Making a difference update, from the recovery field – April 2016 edition…
April was a busy and productive month for Life Issues; one of the highlights was the Biblical counselling conference in Saint Louis that 8 of our leaders were able to attend, see the picture attached to the email. The training was very pro-Bible and pro-local church, so I was pleased with their approach to counselling. I felt like our recovery ministry was in-line with the viewpoints presented, and that Life Issues is a key ministry that God is using as an “entry point” for the addicted to be introduced to the church (God’s support group).
Speaking of Biblical counselling, one of our leaders, Brenda W, graduated from Calvary Bible College on May 7th, 2016, with her MA in Biblical Counselling. Please join me in congratulating Brenda on this prestigious accomplishment; she has worked long and hard for this degree, and we rejoice with her that this chapter of her life and training is complete!
We made some changes to our Life Issues website in April, we added a tab with “Recovery Quotes”, intended to inspire and assist the addicted with recovery. We also amended our “Resources” tab, with some helpful links to companies that hire felons and resources to help felons become employed, specifically in the Cass County MO area, so feel free to point a loved one to our website if they are in need of that type of assistance. Check out these new features on our website (http://www.lifeissuesonline.org) and let me know if you have some helpful quotes that you would like to see added.
A lady that came to us from our jail ministry, got baptized and joined our church in April, and she is now starting HBF’s discipleship, PTL! Another one of our students and his wife completed HBF’s discipleship course in April, so we rejoice with them! We had one man start our TATs program in April too, and one lady re-started our Journey Home program. The lady that re-started The Journey Home program, will qualify to regain custody of our children if she completes it, so we are excited for her and glad to play this important role in the legal system, and to work with her case worker to see her become successful in recovering her life (she also came to church the last couple of Sundays).
We received delivery of 48 Life Recovery Bibles from Tyndale Publisher in April, and we plan to use them as award Bibles for different achievements. I’m personally reading through one of these Bibles and am enjoying the practical applications in the study notes, as well as the recovery steps and principals. All of these Bibles are soft back King James Version (KJV) Bibles, that have Life Recovery steps in them, and although we don’t actually use these steps in our program at this time, they are very helpful to the addicted and also for practical application of scripture.
David C. delivered a wonderful testimony on the Final Friday of April (4-29), to over 30 in attendance. David just celebrated one year of sobriety, and he recently achieved our alumni status, so we rejoice with him and his accomplishments! David emphasized that it wasn’t anything he did to get victory, he just realized his powerlessness over alcohol and submitted to do God’s will on a daily basis to be made free!
Lastly, our garage sale fundraiser was a huge success; this two-day event (5-6 & 5-7) raised a little over $3000 for Life Issues Ministry (LIM), all praise be to Jesus! The weather was great, there was a great outpouring of generous donations, and there was a great spirit of cooperation among our leaders and students that worked diligently. We made dozens of good contacts, and at least 2 or 3 potential new students professed to need our services and committed to come to our meeting/s. I prayed with a lady who wants me to come and talk to her son, I saw another one of our leaders praying with a couple of ladies, and we were able to give out over a hundred trifolds and gospel tracts, and a dozen or more Bibles. So, there was a good outreach to the lost and hurting, there was a good in reach among the LIM team, and we couldn't have accomplished these things without our new friend Fred Sudheimer, who donated his used car / U-Haul lot and storage unit, and Jim W. , who had the vision and desire to spearhead this event.
Sincerely, Steve Fleshman – Life Issues pastor and founder, Proverbs 4:23…
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