Bible study with Alma & Family (from Food Pantry Outreach)

[James Nored]

Today was a great day for High Pointe. Wednesday is the day that our food pantry and clothes closet are open. And today was also a day in which we were taking applications from families for the Angel Tree ministry.

The church was flooded with people who needed help. People with real hurts and struggles. One woman was named Alma. She was there with one of her daughters and grandkids. She has a neice who is gaining community service hours working in our clothes closet. Her sister's girls are struggling due to brokenness in her family. She was divorced, and admitted some mistakes there.

We prayed with Alma and her daughter. And tonight we will study together. She is planning on bringing much of her family, including her grandkids and her neice's kids. One of our children's ministry workers and our youth minister will be meeting these kids tonight and taking them to Bible classes. Alma is hoping that they will receive some good influences to help them in their struggles. She said that though she had gone through some tough times, she had not rejected God.

I also asked Alma if she had anyone in her family who needed to practice their English, as we have a FriendSpeak ministry. She said that the man that she was dating needed this, and that she would bring him tonight. So I called Jim and Donna, our FriendSpeak leaders. Donna will come and help with the study with Alma, and Jim will hopefully work with Alma's friend with FriendSpeak.

It was great to see all of our staff working on this ministry. Linda, our secretary, has a heart for this ministry which has flown over and touched the whole church, getting so many others involved. It was great to see the Bryans, one of our families, work together (the kids are home schooled) serving those who came in, as well as Laura's daughter, Robbyn, who speaks Spanish (very helpful!). Bryan, one of our ministers, came back from his trip excited about spending time with a church that had a large food pantry ministry that had partnered with many businesses in the community to meet these needs. We could do the same thing here.

There is so much good being done by this church, and God is being made known all across our community. Thank you for all of those who have a heart for those whom Jesus cared for!

Can you be praying for Alma and her family?

[James Nored]

Last night, Alma, her friend, and her two nieces showed up for Bible study. Unfortunately, her friend did not speak enough English for FriendSpeak. But the neices went to the youth class and I, Donna Hannah, and Diane Newhouse studied with Alma, going through part of part 1 of the Story of Redemption.

Alma has certainly gone through a terrible time. Her sister was killed by having a car hit her when Alma was 11 years old. She has been abused. She has been married three times, and she is divorced from her husband of 30 years due to mistakes that she made. She has children in jail, and she is helping to raise her nieces. She has had three heart operations, and felt that no one cared for her when she was in the hospital. She has attempted suicide.

I cannot think of what else could hit a person. She cried as she shared these things, clearly feeling overwhelmed, unloved, and depressed. And yet, through this all, she had not turned her heart from God. Someone some time ago at another church helped her through her darkest days. And she was looking for prayer and help again.

The part of the Story of Redemption that resonated with her and that we kept coming back to was God's love and our love for our children. Just as we dearly love our children and value them no matter what, God loves and values us. He created humanity out of love, just as a married couple (ideally) has children to share the love that they have between them.

Donna and Diane were very encouraging with Alma. Diane,in fact, had been the teacher of three of her children. They will continue the study with Alma next Wednesday. And they plan on meeting Alma in the foyer at our worship gathering on Sunday.

I'm glad that God brought Alma our way. She clearly is hurting and needs prayers, study, and encouragement. And we need her. After hearing what she has been through, how can I possibly think that I have big problems? God has blessed me richly, and I should be grateful and share these blessings with others.