Party Time!

Well, our Adopt A Block summer has come to an end with a huge party. We had several hundred people (at least two hundred) from our blocks show up for the party. We had food(hamburgers and hot dogs)I was working one of the grills, drinks, music, cotton candy, snow cones, bounce houses, volleyball, basketball, and (I know at least one of my nephews would have really loved this "Caleb") a fire truck that hosed everyone down with its fire hose (low pressure of course). We were also giving out free back packs filled with school supplies to our block families. There were only 100 back packs of school supplies and it seemed like we had double the kids, so we were praying that there were enough for everyone. I tell you what, that time when Jesus feed the multitude with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish isn't just something that happens back then. We had enough for all of the kids, God is so awesome!!

Before we handed out the back packs, our pastor had everyone come together for a time of prayer for those who came to the party. We had an interrupter there for those who did not understand English well. Pastor prayed an asked if there was anyone who wanted to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior to raise their hands, many people raised their hands. From where I was standing I counted at least 7 people that raised there hand and I'm sure there was more that I couldn't see, praise be to God!

Another cool thing that happened, I saw one of my block families there. To me that really means something because it didn't feel as though we were getting though to anyone on our block. Camryn saw the same family there as well and she talked to one of the daughters. Camryn said the little girl looked familiar and Camryn asked her what street she lived on. The little girl told her that she lived on the street with the people that gave them flowers. The last week when we went out to our blocks, our group gave all of the families flowers. Camryn told her that was our block! That's when I realized that even though we may feel or may think that there are no result for our labor, there are thing that go on where we can't see but God sees and God has His hand on.

This outreach has been an awesome, awesome blessing. It has blessed me as well as blessed and changed the lives of those on our blocks. I would most definitely do it again! The one thing I have learned out of this is no matter how bad I think I have it or how many things are going in my life, there are people out there who don't know Jesus as there Savior and that's worse than anything I could be going though.

So, go out and tell someone about Jesus! Wouldn't YOU want someone to do that for YOU?

God Bless,
Mike

My Adopt A Block Team!

Wylie Police Tryouts.

Well, this past Saturday I went over to our local police department to try out for their patrol officer opening. The good news is that I finished everything, but I did not qualify in the running portion of the test. There were three areas they tested us in. The first was sit ups, second was crunches and third (my most hated) was running. I was required for the minimum amount of push ups in one minute to pass for my age group were (27)push ups. I was able to do (38), which put me in the "good" bracket that ranged from 30 to 38 push ups. The next part of the test came the sit ups which turned out to be crunches, again passing minimum required was (36) I cranked out (87) of those bad boys in one minute! And the last that ended my tryouts was the 1.5 mile run that the minimum required time was to pass was 12 minutes and 51 seconds, it took me 17 minutes to do it.

I'm not disappointed, but encouraged to get that time down to were it needs to be. The good news is that I can re-test again in three or four months. Next time I will be ready!

Adopt A Block

Well our adopt a block outreach is coming to a close in just two weeks. It's hard to believe it started back in June. We have about 15 families on our block that we go to every Sunday night.

It has been a grow experience for me as far as being a witness for our Lord. You got to be brave to walk up to a complete stranger house to start with. Then try to talk to them about who you are and what you are doing there. I have to admit that the first time I went up to the door, I was hoping they wouldn't answer. However, that wasn't the case, but good thing for me they did because that made it a whole lot easier going to the next house.

So, far we have only gotten to know about 5 families on our block. Usually most of the people don't answer their door. It kind of feel like they are planning on not being there when we get there, but that's just me. One of our block families has actually let us help them. They have this huge garden that they grow several different kinds of vegetables, one being Okra. We were very excited to help them pick some. It's kind of crazy but we didn't notice the heat because we were having fun! It was a real blessing for them and we were blessed as well. It's hard to put into words the feeling you get when you bless someone and you know that God is getting all the glory! It is an awesome feeling! A lot of people think we are crazy for doing what we are doing but hay, we're freaks Jesus freaks! We do thing that don't make sense to the unchurched!

When we were finishing our Sunday night fall connections, we were told what they were doing for this summer event. Our whole group said " I don't know if I could do that!" But then I started thinking about getting outside my comfort zone and could feel the Holy Spirit telling I should do this. I wanted to be obedient to that and humble myself to the Lord, after all the Sunday night connections classes we were wrapping up were able absolute surrender and humility. I couldn't see myself going though that and then not putting into practice what I just learned about. I decided to sign up and then out of the blue our worship leader Aaron Snell approached me about being a block captain. That just floored me! Going from not being sure about getting involved to being a team captain, but that's how God works. You let Him have control of you, He will use you and put you in charge of important things!

It has been a great summer and true enjoyment to be involved in this outreach. I am going to miss doing this when its over! We may have not of had nearly amount of projects to help people with as other block teams, but it has still been fun.

Last week, we finished early and went over to the Wylie Butane and Mobile Home Park to lend a hand. One project we helped out with was cleaning a ton of old wood and trash out of someones storage shed. There was wasps and spiders galore in that thing, one of the other block members got stung. One of my guys stepped on of nail that went though his shoe and length way into the bottom of his big toe! OUCH! We sent him to urgent care to get check out. I called him on the Monday after to see how he was doing and if he needed anything, he said he was ok. Tough guy!

I'm trying to get a team picture to post on this blog so you can see everyone. Well I think I have said enough for this time, see ya!