beat, "I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Psalm 34:1"

And so shall I! We serve a great God who seeks and saves those who are lost. Once again we see God has filled the empty vessel we offered Him to overflowing. We will bless Him and praise Him again and again. Daily. moment by moment. Continually.

Pray for us as we lift up the name of Jesus tomorrow morning. Thank you all for your encouragement and prayers.

Consumed by His Calling

“You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” John 15:13

It’s hard to believe we’ve only lived in our apartment for a little over one week. We’re settling in to a schedule. At my new job I get three days off in a row giving Chad work. He has a house painting job starting next week and has been busy getting details for the church together.

We’ve decided the name of the church should be Truth Baptist Church. Our mission will be to share The Truth of God’s Word so others can hear and live The Truth. Chad was encouraged after attending a church plant training last weekend. He met a man named Solomon from Ethiopia who works in Tulsa, Ok planting churches.

Solomon shared his testimony of how he saw God heal a woman who had been paralyzed after giving birth. He was walking from house to house sharing the Gospel and the woman’s husband said, “You can witness to my family if you will come pray for my wife. If your God heals her then we will listen to you.”

Solomon told the man that he had never seen anyone healed so dramatically, but if this man believed then he would pray and believe with him for God to heal his wife. Together these men prayed over the woman and she stood up and walked. They told all of their neighbors what had happened, they all received Jesus and a church began in their village. Everyone, including Solomon’s faith was increased.

The question asked of the group was, was this an isolated incident. Do we have to be on foreign soil for God to move or is The Holy Spirit at work here in Oklahoma?

I’ve been confronted by the same question. Chad and I felt like we lived and worked in the flow of The Holy Spirit at Citychurch in Amarillo. It’s a scary thing to be spun from that orbit, but God has shown us He still has our address.

Tonight the weather was nice and the kids were at their Grandma Jennifer’s so Chad and I decided to take a walk around the apartment complex. We live on the end where all the other families with children are living. There is a grassy area running through the complexes and many families were out playing and enjoying the warm evening. As we walked back we noticed children riding their tricycles on the tennis courts. All the activity makes me look forward to an exciting season of ministry this spring and summer.

We keep saying, “God is feeding us like birds.” It is our way of praising God for His timely provision. We received a check in the exact amount of our car payment yesterday on the day it was due from Chad’s work at the car dealership. The week I started at Walmart was during the big snowstorm. Management was allowing overtime, so I took it! My brother James helped me with video project last month that will help make our rent this month.

Looking back on all we’ve been though the last few months I feel we accomplished a lot just by staying alive! While there has been a tearing down in our lives, we are also being built back up where we were weak.

Since we don’t have Dish Network anymore, we spend time after the kids go to sleep sharing about the different things we are learning and how we are growing in the Lord though all of our recent adversity. It happens to be some pretty funny sets of circumstances. The other night we started comparing stories about our day and got to laughing so hard our sides hurt. Real life is better than reality TV at this point.

As mom said the other day, we're living our own story. I just hope I can survive all the excitement to write it!