01-01-12

Behold, I stand at the door [of your heart], and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door [as we would for an honored and beloved member of our family, we must welcome Him with open arms], I will come in to him, and will sup [Gk: to dine, i.e. take the principal (or evening) meal] with him, and he with me. (Rev 3:20)

A WELCOME CHANGE OF ATTITUDE

Howdy, howdy, howdy, God bless you dear brothers and sisters. We have all noted particularly during the long winter months when it is a bit darker and usually quite colder, that many people become depressed, not understanding that God’s love is the cure for depression. May I suggest to those of you who are feeling more than a bit down and out, glum, with a despairing attitude, that you please look up, look up for the joy of the Lord is at hand. Jesus is that joy (He really is). Is He knocking at your door? He knocked at mine, many years ago, and I at first hesitantly but then gladly invited Him in, and now He sups with me, and talks with me, and He comforts me, and He shares (yes, actually shares) the brilliant glory of His infinitely unfathomable love with me; and I recline, I bask in the soft warm embrace of His endearing love, holding me, so close; and I am loved. Thank you Lord.

STATISTICS

From a statistical point of view, the two main accomplishments of our Rescue Mission for the year 2011 are first that 444 men, women, and children made professions of faith and received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, embarking, with a welcome change in attitude, upon a new wonderfully improved life on earth and a joy filled eternal life in Heaven. And secondly that $1,859,200 dollars worth of food, or 929,600 pounds of food, or 619,733 meals and meal equivalencies were provided to poor domiciled families and homeless persons living in Pinellas County, which breaks out to be 1,697 meals per day, every day of the year.

While I was thinking of the meals that our (yours and mine) Rescue Mission provided in 2011, my mind referred me to a quite interesting parallel narrative in the Bible that occurred in “a desert place” (Mark 6:30-44); a desert place that may be likened in many ways to this present dying world. At dinnertime, the disciples (representing you and I), who were surrounded by a vast multitude of hungry people, had altogether only five loaves of bread and two fishes (very little) which they offered up to Jesus to feed the 5,000 (very many) men plus the accompanying but uncounted several thousands of women and children (perhaps another 10,000 persons or so). My, oh my, what shall we do? Well, the Lord Jesus accepted the assets that the disciples offered, and multiplied their “little” into His “much.” I reckon from that that multiplication is an intrinsic part of His Person, because He still does that very same thing, He receives what you have to offer and multiplies it every time that you, His disciple, offer up a sacrificial donation of your assets to His Rescue Mission (i.e., to “feed my sheep”: John 21:16,17). Jesus accepts that offering, prays over it, blesses it, and gives it to His disciples (our staff and warm-hearted volunteers) to feed our very many thousands of out-of-work and very hungry men, women, and little children.  

Those approximately 15,000 persons isolated in the evening desert formed an exceedingly large group of hungry people that were miraculously fed to the full on impossibly little food. Let us do some spiritual mathematics in an application to our own circumstances. The donations (assets) that we received from you last year totaled $142,784. The Lord Jesus Christ received those donations and multiplied them into $1,859,200 dollars worth of nourishing food that filled thousands of the hungry stomachs of the spiritually and physically crippled, maimed, disabled and just plain poor folk. In effect, by donating your part of the $142,784 dollars, you donated your part of a pocket value of $1,859,200 in food (a necessity of life, that we definitely know wasn’t wastefully spent on beer or drugs) to the poor and hungry residents of Pinellas County. That represents a 13 to 1 increase. For every dollar that you gave to the Rescue Mission, our Lord multiplied that into thirteen dollars, i.e., you gave $10 and He multiplied that into $130; you gave $100 and He multiplied that into $1,300; you gave $1,000 and He multiplied that into $13,000; you altogether gave $142,784 and He multiplied that into $1,859,200 (13 to 1). The population of Pinellas County is one million living breathing people. You sowed seed into God’s field, and thousands upon thousands of men, women, and little children reaped the harvest. Thank you. And may I say… “Well done, thou good and faithful servant… enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” (Mat 25:21).

MEETING THE NEED

(The following news release was sent to the newspapers in Pinellas County):

FREE BREAKFAST As a helpful response to the steadily increasing numbers of impoverished domiciled families and newly homeless persons daily patronizing our Rescue Mission, commencing on Monday the 9th of January and henceforth, our staff and volunteers will be offering to all the needy persons living in Pinellas County, "a meeting the need" Free Breakfast consisting of free breakfast meals for whosoever is hungry and in need. Initially, the breakfast serving time will be from 7:00am through 8:30am Mondays through Fridays; however, we expect that those times may become rapidly extended, depending upon the number of hungry patrons in the county (population one million) who respond. Of course at the same time, patrons will be able to take showers, get clean clothes from our donated clothing room, make telephone calls, receive their mail, and pick up a bag lunch meal to eat later in the day. Volunteer helpers and donations are welcome. Suncoast Haven of Rest Rescue Mission, 5625 Park Blvd, Pinellas Park, FL 33781 (tel: 727-545-8282). Thank you. Rev. Lionel

ANOTHER PRESSING NEED

May I mention a pressing need? We need a much larger facility. Let us consider the sheer volume of our Rescue Mission’s operation, the extent of our community involvement, and the vast variety of individual helps that we offer to the persons assembled under the cover of one or more of our five ministry headings: the Ministerial Volunteers In Training (MVIT) in-house educational/rehabilitation ministry; the Pinellas County Food Ministry with which you have become fairly well acquainted through these newsletters; the Pinellas County Day Center Ministry that provides extensive Social Services solutions to resolve family and individual problems; the Outreach Ministry that stretches out a physical and spiritual helping hand to multiple locations in the community such as the homeless shelter at Pinellas Safe Harbor, the homeless shelter at Pinellas Hope, the Pinellas County Jail, the Wagon Wheel Flea Market, the Arlington Gardens; and lastly, the ministry of the evangelical Church Inside The Tabernacle, with myself as pastor, which meets right here at our Rescue Mission every Sunday morning at 10:30am for praise music followed at 11:00am with the sermon. You are all invited to attend (really). Bring your pains, your hurts and sufferings, your depressions and your bewilderments with you, and leave them here, and in exchange, receive the joy of the Lord to take back with you to your home. Jesus will heal (He always does).

Yes, dear brothers and sisters, our little old Rescue Mission is quite stuffed full and overflowing, choking with necessary essential supports for the five ministries contained within it. Please consider the fact that we directly and indirectly interact with and/or effect thousands of hurting men, women, and little children every single day (1,697 meals per day), and we have only a small 2400 square foot building accompanied by a tiny parking-needy exterior premises to accomplish all this. That we have been able thus far to accomplish the objectives Father God had set forth for this Ministry is indeed a miracle; however, we are growing…, rapidly growing, to meet the growing need. For example, in 2007 we gave away $ 688,414 dollars worth of food, and in 2011 we gave away $1,859,200 dollars worth of food. From 2007 up to and including 2011 we have dramatically increased our food give away by 270%, in effect putting almost two million food dollars into the pockets of the poor this year alone. And we need your help to continue.

“Take heed lest any man deceive you.” Let no man fool you. Our post-Christian country is in an ever deepening and almost certainly irreversible crisis situation. Visible desperation is beginning to appear upon the faces of the poor, a desperation that but faintly hides their underlying seething anger. Most, through no fault of their own, progressively lost their jobs, and then lost their homes, and then lost their families, and lost their self-respect somewhere amongst all the latter. They are the rapidly increasing numbers of displaced depressed hungry persons who are desperately seeking food and any form of reconciling comfort, or emotional release. But to meet those physical needs and the higher spiritual needs, and to help heal what is becoming (actually become) a national disaster, we ourselves need a much larger facility, ideally with a commercial kitchen, or a motel or hotel complex, or an empty hospital, or a large store or church, or even just a plain large warehouse that we can remodel to our needs. Anything, brothers and sisters, anything at all. We will buy, finance, lease, rent, occupy, receive as a tax-deductible gift, or make whatever other legal Godly “arrangements” that the present owner of this as yet whimsical piece of property might desire. Thank you. God bless you.

Sincerely, Rev. Lionel  J  Ps. win souls for Christ, there is precious little time left.