Wow! What a day! You wouldn’t believe how much work the team triumphantly accomplished today. We served at four different widow/widowers homes today with an abundance of yard work. One gentleman, Les, had an entirely overgrown backyard with piles of junk and debris everywhere.
Before
After
And this is only the front half of the yard! The back half was all cleared out of blackberries and overgrown bushes as well. Praise the Lord!
The team took on this significant challenge and came through successfully, but it was definitely the hardest day of work yet – cutting back blackberry bushes, serious pruning, and hauling, here we come! Thank you for your prayers of perseverance and extra strength! It has been greatly needed. You can actually walk through Less’ back yard now. Hallelujah!
Serveral ladies from the team had prepared gift baskets in advance including fresh fruit, cookies, treats, a gospel tract, gospel booklet and notes. These were distributed to each widow that we served.
The Lord opened the doors for some neat conversations with these folks as well, as Les even joined us for lunch and was definitely warming up as the day progressed.
We will continue to serve at a few other widows’ homes tomorrow, so please pray for the Lord to bless the labors of our hands!
Would you also join us in praying specifically for Les’ salvation?
Isn’t serving the Lord a tremendous experience? It gives us the opportunity to actually see the Lord provide ‘on the run’! I love your coverage of this mission project. It gives me a wonderful idea for our fall mission project
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I have added Less’ name to my ‘Salvation Prayer List’. I am also keeping you and the family in prayer!
I have been really blessed by reading about your outreach. Especially this day. I wanted you to know that I prayed for Les…that his heart will soften and that he will come to know Jesus as Savior.
I think what you guys have done is really good. I know you must be exhausted by the end of this week! I think it’s really awesome that you kept Karis involved with your service. It is so important to set that example continually for kids from the time they are born. This not only teaches them a selfless character, but it sets a life habit of serving.
There are so many people who tell me they can no longer be involved in service when they have kids (at least until their children are 5 years old.) What are some ways Karis helped? I saw other moms with smaller babies in some of your pictures. What tips would you give to parents of little ones to encourage them to remain involved in reaching out to others in the name of Christ?
We absolutely loved having Karis with us! She is only 15 months, so she did not contribute anything, but stayed on my back in our ergo baby carrier or played with toys on a blanket in the grass while we worked. It worked great.
Our little friend Anna, age 3, was able to help amazingly well. She worked alongside her mommy pulling weeds, using a small kids rake, or using a rag and cleaning. She just did whatever mommy did. Once again, she wasn’t able to help alot, but the witness of families serving together made it worth it and very powerful to behold!
I think the most important thing is to be willing to demonstrate how to help and work together with them. Including them no matter what will have such an impact on their lives too. Mommy might not be able to get as much done, but you are serving together and younger children are gaining a love for others at the same time!
Another thing that was important…we only did half days (from 9am-1pm) so the children were still able to get naps and avoid being too cranky. This seemed to work well.
All in all…it worked well…and it was a blessing to see families serving together!