12-18-13

Greetings and happy hump day my friends!

I hope this message finds you all in a joyful Christmas mood. I also hope you all were able to read the newspaper article about UBFM last Saturday. We were so blessed to have a writer and photographer from the Commercial Appeal with us on our Wednesday night meeting last week. I am certain we gained some new followers and supporters from the article. Thanks to everyone who helped out with that experience.

In addition to making the Commercial Apeal, last week was another successful evening. Loaded down with burritos, bottled water, snacks, blankets, gloves, jackets, socks, and handwarmers we were very prepared to see a lot of people on the streets. Though we did distribute 250 burritos, there were not as many people out. This, my friends, is what I like to call answered prayers. We always try to prepare to see a lot of people when we leave our meeting location. However, we had much rather not see people. That simply means they have found refuge. A good night is not necessarily a result of distributing all of our supplies. A good Wednesday night is when we come back with supplies because we didn’t see people to give it to. I ask that you pray with us for our neighbors to find refuge on these cold nights.

Here lately we have been blessed with some additional publicity and growth. This year we have been on the news twice and made the Commercial Appeal. It has been a good year for this little, missional ministry. A lot of relationships have been established and strengthened. Because of us many concrete, random acts of kindness have taken place. Commonly, people ask me what the future looks like for this ministry. Honestly, I do not know. We are looking at organizing some fundraisers for 2014. Outside of that, I truly don’t know. If you are part of helping out, I think it is in your hands. I simply came up with the idea; it carries on because of your efforts. I am blessed with the opportunity to see it work, to see God work through an amazing group of people. Thank you all! Regardless of what we do, how big it gets, or where it goes one thing is certain: we will meet on Wednesday nights and show our friends and neighbors one the streets we love and care for them.  

With that being said, let us get together once again for another Wednesday night meeting. Let us show our friends and neighbors in Memphis that joy, love, and compassion is present in this city. We will meet at out regular time of 7:30 PM. If you would like to arrive early and help prep, my door will be open at 6:30. We will load up and try to roll out at 8:00. We will likely all be back at 10:00 for some fellowship. If you are able to join us I look forward to seeing you. If you are unable to make it I ask that you pray for our mission. Pray for our safety but also pray that we reach those who are in need. Pray that we are the season and the light in our city tonight.

Peace