The New Year

I am the new year. I am an unspoiled page in your book of time.
I am your next chance at the art of living. I am your opportunity to practice what you have learned about life during the last twelve months.
All that you sought and didn’t find is hidden in me, waiting for you to search it but with more determination.
All the good that you tried for and didn’t achieve is mine to grant when you have fewer conflicting desires.
All that you dreamed but didn’t dare to do, all that you hoped but did not will, all the faith that you claimed but did not have—these slumber lightly, waiting to be awakened by the touch of a strong purpose. I am your opportunity to renew your allegiance to Him who said, "Behold, I make all things new."
Let us all work together to achieve all the goals and opportunities that we have before us.  Let us praise God for his everlasting love and for his Son who died on the Cross for our sins.  Let us follow the example set for us by Christ to do good in the name of God for our fellow man.

End of Year Blessing

  May you shake off the dust of regret and disappointment and walk boldly into the New Year. May you raise your arms in praise and open your hands in faith. May God pour over you a fresh anointing and impart to you a clearer vision for your life. May you throw off every lesser commitment and make every moment count in the days ahead. God appointed you to live a significant, purposeful life. May you lay hold of it this year!

God Loves Us All

Sometimes Things Don't Happen The Way We Want

While it is always our wish to be able to help all who request help, sometimes things do not work as we hope they will.  I am saddened to tell you that the lady I posted about in my last post, who just had cancer surgery and had so many children depending on her, passed away last Sunday night.  Her friends called on Monday to update us about her.  They told of her passing but had the good news that the children's grandmother wanted them all.  The grandmother lives in Houston and the lady was being taken there to be buried but they were trying to get the children down there.  These friends did not have the finances to get the children to Houston and themselves back home.  Fortunately good people in our congregation were able to buy a gas card with enough on it for them to make the trip and back home.  The friends came to the church and brought some of the children with them.  They were very well behaved and pleasant.  They were, of course, upset at the loss of their mother and the fact that their lives were going to experience a big change.  The friends said that they were also taking the food we had given for the children to the grandmother.  The mother's name was Ms. Johns and if you are reading this I request that you pray for these children and their grandmother.  I am praying that God will bring some better things into their lives.  


On a brighter note, as of today, we have been able to assist 18 families which consist of approximately 87 people to have food on Christmas.  Thank you congregation for your donations which is the only way this would have been possible.  This was our first Christmas food project but we will be continuing through the year to help people and we will be ready next year to handle even more people. 

Giving and Receiving

This post is a little out of the order sequence that I had planned in sharing our Pantry story.  It is, however, one of those wonderful moments that I cannot hold inside me and I need to share it.  

Today a group of us met in the pantry to pack boxes of food, and to begin giving them to the people we had scheduled to pick them up today.  The blessings began yesterday with finding a sale on Peanut Butter for less than $1.00 per jar and being able to take some of the money that had been donated and buying a jar for everyone on our list.  In addition today we were delighted when a friend showed up with six (6) boxes of fruit they were donating to the cause and fresh fruit was added to each box.   But even these things were not the best thing to happen today.  We had a beautiful moment when three (3) ladies showed up to pick up their boxes at the same time and they were also picking up a box for one of their friends who was in the hospital recovering from cancer surgery this week.  One of these ladies was caring for the cancer patients nine children ( two sets of twins and then some single births).  Two ladies from our congregation, myself, and these three (3) women, stood together in a circle, holding hands, and praying.  We thanked God for the opportunity to help with food for them.  We asked him for strength for all of us to serve him and grow in knowledge and faith.  We prayed for the cancer patient that he care for her and her family and asked that the doctors have the knowledge to do what was best for her.  We concluded our prayer, amens were said all around  and then these women, who were picking up the food, began to hug each of us and then they continued on to hug each other and to express that they felt so blessed by God with what was being done to help them.  My feelings are that this showed the beauty of their spirits.  How could anyone not want to help them when this kind of response was received?

I believe this was one of the best experiences ever.  They were so very grateful for what was being done for them and we were so grateful for being able to help them.  It was indeed "Soul Food".   We will continue to keep in touch with them.  We will send them cards and we will continue to invite them to worship with us.  Please pray for our pantry and that continued good will come from it.

Why Soul Food?

As a Christian woman, I have been trying to find a way to serve God in a way that was acceptable to him and brought him the glory.  "Soul Food" is a description of how this work began and how with the support of our local congregation we are looking forward to growing this ministry.  I have discovered that my soul has been fed more so than the people we have provided food for.  In this ministry, I have experienced the real feeling in the phrase "It is better to give than to receive".  


From the time this way of ministering to our neighbors and family began in October 2011, we were blessed to feed 9 families consisting of approximately 54 people for Thanksgiving and for Christmas we have, at this writing, 13 families requesting our assistance.  The Southern Hills Church of Christ is a family of extremely loving and caring individuals who jumped in whole heartedly to fill our shelves and get the foods we needed by their donations.


I don't propose that in any way the success we are having is my doing.  The real heros are the people who brought the food to donate and who built the shelves to store the food, and worked to help pack food for distribution, and came up with exciting ideas on how to get even more food donated.  I am merely the organizer and the cheerleader for all my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I am writing this in the hope that other women will see it as a place for us to serve.  We, as women, are nurturers which lends our personalities to serving others and attempting to open doors to bring others to Christ by caring for their well being and seeing that others needs are met. Jesus did say in Matthew 25:35-40 For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’