Warm, fresh bread!

 "If we are going to make a difference in the world we have to become more passionate and focused on what happens outside of our walls 24/7 than we are on what happens inside our walls 1.5/1."

I love this quote from a friend of mine named Karl, he really gets it and is living his life like this. Beautiful!


I love when people use their talents to help others, especially helping those outside the safety of the walls of our churches. Yesterday was one of those days, when something practical and simple was done that had a huge impact. Let me share!


A friend of mine from our church took time to make us homemade bread. It was delivered to us right out of the oven and we took it with us to do our ministry on Hawkins/Neville. When we arrived on location people were already gathered and were waiting for us to start serving. We were blessed with chili, goulash, garlic bread, cinnamon buns, chocolate macaroons all which was donated from friends of our ministry.


All the food was amazing as always. I am so grateful for all of it and for the time invested to prepare it and for the resources spent to purchase it, and for the people who serve it. But for just one minute I want to focus on the bread, the warm fresh bread.

I don't know how many comments I heard about the bread. I loved the look on the faces of the people who bit into the bread and experienced the bread just being so freshly made. Many times I heard,"we have not had fresh homemade bread in a long time." At the end of the day I had one loaf of bread left, that was perfect!


I took that loaf of bread to a family I care about. The mom could not make it to the park for various reasons, but she heard about the bread from her daughter and a friend. I told her I had brought her a loaf and it was for her and her family. Her eyes lit up. It was awesome! She had just told her friend how much she wished she could have had a piece.


Wouldn't it be amazing to be able to help those who love the taste of this bread to learn to do so themselves so they could bless their own families? Wouldn't it be incredible to supply families with bags of flour and all the pans and ingredients needed to do this too!


The same could be said about all the types of food we brought. I am sooooooooo thankful for all the amazing people that bless us and the families we serve with their time and talents. It is so refreshing to see it being done for people outside our walls.


Keep making that food and keep making a difference!

Mess Up, Fess Up

Influence is a big thing. Trust is an even bigger deal. If people trust you in life, if people believe that you are in support of the things they believe in, then you can have an impact.


I was talking to one of the amazing moms who come out to our Thursday night hot meal program about her daughter. She has been having a few challenges with her daughter and has had to prevent her from hanging out with people that would bring her daughter down.


She then talked about how she really wants her daughter to be around us as we reinforce the values she wants her daughter to learn. That is so powerful! We want to support families and teach the teens and children to respect their parents, especially when we know those parents really are striving to make their kids lives better.

Trust is so important as I said earlier. I have felt horrible this past week as I made a promise to a family that I didn't follow through on. Last week one of the precious families we have come to know was facing a major medical challenge. I made a promise to come by and pray with this family on Wednesday as they were heading out of town for surgery on Thursday.


I was just about to crawl into bed on Wednesday and realized I had not followed through. It was not intentional, I simply forgot. I got up early that Thursday morning and drove to their home but they had already left town. I was deeply saddened and disappointed. This is not how I want to operate, I want to deliver on what I say!

Tonight I went over to the house of the family and made an apology. I expressed my sincere apology for not coming by when I said I would. I did not make excuses, I simply said I had let them down and I was sorry. This mom told me that she forgave me and that she was glad I came by to visit. Even though we were just there for a few minutes, I felt so much better when we left.


As we build relationships, we need to be faithful to our word. When we mess up, we need to fess up! I am glad people believe in us and I want our words to be sincere! I value greatly the amazing people God gives us the honor of serving!

Awesome few days

Wow, the last few days have been amazing, tiring and fulfilling! 


I continue to be amazed at the favor God provides us as we reach out to others. I am continually reminded that I need to spend time in His presence seeking His intervention in the future and present. I know that He holds the keys to any door that needs to be opened up.


Yesterday was so much fun! We started the day by taking a bunch of teens to a park where we handed out food and drinks and ate lots of watermelon. Our teens played with lots of kids they had never met before and saw the joy in just being available to kick a soccer ball or push a swing. I think a few of them caught the importance of serving others.


We took a short break and went out for wings at one of my favorite places in the city on a Sunday, Jungle Jim's. They have incredible wonderful tasting wings. Eight of us had a great meal and even better fellowship together as we relaxed and enjoyed each others company. Of course we got to do this in front of the big screen TV with NFL football  on.

After our fill of wings, I took three teens who had been with us all day to another ministry in town. This ministry makes sandwiches for 320 people and goes door to door as they deliver the food to needy families. I so love what they do and the heart they do it with. They would agree that they are just touching the tip of the iceberg when it comes to meeting the needs in our city. 


What is the biggest priority for the Boaz ministry this week? We need to get a home for Boaz to operate from. We have now looked through one particular home on Neville St. for the third time. A close friend of mine that is a real estate agent is working very hard for us to try and make this a reality. We are praying once again for incredible favor from God, and that He would go before us and level the mountains. 


Please pray for us and the ministry as we have four meetings set up this week with a number of different individuals, including government officials, other pastors, potential donors and meet with our board. Would you join me in praying specifically for the home on Neville St. that God would do the miraculous that only He is capable of.

http://www.homelifefredericton.com/4a_listings.php?MLS=&street=Neville+St&city=&price_from=&price_to=&bedrooms=0&bathrooms=0&property_type=0&status_default=354&status=35

In closing I want to share a song I recently came accross, you can watch it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjAmdzsOR7w  I think it describes our heart for people!

What can I do?

We pulled on to to our drop in location at 6:00 and was greeted by one of the kids who loves us being there to spend time with them. She said, "I was wondering when you would get here, I have been waiting for five hours." The reality is she got off school at 3:00 so it had been just three hours, but the point was she was waiting for us. It gave her something to hope for.


Friday night was incredible once again as we had about 30 kids/teens out. This happened to be the same night as the  local exhibition was giving reduced rates for kids, so we were missing quite a few regulars. At one point Drew and Scottie grabbed a football, formed up two teams and played a game with the teen boys until dusk. One of the boys said that he was glad he never went to the exhibition because this was much more fun. I agree we have fun and the cost for people to come to what we do is free. It is also relational!

The reality for us is these types of nights can't happen unless we have volunteers. I am so blessed to have so many young adults helping us out. They are as passionate about these kids and families as our staff is. They sacrifice their time to make a difference. The kids are also smart enough to tell the difference between someone who really cares and someone going through the motions of caring. Our staff and volunteers really care.


People are wondering what they could possibly do to help out and get involved. There are a few things but one of the simplest is to just be there. Having a consistent presence in kids and teens lives goes a long way. If you can push a swing, flip a hotdog over on a grill, listen, pour a kid a cup of juice, kick a ball, listen, pick up trash, pray, listen, did I mention listening. One little girl talked to Karla and told her how her day went. Then she asked her when she was coming back so she could tell her how that day went.

Get involved, it will change your life. What are you waiting for? You could have a huge impact on someones life today.

New drop in location

We arrived at Hawkins St. last night for 6:00 and no one was there. By 6:05 everything had changed and there were almost 30 kids and teens surrounding us. The first question one of the kids said was "are you going to be here on Friday's too?" We told him yes and he said, "awesome". With that our drop in at Hawkins is underway.


Some may wonder why we changed locations from Trinitea's Cup? The reality for us was that we had been struggling to grow. We had plateaued at about 12-15 teens and we were not seeing any new faces. The reality was if we wanted to grow we needed to go to where the need is instead of expecting them to come to us. We had to adjust which we did.

I want to thank Lynn and Patrick at Trinitea's Cup for renting us their facilities every Friday night for the past nine months or so. I so appreciate the ministry they have from their location and pray God's provision and blessing over them. Remember them and their ministry in your prayers, and help them from time to time as they feed the needy in our city on Thursdays.


By the end of the night we had been introduced to at least 30 new people including hurting parents, about a dozen new teens and many elementary school kids.  We went through lots of pop and chips and fruit and water. We gave out lots of hugs and encouragement. We taught kids how to throw footballs and play soccer and throw frisbees. We watched as kids grew more comfortable with us through the night and kids that were shy were giving us fist pumps and high fives. It was awesome!!!

We will be heading back to Hawkins on Tuesday and we will be bringing hot meals and our school supplies. It is not too late to help us out with these projects. If you can assist in anyway at all, give me a call on my cell 451-5547, email me at scottraptors@hotmail.com or send me a facebook message.


Stay tuned next week as I share the vision we have for this area. As I have been praying God is showing more of what we can do to meet the needs of some beautiful and amazing kids, teens and parents. We are truly blessed!

We gonna party like its your birthday

Water slides, a giant rat we call Chucky,  ice-cream, cake, loads of presents, friends, family, candles, and sometimes paper hats with cheap elastics. This was the standard for birthdays growing up in my house. Birthdays are kind of a big deal, marking each year that you have been present, breaking each moment down in relation to the days you have been alive. Mile stones, alters, anniversaries they are important to us, they define who we are, where we have been and where we are going. 

This past tuesday we arrived to the park with kids playing with our volunteers, moms talking to some of our staff, and i got the dogs cooking as soon as Ash and Robyn returned with a new bottle of propane. One of the girls that we hang out with was turning 13, so immediately Ash and Robyn returned back to their car to fetch a cake. When the were gone i was talking to the birthday girls little brother, who said in a saddened voice “it was my birthday yesterday.”

i asked “how old are ya now?”

he replied, “nine”

“what did ya do? did you get cake? any presents? do anything fun?”

“No, we didn’t do anything, we don’t have enough money to do anything special”

Where was Chucky and his cheese? Where were the party hats, the balloons, the friends, the presents? No cake? The disappointment in his voice made me half mad, while the other half of me broke down. Who would have thought that not having a birthday would feel like such an injustice?

The girls arrived back with two cakes, one marble one vanilla. We lit the candles, had a brother and sister make their wishes while 25 of us sang happy birthday at the top of our lungs, the smoke from the candles lingered as did the smiles from everyone that was present. I don’t know if this could make up for the previous day with no cake or presents but it was full of joy non the lease.