Oct 19th Prayer Update
“The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; he is their stronghold in the time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.”
We were thankful to have several from Berkeley who are with Imago Dei join us during this last outreach. A year ago, they sent several volunteers to observe how we conduct our homeless outreaches to get ideas for their ministry. It was a pleasure to have them join us again. We are blessed by their commitment to minister to the homeless in Berkeley as well as the homeless here in Contra Costa County.
We were able to pass out 13 English language Bibles, one Spanish Bible, and three booklets on overcoming addictions during this outreach. The Lord was kind to provide us with many opportunities for gospel conversations.
Our team were able to reconnect with Angie and Maya. They both remembered our ministry, and we were enabled to have a good connection with them once again. Maya expressed interest in our RV Bible Study. It is a process which sometimes take numerous encounters for the homeless to see the consistency of faithful care and the building of real relationships with those we meet.
We were sad to hear an update from Lonny that he recently divorced his wife of 35 years, Nikki. He is pictured with Alicia who says she reads portions of her Bible though without focus of any sort. Lonny admits he only feels close to God when his prayers are answered. The team shared Psalm 1 with the couple concerning meditating on God's word. We took down Lonny's phone number in hopes of offering him another Bible study on our ministry RV. Lonny asked for prayer for success in starting a construction business.
Andre asked for prayer for his family, health, protection, and provision. During our conversation with him, he was very talkative in sharing other beliefs he has. The team shared the gospel with him through prayer. We have found prayer to be one of the most effective ways to end a gospel presentation without being interrupted. We were able to provide him with a Bible, some food, water, and we took down his cell phone number as a potential Bible study candidate.
Our team had a lengthy discussion with Paul who was sitting at the entrance of his camper. Paul has a church background and has read portions of the Bible in the past. Paul says he "trusts in Jesus" for himself and has been baptized. Since he didn’t have a Bible the team offered him one and talked about the importance of Bible study and fellowship. Paul expressed an interest in having a Bible study with us. We took down his phone number hoping to schedule that with him. Overall this was a very encouraging conversation.
Derik (on the bike) shared with us that he has a daughter who was born a week ago. However since the baby's mother chose to do drugs right after the baby was born, she was removed from her care. He said he grew up around drugs and stays away from them. Derik claims to be excited to be a dad. He accepted a Bible. We prayed for him, his new daughter, the baby's mother and that God would lead him to saving faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior.
JOIN US!
Our Next Outreach is November 2nd 2024
Please consider serving during a Saturday Outreach in one of the following ways:
1) Prepare Lunches
2) Evangelism at the Homeless Camps
3) Volunteer Breakfast
4) Cookies for Volunteers
Our ministry is a labor of love with the main purpose of providing gospel hope through practical means to the homeless. Thank you for serving alongside of us!
We continue to pray for those who might be able to contribute a small additional monthly gift of $25 or $50 a month to help with ongoing Hope680 expenses, including our ministry supplies, offices, and RV maintenance. We are trusting God to continue to provide through you!
FYI Our Executive Staff and Leaders (including Toby and all team leaders) are unpaid volunteers - all donations go 100% towards the running of Hope680, including administrative contractors, our facilities, and RV maintenance costs, as well as ministry supplies.