club hope

After finding out that there are homeless families living at a certain hotel in the city, we were anxious to get a team together to go in and share Jesus with the kids.  Matt was able to easily get permission from the hotel management to have a Club Hope there and was asked to make up invitations so they could pass them out to all the families.   

Brianna spent most of Friday making 96 cupcakes!  We were able to purchase the ingredients as well as some Hoodsie Cups with a gift card a local grocery store gave to Matt when he shared our mission with them.  Bri did a fabulous job!  (every one of the cupcakes were gone by the end of club!)

We got together team of our family plus 3 adults and 4 teenagers. 

We arrived at the hotel in the freezing cold and as we were preparing the room, the fire alarm went off.  We went outside and saw parents coming out of the hotel with children without coats or shoes.  We offered them our van for shelter and many of them took us up on the offer.  We took advantage of the opportunity to remind them of what we were there to do!  After a few minutes we were clear to go back in and resume preparation. 

We were able to reach 30 kids and 11 adults with the Gospel!  One single mom to five kids stuck around for both of the sessions and asked if she could come to church with us.  We plan to pick her up and bring her and her children next week.  Kids wanted to be held and loved on.  They loved singing the songs and learning the Bible verse.

Brianna had them captivated with the Bible lesson.  She did an excellent job weaving the Gospel into the story.

 The kids got all the questions to the review game right and we anxious to find out the final score to see which team won.  It was such a special time!  God keeps breaking my heart more and more for kids like these.

We are looking for a church or group of Believers who will go into this hotel on a regular basis to minster to these families. Maybe even hold a children's church service there?   The hotel staff has asked us to come back weekly!  Since a main goal of our ministry is to cultivate authentic relationships, Matt is going to pray hard and prioritize finding Christ-followers to "do it to the least of these".  

On a final note.....   During the fire alarm, a young woman got into our van to keep her two month old baby out of the cold.  He was crying inconsolably.  After about 5 minutes, I got into the van, sat next to the mother, and took her baby  boy.  I was thankful I could settle him and get him to sleep.  As I looked at him, I couldn't help but wonder what the future held for him.  I wondered if he was going to grow up to live in hopelessness or if he would ever know the hope that is Hope.  Jesus.  I prayed for him.  Over and over I prayed as I looked at him, taking in every little feature visible through the hat and the fleece blanket I had swaddled him in.  I prayed that God would make Himself know to baby Jaeden and that He would draw him to Himself, show Him Jesus at an early age, and make him a man of God.  That is why we are trying to reach the kids- so from childhood they can know God, know His love and grace, make decisions that are pleasing to Him and as a result change the course of a new generation.   God can totally do that.