Monday, August 10, 2020

Monthly Update - July 2020

Making a difference update, from the recovery field – July 2020 edition… Below are some bullet points of the highlights that happened in the Life Issues ministry over the last month:

· We were gifted a motorized wheelchair about 2 years ago (a VERY nice one), and on 7-6 we were able to give it away to a good home to someone who can get use of it!

· Our recovery group cleaned the church on 7-10, I’m so proud of all who helped with this effort!

· Our girl Cassie started discipleship in early July, and is working in the field of abused women, we’re so happy that this young lady has a burden to help the helpless, just like her heavenly father.

· I’m pleased to inform you that the young man from Nigeria, that hacked my email account and then repented and gave his life to Christ, is going through our discipleship correspondence and is on lesson #3 of 7, hallelujah!

· We have 4 folks in discipleship I, and 3 just completed discipleship! We have 4-5 folks getting ready to start discipleship II on September 2nd. We also have about 5 folks doing our Life Issues program – The Journey Home, and 1 just completed it (see attached picture)!

· We gave out a couple of big boxes of food in July, and also purchased more!

· Ashley graduated from Lily’s House on 7-15, we’re so proud of her! There were about 20 folks from Adrian there that night and also about 20 Life Issues folks, it was a sweet time!

· HBF just had their VBS this last week (8-3 thru 8-7) and about a dozen of our folks helped to teach the kids and served in many areas, including a young lady from Lily’s House, who is fairly new there and doing great! Chris and Lauren were the leaders of this effort that ministered to about 50 children.

· Sarah W. applied to become an HBF member on 7-15 and is getting baptized tomorrow (8-9)!

· Over 60 people came to our Homecoming event on 7-31! Pastor Bill Johnston gave a moving testimony (see attached picture of him and I), and one young man accepted Christ at the end.

· We had more than a dozen folks put their sobriety date and clean time on our sobriety wall. One of them is Rich H., who’s now 1 year clean after 25+ years of addiction. 

· The Joshua House men donated a workday @ HBF on 8-1 to help install sheets of plywood to our Armory building for insulation purposes. That building is where we assemble Bibles, attached is a picture.

· HBF’s Men’s retreat is next weekend (8-14 & 8-15); I’ll be teaching a message on “Ready to Work” on 8-15, so feel free to come be a part of it! Life Issues will sponsor up to 2 men, if they want to go and can’t afford it, so just let me know who and we’ll get them there.

· A lot is going on for our 8th Annual Recovery Walk (RW) that’s being held on 9-4, here’s some bullets:
We now have permission from Sargent Clairbourn to start our walk at the Justice Center again this year, and he offered a police escort for our group.
We’ve given out about 36 pledge forms to people helping us get donations. We also sent out church packets to 4 churches to invite them to participate with us; one church indicated that they would send some people to come walk with us.
We’ve received over $7140 in pledges thus far, on our way to $12000 goal! We’re waiting to hear from a few businesses (one large donation is pending), but we’re still quite a way from our goal and we only have a few weeks before the event, so get off the fence if you’re considering helping😊
We’re ordering 75 t-shirts and 24 caps this year and have until 8-21 as a deadline to get gold level sponsors names ($250 or more) on the back of the shirts, but we can receive lesser pledges all the way up until the event on 9-4.
We’ve also ordered some supplies for the walk as well as some new guest bags and ink pens for the ministry.
We also now have all the misc. literature for our event so that we can put inserts into our church bulletin, and graphics for the loop in the church lobby and website. We even have little stuffers (800 of them) that Harrisonville’s Sonic will put into each food order they serve for a couple of weeks, so the word’s getting out about this year’s Recovery Walk!
I also wanted you to know that The Sno Stop will be giving free shaved ice @ the end of this year’s Recovery Walk, I’m sure that will be a big hit!
Pat Lee and I were invited to speak to the Harrisonville Chamber of Commerce on 8-5, where a group of about 22 local business owners / leaders were present. We only had about 5 minutes, so we split the time, I talked about our history and our upcoming event, and Pat talked about our program and his own recovery through Christ. We gave out literature to all present and one lady gave us a gift card and another man took a pledge form, so time will tell about other fruit from that outing, but it was a blessing to represent the Lord in that way!
So, it’s crunch time for our 8th Annual Life Issues - Recovery Walk Fundraiser; as promised, attached is the promotional video that a good friend of mine produced for this year’s event, you will love it!

Brother Ed shares with us this testimony of God’s working in his life, and insights to what Christ-centered recovery looks like:

"Trust and Obey. Sounds easy enough. But why do so many of us struggle with these simple words. I know I struggled because of the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Not to mention I only trusted me and did what I wanted to do. Ultimately it was love that changed me. It is no accident that love is mentioned hundreds of times in the new testament. It is no accident that Paul preached Christ crucified, the ultimate act of pure love. It is love that allows me to Trust His every word and Love that empowers me to Obey HIS commandments. I was the least of the least. I believe the only reason God did this amazing work in me is to be a witness to people that it is possible to love your enemy, it is possible to carry all the fruits of the Spirit, and it is possible to love as He loves.

We must remember also that Jesus is not a magic wand that makes our life perfect. But He does allow us to live perfectly in an imperfect world. He healed my spirit with his love and allows me to love others amidst my storm. But I still have a lot of mental, emotional, and physical healing to do. I lived most of my life in abuse and trauma. I still struggle with the pulls of addiction after being clean for 17 years. But God is faithful. He has given me a wonderful group of people to help me endure and heal and grow. The family who adopted me rather than let me die on the streets, Dr. Bloesser at Harrisonville Family Medical, the entire team at Cass County Psychological Services, and even the faithful people at Life Issues. He has not left me alone to fight my battles. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful God Savior and Comforter. I pray I am able to share the victories He has given me with every breath I am given until I draw my last. Love always, your faithful servant. "




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


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