The Kingdom of God is advancing and Matthew 11:12 tells us, “…the kingdom of heaven suffers violence (strength or life), and the violent (human spirit and soul) take it by force.”
It is already January 2012. The way that time is passing by gives credence to the revelation that in God there really is no such thing as time. Around September of last year (it will take me a minute to get used to referring to 2011 as last year) I realized that I arrived at my office on sunlit Monday mornings and seemingly walked out Thursday afternoon around dark thirty. Living in Northern Alabama one can find one’s self leaving work in what appears to be the dead of night. When Daylight Savings Time ends we are on the receiving end of very short days. It can be a bit disconcerting until your system adjusts.
We have had many adjustments in our Isaiah 58 Ministry Department this year. We continue to expand and the end of the year brought many changes and new faces. The property has had a face-lift as well as we added new staff members and created space for everyone. We expanded our furniture department in Be Be’s Boutique and added new office space to our Isaiah 58 Salon. Our administrative offices are finally just that. For the two and a half years that I have worked in this department we have utilized our offices as a reception/distribution area. We knew that when we reached the one hundred families per day mark that we would have to rethink how we were doing things.
Our first move was into BeBe’s Bargain Boutique and that was effective very a very short lived season. The store continued to prosper and our distribution jumped to over two hundred families per day. Our next strategy meeting led to the decision that we would begin to distribute food on Tuesdays and Thursdays in hopes that we would have a day in between to schedule volunteers, load the trucks, bag the food and have it ready for distribution. Well, that was effective for about a second. By the end of the day of our quarterly Care Fair we had distributed roughly one thousand and four hundred bags of groceries for the week. Our Care Fair statistics read like the twelve days of Christmas: we had one blood pressure nurse, three face painters, four sweepers sweeping, five grill masters grilling, nine stylists cutting, seventy volunteers volunteering, eighty haircuts were cut, two hundred and fifty burgers were eaten, three hundred bags of groceries were delivered, three hundred and fifty bags of toys were received and a partridge in a pear tree.
It was an amazing day but at the end of the week we knew we were going to have to make another change. We have outgrown our facility! In a way we have come full circle back to our very roots in the Food Ministry. In December 2000, the first week that Word Alive had services, we distributed our first tractor trailer full of food. From those small beginnings we have literally distributed millions of pounds of food in the past eleven years. We moved the distribution from our main campus in Coldwater because we outgrew the space we had. Five years later we are returning to our roots with the access that we now have to the property on Highway 202. It is the perfect location to do large distributions. Beginning on January 14th, 2012 at 9:00 AM we will shift to having a monthly distribution that prayerfully will be more effective and reach more families who are in need. Every Second Saturday of the month will be a scheduled distribution day.
We continue to expand and take more territory for the Kingdom of God but we could not do it without the faithful generosity of so many who have joined our Fast Food Force. It is your continued giving and prayer support that makes all of the difference in the World. The Kingdom of God is advancing and Matthew 11:12 tells us, “…the kingdom of heaven suffers violence (strength or life), and the violent (human spirit and soul) take it by force.” Biázœ is the Greek word for violence and means strength or life. Bíos refers to the state or condition of existence, including the duration, means, and manner of life while Zoë on the other hand describes life as the element or principle of the human spirit and soul. We are taking life (the state or condition of existence) and applying it to the human spirit and soul. You help make that happen every single day.
Including everyone in our ongoing advancement of the Kingdom via our Isaiah 58 Fast Food Force compelled us to open the doors of our campus and demonstrate exactly what takes place on a daily basis. On Sunday, December 18th we had our first Isaiah 58 Open House. It was with high hopes and enthusiasm that we prepared the warehouse, Salon, Be Be’s Bargain Boutique and Artist’s Gallery for guests. Our Administrative Team gave informative tours to our over five hundred guests. As everyone entered the Reception/Administrative offices they saw firsthand the offices where The Connection Magazine and our books are written, edited and published. From there they moved into the Warehouse where volunteers demonstrated the sorting, bagging and distribution process. Next on the tour was our newly expanded Furniture Department and Boutique. Shoppers had a great time in between continuing on to the Salon where our quarterly Care Fair takes place. From there we went to the Artist’s Gallery where High Class Handcrafts were made by our very talented volunteer artists. Jeff Chef out did himself with a delicious Italian Cream Cake and steaming hot coffee. Life Group teams had beautifully decorated our space and they were in place to greet everyone as they arrived for dessert and fellowship. At the end of the day new volunteers had signed up for the upcoming year, shoppers had shopped and numerous donations of clothing and furniture had been made. Our team was greatly rewarded by everyone’s participation and a good time was had by all. We enjoyed preparing everything so much we have decided to make it an annual event so we can keep our congregation and community informed about all of the exciting things that take place on our Isaiah 58 campus. We look forward to seeing you there.
