God answers our prayers

Last week I wrote and asked for people to be praying for a local guy here in Philadelphia, Donald. Donald had fell into some hard circumstances and had become homeless. Well just yesterday he came by the food cupboard with a big smile on his face. He found a place that he could afford and he had already moved in. With a smile on his face Donald gave Frank and I a fist bump and went back to work.

The Lord is so faithful and he cares for us so much. Sometimes we struggle with understanding what the Lord is up to, and His timing doesn't always fall where or when we want it to. I heard a story the other day about how a 70 year old man came to know the Lord after of denying Him his whole life. His wife had been praying for him for 40 years. Sometimes the Lord is quick in answering prayers and other times not as quick as we think He should be. But one thing I know for sure is that He loves us so much and that we can trust Him with our lives. So to all of you who have been praying for Donald thank you and may these answered prayers encourage you in your own life.

8th Graders and a Prayer Request

It has been a few days since our first blog and I am still trying to find out how this blog thing works. My Dad called me last night and wanted to know what a blog was, it was pretty funny but I have to confess I am still trying to figure that out for myself. Anna and I have been busy the past few days. We had a group of 20 8th grade students come on Tuesday morning to serve with us at Cast Your Cares. We gave out clothes, cake, and coffee to all of our neighbors and we even had a few of them make bags for the food cupboard. They were a great bunch of kids
and it is always neat to see the Lord use 8th graders for His glory.

While we were giving out clothes Donte came up to me with another Pepsi and at first I refused saying man you can keep it I really don't need one but he insisted saying that we give him all these big bags of food and clothes that it was the least he could do. One of the local ladies over heard our conversation and said to me that Donte is a very sweet guy and would do anything for anybody. He is a very sweet guy that continues to surprise me.

We also have a prayer request for you guys. A guy that we have known for a few years now, Donald or as he is known around here as "The monkey man" because he wears a full money suit while working for a furniture store handing out fliers down the road, just recently has become homeless. He is a hard working guy who just fell into some unfortunate circumstances. I am asking you guys to ask the Lord to open some doors for him. First of all to find a place he can call his own. Second for a decent job, where he can actually sustain life on his own. I know God can do all things through Jesus, so please join with us in praying for Donald daily.

The Start of the Blog all from a Pepsi

Anna and I decided we are going to actually start writing on our blog. Anna's wonderful sister Katherine started our blog and now we are going to use it. We want to keep people updated with what were up to here in Philadelphia, how Philly and the people here are doing. So we will try to keep it updated as much as possible with stories, prayer request and whatever else we can come up with.
An experience I had today is what inspired me. I was at the food cupboard that I run at Cast Your Cares; I was giving out food bags and handing out snacks to the people on the street when a guy Donte who gets food bags from us regularly came up to me and randomly asked me what type of soda I liked. I answered with "Pepsi" not thinking anything of it because I get all kinds of questions on a daily basis... random or not. To my surprise he said "ok, I will be right back" and it took me back for a second realizing that he was going to buy me a Pepsi and I said to him that I didn't need one and for him to save his money. A few minutes later he was back with a 20 oz. Pepsi, he handed it to me, I said thank you and he walked off. I took a few moments after he left to think about what this guy just did. To you and me buying someone a Pepsi is no big deal but you see, in my four and a half years no one that we serve has ever done anything like that for me before. I am always giving them food or whatever they need or want, which I am completely fine with and love doing on a daily basis. But today it was so neat to see Donte's heart in it. I know for a fact that he has little to no money and for him to spend the money he has on a Pepsi for me spoke volumes on what the Lord is doing in his heart. In God's word it says where your treasure is there your heart will be also. It was pretty cool to see his heart in something as small as a Pepsi.