CFA Hosts Gleaners Food Ministry!

This was the first lady in line...ready with her park chair!

Parking lot was full!

Outreach volunteers...

Clothes ministry was greatly used before truck arrived!

Part of our amazing HOPE Outreach ministry crew!

Gleaners truck arrived one hour late!

Quick distribution set up!

We all got soaked...yes, I was working between taking all the pics...trust me!

We even had a good rain thrown in too!

Everyone with their registration number went through the line!

Smooth process!

View from the main portico entrance!

My new little friend, Emalee!

Some more new little friends, Damon & Haylee

Thrilled to get this little one to smile for me!

We hosted a large food outreach ministry in our church parking lot today!

This event was scheduled before the Flood of 2008 to use our parking lot, mobilize our church volunteers to serve and also bless a host of people in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then came the flood that froze us quietly in our tracks...just but for a moment...then the Lord initiated the HOPE Outreach Center during post-flood ministry activity. When the time came for us to host this event...we were ready...and battle tested as well. We have been in the trenches for the past several months serving people who have been affected by the flood. God has used our church and our people in an unbelievable "beyond all limits" kind of way. We were happy to roll up our sleeves and go at it once again! Thanks Lord for another opportunity to minister to the suffering with the love, HOPE and compassion of Christ!

This was the day that school started here in Bartholomew County. (We had hoped to utilize our young people here at this outreach, but the date was rescheduled for today which canceled the hopes of allowing our students to serve.) After taking my two boys to school I arrived early at CFA headquarters. What did I see? Already a line of people had assembled to get first dibs at this free food! It was amazing...like something you would see at a store grand opening where prizes would be given away. This was a full two hours before we were scheduled to begin letting people go through the line.

Our ministry volunteers began arriving and getting things set up: tables assembled, chairs brought out, registration line formed, clothes ministry moved outside, water and bleach relocated out of the fellowship hall to the parking lot, plus a host of other items that we had been using at our HOPE Outreach Center as well. It was a great opportunity to clean out our supply of goods in the center and prepare our building for the restoration and remodeling project phase. Thanks Lord for the timing of your master plan...you had it all worked out way before this event was ever scheduled!

We had the privilege to mingle among the people in the line and get acquainted with many of them (many were already familiar with us through the HOPE Center). I met a lot of great people and loved on the kids and babies in the line too! We passed out bottles of water, info about our church, later we even passed out large black trash bags which were used as emergency rain gear (yes, we did get rained on for a season too!).

I'm thankful to the twenty or so CFA volunteers who assisted us with this outreach. They worked hard. They were wonderful. They ministered effectively to this massive group of people who gathered from all over our community onto our church campus. We are blessed indeed!

After the outreach there was work to clean up, put up and reorganize our fellowship hall ministry facility. With this awesome group of volunteers we were able to accomplish so much in a matter of hours! Many hands make light work!

On top of this huge outreach undertaking, many workers were still working inside on our sanctuary remodeling and reconstruction project. I will post some pictures tomorrow of the latest progress...but today it's all about the ministry outreach!

Happy to see our church being used by God in such a wonderful way. We have become an active beacon of HOPE on the corner of 10th and Iowa Streets. ( I even ministered to a lady late in the day who had run out of gas and rolled right into our parking lot...talk about the way God is orchestrating this amazing Master Plan...they are literally being drawn into our church!) People are coming from all over the city plus around the country to witness the amazing miracles that God is doing right here @ CFA. Awesome!

Tomorrow is another day. Our HOPE Outreach Center will be temporarily closed because we are moving ever closer to rebuilding in that area, plus we are simply OUT OF STOCK!

Thanks for taking this "ride of a lifetime" with us. This adventure is never dull or boring. Each day is filled with excitement and wonder.

Love to all.