Cast Your Cares Mural

This past week we had a team at Cast Your Cares doing a unique project, Painting a Mural. They designed the mural themselves and painted the mural themselves as well as having some assistance from Frank and Jim. They painted throughout the week but also got to experience the people here in Philly and what the Lord is doing here as well. We took them on a prayer walk one day and they did a wonderful job in sharing the Lord with people as well as praying for them... it was a joy to watch. They brought their own uniqueness and well as their own gifts that the Lord has blessed them with. This morning we had a breakfast for the neighborhood and our neighbors were able to see the mural for the first time. It has definitely brought some character to our side lot as well as some nature. The group worked their tails off this week and did a wonderful job. Here is some pictures of the new look at the Cast Your Cares Ministry.

Depths and Richness of Grace

Life here in Philly is going well... the Lord continues to amaze us and bless us everyday. This past weekend Anna and I took a last minute trip with some friends ours to their uncle's cabin in the mountains here in Pennsylvania. It's a beautiful place that we have been to a few times over the years and like every other time we have gone it was great. We spent the weekend catching up with our friends who we haven't spent time with in a while, had a fire going the whole weekend, and really just had a fun with our friends. I especially liked the part of the weekend where I was able to show my manliness by chopping wood as well as showing the kid in me by running around with my buddy getting all dirty and exhausted at the same time. It was a wonderful surprise to our weekend, one that I know the Lord blessed us with.
I have been learning a lot about God's grace lately. Last week a guy came to the door at Cast Your Cares while the food cupboard was running, he wanted to sign up to get some food from us as well as talk about life. It was a guy that I have known for a while but haven't seen in a few months. He caught me up on what was going on in his life and the things that were weighing him down. I tired to encourage him the best that I could, with some guidance and God's truth. I felt like we kind of got some where in our talk but as he left I couldn't help but feel for the guy, thinking to myself "if he only understood the grace God has for him in his life things would be so different for him." Later that day after I got home I was listening to some music by Shane and Shane, the song Saved by Grace in particularly. As I listened to the song, a song I have heard a hundred times before, the words "we have been saved by grace" rang over and over in my ears. I began to see the very thing that I was hoping for that guy earlier to understand, I fail to understand at times in my life. I think at times we get stuck on auto pilot and began to try to do things solely on our own, most of the time not even meaning to. Grace is a very hard concept to understand sometimes because we think we need to fix whatever problem is in our lives. We even do it with our relationship with Jesus, we say I need to fix this or do this but the truth is "that God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace we have been saved, through faith- and this is not from ourselves, it is a gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast" . The words in those verses in Ephesians 2 show that we don't have to do things all on our own and that God graciousness is completely free. The depths and richness of His grace I will continue to learn and for that I am excited as well as thankful.

3 Years in the Making

Well it has been a little while since our last post. We usually try to write on the blog at least once a week and well it's been a little longer than that. Things have been going well for us here in Philly. Ministry continues to be fun and challenging at the same time. Anna and I hit a big milestone in our lives, we celebrated our 3 year Anniversary on the 19th of August. We celebrated it by having a wonderful day and night out in Philadelphia. We went on a fun carriage ride around the city in which our carriage driver was actually from our neck of the woods here in Kensington, she was a lot of fun. We also went to this awesome desert place where everything you ordered was made from chocolate. They had chocolate burgers, chocolate pizzas and anything else you could think of that you could turn into chocolate. We had the chocolate pizza, it was great but we want to die after we ate it, it was a lot to handle. We had a great day and night in the city celebrating our wonderful 3 years of marriage.

Meanwhile ministry has been keeping us busy and I have really enjoyed having Anna with me more than usual these last few weeks between her breaks in school. I love being side by side with her as we serve Jesus together, it is such a blessing, something I cherish.
For those of you who love praying for us and the ministry here in Philly, we have some prayer requests. So if you could keep them in prayers that would be awesome!

Prayer Requests:
For the wonderful people we serve on a daily basis- that the Lord would continue to penetrate their hearts with His love and truth. For the men and women who continue to lose the battle with their addictions, that the Lord would show them the freedom that is in Him.

For Anna and I- that the Lord would continue to stretch and grow us as we seek to live life out for Him. As well as for the Lord to provide for our financial needs.