City Impact

I thought I’d share some bullet items about what God is already doing in the Wrapped in Prayer Ministry. I also would like to expound on the one miracle and sweet event that accompanied it.

-At our first get-together in April, we presented the first shawl to the mother of my dear friend Anna who passed away last year from cancer. (WIP is dedicated to the memory of Anna who passed away from cancer). It was a precious time. Her Mom couldn’t have been more gracious and touched.

-At our May get-together, one of our own members Julie announced that she had colon cancer. We were all stunned and saddened. We laid hands on her and prayed for a healing… We also agreed to pray for her as her treatment progressed… After the many tests and the involvement of many doctors, they decided to do surgery first, then chemo. I got busy and knit feverishly to complete a shawl to give her after her surgery… In June she went into surgery but the doctor found no cancer! OUR PRAYERS WERE ANSWERED.

-At our June get-together, the Julie announced to everyone the good news! Everyone was overjoyed. As an afterthought, I showed her the shawl she would have gotten if God hadn’t performed a miracle. She was so tickled but quickly let everyone know it needed to go to someone in need. Well…. as the meeting progressed and we asked for prayer requests and Stephanie asked for prayers for her friend who was dying of cancer. She and her husband were long-time members of McLean Bible. We immediately agreed that she should select a shawl and take it her friend. Stephanie took the shawl she choose to her friend…. it turned out to be her friend’s favorite color!

-At our August get-together Stephanie asked if she could make an announcement about her friend who was sick. She proceeded to tell us how much the shawl meant to her friend and how she clutched it and wouldn’t give it up until she went home to be with the Lord on July 16th! Her friend was subsequently cremated wearing beautiful linen and the shawl! What a testimony! Little did I know that God had other plans for the shawl I intended for my friend who had been cured of cancer. What a lesson, encouragement and sweet joy. God did a miracle for my friend Julie on earth but a bigger miracle by taking Stephanie’s friend home and away from all her suffering. Need I say more?

As you can tell, we are all pretty excited about what God is doing!

 

“I was working Titus at the Loudoun County Parks and Recreation summer camp for special needs children on Wednesday. I had my P4H shirt on and Titus had his vest on with the P4H patch and the little cross. One of the boys from the camp, who was my helper for the day, looked at his vest and asked me, “Does that dog go to church?” I responded that he did sometimes. He wanted to know why he had a cross on his vest. I told him that in a way he “worked” for God and he wanted to know how. I told him that he was showing God’s love. The conversation continued on how God shows His love and I pointed out how Titus shows God’s love by being kind to everyone, always greeting people with a smile (tail wag) and by listening to everything people had to say. We moved on to other ways God shows His love and talked about the sunset and other things of nature. Titus went up to the boy at that point and leaned on his leg to give him a “golden retriever hug” and I said something about “see God is giving you a hug right now through Titus.” The conversation ended at that point as another group of kids came in the room. Did I specifically share Christ with this child, no but I feel I gave him an understand that God loved him which was a small seed planted.”  ~Kris and Titus

I have been without a permanent job since October 2005. To stave off insanity and poverty, I strung together temporaries and project like beads. My self esteem sank so far down.  When the door of the last job I held in Maryland closed behind me in June 2008 a “crossroads” season came blowing its stank breath in my face and I wrestled with my sense of worth like Jacob with the angel.  On top of several significant life changes, health challenges began to dog-pile on me too. Those were extremely stressful days.. One day, while I weighed the reasons for and against electing to leave the world, the sweet Spirit directed me to visit MBC Career Network. Jesus was right there and on time to rescue me. He never failed to be with me through it all. 

All this is to let you know, with God all things are possible and,Yes, You will survive this.     

Be Blessed!

~Anonymous

God continues to do amazing things. I am thankful that the offer is in an email because it is hard to believe.  

I am still amazed that God gave me 2 job offers in one day. I was in transition for 10 months with interviews every week (once I started doing what the Career Network folks told me to do)  and no offers, and then this all in one week!! God is clearly wanting to show His power. This is not normal at all. God and your very impressive interview coaching made it all happen. Your coaching and wise advice were invaluable. And now I can be a powerful force for God in partnering financially with missionaries that I have supported for years, in supporting McLean Bible, and in helping others in need. I am so glad that God can use me to bless others and further His work on earth.  

Thanks so much for your help. It is fascinating to me how this has played out. God has provided something so much better than I imagined. I will let you know what offer I take.

Bob, thank you so much!! I cannot thank God enough for leading me to McLean Bible Church in the first place, and to the Career Network Ministry! God’s timing in my life has been amazing (well, it always is, isn’t it? It’s just being able to realize it!!), and I’m grateful for everything you and the Ministry team are doing!!! I’m a regular now, and looking forward to finding my job in the area.

I was first attending meetings in anticipation of my move to northern Virginia when my lease is up in Baltimore at the end of September - My position with my employer of 14 years, however, was eliminated last Friday, so God has expedited my schedule. I’m excited about the opportunities and changes He’s presenting, and looking forward to the next chapter of my life.

God Bless!

Walter Reed Army Medical Center Event Team;

> We could not help but feel that the Lord was with us Saturday, for all, including the weather, were in His control; how special it was to be gifted to do His work in special place and time. Let us offer this prayer of thanks for this gift:

> Good Morning Lord. We come to You today to thank You for Your special blessings, in all the ways that You have acted, to make this event be the vehicle for Your message, to these men, women and children who are so in need of this spiritual lift and hope. We thank You for the skills that each of us were able to bring, and the gift of time to bring them. We ask Lord that You would continue to use the messages that we delivered at this event, in only the ways that You are able, to lift up those who were there to receive them, and those who might later be touched in some way as a result of what took place. As we always are Lord, we stand in awe of Your willingness to use us, Your servants, to be Your humble messengers. Lord, we commit all that has, and may yet come out of these efforts, to You in thanks for our chance to part of Your Team. Amen.>

> For each of you who is a team leader, we ask that you would pass all the messages and prayers along to others so that they may also share in our appreciation of the Lord’s intervention on behalf of the Operation Kindness effort to support our Wounded In Action community. Thanks.

> Jim Hooker

Dear Operation Kindness and Wounded In Action Outreach Event Leaders/Servants,

God was truly honored Saturday, May 22 at the Mologne House at Walter Reed Army Medical Center!!!  What a great tribute and “Salute To Our Nation’s Wounded Heroes”.   The program presented by MBC volunteers for our WIA soldiers and their families was simply awesome – great music, great tribute to God and our nation, great food and a great team of dedicated servants.  This was the third occasion for MBC involvement at the Mologne House and what an extraordinary execution of MBC Core Value #8 (Everything we do for Christ must be done with excellence, Colossians 3:23-24).  

My heartfelt congratulations to the following:

 

• Program Managers, Jim Hooker and Warren Elliott, whose overall organizational skills left no stone unturned and insured the event was managed efficiently.

 

 

• Operation Kindness Ministry (OKM) WIA Outreach Team that was organized and led so magnificently by Shirley Garris.

 

 

• OKM volunteers led by Bob Jepsen who were unsung heroes working diligently providing support in the background

 

 

• MBC Creative Arts Ministry volunteers who provided amazing music organized by David Sheets, orchestrated by Ben Roundtree and featuring the US Army’s Ambassador of Music, Master Sergeant Antonio Giuliano whose renditions of the National Anthem, Amazing Grace and God Bless America, plus an Italian aria, were absolutely breathtaking.

 

 

• Steve Fowler and his Audio Visual/IT Team who insured the sound equipment was operating flawlessly.

 

 

• Rob Weaver who provided the critical transportation to haul the equipment and supplies from MBC to the Mologne House and back.

 

 

• The Power Shift Ministry, led by Julia Selah, who had 30 incredibly precious automobiles lined up in front of the Mologne House. 

 

 

• Bill Coleman’s Bill’s Backyard BBQ who provided spectacular BBQ products that many of the WIA troops were saying was “the best ever served at one of these functions.”

 

 

• Tom Parke for his professional video/camera support which should produce some memorable reflections of how God’s people were serving our wounded heroes.

 

I undoubtedly have left off others who deserve to be recognized and if so, please accept my apologies in advance.  God blessed us richly with great weather and a great service opportunity to glorify Him through genuine love, respect, and servanthood.  What a great witnessing opportunity for the Lord!   Praise the Lord for our WIA troops and their families, and how they were honored yesterday. 

With great pride and thanksgiving,

Wayne Fujito

Military Ministry

I was very happy to see many good things today.

I brought two of my daughter’s friends with us today.  They helped with the children.  They had the chance to practice their Spanish.  They spoke to some of the kids & parents.  They loved the program.  They made a special connection with a 4 yr. old girl named Jocelyn.  They had lots of fun coloring & playing.  We had age ranges from about 10 months to about 13 yrs. old.  Everyone played nicely together.  One of the boys, Luis, age 7 drew his own picture.  I asked him if he would draw one for me to keep.  He gladly did so.  I showed it to a few of the volunteers, & they thought it was wonderful.  It had flowers, clouds, & a sun.  On the way out, I met Luis’ family.  His dad is Herberth, mom is Claudia & 2 grand-mothers.  I thanked Luis again for giving me the picture.  I told him that everyone liked it.  I showed it to his dad, & we talked for about 5 mins.  They were very appreciative of the positive comments I made about Luis & the help they received.  I told them that I could really use his help in the future with translating for the small children.  Luis & his family were very willing to do this.  I sincerely think that it meant a lot to Luis that I recognized his care he put into his picture.  He was also happy to be asked to help next time.  One of my personal goals is to get the children as involved as possible.  There were plenty of smiling faces on the children & enthusiasm during the worship.

I met a new volunteer, Nadine.  She was very interested in the process.  I answered her questions, & she was satisfied with my replies.  I met a handful of other new volunteers, but not by name.  They were happy to be there to help in any way needed.  I received many thank yous as the clients left.

Mike delivered a very nice message.  He told how he personally had used the food pantry in the past.  He really appreciated how the volunteers made him feel welcome instead of ashamed.  He thanked them for their generosity.

I personally think it’s a great improvement to have clothing & food together.  This minimizes the burden on the clients.

It was a very successful day.

I want to take a moment to thank you for allowing us to come and select clothing to our liking.  We were richly blessed and we felt warmly welcomed and accepted.  We pray that your work and ministry is blessed everyday and may it continue to bless many others.

I first showed up in late 2003, having lost all my confidence going through the divorce. Going through the divorce was a very narcissistic event and I wanted to get outside of it all being about dividing up everything and the emotional hurt and I instinctively knew that giving back to other people would be good for me.  I did not tell anyone that I had 17 years at a staffing firm or been a Placement Director (having left in 99, I felt my knowledge was irrelevant) as well as being in HR a long, long time before that. I just greeted people because I know that for men, losing a job was like a lot of women felt in losing a marriage, it was a big part of their identity and it took a lot of guts to just show up.   I knew that I make people feel comfortable and I could smile and greet well.  At that time it was the Neitzey’s running things. They did a great job and the tech wreck hit with numbers going up to 55 at the highest, which seemed like a lot at the time.

Then over time I got my confidence back and started piping up, that I may not have been current but knew what a resume should look like and what folks should say at an interview so I started speaking up and helping more than at the registration table until I became like “Chatty Kathy”.  Then the Neitzey’s left and it was Bill Turley, myself and Sandra Churchin who were the leadership. Bill had to drop out and Sandra moved away and George Young stepped up, then in January of 2008 all my family issues hit.  Mom with the broken neck, Dad diagnosed with cancer and dying, having to sell their house, handle Dad’s estate and help my brother with his very serious issues and so and I had to step out then.  A message left on my voice mail that God would provide enough grace for the day, really kept me going on many of those days in New Jersey.

Then I showed up again in October of 08 to just help once a month and the night I showed up Cindy announced she was leaving and folks talked about shutting down the ministry. I knew that the job losses were coming and I said I would hold the spot until a leader showed up but I did not want to lead.

Sure enough, God provides, early in December, Bob shows up and said that he normally was in the Men’s Bible Study but that he kept feeling that God wanted him there. I laughed as I knew that it was the result of a lot of prayer.  Bob was and is the right leader for the time, with the skills and personality to make the move to accommodate and grow for all the waves of people that were to come. In fact, I was surprised that it was not until February of 09 that they really showed up.

I meant to step out then but Bob and others made it so interesting and it was so exciting that I kept staying. What a fantastic ride, with such wonderful people, both the leaders, volunteers and seekers. What a blessing this ministry has been to me. You see it healed me, gave me my confidence back and let me see that I could not feel sorry for myself going through the divorce as painful as it was but that so many other folks had so much more pain and loss than I did. God does always provide, he found a way to heal me and use that to help others. What a glorious God he is if we step back and let him do his thing.

Now it is time to give to my family and myself a bit. I have not had time to catch my breath but my instincts tell me that this is what I should be doing now. I have always felt that those instincts are God’s nudgings. You know me I will probably be quietly in the background helping occasionally. Also Bob brings in such interesting speakers, I will want to hear some of them. Also a ton of really talented new leaders are appearing and I know that God will provide for the group.