· We made a church-wide announcement for the need of food for our Morsels for Many (food pantry) in April, and HBF responded in a big way, so we were able to restock the shelves and also give away 3 boxes of food in April, thanks church family!
· HBF had their Vision Conference from 4-8 thru 4-15 that a few of our folks attended, it was an amazing time that you could still listen to by going to
· One of our men celebrated 3 years sober in April.
· Some of our leaders went together and bought a walker for a handicapped sponsor on 4-9.
· Three of our leaders went with a team of people to visit a Veteran’s home in Warrensburg MO on 4-14, with author, speaker, and retired Army Sergeant Major Doug Carrigan; they led one man to Christ there!
· There were also 3 salvations directly related to Life Issues in April, and a couple of other professions of faith that I know about through our leaders, so I’m rejoicing with the angels in heaven – Luke 15:10!
· One of our leaders helped one of our students to sell some things on eBay, to them make some money.
· I participated in a memorial service for one of our former supporter’s mother on 4-16, and he let me know that she had been sober for the last 5 years of her life, after having gotten saved via our church’s ministry!
· We helped a husband and wife obtain steel-toed work shoes on 4-18, so that they could work at WCA.
· We paid for one night’s stay at a motel for a homeless lady on 4-24.
· One of our students got his license a couple of months ago, but was able to get a clean title on his vehicle in April, then get it inspected & licensed on 4-30, so he’s now legal and on the road and very thankful!
· One of our students was accepted into a group home in Peculiar, and they moved in there on 4-30.
· We currently have 5 folks going through our program locally and a couple more that are incarcerated!
· We were able to provide community service to several people in April and at our garage sale!
· One of our leaders, Brenda W., received her Master of Art in Organizational Development degree on 5-5, we’re really proud of her and her accomplishments!
· AMC theaters gave us 12 movie tickets for our Recovery Walk last fall and they gave us 10 more recently, so we plan to take everyone (at least 22 people) who helped with the Garage Sale to a movie on 5-19!
An anonymous donor gave us $1000 in April, and we raised another $3800 (a record for us) at our Garage Sale on 5-4 & 5-5, so Life Issues is fully funded going into the summer. We still have to haul away all the things that didn’t sell, but I was amazed at all the things that were donated. I’m guessing that it would have taken 2 semi-trucks to hold all that was donated, and by God’s grace we sold most of it. We had an army of volunteers and I won’t try and name them except to say THANKS! This was a team effort that the Drug Court clients assisted our volunteers with, so we’re thankful for them partnering with us! I will mention that Jim W. was the leader of this effort; he spent the last 2+ months accumulating items at the facility that was loaned to us for free, and he and his wife, Brenda, did an amazing job of organizing and displaying items, as well as selling them!
The highlights of the Garage Sale for me, were seeing people get something/s that truly fit a need in their life; one lady spent over an hour going through piles of clothes and picking out things for her kids. We began to dialogue with her some and found out that she’s going through a divorce and was in dire need, so we decided to just give her all four boxes of items that she wanted. Another lady came to shop and realized that we were the recovery group that she had attended a couple of years ago, at the beginning of her recovery, so she spent the next 4 hours volunteering and helping us, and then her and her husband came to our meeting that night! Many good contacts were made, I personally witnessed to a half dozen folks and prayed with one man who’s struggling. Another couple that we met at the Garage Sale, are coming to a meeting tonight, so many secondary things took place in addition to raising funds!
Sincerely, Steve Fleshman – Life Issues pastor and founder, Proverbs 4:23…
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