Monthly Update - November & December 2025

Making a difference update, from the recovery field – November / December 2025 edition. Below are the highlights that happened in the Life Issues ministry over the last couple of months.



I. Benevolence

· We paid part of the rent to help a man get into a house on 11-16

· We paid a lady’s electric bill on 11-22

· We gave 2 nights of emergency housing to a relative of a church member that we’re ministering to, in early December.

· We paid to have a water leak repair at the house where a couple of our students live, in mid-December.

· We worked with HBF to help a lady get a new muffler so that her car would pass inspection and get licensed.

· We paid a lady's car payment in early December, to keep it from being repossessed

· We worked with HBF in late December to pay for utilities to be turned on for one of our folks to be able to move into their own home.

· We bought some pots and pans for a lady on 1-1-26, who’s helping us in the kitchen

· We helped one of our students get his medications on 1-9-26



II. Jail / prison update

· Jim S. dropped off another box of Bibles at Cass County Jail recently.

· I got an email from Lieutenant Sutcliffe at the Cass County Jail on 12-9, inviting us to start our Prisoners Of Hope (POH) jail ministry again, stating that the inmates are “hungry for Jesus”. Ray Blowers will be leading this ministry, and we will be sending ministers into the jail beginning tomorrow (1-11)!

· Word First Bible Publishing (a ministry of HBF) just finished assembling 400 whole Bibles for Life Issues, and we placed them in storage for distribution last night 1-9-26!

· We sent money to a couple of inmates recently for phone time and stamps

· One of the inmates that I am writing to, Ted H., has completed 2 different discipleship programs that I’ve sent him and he’s in the middle of one called TATs, and he hopes to complete it before his release in April.

· Zach M. just graduated from a peer mentoring program that the prison offers; he will have 7 certificates by end of the month. Here is part of Zach’s testimony:

I will be coming out of prison a man of Christ. Most assured. Renewing of mind, heart, and soul hits different these days. Every word in Scripture comes alive inside... Honestly, Steve. I’m nervous about leaving prison. My walk with the lord, my relationship to and with him in here is extremely close. compared to past. prior to drifting away... I don't want to be caught up in worldly things again. I want my walk to stay as it has been, in here. I've actually read the Scripture. all of it except about 3 books in Old Testament. I've spent most of time in New Testament but none the less. I never really "read" the Word. Until this time of incarceration. I've read and went along in church and discipleship etc. Seeking, knocking, without others helping guide and pointing to the Truth. Just my heart and time with the Lord.. I suppose, walking in faith and not crawling as I once was Ready to be of use to the Lord. Ready to carry my cross. Love the Lord and not the things of the world. Ready to invest in eternity. most of all, ready to show and lead others to Him. Live life fully. How he designed it to be for me. not how Zach wants it... Every second has been of use here. I'm grateful. I forget if it was Paul or maybe David? said, "it was good for me to be afflicted, so that I might learn your decrees".

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

o D1: These folks are in our one-on-one discipleship material – T.J. C. is with Pat L. (Lesson #8), Joel W. is with Steve F. (lesson #5), Chris F. is with Caleb L. (Lesson #9), and Sara S. is with Brianna B. (Lesson #1)

o D2 (classroom teaching that focuses on the Word and Work of ministry): Kelly T.

o HBI (our 4-year Bible Institute): Pam J., Caleb L, and Mary W. are taking classes in HBI.

o TJH (The Journey Home): Jeff W. with Pat L. (Lesson #9), Julie S. is with Dana M. (Lesson #2), and Nate M. is starting Lesson #1 with Chris C. next week

· Richard & Carla R., the parents of a former student, have placed membership at HBF recently!



IV. Recovery

· Kevin W. completed TJH on 12-12 and will begin being a sponsor for another man – see pic.

· One of our leader’s sons just completed a semester of online college & has good grades!

· Joey C. gave a powerful testimony on 12-19 and one of our ladies accepted Christ – see pic.

· The Journey Home Update – Pat L. just completed editing the fonts, sizes and formatting of our pathway to recovery The Journey Home (TJH) workbook and emailed it to our Living Faith publisher on New Years Eve! Our contact at Living Faith Publisher said that he could start working on it immediately; let’s pray that this goes quickly and as smoothly as possible!

· Life Issues had 6 people graduate from our program in 2025 and we also saw 11 souls saved!

· I’m excited to announce that Life Issues will be part of a Zoom call on January 24th, with 3 or 4 other recovery groups and we’re inviting our students to be online to hear.



V. Events

· Our church assembles Christmas bags of food to give to people who may not be able to purchase a nice meal for themselves, and we distribute them to people who our pastors select. This year it was my classes’ turn to assemble and distribute the food that the church provided; over half of the 25 bags went to people in our recovery ministry – see pic.

· HBF’s volleyball league started in January and will last for a couple of months, about 8 of our students and leaders are participating in that instead of coming to meetings, PTL!

· HBF’s annual Woman’s Conference will be on January 31st, and this year’s speaker will be Sherry Trotter (wife of decease pastor Mark Trotter), Life Issues will be helping several of our ladies to attend this event, please pray for this to be a milestone in their lives.

· We had a Thanksgiving dinner called “Turkeypalooza”, and we had about 100 people present, where we gave out some awards and heard 3 powerful testimonies while people ate. I’m grateful for Sherrie W. and her heart to prepare the food. Pat L. gave a powerful gospel message at the end and at least 1-person trusted Christ as their savior – see pics!

VI. People

· We helped the daughter of one of our students to get a bicycle for Christmas – see pic.

· We’ve been helping our new friends Kerry S. and her son, Matt, over the last month and we recently helped them confirm their salvation. Kerry also got a job last week and is working; please pray that these folks can get established and grow in their faith.

· Nate M. is new to our group and was recently saved after one of our meetings, see attached pic of him and his mother.

· We don’t see one of our lady leaders, Kelly T., as much as we once did, but I’ve kept in touch with her and wanted to update you about her ministry endeavors, in her own words: 

Steve I wanted to update you and life issues and ask for prayer for what I call my “devotion chat ministry “ 🙌 it started out with my best friend and I reading a devotion book together daily and digging into the Bible to study deeper the scripture it referenced and then texting each other our thoughts and sharing prayer requests on what we call our devotion chat … the next year I invited some friends to join us… and the next year I invited my daughters-in-law to join in and this year the Holy Spirit let me know god was going to enlarge this ministry 🙌 then Sara Vick ( Lily’s house founder ) who was already part of one of our devotion chats, asked me to lead the Lily’s house staff in a devotion chat this year and also my co-worker, that god convicted me to reconcile with a few months back , asked me what my word was for the 2026 year … I let her know that my word(s) are “for the greater good” … one thing lead to another and her and I are on a devotion chat together this year 🙌… praise Him… I’m so excited to share that God has used this ministry as a way to get women in the word daily… it gives us a safe space to share our thoughts, struggles and prayer requests… it gives me a platform to share how God has renewed my mind out of the pit of anxiety… we are on our 4th devotion book and I fully believe the holy spirit helps me to pick which devotion book we read… they take us deep into God’s word… it’s no exaggeration to say that this ministry has changed my life… it has gotten me in the word daily… God is even making me a morning person lol inviting me early each morning now to get up and spend time with him… I quickly realized this ministry is something women need… women lifting up women and pointing each other to God… our rules are simple: #1. no shame if you get behind in the reading, because women already have enough to feel bad about, #2. try with all you have inside you to be in the Word daily…. God has enlarged it to 4 devotion chats, with a total of 16 women getting closer to God 🙌🥲💞


VII. Praises and Prayer requests

· Praise and pray for our jail ministry to win souls and connect them to a Bible believing church.

· Praise and pray for getting TJH published quickly.

· Please pray for Kerry and Matt and others to get established.

· Please pray for Kelly T’s “The Greater Good” ministry to overlooked women with struggles.

· Please pray for our new discipleship students and TJH students to finish pathways.

· Please pray for God to use us mightily in the remainder of 2026, for without him we can do nothing, but through Him we can do all things!

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

Monthly Update : September & October 2025

Making a difference update, from the recovery field – September / October 2025 edition. Below are the highlights that happened in the Life Issues ministry over the last couple of months.



I. Benevolence

· We helped one of our students to help another student recently; one needed to get rid of some furniture and another needed some furniture on 9-16 – see pic.

· Purchased personal hygiene items for a lady going to treatment on 9-21

· Helped a man with gas to get to his Dr appointment on 9-23

· Helped a man with a week in a motel on 10-10

· We worked with one of HBF’s deacons to help fix a lady’s clothes drier on 10-22

· We gave Walmart gift cards to a lady in need on 10-26

· We helped a former student with some Walmart gift cards on 10-27, so that she could buy some items before her knee surgery on 10-28

· We Helped father & son with emergency housing / motel on 10-28

· A friend of our ministry has been donating gift cards to one of our couples in need, it has been sweet to see how God provides from different places, at just the right time.

· We purchased food for food boxes on 10-31, so we now have several emergency boxes ready to distribute as needed.



II. Jail update

· We sent money to a couple of inmates recently for phone time and stamps

· Jim S. dropped off another box of Bibles at Cass County Jail recently.

· I picked up another person to write to in Prison, who had gotten saved earlier this year through our ministry, but is now back in prison. I’m currently writing to 4 individual men, who all seem to be serving our Lord behind prison walls.

· We purchased 7 giant print Bibles on 10-10 for the folks who come our way that need the larger font Bibles, to be able to read God’s words.

· We just put in an order with Word First Bible Publishing Ministry, for 400 more Life Issues Bibles, we have gone through nearly 300 Bibles in 1 year, hallelujah!



III. Church

· Joel W. got baptized on 10-12 – see pic.

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

o D1: These folks are in our one-on-one discipleship material –Tracy W. is with Pam J. (lesson #9), Julie S. is with Mary W. (lesson #8), T.J. C. is with Pat L. (lesson #6), Joel W. is with Steve F. (lesson #4)

o D2 (classroom teaching that focuses on the Word and Work of ministry): Kelly T.

o HBI (our 4-year Bible Institute): Pam J., Caleb L, and Mary W. are taking classes in HBI.

o TJH (The Journey Home): Kevin W. with Pat L. (lesson #3), Jeff W. with Pat L. (Lesson #4)

· We’ve hired a couple of students recently to help paint at church and do odd jobs, and also offered community service hours for a lady.

· Dottie's husband, Mark, became a member on 9-21; we’re so happy for them!





IV. Recovery

· One of our men will be starting SATOP classes soon, please pray for him.

· We’ve been driving a lady to her PO appointments and back home.

· We gave box of Bibles to Karanita for counselling ministry on 10-10, for her to give to clients.

· We gave 2 boxes of Bibles to Tommy McGee on 10-15, for him to distribute to customers at his Recovery Auto dealership in Independence MO.

· I will be awarding milestone tags soon, to two men who each have 1 year sober, and a 4 years clean tag to another man.



V. Events

· We visited a Mental Health event hosted by NAMI called “Sing out the Stigma”. It was a great night and some of our folks participated in Karaoke on 9-6 – see group pic.

· I got to speak at the Harrisonville Rotary about addiction recovery, with Charles on October 1st – see pic.

· I don’t have any pictures from the Harvest Party that HBF had on 10-25, but we were blessed to see several of our Life Issues leaders and students participating as volunteers, or simply coming and bringing their kids or others, Angie and I were thankful to witness this.

· Thanksgiving dinner – If you or a loved one doesn’t have any place to go for Thanksgiving, or if you’re ministering to someone who needs Christ, please consider coming to our event on 11-21, to be fed and hear testimonies and a gospel presentation, see attached flier for details.



VI. People

· Our friend Kevin Morgan gave a great testimony on 9-26 (see pic), so please check it out at this link (at about the 8 minute mark): 20250926 Life Issues Ministry

· Caroline Cooper gave a great testimony and message on Halloween (10-31), so please check it out at this link (at about the 30 minute mark): 20251031 Life Issues Ministry

· My wife and I were blessed to have attended Chris and Abi Newby’s wedding last Saturday (11-8) and we look forward to being a part of their lives together – see pic.

· Chris C. got to lead a man to Christ last night (11-14), who has been coming to meetings for a few weeks, PTL!

· We’ve been having new guests each week it seems, so our group is growing right now; some are getting sobriety, some salvation, some benevolence, and some are just getting new friends and fellowship.



VII. Praises and Prayer requests

· My friend had his wife come back to him on 9-16, after much prayer, this was a miracle!

· Many people are needing many things this time of year, we were able to help the lady who wrote this to me yesterday, “I don’t have anywhere to move my furniture or a way to move it. It will be my son and I and two big dogs living in a car soon, with no brakes.”

· Please pray for God to use us mightily in the remainder of 2025, for without him we can do nothing, but through Him we can do all things! Sincerely, Steve Fleshman – Life Issues pastor and founder, Proverbs 4:23…

THANK YOU POST FROM PASTOR STEVE AND LIFE ISSUES

 A big THANKS to our Life Issues friends, family, and supporters !!

Our 2025 Homecoming Fundraiser was a big success. We are still processing and counting donations, but it looks like we will meet or exceed our fundraising goals.

Life Issues would like to publicly thank our business sponsors. Through the generous donations of our many sponsors & supporters, Life Issues can continue to "Make a difference" in the lives of those struggling with addictions.

We appreciate the outpouring of community support !

Thank you to all who donate, support, and pray for the Life Issues Addiction Recovery Program.