Tears of Sorrow and Pain to Tears of Rejoicing and Praise

Today has been a tough day for our household. As the new month is approaching, we are struggling even more and more. As a fellow human being looks at our life, we look pathetic. We look like losers. We look like we are off our rocker. At this moment, we have no money. We will be homeless at the end of the month. We don't have new clothes. We have one more meal to put on the table. We are in the process of trying to sell our possessions. The list goes on and on.

You may ask, "Why do you look so pathetic?" "Why are you in this mess?"

Well, I'm glad you asked. We are following what God has called us to do and that is to reach the homeless. Almost a year ago we started a non-profit homeless ministry called "Knowing Me Ministries". We have fallen in love with these people God called us to. We have befriended them, advocated for them, drive them to the hospitals, drive them to court, visit them in jails and prisons, encouraged them to keep going, bought them tents, clothing, Bibles, etc when needed, taken water out to their camps, work in the court system as a volunteer in order to make sure things are fair for the community and homeless, helped the homeless get their court things done, shared God's love with them, push their carts, teach them the scriptures, list goes on and on. We felt led by God to live totally by faith and work full time in this ministry. It has been extremely hard at times. You get frustrated. You go without food. And you ask God, "why are we struggling when you called us to this?". Our family just had a really tough morning where we all shed tears. Time is clicking away so quickly and we have no place to go and call home. We are willing to do it, but as humans, we struggle. We were reading in the Bible of the list of struggles Paul shared with the Corinthians. God never promised if we followed him that it wouldn't be hard. Paul was homeless and hungry. But, we keep going because we know He has called us to this. We just have to trust that He knows what is best and that He is going to provide what we need.
As I said earlier, we were having a tough morning and getting stressed about things. Well, my husband came and stopped by home for a few minutes and was in tears. I thought, "OH, No. What now?". I didn't think I could handle any more bad news. He said, "I just saw Steve (homeless man we have become friends with) and he came to me and said that he wants to follow Christ. He wants me to come out in the morning and start teaching him the scriptures and how to follow Christ.". We both had the same response of praise to God, but on a personal level it was, "OK God. We get the hint once again. We will continue what we are doing and trust in you.". So, our family is still nervous, but we will not stop following Him NO MATTER THE COST.

Please pray for us and the ministry. Pray as we teach the new Christians out there how to follow Christ. Pray for the village that we would love to build so we can give them shelter and the help they need. Pray for our housing. We have been looking into living in an RV that is self contained. We cannot do this without God providing it since we have no funds to purchase one. It would allow us freedom to reach more homeless, travel across the country sharing what we do and training others to do the same. It would allow our finances to be more freed up so more can go to helping others. We don't know. Maybe it is a house God wants for us. Either way, please pray for us and that God will get ALL THE GLORY. That is all we want.

website: www.KnowingMeMinistries.org
facebook: Knowing Me-Ministries

His Precious Words

I went to visit one of our homeless women who is in prison right now. She has become a follower of Christ and we have been teaching her for almost a year now. It has been very exciting to see her growth from week to week. My husband usually goes to teach her on Wednesday's and I go on Sunday's. In between times she goes to their services there at the prison and studies on her own everyday. I'm always telling her that she is our little missionary in jail because she is constantly telling us how she has been spreading the Word to others in there with her. Well, we thought it was time she had her own Bible to study from. We were able to send her a brand new Bible this last week. We had some money from donations that were given for the ministry and purchased it for her. She was in tears Sunday telling us that she received it. She kept saying it was the best Bible in the world and how spoiled she felt. Over and over she kept repeating how spoiled she was. I thought that was awesome because how many of us, Christian or non-Christian, has several Bible's in their home and they don't even think too much about it. It is sad that we will only think about our Bibles for once a week when we go to church or maybe 5 or 10 minutes a day and that be it. We sure don't feel spoiled. What a great lesson to learn from her.

Yesterday my husband had the privilege of giving another woman, who is homeless, a Bible. She had been requesting one for a couple weeks. We finally found the perfect one for her. She was thrilled!! He said that she kissed it and just started crying for joy. This again was another reminder of how precious His Word is. This is our love letter from God and we should all feel excited like these women. How precious it was to be the ones privileged to bless these women with His Precious Word.

Our 'Undercover Boss'

My daughter came to me and started asking me questions about "Good Friday". As I was talking to her I was reminded of that show called, "Undercover Boss". It has a really good concept where the big boss goes undercover and does all the "little jobs". He experiences and feels what it is like to have the jobs that keeps his business going. I then thought of Jesus and how He came to earth, lived as a human, experienced the same things we experience, tempted as we are tempted, Satan at Him constantly, suffered, wept, mourned, had anger, joy, etc. Our "boss" knows what we go through. He experienced so much and was willing to do it in order to bring salvation to us...the little, sinful human beings. How awesome is that?
I also began to think about my husbands experience yesterday. He was having a frustrating day. One of the guys that he has been working with out on the streets and has gotten fairly close to was acting odd. He was yelling at people and just acting crazy. We know that sometimes he does this because people harass him and so he just decides to act the part if that is what people think of him. Anyway, my husband was trying to calm him down and even got him to apologize to some of the people he was yelling at. But, in the mean time it was discouraging to my husband to see him acting this way. He finally went off by himself and just started crying to God. He expressed how he didn't think he was doing much good out there. After he got done expressing himself to God, he got up and one of the homeless men we have tried and tried to reach out to, but wouldn't have anything to do with us was standing there. He talked to my husband for a couple minutes and started to leave, turned around and yelled, "Hey Mike! I love you man!" My husband and I both have tears as he is telling me this story. This was HUGE! God caused that man to say those words at the exact time my husband needed to hear them. He went on down the road and another homeless guy stopped him and said, "I just want you to know how much we appreciate you guys out here." Wow! OK, God...I get the hint. Walking closer to home another man who we hadn't seen for a long time yelled, "Hey Mike! Come here! I want you to know how much I appreciate you being out here and the work you do. Can I share you my story?"
As my husband is telling me these stories, we are just overwhelmed and in tears. God knew from experience with being the "undercover boss" what it is like to feel like you are hitting your head against a brick wall at times. He knows what it feels like to be homeless. He knows what it feels like to feel alone and rejected even by your own people, He knows what it feels like to be worn out and tired. So, he sent those three men to share these special words at the right time and place and He was telling us, "Keep up. You are doing what I have called you to do. I know how you feel. I am here for you." Isn't it wonderful to have a God who understands what we are going through, we can pour out our hearts to Him and He understands? God is so GOOD!