Thank
you for your prayers and support this last year; they have been very
much felt! We've had some interesting transitions in a few parts of
the ministry, so I will do my best to update you about all of them in
this newsletter so that you know what you can pray for!
First,
Unite is working with the Ellis County Ministerial Alliance and a few
churches to start up a food reclamation/distribution program. At
this time, there are several good programs in Ellis County, but the
distributions are not very frequent. The Community Assistance Center
gives out food four times per year, and Saint Joseph's gives out food
once per month. There are a few different food pantries, but they
tend to have specific clients (one at the high school, one at the
university, a few in individual churches). Our program would be for
anyone in the community and would be grown in a few different phases.
Right now, we are meeting with a state health inspector and a few
different church members, pastors, and ECMA individuals every few
weeks to discuss progress and work on stage one—getting a deep
freeze in the Unite Free Store to add frozen goods donated from local
merchants (usually that are near expiration date) to be given out in
addition to our current offerings off our free food shelf. Phase two
involves improving our coffee house kitchen area slightly to allow
for churches to come in and serve occasional free meals to the Hays
community. Phase three involves getting a fridge and using roasters
to serve food from catering companies' excess (they would get a
receipt for a non-profit donation) the day that they have extra. The
final phase, phase four, would involve us using state-approved
cooling procedures to cool the food from the catering companies, put
date/time stamps on it, and serve it for its remaining lifespan (max
of 7 day after it was prepared). The vision may change as we
proceed, but it is exciting to see phase 1 already happening!
Another
change is that the free store itself has grown in terms of how much
it is used and in terms of what we offer. Here are some updated
photos of our new shelves and some of the different things that
people have donated.
A
variety of individuals in the community have come in to get free
food, free clothing, free cooking ware, microwaves, and other
necessities.
Our
small groups continue to go well—they are small in number, but I
believe that they are going well. Please feel free to keep praying
for spiritual growth in them. We have also experienced growth in
game night—enough so that we almost have spacial difficulties. We
may seek to expand our space slightly by having Aikido of Northwest
Kansas rent another room for its changing area and storage to free up
space for the game nights and the new deep freeze for the free store.
Please keep that in your prayers as it would be an extra few hundred
a month to do that, and I wish to make a wise decision.
We
have also had some changes in Aikido of Northwest Kansas. We were
very blessed to have Professor Moser teaching his 3-in-1 martial
arts, with a faith focus, in our dojo. He had to head back to New
York for family reasons, though; he and we both felt that it was a
great blessing to him and us to have him here for the time that he
was here, though. God definitely used the situation for the Kingdom
in ways that I wouldn't have foreseen or planned for. It appears
that He also used this situation as a blessing for another, too. A
local tumbling instructor had been in relationship with a gym owner;
when they broke up, she was evicted from his gym and their shared
home. Her tumbling classes and personal training were the majority
of her livelihood, so it was critical that she find space to continue
them. Thankfully, God had left us open to allow for her to use the
times that Professor Moser had been using, plus a few more slots, to
make space for her and her tumbling kids. We feel very blessed to be
able to get to know her better and to support her in this difficult
time. I feel that it is also a blessing to have her with us, as she
is very well liked by the children and parents due to her caliber of
instruction. We will hopefully have her and a few parents join us
this week in our early morning prayer meditation on Thursday. She
and a few of them are interested in giving it a try, which excites
me. We may also be joined by a professor at Fort Hays State
University who has begun more heavily supporting the Unite free store
in its efforts to reach out to the community.
Beyond
that, life continues to be surprisingly busy, with many small
projects all across the board in the ministries; Tella and I always
appreciate prayers that we stay in God's peace as we work and that we
keep focused on Him and His Kingdom. I also have been personally
trying to 're-surrender' to Him and His will to experience the freest
life possible in this busy ministry time. Thanks again for your
prayers and support; also, please send us any prayer requests that
you have!
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