God Is on the Move! (Newsletter #2)
On any given Saturday morning, you’ll see anywhere from 200 to 350 families lined up on the sidewalk at the corner of 4th and New Street, where Downey First Christian Church is located.
The families are there to receive food items distributed from the church food bank, known locally as 'Food Help'. They pour in from the city of Downey in Los Angeles County and many of its surrounding communities.
Downey First Christian Church members don't merely see these families as recipients; they refer to them as "the Neighbors".
Although the Neighbors come for physical food and drink, they also receive something else. A team of volunteers, led by Lena, strike up conversations with the Neighbors, providing them with the spiritual food and water they may not even know yet that they need!
Here are a few encouraging stories of what God has been up to lately. (Some names have been changed.)
A New Church Home
On Saturday mornings, you would always find a Neighbor by the name of Ruth waiting in the very front of the Food Help line with her husband, who is blind.
After several months and many enjoyable conversations, the two finally took the team up on the invitation to visit DFCC for a Sunday service. Ruth and her husband attended a Catholic church at the time, but they didn't feel they were growing as believers.
The married couple immediately fell in love with DFCC and made it their new church home. They continue to attend every Sunday, are making new friends, and are maturing in their faith. Ruth now also volunteers at Food Help on Saturday mornings, helping distribute food items.
You'll spot her quite easily: She's the lady with the biggest, brightest smile on her face!
A Prayer Answered
When the team offered a Bible to Susanna, a young Neighbor in the Food Help line, she started weeping for joy. Clutching the brand-new Bible, she shared that she had lost everything she owned when going through a divorce the year before, including her Bible.
Since then, she hadn't had a version of the Scriptures to call her own, and she had been praying that God would supply her with a copy.
Not only Susanna but the team, too, was blown away by this unmistakable answer to prayer! The team encouraged Susanna with Matthew 10:29-31, where Jesus states that our heavenly Father cares about our needs, big and small. Indeed, God saw, heard - and provided!
A New Partnership
Two Christian Neighbors in the Food Help line, Victor and Lilly, mentioned to the team how much they loved the particular Gospel tract the team was passing out to everyone in line on Saturday mornings.
The two ministry friends also shared with the team that they lead a local weekly outreach to homeless families, providing them with food, clothes, and toys.
When they said they didn't have any good Christian tracts to distribute among the homeless, the team immediately gave them 200 Spanish and 100 English tracts - for starters.
The following Saturday, when the two came to Food Help again, they showed the team pictures from the previous week's outreach - photos of hundreds of homeless men, women, and children receiving and reading the tracts!
What a beautiful partnership in the spreading of God's Word!
Note: This ministry update was sent out as a newsletter to Lena’s email subscribers.
Find out more about the “Love Your Neighbor” Agenda here!
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