God's Miraculous Provision! Feeding our Urban Impact families

I wanted to thank all of you who were there on Friday (9/14/07) and or donated to this outreach and to tell all of you of God’s miraculous provision to enable us to create 80 bags for the boys. On Friday morning, we had about 100-150 pounds of food or enough to fill perhaps 15 bags. We put out a call to the youth group, Barb stepped up to the plate, and we used some of our monetary donations to purchase food. As we started to fill bags on Friday evening, our initial thought was perhaps we could fill 40 bags and let Willie decide which boys were in the most need. What tugged at my heart was what Willie had told the new group in July when they didn’t have enough room to carry all the food our church provided for them. He had told them, “We will send food home with you every visit. Bring enough vehicles to be sure you can carry it.” What if we couldn’t provide bags for them this month? God is faithful in his provision to us. We needed to be faithful to our message to these boys. But how would we do it?

We put the basics in 40 bags and said perhaps we can do 10 more. It seemed as if the supplies didn’t go down. So we filled 10 more, then 10 more, and finally said we could provide all 80 bags although they would be light. We were delighted as we backfilled the bags with the various items that remained. When we were done, we thought “that was amazing.” The bags weren’t overflowing by any means but there was enough to let these boys and their families know that God cares.

We prayed and, while some volunteers left, some of us stayed to talk. Soon Jamie appeared with a few more bags from the youth group. We were delighted as we distributed these additional items. A while later Arturo arrived with an ample supply of soup and macaroni and cheese. By the time we finished adding this to the bags, they were nearly ¾ full and the volunteers were overflowing with amazement at God’s provision. Although we started out with perhaps 150 pounds of food on Friday morning, we probably sent 900 pounds home with the boys!

It reminded us of the story of the widow of Zarephath (I Kings 17) who had enough oil and flour to make one more loaf of bread in the midst of the famine, then she and her son would die. But God stretched the flour and oil to feed Elijah, the widow and her son until the famine ended.

God stretched our food on Friday. Let us all give thanks and sing His praise!

Lois Bennett, Director of My Neighbor's Pantry

A Little Dirt, A Little Work, A Lot of Fun!

All Thanks to our God the Creator -- The Garden really began to take shape at our first Work Day of the year, as a group of about eight of us came together to restore this little piece of creation. In spite of the strong & sometimes uncomfortable wind, we made great strides... A few kindly volunteered for the daunting task of pulling up the "common cocklebur" that is threatening to take over the field... Not a pleasant task, but a vital one as we strive to restore the natural balance. We also managed to weed and double-dig nearly three whole beds (150 square feet), and plant some garlic. Those beds will soon be covered with straw mulch to protect them until we are ready to transplant seedlings and sow seeds on them (within the month). I was amazed how much we accomplished in one afternoon. So I want to express my deepest thanks to those of you who helped out. It's encouraging & uplifting for me, to spend an afternoon with like-minded folks, who are awed by creation and who share my passion to heed our calling to be caretakers.... Thank you! thank you! thank you! I hope that over the course of this growing season, I can spend a few hours like that with all of you. If there are any early-birds out there, I'll be spending some early AM time there (between 5:30 and 6:45) during the week. I'd love to have some company. I'll keep you all posted as far as organized work days (I like to call them 'healing days') but if any of you have free time that you'd like to spend in the garden, PLEASE give me a call or email and I'll find something for you to do. Thank you all so much for your help, your prayers and for your interest in MNG. -- Keith mng_keith@hotmail.com

April 29, 2007: Spring Work Day at the GARDEN!

We are eager to get started! Come join us as we prepare the GARDEN for the spring/summer ahead. Not only will you help us as we continue to grow this outdoor classroom, but we'll show you what you can be doing at home, as well! Bring a friend! We'll meet over at the GARDEN after the 11:00 am service, share some lunch and get busy! Contact Keith Ringeisen for more details: mng_keith@hotmail.com.

My Neighbor's HOME's Spring Cleaning Day: April 14, 2007

The teams have assembled and projects are ready to be tackled! A big thanks to the willing hands who will be serving the elderly and single Moms this weekend! Would you like to use your skills to help others in future projects? Contact Kevin McClarren for more information: km@homecareassistance.com.

February is "Love My Neighbor" Month!!

We're kicking off the new year, sharing with you the many creative opportunities we have at Zarephath Christian Church to reach out to the needy in our community! Browse through the blog to see our video infomercials we're showing during our February weekend services. (By the end of February, we should have them all posted.)

In addition, we'll have a display set up in the main hallway so you can drop by, learn more about what we're up to and how you can get involved. We're challenging you to join us as we put our "faith in action" throughout 2007! For particular outreach contact information, browse this blog to find the one(s) you're interested in.

Just so you know ... "love bug" antennae are not required to volunteer. : ) [You'll know what I mean if you watch the video promos!]

2007 Video Promos for MNGarden & MNCloset

2007 Video Promos for MNHome & MNPantry