Monday, November 14, 2016

Monthly Update - October 2016

Making a difference update, from the recovery field – October 2016 edition…

Below are some bullet points of the highlights that happened in the Life Issues ministry over the last month:

- One new student made a profession of faith on 10-14!
- Life Issues had over a dozen people that volunteered at HBF’s Harvest Party outreach on 10-22!
- We now have 3 audio testimonies on the “TESTIMONIES” tab of our website, http://www.lifeissuesonline.org/p/testimonies.html
- Tielors’ testimony on 10-25 left the audience without a dry eye in the room, as he testified of how losing a child brought him to salvation in Christ and deliverance from other struggles.
- John Manning gave a solid testimony of God’s saving grace and deliverance from drug addiction and from being a drug dealer on 10-28, and Deneen gave witness of God’s love in songs that moved us all!
- One of our sponsors was invited to a friend’s church on 10-30 to give his testimony; where he was able to warn the youth there of the snare that drugs and alcohol can be, as well as how Jesus can make them free!
- One of our student’s has a sister, who has been coming to church, and is getting baptized on 11-13
- We are in the process of printing business cards for our leaders and sponsors
- One of our students told their counselor at a treatment facility, about how Life Issues helped them to stay clean in early recovery! Now that counselor and others at that facility, as well as in another town, want our literature on-hand to offer their clients who want to add a faith-based component to their treatment program! Therefore, we now have four Plexiglas trifold holders, full of our material, at two treatment facilities!
- Jeff became our first student to complete “The Journey Home” program, with sponsor Jim Stovall!
- Rose's Pay-It-Forward proposal, to lead a two-week food drive for Life Issues’ food pantry, was approved by Judge Rumley! We will have barrels at six locations from 11-19 thru 12-3
- One student just celebrated one year clean.
- One student just completed an anger management course that we offered, via Jim Worthington.
- Pat Lee will be giving his testimony and leading the meeting on the Final Friday of November (11-25), the day after Thanksgiving, please invite someone to come hear his awesome recovery story!

Lastly, I wanted to communicate about how we helped a man get into a treatment / homeless shelter recently. This man came to us about four months ago, after having gotten into an altercation that nearly killed him. This man has some mental illness / limitations due to his injuries, but he’s a Christian and has a good attitude, and he loved coming to our meetings. Life Issues, some local agencies, and a family member helped him pay for a place to stay for a while, but his job prospects did not work out, so he was forced to move out of where he was staying. I worked with a man from Clinton who called a couple of different treatment / homeless shelters, and helped me discern the best fit for our friend.

This man had to move quickly, and it just happened to be on a day that I had the afternoon off from my job, and I was running around doing some errands for the ministry, so I decided to go by where he was, to see if my friend had come to get him yet. I usually have others to drive people to rehab facilities, even though I’ve done it a few times, but I’ll never forget the sight of pulling up to where my friend was waiting on a ride, and seeing him with a bicycle, and about 10 boxes of all that he owned. I didn’t know it, but my friend had been waiting for about 6 hours, for us to take his items to his brother’s house for storage, since he could only take clothes, toiletries, and a Bible to the rehab facility.

It humbled me as I left him at his brother’s house, where my friend picked him up and took him to get evaluated at the shelter. I’ve texted him a couple of times since he’s been there, and his first night was in a room with 30 other men; he was a little scared, but knew that he was where he was supposed to be and in the care of Godly men. That facility bused my friend and others to church services on Sunday, and my friend let me know that he’s doing well and enjoyed hearing the word preached! I’m so blessed to have been in this man’s life and a small part of God’s solution to his problems.


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


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