Thank you!

2 views

Skip to first unread message

Burnett, Knox

unread,

Dec 22, 2011, 8:56:55 PM12/22/11

to Annette Proctor, Mike Stacy, pet...@scm-arch.com, Jesus Christ Only TV, Mikhail Shevchuk, Sarah Roquemore, ugm...@googlegroups.com, Robertson, Sam, Johnny Valencia, Valentin Guerra, Dan Hammer, Dave Turissini, dave.ch...@gmail.com, Dave Irish, dana...@gmail.com, Keith Baedke, noah cooley, Heather Malo, Steven...@gmail.com, chi...@live.com, ch...@buserfamilyband.com, Liz Ulloa, Larry Yocom / Gallery Frames, ihearta...@gmail.com, Diaz, Mary Pauline, Fran Dunlap

Merry Christmas!!!!

I just wanted to send out a little note to all of you who have made this year so special and have blessed this community with your hearts and talents! I was sitting in my office this morning thinking through what has happened in this place in the last year and just began to laugh at the miraculous goodness of our God. Around this time last year we were beginning to plan out the first steps of our transition into a relational model of ministry and dream about what it might look like to have volunteers actually befriending our guests rather than just passing them a tray or preaching at them. It has been a hard long year, like all transitions, but the Lord has been so faithful to bring about his will here! Many of you are involved with different things from devotions, to bingo, to drama class, to art groups. Some of these experiments have been received by the community and some haven’t, but regardless of what has happened, the guys are beginning to understand that we care about them and that they are loved! This has been the goal all along. I can say from being a part of this community for over 2 years that your faces have changed their faces…and I know from talking with many of you, the opposite has also happened. This is the beauty of God, that as his beloved children play together, they change and heal each other.

So, thank you all so much for the ways in which you have played in the shelter and given yourselves unabashedly to a group of men whom everyone else has rejected. I am always amazed at what happens when we actually follow the way of Jesus instead of just talk about it. He came to bless and love his children and show them who they really are…and that is what we have tried to do as well. I am so pleased to report to all of you that after a year’s time, we have a waiting list of guys trying to get into our program that is in the 20’s and a graduation rate higher than ever before! When we thought about healing this is more than we expected, but that is what we have come to expect from our God.

May each of you have a Merry Christmas, we look forward to the amazing things that God will do in 2012. It will be an adventure!