Monthly Update - January & February 2022

Making a difference update, from the recovery field – January / February 2022 edition. Below are the highlights that happened in the Life Issues ministry over the last couple of months (new format):



I. Benevolence

· Bought a car battery for one of our ladies on 1-24

· Gave 2 bags of food to a lady on 2-1-22, gave another bag or two in the course of two months. Theresa G. has stepped up to lead our effort to stock and maintain our Morsel’s For Many food pantry, we are currently in a campaign to have items donated to our pantry, see attached flier.

· Gave a night’s stay to a man on 2-11 & worked with HBF to give a week’s stay to a lady around the same time.

· Gave a homeless couple two nights in mid-February, see attached pic of them.

 

· I often only report about people we’re able to help, but I receive at least 1 call per week asking for assistance with something, and I’ve had to turn down several again recently.



II. Jail update

· Zach M. is actively writing to inmates, so that is a blessing for all involved, PTL & thanks Zach!

· Took box of Bibles to Cass County Jail on 1-21-22 for distribution to inmates

· Met with Sargent Wise, from the Cass County Jail, on 2-9-22 concerning our Recovery Curriculum (The Journey Home – TJH) that we want to get into jails and prisons!

· Gave a man a ride from jail to Independence MO on 3-3-22, to help him and his aunt.

· We’ve had two ladies get out of prison recently and both of them failed to visit us as promised, so please pray for us as we endeavor to help folks who make it difficult or reject our help.



III. Church

· Tom M. spent many hours painting and updating our youth trailer, and it looks amazing; attached is a pic of him and I.

 

· Received a request to introduce Life Issues Ministry (LIM) to another church on 1-10-22, but haven’t heard anymore from them, but we’re trying to make our recovery group a reproduceable one.

· Several of our students and leaders are involved in discipleship:

o Discipleship 1: Lynzee C. & Diane T., Chuck H. & Dave B., Sarah L. & Pam J., Matt & Marcy L. & the Bonnesens, Ed M. & Chris C., Sarah W. & Linda J., Kelly T. is working with two ladies in a group setting, Krystal W. and Krista G.!

o Discipleship 2: Dale N., Caleb L. are in Jason M.’s class



IV. Recovery

· Jimmie G. quit smoking cigarettes @ the beginning of year – 2022, and he’s still on the wagon, we’re so proud of him!

· Zach M. is near to completing the Drug Court program, which is a 4 phase / 18-month endeavor. Zach should complete it around April, so we’re look forward to celebrating that milestone with him!

· Heather H. is growing by leaps and bounds, she completed a Moral Reconation Therapy course on 2-21-22 (see attached cert.) and also our TJH recovery curriculum on 2-28-22, we’re so proud of her! Attached is a pic of her and Marcy (another wonderful lady in our group)

· Rebecca W. completed an 8-week parenting class on 3-3-22 (see attached cert.), so proud of her too!

 



V. Events

· The founder of the national PTSD group called Wounded Spirits, and author Doug Carragher, was our guest speaker on 1-14-22 and gave a powerful message in which 3 people gave their life to the Lord, see attached group pic.

 

· We had a Super Bowl party on 2-13, this was also Life Issues’ eleven (11) year anniversary!

· Pastor Gary Haskel from Pennsylvania was our guest speaker on 2-18-22, he gave a great message and really connected with our group too, attached a pic of him with our men’s group!

 

· Lily’s House – 5K run – April 2nd, 2022, cut and paste link below for more details! We support Lily’s House as a community partner, so please give to them generously as the Lord leads you!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aeFBXexo_GgBujZ5m17Z3KQyN4SXorJg/view



VI. People

· Zach M. is actively donating community service hours to HBF and has been a huge blessing to us with many things, i.e. set up and tear down for conferences, assisting kitchen for events, helping home-bound member with tasks they are unable to perform, etc.

· Our Life Issues group helped move Shane W. back to Harrisonville on 1-29, he was one of our original leaders and recovered addicts, attached is a pic of him and Barry.

 

· Cassie A. came home from deployment in the National Guard Reserves in early February, we are so proud of her and thankful for her safe return home!

· Sean Zimmerman died on 2-5-22 and I performed his Memorial Service for his family @ HBF on 2-26-22. Sean came to 5-6 of our recovery meetings, so his death was a shock to us all, see attached pic.

 

· Carol Thompson completed American Red Cross training on 2-3 (Adult & Infant CPR, and first aid), Carol is a huge blessing to our group and helps us however she can!

· Pam J. has been witnessing to a homeless lady on multiple occasions recently and giving her gospel literature, and one of our Intentional Gospel Outreach (IGO) groups has been praying for her. Pat L. has also spoke to her about her need for Christ and I’m happy to report that she has accepted Christ as her personal Lord and savior, halleluiah!

· Testimony of a former student, Charles N.: 

"Hello Steve, I just wanted to let you know how good I am doing in my life. The Lord delivered me from addiction and buy his grace, I have been clean for 3 years and 10 months. I live my life every day, as well as a sinner can, by Jesus' teachings. At 44 years old I am happier now than I have ever been. My life is evidence of God’s grace and mercy. I live in SE Missouri and am the manager of the Goliath house (Sober Living House) and also work a full-time job in construction. Thank you for all your prayers and for planting the seed. 

God bless you and I hope this gives you some strength to continue the great commission."


· Please pray for God to use us mightily in 2022, for without him we can do nothing, sincerely, Steve Fleshman – Life Issues pastor and founder, Proverbs 4:23…

Monthly Update - November & December 2021

Making a difference update, from the recovery field – November / December 2021 edition. Below are the highlights that happened in the Life Issues ministry over the last couple of months (new format):


I. Benevolence

· Gave box of food to lady on 11-4, and we ended up giving 21 bags / boxes for the year 2021.

· HBF and Life Issues helped Rebecca W. with rent, she’s now 1 year clean – see pic of her and son.

· HBF and Life Issues also helped a lady with her water bill and rent in mid-December.

· We gave a couple of gas cards to students in December.

· Helped a homeless man with 2 nights emergency lodging on 12-30 & 12-31

· I often only report about people we’re able to help, but I receive at least 1 call per week asking for assistance with something, and around Christmas I received extra petitions, and I wanted to report that I had to turn 3 individuals down recently, those are hard conversations so please pray for me.



II. Jail update

· Went to court for a couple of inmates on 11-15, we’re currently writing to over 10 inmates.

· I just got a letter showing that one of the inmates completed a School for Evangelism and Discipleship course, signed by the Chaplin.

· One of our former leaders that moved away, Jim W. is now serving with Bates County jail ministry!

· Transported inmate from jail to residence until getting into treatment facility on 11-23

· Gave guy a ride to court and home for the Public Defender’s Office on 12-14

· Here’s an update on the Jail ministry started at one of our Sister churches in Monmouth Illinois: 

"During spring of 2021 the Lord opened a huge door, allowing us to begin ministering to our local county jail. Having originally been given 45 minutes, once a week, we’re now allowed to spend over 2 hours a week ministering to the inmates. We have seen a handful of salvations. In fact, there hasn’t been one Monday where we left the jail questioning if we’re being wise stewards of our time. The inmates are slurping up the word…and it’s been refreshing. Not only is the Lord allowing us to minister to the inmates, but to the staff as well. What a privilege!

We’re very thankful for the custom jail Bibles that HBF shipped to us. Not only has the AV translation been helping the inmates be unified when reading and studying, but the discipleship lessons at the beginning have also served as valuable resources. We’ll often spend the first 30 minutes of our time discussing particular points of the discipleship lessons. These lessons also serve as great resources for the new believers we get to lead to Christ.

Recently, we saw the Lord working intensely in the heart of one of the inmates (I’m talking about the kind with tattoos all over his face that most religious people like to avoid). This man knew he was a sinner who needed a Saviour, but we didn’t want to force or manipulate him into salvation. You see, the seed (God’s word) had been planted within him a few weeks prior. A baby was beginning to develop within the womb; but we could tell that it wasn’t ready to be born yet. Our prayer was that throughout the week, ONE OF THE OTHER INMATES would be able to lead him to Christ (rather than us). The Lord answered that prayer!!! By the time we came back, this man had already professed Christ as his Saviour. He even wrote out what he prayed – probably one of the most beautiful “sinner’s prayer” we’ve ever heard. The best part about what we’re doing is that God isn’t just using us to make disciples in jail, He’s using inmates!"



III. Church

· Our church sent a group of 5 people on a mission trip to southern Mexico to help a missionary in early December and 2 of those folks were leaders in our Life Issues group, PTL (see pic of Mickie speaking at a recent meeting)!

· Lynzee was baptized 11-14, and Jesse got baptized on 12-12-21 – see pics below

· Lynzee and three other folks placed membership @ HBF over the last two months – see pic below

IV. Recovery

· Joe graduated from Hope City on 12-17 and will be coming down to share testimony on 2-25.

· Life Issues made a financial donation to The Lighthouse Ministry in Clinton Missouri in early November, for their assistance in helping us get over 10 individuals into treatment / rehab in 2021.

· We currently have about 8 folks involved in HBF’s discipleship course and 5 going through our “The Journey Home” program, here’s a brief testimony from Heather H., 

“Linda has been helping me work through a lot of my addictions, depressions, and TJH book... it's given me peace in my heart this year... I don't know where I would be without Life Issues and your church's love and support.    Heather H."



V. Events

· Troy L. helped with HBF’s 3-day concrete project (11-5, 6, & 8) and used it as his Pay-It-Forward project for Drug Court. Several other Life Issues folks assisted with this project too, see attached pics.

 

· Christmas 2021 

o Ordered and handed out Life Issues refrigerator magnets, we have more if you want one?!

o Two benevolent church members donated $800 to Life Issues that I was able to distribute to 4 different individuals in need ($200 each), this was a blessing for all involved (one lady wept)!

o We had about 50 in attendance and Santa gave gifts to 7 children

o HBF gave out 23 boxes of food for Christmas meals, over half were to Life Issues folks

· Life Issues held a New Year’s Eve event from 8pm-midnight on 12-31 and watched a Christian movie and 3 people shared their testimony. It was a blessed event and one man really thanked us for helping him to bring in the new year sober – see group pic.

 

VI. People

· Brian and Kalee got married on 11-29, Tom and Niesha got married on 12-6, we’re very happy for these couples!

· I’ll leave you with a couple of verses that are fitting for the new year, 

“Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18, 19



· Please pray for God to use us mightily in 2022, for without him we can do nothing, sincerely, Steve Fleshman – Life Issues pastor and founder, Proverbs 4:23…

Monthly Update : September & October 2021

Making a difference update, from the recovery field – September / October 2021 edition. Below are the highlights that happened in the Life Issues ministry over the last couple of months:


· Joe T. called on 9-13 and was 90 days clean on 9-27 in Hope City rehab (this is a huge blessing to me personally)!

· I took 22 Bibles to Cass County Jail on 9-20 and the deputy asked for Spanish Bibles, so we took them 8 Spanish Bibles on 9-21! This was a God thing because our ministry didn’t have any Spanish Bibles the week before, but our church was assembling about 6,000 Spanish Bibles that week 

(see boxes in pic).

 

· Krista G. accepted Christ into her life on 9-22 (last night of Bible Conference)!

· Sarah S. accepted Christ over the phone on 10-4-21.

· Marcy L. gave a great testimony on 9-24; her and Matt have become HBF members and are getting discipled and involved in ministry, PTL! Matt got baptized on 10-3, I love this couple, see attached pic!

 

· Sent birthday card to man in prison in late September.

· Benevolence assistance over the last 2 months: We helped a student get some furniture for her duplex, we helped mother of 5 get into shelter on 10-5 (this was huge). We also helped get George K. into treatment on 10-12, and partnered with our church to give a student 10 days stay in a motel

· Alicia H. Got full custody of her daughter on 10-1, we’re happy for her family.

· Molessa purchased her own truck, see attached picture of this proud pickup owner.

 

· Sent collaboration letter to Lily’s House on 10-19, to support them getting funding / grant.

· Worked @ Harvest Party on 10-23; our church had about 150 guests that day, as we hosted this event for children; see attached pic of Jim and Sherrie cutting loose!

 

· Sarah L. and I helped with a community outreach called Project Connect for displaced people on 10-23 (see pic). Sarah L. will be an HBF member on 11-21-21 and will be giving her testimony on 11-29!!!

 

· Caleb L. gave a great testimony on 10-29 and we had multiple people respond to the invitation afterwards. This young man is strong in the word and we’re so proud of him and his victory over the bottle thru Jesus Christ

 

· Here’s a brief testimony from a young lady that’s been coming to our group for a little over a year… 

"Hello my name is Lynzee C. - I attend life issues on Friday nights and I started coming to Heartland Baptist Church. Pastor Steve Fleshman asked me to write about what the Lord has been doing in my life. I could go on and on about my life story, but I will give you the short version. 

I had a good life before I met my son's father. I had a job and a place to live and family. After I dated him for a while I became homeless and jobless then pretty soon pregnant. 

I lived on the streets for a while with him then went back and forth to different houses even to my brothers for a while without his father. I wound up moving to Deepwater with his Aunt so he could go to treatment. We wound up breaking up, so I moved back with my family. 

I started attending life issues again and on April 12th I got saved right before the meeting started. This is when the Lord really started blessing me. I got a job then a few months after I had been working my friend Mickey asked me to be her roommate. So, I said yes and we found a perfect place for us and my son. 

I now have a job, a good place for my son to live in and I got myself a car. I am going to get baptized on November the 14th and I can't be prouder of myself from where I was. And I have the Lord to thank for all of it!"



· Sincerely, Steve Fleshman – Life Issues pastor and founder, Proverbs 4:23…