Tonight was mind-blowing! There are so many great things to share about what The LORD has been doing with LTN.
There is tremendous testimony is His provision alone. For the past several weeks now, GOD has been using people, who have absolutely no times to 'church', to provide for this Ministry... I find that miraculous in itself.
It reminds me of a story I'd heard regarding one of our Festival of Life events that our church took part in. In an immigrant community where Spanish is the only spoken language, GOD used a drug dealer, to be the translator for His servants sent out to preach His Good News... long story short, that drug dealer ended up giving his life to Jesus Christ by the end of the day. I'm sure that man did not wake up that morning and think 'Gee, today I'm going to talk about GOD while translating to the people that fear me, and then turn me life over to Jesus as my Savior.'
Anyways, back on topic- Upon arrival, both Amanda and I thought it was going to be an adventure serving as we looked at the lack of teammates tonight. O' we of little faith! Not even 5 minutes go by, and our entire area is flooded with people who have come to serve and love our neighbors by our side.
Then, a brother named Brian, and I were observing all that GOD has provided, from the food to the hygiene, to the heaping stacks of clothing. As Brian was giving GOD praise.... (before he could even finish his sentence) another family comes with bags & bags of more clothes and stacks of blankets! Brian and I both just started laughing and thanking our Heavenly Father.
An important belief that our Ministry team shares is giving people the opportunity to serve with us, regardless of their religious beliefs... or the lack of, for that matter. It's not up to any of us to say 'yes or no' when somebody wants to be involved, as long as their participation does not hinder or contradict the work that we are faithfully doing. That being said... we have seen a transformation in some of our volunteers. Yeah, some larger than others, but all for an improvement towards the morals that GOD expects of His children. Like I said, it's not up to us to deal with.... it's all His working. As a team, we get to see the reward first-hand, as lives are changed. It's a real blessing for me to look back and wonder what things would have been like if Amanda and I never took those small steps of faith... and then reflect on all the miracles that we've seen.
My writing will certainly never give justice to what GOD is doing in Pacific Beach. Some of these instances are something many will just have to experience for themselves.
More and more people are coming up to me throughout the evening with words of encouragement on how The LORD spoke to them through the message given that night. We acknowledge that we may never get to see all the fruits of our labor (on this side of Heaven) but we know without a doubt, that Pacific Beach is our mission field and we are called to Love our Neighbors. As time goes on and seasons pass, we see new faces come and go. For us, we are scattering the Seeds of Truth towards everyone who comes our way. In a sense, it's like preaching to all the world, because so many of our guests keep on traveling through.
