Updates and Shelter Schedule

The last several weeks have been very productive and encouraging as we continue to build our presence and relationships in the community. The Lord has been so faithful in providing continual opportunities to expand our outreaches and relationships with new individuals, churches, and partners as well as deepening the existing ones. Every day I am taken back by how he makes connections and seems to show up in ways I never would have expected. This week alone, every day I had multiple meetings with Cornerstone Christian School and Restoration Academy about our involvement with them throughout the rest of this school year and into the next year. They are beginning to trust and love our persistent desire to join in ministry with them and we are overwhelmed with exciting ideas of how this will play out in the near future. I also met this week with a pastor of a church in Woodlawn who has desire to reach out into the community, and we were able to share the heart and vision of our churches and begin a relationship that we hope will continue to grow. The new health clinic in Woodlawn, Christ Health Center, has just started seeing patients and it was so exciting this week to meet with their staff and see how we can assist their ministry with their patients. The many other meetings and activities of this week are too many to elaborate, but some highlights were: judging a student talent show at Cornerstone, attending the monthly Woodlawn Business Association meeting and hearing genuine desire to help the needs of the community, working at a neighborhood community cleanup day in Woodlawn, helping with a multi-church outreach event in downtown Birmingham last weekend, planning upcoming workdays at Cornerstone and in Fairfield, moving into our new office, finally having health insurance (praise the Lord!), and much more! The Lord has been so faithful to gently guide our young church in the way that we should be part of this community and to grow us closer to His heart. Pray that he will continue to give me and the rest of the church wisdom and discernment as we seek to be faithful and obedient to serve in the best ways and to give of ourselves selflessly.

As a reminder, we are continuing to serve meals at the Family Homeless Shelter every Tuesday night at 6:30 and are always looking for more people to volunteer some time this night of the week. I helped this past week and was able to have some great conversations with several of the residents and really felt like they were beginning to open up to our people. There are 5 families staying there again and this a great opportunity to build a consistent relationship with all of them. This is an updated schedule of who is serving each week and what dates are open:

April 14: Eli Johnson, Bill Rowe, and friends
April 21: Loudon Family and Greg Robinson
April 28: Glass and Pittmans
May 5: deVillenueves and Amanda Blake
May 12: Johnsons and Sizemores
May 19: Michelle Reid and Claire H.
May 26:
June 2:
June 9:
June 16:
June 23:
June 30: