The Way Things Often Work

One thing you can count on is that you can't really count on anything happening the way you would expect it to!  In the last few weeks we have seen this truth lived out in our lives in a way we would never have expected.

Many of you remember that in November of 2009 we started a ministry to the homeless in Antigua and called it "Soup Run".  It was kind of born out of frustration a little--I'm just being honest.  We had been noticing a LOT of people in the streets just passed out drunk. It was frustrating to try to help them and have absolutely nothing work.  We tried even buying them food from a tienda (store) and had seen at least one of them return the food for the money.  So, we decided that if we made something and brought it to them they wouldn't be able to return it.  We could also start to build relationships with these people and try to minister to their needs.

How could we know that this would become something so big in our lives?  It never started out that way.

We have been doing soup run now for over a year and we feed roughly 50 people a week with it.  It's also become a medical situation because of many injuries and sicknesses that the homeless suffer.  We've been dispensing antibiotics (if they have a doctor's prescription), tylenol for pain, bandaging wounds, cleaning sores, and trying to fight off infection in many instances. 

All of this has helped us to build relationships with these people.  This morning, while we were cleaning some wounds and replacing bandages, they told us that they pray for us and our family every morning.  They also spend time every morning reading the New Testament we were able to bring them and discussing it before they head off for their day.  Many of them work--surprising, but, true.  They don't make enough to afford a house or apartment, so they live on the street.

We've talked about Charlie in the past.  He is doing well, living in rehab and getting his life straightened out.  There is another man, Kuka, who wants to go to rehab and we will be taking him to Teen Challenge on Monday.  These are lives who are coming off the streets and learning to walk in faith and allowing God to heal them.  It's exciting to see.

Tomorrow, we are picking up the ministry bus that will help us to be more effective and serve more people.  It's a mini bus that has been renovated into a functioning clinic with room for a small kitchen area to make food and a movie screen to show Christian videos.  We were blessed by friends with the money to purchase the bus, insure it, and money to keep it running for one year!  God is so good!

We have the opportunity to use this bus in other areas around our valley to minister to more homeless and needy people.  There is so much need!  We will be needing support to keep it stocked with the equipment we need to meet those needs--medical supplies, food, clothing, material needs, evangelistic materials (bibles, tracts, videos...). 

Will you pray about partnering with us?