Blessings to you all!
As you might know, Sunday, July 15th we held the second of three major outreaches being held by KingJesusMinistries in Boutte. Like last month, we used newspaper advertisements, our church billboard, phone calls, and word of mouth to let the community know that we would be giving away Free Gas, Free BBQ, Free Car Washes, and groceries to those in need. This was no small task, but with God’s grace we believed that all things are possible!
We also had Rev. Rusty Thomas and his wonderful family in for the weekend as they stopped here to minister on their way to North Carolina for Operation Save America’s National Event. Rusty brought forth the three part challenge of our outreach: Jesus is the bread of all life, the importance of the Spirit of the Lord with our works, and the inward washing of God’s Word in our lives. His passion and revelation brought the entire congregation to the altar at the end of the service! Thank you Jesus! The church was filled with the presence of the Lord, as we saw our largest attendance in quite some time, almost 100 people attended the morning service and 15 of those were first time visitors drawn by the generosity of our outreach.
As the morning service ended, the faithful saints took their positions, Jay Barone and guest began to BBQ, while the faithful youth diligently washed cars and held signs advertising the event. Several others set up tables underneath canopies and set out the condiments and desserts. Then others prepared to greet the guests as they exited their cars with a warm smile, kind gestures (like offering a cold water bottle to every person), and a word of hope from the Lord.
Several designated positions were filled by many others in serving food, directing cars to the gas line, and prayer warriors ready to meet, greet, and pray with folks as they began to exit their cars for the event. We had barbequedhamburgers, turkey burgers, hotdogs, drinks, Krispy Kreme donuts and snack cakes. We fed and ministered to over 200 people!
Barbara Brown, Jeannette Morvant, and Terri Nelson watched the little children in the nursery so that others could minister, knowing that their children were safe and happy. Larry Nelson oversaw the food pantry, giving bags of groceries away to families in need.
Those designated to operate the gas pumps did an incredible job! As you see from the photos it did not take long for cars to line up down Highway 90. You can see in the picture below, these are cars waiting for gas and not driving down the highway. What a blessing to be a blessing to see God begin to touch the people waiting in the line!
While Randy Ocmond was ministering and pumping gas, Eric Brown was passing out our three-page tract, sharing with the people our objective for the day, and inviting them to our church for free barb-q and car washes. Maria Larson and Elodie Barone were also going to each car personally, collecting their information and prayer requests, and ministering and praying with the people as needed. Pastor Dale Sochia and Rev. Rusty Thomas also were ministering at the cars that were waiting in line. Truly today the church of Jesus Christ was not “shaken” out of the salt shaker, but was “poured out” into the world and was able to touch those in Boutte with God’s grace, mercy, and love through the saints of God. Today we have taken our theology and become biography in the streets. Many lives were changed this day!
One woman waiting in line shared her awesome testimony with us. She told us that one year ago she had been diagnosed with cancer and had visited our church. This lady said that she had received prayer that Sunday and wanted to let us know that she was healed! Praise God! We were also able to pray for another woman shortly thereafter who was also diagnosed with cancer, and we are believing God for her miraculous healing also!! We also had many people who got out of their cars and talked with the saints of God and stated they would be back to visit the church.
In the gospel of John, he wrote in closing that if he were to write down everything Jesus did, there would not be enough books to contain it all … this brief report only gives a glimpse into ALL that the Lord did this day! All the glory goes to Him!