Last Sunday I went with Trisha Cato and Daniel (our exchange student) to Battered and Fried with the gift bags.  We only got to talk to the manager since they all were very busy, but she was happy and surprised to get the bags.  She was a little stand-off-ish like she thought I was going to ask her to do something uncomfortable.  She seemed surprised that we just wanted to give them something.  I'd like to have a prayer assignment/partner whenever someone calls in.

I also wanted to tell you that I had been thinking for awhile that I wanted to be involved in some form of prison ministry.  I signed up for Better Decisions (Norma Englehart told me about it).  It's not a faith-based ministry, but an educational program for women in the state prison to learn how to make better choices and positively affect their future.  One benefit of it not being overtly Christian is that it is the most popular program there and the inmates all want a chance to get in.  I had training to be a one-on-one partner (like a tutor) for one of the women in the program.  For some of the women in the program, their Better Decisions partner is the ONLY visitor they ever have.  I was scared to death the first few times I went and made God promise me over and over that he would go with me.  (BIG eye roll from him, I'm sure).  It's in the 7^th week and I have been so blessed by getting to know her on a very spiritual and personal level.  I've been able to share how much God loves her, that she has purpose and a destiny in him.  It has been a great experience.

 

 

Fifty to sixty volunteers gathered in the fellowship hall as Lisa Spruill shared pointers for visits with the shut-ins, suggesting things like: asking the shut-in to share their testimony, prayer requests, favorite scripture, favorite hymn, or sending follow up notes and remembering them on their birthday, etc.

One group made hand-crafted seasonal greeting cards under Jennifer Jones' direction.

Another group assembled Fall picture frames with photos of First Church preschoolers and elementary kids.

Thirty-seven fall-themed baskets were filled by an assembly line with items such as homemade breads & cookies, candy, apples, juice, pocket tissues, note cards, hand sanitizers, personal toiletries, a craft made by the 510 Kids, and hand-crafted fall greeting cards.

Then, volunteers went to a table spread with cards bearing the shut-ins' names, addresses, and directions to their homes, where they selected someone to visit. All 33 of our shut-ins were quickly "adopted" for the day, along with 4 extra baskets which were taken to various nursing homes for lonely patients who do not receive visitors.

 

Our first shut in visit was to see Elzora Knippers at Trevecca Health Care. This was our family’s second time to visit her. E.C. was still alive when we visited her the first time and we all laughed so hard at how high pitched Elzora’s voice was when she tried to wake him up to visit with us, “Eeeeeeeee Ceeeeee! Wake up!”

This time, we found Elzora finishing up her lunch in the dining hall. She was by herself. The first part of our visit was similar to any shut in visit…showing her what was in the basket, telling her our church cares for her, updating her on how we are doing, etc. But then Rhonda asked Elzora to share with us a little about when she got saved. For the next 15 minutes, Elzora told us all about her childhood, about being in a Nazarene church when she was five, and how she went to the altar during an altar call and gave her five year old heart to Jesus. What a blessing for our children to get to hear Elzora’s testimony! She also told us all about how she met E.C. as a teenager but then married him when she was 49 years old. When we asked Elzora how we could pray for her, she assigned different physical needs of hers to each of our children. “Now you pray for my eyes so that I can see better, and you pray for my hands & feet, that they won’t hurt, and you…” Before we left, we were reminding each of our kids what they were to pray for. And when we reminded our five year old, Hubbard, he replied, “I already prayed for her. I just closed my eyes right then and asked Jesus to help Elzora feel better.” 

What a wonderful memory for our children and for us. Thanks for letting us be a part.

 

Barbara Cameron called me to thank me for putting her on our shut-in list. She was thrilled with the basket and could not believe the work people went through to do something nice for her. She asked for the deliverer’s address (Pastor and Raedean) so she could send a thank you note (They were not able to see her as she was napping when they stopped by). She was so disappointed that she did not meet the folks who delivered the basket. I told Barbara I would call and stop by within the next few days.

 

Even though we didn't sign up anywhere, we did feel led to visit Stephen Fox's grandparents at Madison Healthcare and Rehab Center, Euel and Dorothy Fox.  When we lived in Roanoke, Va., they were our first pastor and wife in the Nazarene Church.

We fixed up a little basket and went to see them. They were so grateful for our visit.  We were hoping to minister to them but we came away being ministered to and blessed by them.  They are such precious people.

Addtionally, we enjoyed the singspiration at Eastminister Presbyterian and were very proud of our choir.  God is so good.

 

510 Woodland had its own version of the Waffle House on Outside the Box Sunday.

Twenty-nine individuals gathered, scattered, sorted, stacked, tossed, and cleaned seven classrooms and three storage rooms in the NFCN nursery and preschool area. From crayons to glue sticks, play food to fire trucks, few items were left untouched.

Our “crew” was of the assorted variety. There were grandparents, parents, former children’s ministry teachers, teens and children. Praise God! It was a picture of an intergenerational church in action!

 

In response to the question, “Do you think what we did last Sunday in our parking lots and yard was good?” Yes. Enjoyed the time and would be involved at another time.

 

I think it was a wonderful experience that made a difference in the way our church represents itself to the community. I enjoyed my fellowship with Darlene and Jerry as we worked together to get our flowerbed cleaned out. Billy and Judy came by after they were through handing out baskets to the restaurants. I think we are going to try to have SS outside in our garden area some time soon. On this particular Sunday, it was worship, just not worship inside the classroom. I hope we will continue these opportunities at least on a quarterly basis. 

 

I love working in the yard either at the church or at home.   I believe He is always glad when we demonstrate good stewardship. It is His house and I just believe he appreciates us taking care of it and making it look good and not some eye sore. I think East Nashville can be very proud to have us as tenants.

A side note--As I was getting ready to cross 5th Street to the other side, a man on a bike almost ran over me. We both started to say excuse me at the same time, and entered into about 15-minute conversation. He asked me, “What kind of people attend church?” I jokingly answered, "Good people.” He meant what denomination, and I knew that. I shared with him about our church and remembered that I had a recent CD of a service in my truck. He and I walked to my truck and I gave him the CD and also shared a Gideon NT with him. He said he used to attend the East Nashville Cooperative Ministry and has started to get his life back in order. I invited him to come Sunday and also to Emmaus Fellowship.

 

We want our church to be well dressed on the outside as well as the inside.   We are so blessed by God I can't help but wonder what God thinks of our commitment. Would we want our own yards to be full of weeds? There have been several times Richard and I say we should just come to the church some Saturday - pick a spot - and start cleaning. So this all-church work day was just what we needed. It was wonderful watching children enjoying their assignments sometimes getting in over their heads. It was wonderful to be about our Lord’s work.

People walking on the sidewalks mentioned it was looking good and that opened the chance to invite them to our service sometime. We talked about the beautiful weather and how we all hoped the Titans would win the game.   What a special day. 

 

I always enjoy doing tasks if it helps someone else and God gets the glory, but an extra blessing for me came from my children helping and the impact it had on them.   We spread mulch together with a few of their friends and tried to at least say hello to people walking to the Titans game. When I asked my children what they thought about the day or what impact it had on them, one replied, "It made me feel good to help God and help our Church and to say hi to people going to the Titans game." One had longer conversations with the passerby’s than I did. He added, "It was fun doing something good for God and being with church friends making our church look better." Our oldest said that although it was manual labor it felt good to be with church friends doing something good.  

It blessed me to see that my children understood that church is a community and serving does make one feel good because God is getting the glory and that you don’t just have to serve others as an individual but that it's ok serve with other believers, helping and supporting each other. 

 

Last Sunday November 1, we had the opportunity to see how the Lord has blessed people all over the Nashville area through his people at NFCN. It was a very exciting moment for the church, but particularly for the Haitians brothers and sisters who were not too familiar with the expansion of the church outside the actual walls. Everyone wanted to know how the day was going to be arranged and 3 people who signed up did not show up for fear of the uncertainty, I guess! But, the gym was full and after pointing out the leader of each group, Pastor Dale and I proceeded to help identifying the leaders. A few minutes later, they were on their way to the ministries where they were assigned. The Haitian Outreach ministry had about 15 members including 4 people from the Anglo congregation.

It was wonderful how the Lord prepared the hearts of the families we visited. As we were preparing for the visits, we were provided a list from a member of our church who lives in the West Nashville area and therefore knows all the families in the area. We called him “the GPS” for the day. When  I had made phone calls a few days beforehand, I realized that the people that I called were nervous about our visit because they did not know what to expect from us and more importantly how to welcome us because Haitian people are very hospitable. They thought they should prepare for a formal visit from the church. It was going to be an obstacle to make our visit happen. Some of them refused saying, “Not now,”  “Not this Sunday,” or “We won’t be there,” etc. So we decided not to call anyone else from the list and instead, go directly and knock at their door.

God was with us and we had time to pray, encourage, lead a Bible study, etc. with families in West Nashville. The day was a great success! Praise the Lord! One member of NFCN was very impressed by the Haitians’ hospitality, the significance of flowers in the homes, etc. Another person asked me if the people knew that we were coming. When I answered, “No,” he replied, “The Haitians are very gracious to let us in their homes.”

In two houses that we visited, the people (who had stopped attending church), were so much excited that the shouted, “Jesus has visited us this morning!” One man has asked us to come back and do a Bible study with him on the importance of accepting Jesus as his Savior. Other person promised to visit our church.

The result was very positive and we are still receiving thank you notes and positive feedback from the many families that welcomed us that day. Overall, the Outside the Box had a great impact on the Haitian church and community. From the testimonies of the different groups last Sunday in the church I feel that they are inspired to do more for people. Our youth group has initiated a collection of clothes and blankets and has  even asked the women in the church to make a meal to share with the homeless at the Human development and at East Nashville the Sunday of Thanksgiving.

 As we were coming back from our trip, one brother exclaimed “that was the church of Acts at NFCN today! You were talking in your language to the Haitians, but we understood even if we don’t speak your language. We felt the power of the Holy Spirit and we liked how you were right on the point bringing their attention on Jesus-Christ not on the church!” Thank you brother!

It was also the opportunity for our brothers and sister from the English to learn some Creole, now they know how to say words in the Haitian language. It was a good time of evangelism and fellowship together. We are waiting for the next inspiration to meet the Lord at work in the community.

Glory to His holy name! 

 

Things went well at Habitat. I arrived at 7AM and got the standard briefing. I was put to work hanging siding. The group from NFCN arrived about 12:15. The project boss was a little surprised by the number. I suspect they frequently get a lot of volunteers that don't show. Most of our group was tasked with putting on a second coat of interior paint in the house. The rest were tasked with caulking the joints outside in preparation for paint. When I left the worksite, some were still trudging on!

 

I have always wanted to help with a Habitat build but didn’t think I had the skills needed. Well, I was able to use my considerable painting “talents” and help on a Habitat build in Dickson. Just the simple act of painting was so appreciated. As I was painting the walls and trim I thought about how this house was a new start for Amy (the homeowner) and her two young girls. The paint being rolled on her walls and ceilings was like a fresh new beginning, just like when our sins are forgiven and we have a new life, a new beginning in Christ. How amazing is the love of Christ who takes the messy canvas of our lives and gives it a fresh coat, a new covering, a new beginning?   I left Dickson Sunday afternoon tired (and with paint on me) but blessed to have helped a young woman as she begins a new season in her life.

 

Four days ago I was able to experience a movement out of my ordinary day to day life. I often times get caught up in my own problems in life: work, family, without even thinking about how those less fortunate live and the struggles they endure. They could be praying desperately for God to provide their next meal, a house to call home for their families, or even a job, things I have never had to worry about thus far in my life. As I played a role in Habitat for Humanity, I experienced and witnessed God through commitment, ministry, and fellowship.

I am currently attending the Marathon Class, a mix of single and married young adults. Although my best friend’s parents teach the class, there are some members I am still getting to know and love. I find myself wanting to get involved more and more with every step we take together as a class. It is a sense of family and along with that I feel committed to them, never wanting to let them down. This sense creates a bond, through Christ, that is strong, exciting, and inspiring. This commitment will be a driving force for God’s plan for our church and future ministries.

In my opinion, this ministry is what church is all about. The body of Christ can come together to create a voice for God, showing others how the Holy Spirit can live in us and through us. The woman we helped is a single mother struggling through life with limited support surrounding her. I am so glad I had the opportunity to witness through this ministry to her and her friends, showing them that there are Christians that can go out of their own communities and help people in need. The main goal was painting her home, which I have little experience doing, I hope I did not do more damage than good! Throughout the afternoon, everyone had positive attitudes, girls were singing their favorite Disney tunes, and people continuously offered their help. By the end of the day, most everyone had paint all over them, were a little sore from those hard to reach places, but I know each one left with a feeling of rejuvenation. It was memorable experience and a blast for me!

Through Habitat for Humanity I experienced something else really neat with not only my fellow members of the Marathon class, but the teens and other adults that came. The term is commonly referred to as fellowship. Some participants were people that I had never met and some I have never even seen! This ministry helped create more networks for me and I am sure for everyone else as well. By networks I mean more togetherness, more support, and more love for the church family which in turn will increase the strength of future ministries among other positive impacts.

Through commitment, ministry, and fellowship I feel the future of First Church of the Nazarene is bright. It makes me excited to experience and see it all come together. I will one day raise my family in this church like my mother did for me. I am blessed to have a church family that is willing to reach out and make a difference in the community and in me. Thank you.

 

I was excited when I heard of NFCN’s plan to venture into the local community to help those in need and spread the good Word. I believe that this is the Church’s calling, and something that we tend to focus on only in word, not deed. It is much simpler to give money than time… I hope these ministries are the beginning of much more activity in Nashville’s local community.

Due to my lack of Habitat experience, I was surprised when asked to lead the group, but the endeavor was extremely rewarding. Our rather large group of volunteers, Amy (the mother of two who is moving in), along with a couple of her friends and several Habitat staff and other volunteers, all worked alongside one another. We were able to fellowship with everyone involved in an environment of mutual understanding that what we were accomplishing was to have far reaching ramifications. Not only were we displaying the love God intends His body to show the world, but we were helping create a home for a single mother of two.

I don’t think Chris and the Habitat team actually expected so many of us to show up, but I know they were grateful. Due to our large team of volunteers we finished earlier than expected, but considering the quantity of egg-shell paint covering many of us from head to toe, you would think we had been there all week. Needless to say, I think we were all blessed by the experience. While I can’t speak for all involved, many of us would love to bring the message, love, and community of God to the people of Nashville on a consistent basis.

 

I just wanted to write and thank you for volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in Dickson during our build. The house looks great and I appreciate all that you did to help make this house become a home for Amy Davidson and her two children Leah and Jada. Without your volunteer spirit, we wouldn’t be able to make these homes possible, so thank you again for all that you did to make the build possible. This was the 17^th Habitat home in Dickson and we plan to build our 18^th home in May 2010. I hope you can be a part of the next build as well. Since I may not speak with some of you before the holidays, I hope you have a blessed holiday season and thanks for helping Habitat to “Build Lives- One Home, One Family, One Community at a time.”

 

 

When Pastor Benson emailed me to make sure I was going to be at church on Sunday because they wanted to have a special prayer time with all the group leaders, I said yes thinking nothing of the request.

When I kneeled at the altar, I started praying. "What have I gotten myself into? What am I doing? I'm no leader. These people, my pastors, my peers, my entire church family, are going to see first hand what a fake and a phony I really am. I can't do this!" Then, I felt hands on my shoulders as others were invited to come pray over us. I felt God laugh and say, "Of course you can't. What do I want with someone who can do this without me?" I immediately understood and felt so much peace after that. I was now prepared and confident that God was going before us--to take my group into Tent City.

When we first arrived, I saw no one milling about like normal. The camp was quiet. I asked Cowboy, my friend and the man who invited us to his home at Tent City, if he would give our group a tour. As we walked the grounds, I still could not figure out why the camp was so quiet. We stopped and talked to one or two campers before walking upon the largest tent of all.

We had competition. There was another group conducting a church service. Apparently, a group called Tent City Church meets every Sunday in the early afternoon. I did not know about this and Cowboy, even though he knew about it, didn’t tell me when I was making our plans. At first, I intended to not disturb them and walk the way we came back to Cowboy’s camp. Then, I felt a nudge to go to the group already meeting.

We ended up combining our efforts with the other group. I spoke with the man leading the service. He was in such awe. Apparently, our group was an answer to prayer. He had just been praying for more people. When he opened his eyes, here came this swarm of people walking toward him. I told him that things didn't quite turn out the way I planned, but they sure did work the way God planned, which was so much better than anything I could have dreamed up.
Before we went to Tent City, I was afraid I would have to monitor our group closely and find activities to keep them engaged. But, they each seemed to find their place easily and treated the homeless so well. So many of the homeless are not used to church groups getting in the middle and mingling the way our group did, treating them as human beings, no different from ourselves. They really lived Christ's love. I overheard many conversations with homeless and volunteers in which people talked about how God’s presence was very obvious. I couldn't have been more proud of our group and proud to have been a part of this day!

 

Our family attended the Campus for Human Development ministry opportunity. Our two oldest daughters, Allison and Amanda, and I have had the opportunity to participate with their ministry, Room In the Inn, in the past. Belmont Church takes in 20 men throughout the winter months, provides them a hot dinner, allows them to sleep on a blow-up mattress made with fresh sheets, feeds them breakfast, and sends them off with a sack lunch the next day. I believe they can also shower in their facilities. What we have done to assist was to blow up the mattresses, make the beds, cook and serve the dinner, fellowship with them, put out food for breakfast and make their sack lunches. On November 1, when we "stepped outside the box" and went to the headquarters for this ministry, we were given a tour of the facility, shown a film about the ministry, told about the enormous building project they are in the middle of, and given an opportunity to assist them by sorting books and cleaning their art room. It seemed like such a small thing to do in the scheme of things, but I know it helped them out tremendously. They had been inundated with a plethora of books and greatly needed help going through them all. Our younger children enjoyed sorting the art room to get it cleaned up for the men. In his email, Dale gave the story of the mother who texted him during the service about her little boy leaning over and asking, "Mama, what's a shut-in?" and later, "What's under the bridge"...well, that was my son, Nathan. I told Dale, when he arrived at our location, that Nathan's eyes were being opened to a hurting world. Nathan and my three daughters served that day without a word of complaint. They saw how sad these lives were and it made them aware of how grateful they are for their blessings in life. Sam and I purpose to teach our children to have hearts of service to others. Did it feel odd to wear jeans to church and go do this?....yes, just a bit, but as we climbed back into our car with silence from the children, whose eyes and hearts were opening up, we had one of those priceless Deut. 6 moments to teach God's truths to them. There are grown members at First Church who still "suck the milk of God" and miss out on the blessing of "chewing on His riches". We can quarrel about "working on the Sabbath", etc....however; after stepping out in obedience to the leadership at NFCN, all I can say is God is doing a work in me personally, in our family jointly, and I know God is moving among our church family collectively. May we, "Be still and know that He is God!"...and may we seek for Him to so fill us with His Spirit...let us tarry in Jerusalem until, "He has given us the Gift from the Father, which was promised!"...once His Spirit has filled us..."All the believers were one in heart and mind."....well.....let me just say..."No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him...but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit".

 

Prayer time began at around 11:15AM with a time of worship, praise and prayer for ourselves as prayer partners. We sang "Take My Life and Let it Be" together and then we prayed opening prayers aloud to prepare our hearts for the work. Next, each person (Mr. and Mrs. David Smith, Mabel Green, Muzette Byars, Lisa Smith, Susan Smith, Riley Laymon, Chris Weston, Dana Winsinger, Steven Vrdenburgh, Dan, Lori and Evan Parr, and Mark Rampey) took one of the ministries of the day and/or the name of a Pastor written on a slip of paper. The paper contained a description of the ministry, the names of the people signed up and some specific needs provided by each of the leaders of those ministries. We began silently praying and preparing ourselves for intercession and then as prompted by the Holy Spirit, we took turns praying aloud for the needs of the day and for the people involved. Our goal was to try to pray specifically about all details to wrap a net of prayer around each group, to listen for God's will and pray his will back to Him, and to agree in prayer trusting God for the results. God used this time to teach me some things about prayer, and I am thankful. It was a privilege to be a part of this act of communion and intercession, and I am praising the name of Jesus for what He has done, what He is doing, and what He is going to do! “I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free! Jesus, Greatest, Highest, I will come to thee!”

 

I have personally been looking forward to this day for awhile. I am always eager to share my passion for The Next Door and to share the amazing stories of the women that I serve every day. The day consisted of two groups from 1st Church, the first group consisting of approximately 25 church members that arrived at TND. We began by sharing the story of TND and how it came into existence and gave a tour of our facility. Mary, our volunteer coordinator here at TND, then took the group and split them up to begin the projects that were assigned. A large group cleaned and organized large closets of donations, that would have taken us, staff, hours to do, but our church members got in there and made it happen, above and beyond our expectations! Another smaller group went into our file room and organized some much needed files of past residents. The “handy man” group went to work on several projects around the house (that is what we call our building here at TND). This was a huge help in so many ways, one major one being that our staff, consists of ALL women, and don’t think we don’t try to “do it all on our own,” but we have to come to our senses a lot and realize that there are some projects that a man can definitely do better! To wrap it up, the projects that were completed that afternoon made a huge difference at our organization and was greatly appreciated by not only staff, but most importantly the women at TND. In concluding with the first group, we had several of the residents here at TND share their stories with the volunteers. This time in the day is what made the day all worth it. Our church members were able to see and hear the lives that their work had just impacted. The women here at TND are very grateful for those that are willing to invest in their lives in positive, healthy ways! Many have never had that experience, of which I, Amanda, know that I take for granted on a daily basis.

The 2nd group came in the afternoon to prepare and serve dinner to the women. This group came in and just got to it! It was great to see the group come in and just take charge and mostly to see in their spirits and actions that they wanted it to be PERFECT! Dinner is ready here at 5pm, Monday-Friday, normally, so the women had been looking forward to Sunday the whole week, b/c they knew volunteers were coming on a SUNDAY and that they would get a good meal! It was great to see the women of TND eagerly waiting in the dining room at 4:30 and while they were waiting they enjoyed interacting with some of the children that were here as well. Prior to serving dinner we all joined together with the ladies at TND and had prayer with all of them. To say the least, dinner was a huge success!! When I arrived at work on Monday morning, many of the ladies were still expressing their gratitude for the wonderful Sunday!

To put into words my feelings from this day would be difficult. I thoroughly enjoyed sharing this with my church family and not only that but meeting new faces and names of my own church family. Many things not only happened on November 1, but lives were forever touched by just a few short hours of volunteer service. Since November 1, many of the group that came to TND have already voiced coming back again on their own time, a group of the men have so graciously been willing to be our “handy men,” and we are now going to start a list of things that need repairing and call on them when needed to see when would be a good time for them to come! So to say this day was a SUCCESS at TND would be an understatement! This day of service is going to continue from here on out and for me, ONE more person has heard about the AMAZING women at THE NEXT DOOR!

Many thanks to all who made this day possible!

 

Mike and I took our children and went to The Next Door to make dinner for the residents. About thirty of the forty residents came for dinner.   There were seven or eight of us from the church. Of course, Carlotta Lee and Betty VanEs were our head chefs. They did a fabulous job commanding the kitchen and putting the rest of us to work. There were many hands, so work was relatively light. We left goody bags of candy with scripture for the residents reminding them that they were being prayed for and are loved.

As the residents entered the area for dinner, one of the ladies chose to sit and color with Hannah. Another chose to teach Alex how to draw pictures using numbers on the dry erase board. Others sat and observed the volunteers work in the kitchen while others interacted with one other.    As I spoke with the residents, many were anticipating a reuniting with their children, some were joyful about their new jobs and one was testifying to her recovery only being possible because of God’s work in her life.

What was accomplished with this dinner for kingdom purposes?   Only God knows and only God can work. But for my family, our call was to share our time and God’s love. I think for a moment, the residents were distracted from the mountain of recovery that faces them in the weeks and months ahead. My prayer for the residents for that evening was that they experienced God’s love to strengthen them for another day to press forward to wholeness. My prayer for my children for that day was that another stone was placed under their feet to point them towards loving and serving an awesome God!

Thank you for arranging the opportunity to serve in Jesus’ name. I pray we daily seek opportunities to do the same.