Live Out Loud

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Testimony Reports

Live out Loud is our church theme for 2008.

These are our stories of how God used us to 
Live Out Loud

VC Kindness Project

The Challenge:
Each Small group was given a challenge based on parable of the talents found in Matthew 25:14-30. Each group was given a talent ($20) and they were asked to work as a group to use that talent to do a kindness project to show God's love in a tangible way to someone. The testimonies are listed below.

 

Group 1

Our Vitally Connected Group listened to the challenge presented by Pastor Lance and began to share ideas of how we could take the $20.00 and make it grow into a larger blessing.  So we turned the $20.00 into $200.00, and got started.

 

First of all we heard of a woman who said she was disabled and needed food.  She said she was unable to pick the food up, so we went shopping, bought a load of staples to get her through a week and took it to her home. 

 

It didn’t turn out exactly as we had pictured it, but we gave her the food, invited her to church, and blessed her.   We felt that we had done what the Lord wanted us to do, and we left it in His hands.

 

Then we decided to purchase roses and cards for as many widows and widowers and single older adults in our church family as we could.  We signed the cards with a lot of love!  We heard back from many who received them, saying that it brightened their day and made them feel special.  But we felt that it blessed us more to be able to express our love to all of them.

 

The last project we took on was a little more challenging.  We knew of a young mother who had made some choices that separated her from her family and her children.  We knew she wasn’t living in a very good situation, and we weren’t sure about the safety of the neighborhood or really how we could locate her.  So we prayed for her for several weeks, and then on Valentines Day we set out to find her.  We took a Red Rose, a Card that was signed by all of us, and a small lunch.  Then we began knocking on doors.

 

The miracle was that we did find her, and she allowed us into the home where she was living.  She received what we brought her, and even let us give her a hug!  We were so thankful that we had the opportunity to remind her that God loves her, and that He knows exactly where she is.

 

With the remaining money, we were able to purchase Valentine Cards, and 2 little Sterling Silver Cross Pendants, and present them to this young woman’s two small daughters.  We have committed to continue praying for this small family, and we are asking God to bring a miracle of restoration into this situation.

 

We thank the Lord for the opportunity to serve others in these small ways!

 

 

Group 2

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We're very excited to let you know how the Lord multiplied that $20 that Pastor Lance brought to our VC Group. We talked about several possibilities that first night, then prayed throughout the week. When we met the following week, we chose one particular need that really moved all of us to want to help. On Nita's last trip to Uganda in January, she met a widow with 7 children living in the most appalling conditions.  She lived in a "house" the size of a closet, literally (see enclosed photo). She put newspapers on the walls and ceiling to try to keep it from leaking when it rained--which didn't help much at all. The Christian social worker we were with that day told us any money she makes doing odd jobs goes to help some of her children go to school. Uganda has no free public education. There are no government programs to help a widow in this situation. If we could raise enough money to help pay school fees for her children, she could move to a bigger structure. We gave the money to one of our group members (Paul Turner), to purchase an item at a yard sale--selling for $20. He then put the item (an amplifier) up for sale on e-bay. He expected we might get $100 for it. We prayed, and got much more--$256! Others, even outside our group, heard about it and wanted to help. Altogether, the $20 grew to $562! We plan to have Assist International wire the funds to Sam Tushabe, the Director of A.O.E.T., a Ugandan ministry,  who will make sure that the funds will help this Christian sister and her children.
 
"Religious worship that is pure in the sight of God is this: to help widows and orphans in their need, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."
James 1:27
 
Group 3
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As we we're trying to decide what project to take on as a home-group, we really wanted to do something that our kids could participate in.  We have a lot of young kids in our group and we wanted them to be able experience the thrill of ministry and giving and letting God use you.  We decided to make sack lunches and go to downtown Modesto to try to find homeless people we could feed.  We all got together on Friday night and spent the evening putting together almost 50 great sack lunches.  We really weren't sure where we would find these people or even if we could find anybody at all who would accept lunches from total strangers.  As a group we prayed over our sack lunches and asked God to lead us.

 

Saturday morning we all got together and drove downtown.  We were amazed at how many people we found living in freezing weather under plastic tarps along the river.  They were thrilled and extremely grateful to receive our lunches.  The kids had a blast giving out the sacks.  They were shocked to see how other people live and how grateful these people were that we would take the time to minister to them.  It turned out to be a blessing to the people we fed and a great experience for our kids and our whole home-group.

 

Group 4

 

Our group decided to reach out to a military family recommended to us by Linda Gillum, whom Claire met at one of our Memorial Day Services. Linda works for the Government as a liaison to military families currently deployed from this area. She told us about Shannon, whose husband is on a tour of duty in Iraq. Shannon has three daughters, two teens and one pre-teen. Linda told us that Shannon is always reaching out to other families like hers to help them in any way she can. She constantly responds to the needs of these families, and in addition, organizes events to get them together for special occasions.

           

We assembled a commemorative book (6”x8”) with personal messages of appreciation for their sacrifice to our country from each of us. We also wrote several of our favorite scripture verses and included those in the book. Each page was decorated with a valentine theme or appropriate designs relating to the Bible verses. In addition, we decided to give her a card with a cash gift of $60.00 to enjoy.

           

We made our presentation of these gifts during a lovely sit-down dinner prepared by our group and served on Valentine’s Day. Jean Teeple graciously opened up her home and beautifully decorated the tables with a Valentine theme.

           

It was our blessing to meet Linda, Shannon and her daughters and honor them this way. Proverbs 11:25 “He who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”

 

Group 5