I'm sorry it's been so long since I've made a new post! We continue to walk by faith and not by sight! The Lord is so faithful!
This past month our family continues to minister to people in our community who find themselves in the devastating situation of homelessness. I've never personally been homeless (Sarah writing), but my husband has been. I can't imagine all that goes through your mind. I think you begin to feel inferior to those around you. Sadly, many people DO view homeless people as less than themselves. The Lord has put such a compassion in my family's hearts towards helping these people.
Mikey, our 6 year old often includes homeless people in his prayers, especially when he notices that it's raining outside. He is very sensitive to the fact that there are so many people with no shelter from the rain.
As the warmer weather has begun here in NC, we notice more and more people standing on street corners with cardboard signs seeking assistance. Our hearts long to have a facility to offer these people hope, a home, safety, dignity - and above all, first and foremost the opportunity to be introduced to Jesus Christ as their savior.
Now, I'm going to be straightforward - always, through all of this journey, with each of you that walk this path with us through prayer, love, support, finances - I will always be honest with you.
Faith is soooooooo scary!!!!!
We humans really put a lot of stock in our sight! We see the giants, we see the storms! We see the lack of funding and lack of location. But our amazing God has given us story after story of His faithfulness. David defeated Goliath because he wasn't looking at Goliath, he was looking at His mighty God! Gideon had an army of thousands of men and the Lord said "uh uh.....you don't need that many" and the army was reduced to 300 men.
Why does God do this? I believe it's so that we learn to recognize just how awesome and capable God is! He matures us, He grows our faith.
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1
"We walk by faith and not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7
"Lord if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." Matthew 14:28
Peter walked on the water to Jesus - when he had his eyes fixed on Jesus! Once he looked around and saw through his human eyes - he thought to himself, this is impossible, I should be sinking! And he began to sink!
The lease for our apartment is up May 31st. We have prayed and sought the Lord's direction and have felt confident that this ministry - Victory Life Center - is of the Lord. We don't want this to be of our strength, our power, our finances. We want this to be all God's doing.
Well, this is really going to be all on His faithfulness, because guess what?! The Pollie's can't do this!!! We don't have the funds, we don't have a location. We have the heart and compassion, we have the spirit of God leading us and we have faith that God IS going to come through on this.
Each day we remind each other to keep our eyes on our mighty God and not on the situation at hand. Our eyes begin to notice we're packing boxes and reserving a moving truck but we have no idea where we are going! We find great encouragement in the journey of Abraham and Sarah when the Lord told them to "go to the land I will show you" (Genesis 12:1).
"Lord, I believe! But help my unbelief!" Mark 9:24
All we can do right now is fix our eyes on Him and trust that He is true to His word!
Our initial startup goal is to find a place that can house our family and up to 6 additional adults at a time. Those adults will be prayerfully selected and extended the opportunity to move in to the center and have a chance at rebuilding a life. There will be rules and expectations in place for those desiring to live with us. We truly believe in Victory Life Center. We truly believe that God wants to use our family in this community.
So, how can you help? Make a donation and help us get into a starter facility where we can house up to 6 people! Once we get into a location and bring some people in, we have some various options to seek God's further guidance on generating some income for the ministry.
Pray about the amount of your donation and make checks payable to Victory Life Center. Our mailing address for the next few weeks will be 5328 Park Ave, Apt A, Wilmington, NC 28403. If you want to mail a donation after May 20th, please check with us to see if this is still the best address to use! You can also make a donation through our donate button through paypal at our website http://churchatwilmington.yolasite.com/victory.php
I'm very eager to see the way God shows up and brings about the funding and location and to meet the first 6 people who will join us!
Thank you for reading, for praying, for giving, for sharing the excitement of this faith journey!!
God bless you,
With Love,
Sarah & Family :D
