11/19/10

Friday is our last day in Alabama. We wish we could stay longer to get to know more of the guys better. We also love the slower pace of things here.

We had a teaching early this morning and another one at dinner time at His Place. They are really lucky to have such great teachers come in and speak life into the guys. You can tell that the volunteer teachers really care about the guys.

One member of our team spent some time at the thrift store talking with one of the newer guys and was able to pray with him before his court appearances. He told us today that both of his cases had been dropped! God is merciful and loving.

Now it’s time for bed as the team is getting up super early for the first day of deer hunting season out at the farm. Pray for us! And pray for the guys at His Place in Opelika, Alabama, that God would continue to do a work in their hearts and make them mighty men of God.

11/18/10

Today was a big high for our team in Alabama. Going back to work at the thrift store every day can be really daunting. The work is tiring, but the biggest challenge is just having to face the piles of donations that need sorted and boxed and tested. At the beginning we didn’t know what difference we could make with such a mountain set before us. But today we cleared out the entire center area of toys and other unsorted things! The visible change really was a shock everyone
- the guys, the store workers, and our team as well. People kept saying how amazing it was to see the floor again. We realized that with God you really can move mountains… literally!

After lunch our team got to visit Hope’s Inn / Hosanna House. The drive from Opelika was just beautiful. Us city boys loved seeing the farms and horses and country towns and houses along the way. And the home itself is amazing and so much larger than I had imagined. Besides the bedrooms there are kids play rooms, places for the ladies to lounge and meet together, and a wing that has a free community clinic.
They’ve also started work on a prayer garden on some donated land. The team was blessed to get to see it all.

We visited a friend from Times Square Church on our way back to town.
I was laughing that I was sipping homemade Indian chai tea and snacking on curry venison in a trailer home on a dirt road in Alabama talking about deer hunting. Ha ha! God has a great sense of humor.

One of our team went to a prayer meeting with some of the ministry staff, leaders, and guys from His Place. I stayed back and got to know a few more of the guys. Also I discovered that they have a meeting room in the back and an exercise area in the garage with a ping pong table. I lost every game i played, but it was a lot of fun. I thank God that He gave us this opportunity to spend time with the guys here at His Place.

Here are some before and after photos of the donation mountains:

11/17/10

We are loving Alabama!

Wednesday was another day living and working with the guys at His Place. During our day working at the thrift store we took a break to attend the Harvest Evangelism staff meeting. Pastor Rick and Miss Kim were there with the heads of each ministry. We listened at they made preparations for the upcoming christmas season. There is a lot of work required to make everything happen! Pastor Rick was also full of great stories that had us all laughing. He told us that Times Square Church is their largest supporter and what a blessing the church and the visiting teams are to the ministry there.

We attended church again tonight. The senior pastor came around and interviewed each of us on the team and asked about our backgrounds, why we came to Alabama, how we got involved with BrickThink, and similar questions. You always have to be prepared on the mission field!

Before bed I had a great conversation with a few of the guys at His Place. We stayed up late talking about the program here and how God is changing their lives. I had the opportunity to encourage them and remind them that it’s all about that personal relationship with Jesus.
I think was the best part of the trip for me and the real reason we came on this missions trip. The work we do is a great help, but the personal interactions with the guys is the best part.

Tue Nov. 16

We are tired… but joyful.

We spent the entire day as one of the guys, minus house chores. Today that meant early morning devotions, cereal breakfast, and thrift store work all day.

Working at the thrift store really teaches you humility, obedience, endurance, and working under authority. Just looking at the work set before us could have been overwhelming. Actually it kind of was. Our team helped sort through “The Wall”, a large area of donations that had to be separated and sent for processing and pricing.The mounds of items were enormous and chaotic and full of crazy things.

But we decided when we came that we would do whatever our hosts asked us to do. We trust that working with the guys here will bless them, teach us something in the process, and bring glory to God. I was amazed at what was accomplished. Throughout the day we got to chat with some of the guys and encourage them as best we could. We feel that they’re starting to open up to us more as they try to understand why we would come here and help.

One of the team mentioned that he felt God was teaching him to trust God’s daily will. We have to trust that our efforts, which He called us to do, will not be vain.

Mon. – Nov. 16

6:30 am devotions are early, at least for me. But it’s a great way to start the day. That’s what happens every day here at His Home. The guys gather for a time in the Word before chore time and getting ready for the day.

After breakfast our team got to work with the guys. We piled in vans and went to the thrift store where we had devotions again with the other folks working there. Then we attacked the mounds of donations that have to be sorted into item type, priced, and put on display in the store. our small team was working on pulling the toys out of the piles and filling huge cardboard bins. We were told that these were being sent to Mexico to bless the kids down there.

Just when the mounds were getting overwhelming, we were invited to attend the staff meeting for the Harvest Evangelism team. It was great to observe how things get done in the ministry and hear about all the amazing work that goes out and helps people in the community as well as the men and women in the programs.

We finished the work day delivering flyers to churches all over town. Harvest Evangelism hosts a Thanksgiving dinner every year where they give out more than 1,000 plates of food to the community. It’s amazing how God provides all the food and volunteers to accomplish such a work.

After dinner we got to attend a teaching at His Place. It was a great word about Temptation that applies to men whether you’re from Alabama, New York, or where ever you’re from. It was insightful, challenging, practical, and encouraging.

Sat-Sun Nov. 13-14

Our first two days in Alabama have been less brick and more think.

Our small team flew into Atlanta where we met up with a few recognizable faces from TSC. Surprise! You never know who you’ll see on the mission field. We packed into a minivan and drove about an hour and a half into the central time zone. Some of Alabama looks a lot like the the rest of the country, but nothing like New York City. I saw an old tractor filing up at a gas station.

Our first stop was “the farm”. This is where the guys spend their first six months in the His Place program. For one team member this was his first time ever on a farm. At the end of a red-dirt road is a house full of bedrooms with common areas and weight room, a vegetable garden, cows, and some new house trailers that they hope to set up soon to expand capacity.

Back in town we got to see some of the other parts of the Harvest Evangelism operation. The Harvest Thrift Super Center is in a former Wal*Mart store. That should give you an idea of how enormous the place is. The administrative offices for the ministry are in the back of the store. The donation sorting area looks to be quite an operation. We might see some action here during the week as they could really use some extra help.

We stopped in at His Place, the city portion, where the guys stay for their second six months before graduating from the program. They’ve taken over an industrial building and turned it into a men’s home. The bedrooms house 3 men each, and then there are common living, dining, kitchen, bathroom, and laundry facilities. We got to meet a bunch of the guys who were around and get some lunch. We found out that all the food is donated to the center, so you never know what you’re going to get.

Desmond took us on a tour of the town of Opelika and nearby Auburn. There was a football game happening in Auburn, so the entire town was full of people tailgating. We spent a good portion of the afternoon watching the football game with some of the staff. We really needed this down time to rest and recover. Since we missed dinner at His Place, we found a restaurant and shared our testimonies with each other and had a great time of fellowship. Then it was back to His Place to crash for the night.

Sunday morning was a blessing. We had a church service at the Woodshop with the guys from the program and all the staff. There’s nothing like praise and worship with a room full of men. There wasn’t really a sermon for that day, so we had a great time of sharing. The ministers running the service shared about how God had provided in miraculous ways in their lives and for the ministry. One of the young guys in the program gave his testimony. Then they asked all three of us from New York to share our testimonies. Each of our stories were so very different, but everyone said they were really blessed that about the things shared.

The rest if the morning was spent at First Baptist Opelika Church. We attended Sunday School with the young people and then church service with everyone. After getting some lunch back at His Place, we had some more time to relax and talk with each other about God. And then it was back to Church.

Our hands were idle, but it was a great blessing to build each other up in our faith. Someone told us that the program here is simply Jesus in the morning, Jesus in the afternoon, and Jesus in the evening.