From a Team Expansion worker:
Almost a year ago, we asked God for 25 family-to-family Gospel-sharing relationships, and He quickly answered, exceeding our expectations (as He’d promised He would).
Throughout the year, we have prayed with all of these families and grown quite close to some of them. We have had many opportunities to share the Gospel of grace with families. We’ve been invited into homes, and hosted families in our house and with our believing neighbors. This alone is a testimony of God’s goodness and faithfulness.
Many of these families are refugee families, and many have been in the US for a year or less. And though each family has grown more secure, most still rely on some level of government assistance. We were concerned as the news kept saying that food assistance benefits would be eliminated or cut. In fact, one refugee resettlement agency active in Southwest Michigan reached out to ask whether we would take on more families to ensure food stability in the coming weeks.
A Leap of Faith
Together with our neighbors, we prayed about how to respond and for the well-being of the families we were working with. We decided to take on 14 more families and promised two food deliveries for each family during November. We did not know how we would get food for that many families, but we figured we could buy food if we could not find partners or donations.
Since accepting those additional families, God has provided a bounty of food and staples for the families we work with! We connected with a local organization that distributes produce that would otherwise go to waste. Churches and other organizations donated food boxes for the first round of deliveries. And a partner church that sought to bless the children of these families pivoted from providing winter clothes to providing food staples – for 50 families!
At this moment, our sunroom is filled with 29 completed food boxes and the ingredients for 21 more! We are preparing this week, together with our neighbors, to take this second round of boxes to families.
Not Just Food, but the Gospel, too
With the boxes, we plan to pray and share the Gospel with families. Just in the first round of food deliveries, there are so many stories we could share that have made us laugh and reflect on God’s goodness. I am excited for this next round of deliveries and for an upcoming celebration with the children of many of these families.
Many of these families and their children will come together in the basement of a local church for a Christmas celebration and story. That evening, we plan to share personal gifts with more than 100 children while we again share the story of a God who loved us so much that he sent His only Son.
This year, when we asked for books to take to families, God provided not hundreds of books, but thousands! He knew that we needed books not just to bring to families, but to equip a school He is building to serve some of these children.
I can’t stop thinking about the generous heart of God. He has answered prayers throughout the year and has provided in ways that we would have considered impossible. God has brought believers who give sacrificially to serve these families and to equip us to serve. It shouldn’t surprise me — He is so good, He gave us His Son. But I am amazed and surprised again and again at His generous heart.
