Day 5 in a nutshell- we pulled weeds until our hands were raw and then we pulled the small weeds.

Day 6- we started the morning at Riverside Tabernacle with a service before our grocery distribution.  It was a cool outreach, but the volunteers had been touched by tragedy because one of their most loyal volunteers had been brutally murdered just days earlier.  It was a sober reminder that the violence and crime of this city was not confined to those who lived lives that cried for it, but that servant hearted people were the victims as well.

However, the most transformational moments happened after our outreach was over.  Over the course of the last few days, a story has been unfolding in one young family where a girl who has been hiding from the Lord and battling drug addiction, came back to faith on Sunday, prayed for the strength to enter rehab on Monday and brought her sister to the same place today.  At the same time, a lady who had been faced with the tragic loss of her fiancee arrived at the church, hoping there was someone there to pray.  In both of these cases, Freedom Center North had been their home and after extended absences, both found that the key to the front door still fit.  It is amazing the reliance on the power of prayer here.  I can’t tell you how many times mid-task everyone in the building dropped everything to gather and pray and the Lord would speak profoundly.  It was beautiful to see that there is a sense of the greatest resource this church owns is an audience with God and the willingness to use it.