Ministry Outreach Update

This is the Day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it!

This is the first of hopefully many updates that we will be providing detailing some of the work we are doing in Jesus' name throughout the greater Springfield area to outreach to the homeless and near homeless population. I hope you enjoy learning more about Milestone Ministries and would encourage anyone interesting in helping to contact us.

Soda Donation
We were blessed this week with a very generous donation of soda. From this donation we were able to distribute a great deal of soda to several worthy causes including the Lion's Den in Indian Orchard http://www.lionsdenoutreach.org/, homeless shelters in Springfield and Westfield, and The Crossway Christian Church in Palmer http://www.thecrossway.org/ which was celebrating their third year in their current building with a wonderful picnic and ministry outreach.

Homeless Street Outreach

On Tuesday afternoon Pastor Jack, myself, and my son joined Rick P. (a great friend of the ministry) for his weekly homeless outreach walk throughout downtown Springfield. Also with us was another local pastor and two members of his church. We were able to connect with about a dozen people to whom we offered bagged lunches, new socks, and other personal hygiene items to. Above all we were able to pray for these wonderful folks, in fact one gentleman turned things around and prayed for us. We especially want to keep in prayer a man I will call "B". "B" has cancer and was just about to embark on his treatment, Pastor Jack said a powerful prayer for "B" we agreed in Jesus' name for his healing and I am confident we'll be seeing "B" for a long time to come.

Preventing Eviction

The ministry had a request from the Springfield office of Housing regarding a man "D" that had been in and out of the hospital recently and was in danger of being evicted because he was unable to keep up with cleaning his apartment and things had gotten a bit out of hand. We were able to get a small group to clean up "D's" place and after a few trips the place was good as new. "D" was just as happy to have some people to talk to, and we will stay in touch with him to offer the fellowship he has been missing for so long.

Fellowship

Last week the ministry visited the Loaves and Fishes at lunchtime twice, as well as a few visits to the Worthington Street shelter in the early evening. In addition to offering our prayers and help to anyone that needed it, we also wanted to visit with some of our friends from the Overflow Shelter, it had been two months since we closed for the season and we really miss those guys. There are not many people still at the Worthington Street shelter from the Overflow Shelter( which I took as a good sign hoping they had gotten their own places) but the guys that remained were very glad to know that they weren't forgotten. We will do our best to make these visits a regular thing.

Encouragement
I was able to convince one of our overflow shelter friends "R" that he should seek out the city veteran's agent http://www.springfieldcityhall.com/COS/veterans.0.html to see what benefits might be available to him. "R" was reluctant at first , he felt others were more worthy of the help. But after some praying with him and a member of his family he realized that he should take some assistance. We met with the city veteran's agent and now "R" is well on his way to getting his own place, and the fresh start he so deserves. Praise God.

Off the Street
Also last week we were finishing up the placement of a wonderful woman "Y" and her two beautiful children. Sadly even though "Y" works a full time job she recently found herself homeless. Pastor Jack worked diligently with the Springfield Office of Housing http://www.springfieldcityhall.com/housing/ and a local property manager to get "Y" and her children into a very nice 2 bedroom apartment. The Pastor was also able to get "Y" hooked up with a local church http://www.churchintheacres.org/ which in addition to bringing her closer to God, will also give her a community to reach out to should she need any further help.

I look forward to the upcoming week, and the opportunities I know it will bring. Please be on the outlook for next weeks update.

Submitted by Frank Kelly