Juan 3:16

Have you ever just wondered what would happen if you just went with the flow? If you just saw a need and met it? If you just said God here I am, send me? And then you actually went?

It has been so beautiful to watch one of my very best friends, Charlene, first encounter Christ, my Savior. Something that I had been praying for since the moment I met her. And then I can't even begin to explain the joy that has overcome me in watching her grow and mature in that encounter. To see and be a part of her not only realizing, but also experiencing that we were blessed by God so that we could be a blessing, so that through us the world would be blessed. The very promise that God gave Abram in Genesis 12:2-3.

Our friendship has blossomed into so much more than ever before, we are now truly sisters, because we are both daughters of our great and mighty God. I am so blessed and inspired by her faith and how that faith is so naturally expressed in her actions. I experienced a piece of that this weekend.

Saturday morning, we again ventured out together to Food for Thought downtown. I've gone several times now, even with Char once. It is in itself an amazing thing to be a part of. This Saturday, Charlene and I, along with her kids and a couple of friends she brought along for their first time, were the last people to leave. Why?....because we met Juan.

If we had let him be, Juan was just another homeless guy collecting his free lunch and venturing on his way. However, we sat and spoke with Juan. Introducing ourselves. Not only introducing ourselves but asking him how we could meet his needs, what his biggest struggles with life on the streets were, where he was from and how he came to be where he is today. We invest a few shorts moments of our lives into him, the forgotten.

Juan does his best to keep himself clean. He sleeps many nights in a park in downtown. He has a bike for transportation and has an outlook that only God could possibly give to someone in his life situation. Juan is from Mexico. He came here for work and has been unable to find any. His English is broken, but remarkably is quite understandable and what he couldn't say or understand, God brought enough of my Spanish back to me to be able to communicate. Juan isn't greedy. He's not selfish. He's alone. And he's not asking for hand-outs. In fact, when we asked him what we could bring him, he replied that God gives him what he needs. Which sparked a whole nother conversation with him. Bottom line: Charlene invited him to come to church with us to her church Cedar Creek. Most people down there, I'm not sure would have responded as he did. His smile was from ear to ear.

He told us that a friend wanted to take him to find work today and he said no, he'd go downtown to find food. He told he didn't know why he came down because he didn't know we did Food for Thought. He said he came to get food, but now God give him real food tomorrow. The only thing he carried in his bag strapped to the back of his bike was his Bible, tattered and torn. We even spent time sharing scripture together and he read Jeremiah 33 to us in Spanish. I can tell you in that moment Juan was ministering to Charlene and I, not the other way around.

Well, Juan showed up at the library this morning when Charlene arrived to pick him up for church. They gave him a change of clothes, not that he really needed it, he already was pretty clean, and even so God says come as you are. Charlene's family took him to breakfast and brought him to church. I met them there and was able to give him a new backpack and a mini fan. I wish I could have given him more and I know Char was having the same feelings. But what we did and were able to give him was everything we had at that moments we encountered him and together we encountered Christ in worship.

Juan 3:16 "Porque tanto amó Dios al mundo, que dio a su Hijo unigénito, para que todo el que cree en él no se pierda, sino que tenga vida eterna."

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Dinner w/friends

Yesterday, we went to Melissa & Tom's for dinner. Melissa made a wonderful salad, and cheesy potatoes and Tom did ribs and pork on the grill. It was a great night of just hanging out and catching up. The kids played in the pool. They also played dress up but I didn't get any pics of that.

We also had a great homemade dessert, as usual. Melissa loves to cook and bake! And we love to eat whatever it is she makes! :)

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Unloading

We were supposed to go to Evalee's last night for dinner, but Ed got called into work. So we stayed home and rescheduled that for Sunday evening.

Instead, God had other plans. On Wednesday, Rob told me that we received a phone tree from church that was asking for help to unload the moving truck of one of our families at church. I wasn't home so Rob didn't go. Well, yesterday, God put me at the church office at the right time to find out that that family needed a dolly. So I sent them to my house to get it. Rob talked to Ryan for a few minutes and discovered that the phone tree wasn't productive yesterday and the truck was still full. When I arrived home, we loaded the kids in the car and headed over to help. Ryan grew up at our church. He married his wife Renee and together they went into ministry. Ryan is youth pastor and Renee is close to her own ordination as well. They have three little boys, JR, Blake and Trentin.

It was a nice evening. We were able to visit with the whole family, not only Ryan and Renee, but the Avery's completely: Larry and Evelyn and Holly and her girls. We stayed for pizza and fellowship. It was great to get to know Ryan and Renee. We had known of them but didn't know them because they lived and served so far away. It will be great during this transition time for their family to get to know them.

The kids played hard with the trampoline, the kiddie pool and the slip n' slide. They even had lawn mower rides through their backyard. It was funny to watch Nadine with the slip n' slide. She is such a girl, but after a few minutes she was diving right in. And again Rowan loved having boys to play with. And I think Rob really enjoyed getting to know Ryan and even Larry a little better through this.

Brown Bag Concert

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My new friend, Bethany and I have been trying to coordinate a play date for our kids for the past couple of weeks. Bethany is our new pastor Brandon's wife, they have two boys, Camden and Corbin. Today, she called and asked if we wanted to join her at the Brown Bag Concert at the Main Library Downtown Toledo. It's on the lawn where Food for Thought takes place and it was a kids concert today.

So we brown-bagged lunches and headed out! It was a lot of fun to get to know the kids and Bethany a little better. After the concert was over we ran into Holly, Averi and Adelyn. They also came down for the concert and to go to movie time in the kids area of the library.

Rowan doesn't have many friends that are boys that he gets to play with. Our neighbors kids are girls. His cousins are girls and my friends have girls. So he proudly exclaimed to Nadine today that Camden is "HIS" friend. He was very excited to have a boy to play with! And boy did they get rough. They were tackling each other and chasing each other. They had lots of fun! Rowan can't wait until Camden comes over to play trains together!