Month: November 2009

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New Opportunity and Urgent Mission

Give Me Shelter Ministries delivered over 6500 meals from Feed My Starving Children in June 2009. You can see the results here

Now, in our continued effort to become one of the few non-profit organizations to serve as a distribution partner to Feed My Starving Children, we have an opportunity to deliver almost 10,000 meals to Mexico! But this opportunity arose quickly, and we must deliver these meals December 4-6! Praise God we have reserves to make this happen, but we will need your prayerful consideration to donate to this mission. We must buy a plane ticket, so frequent flyer miles are greatly appreciated as well! Please see the website for Feed My Starving Children at www.FMSC.org to see what a wonderful organization this is and how great it would be for Give Me Shelter Ministries to become a full time distribution partner and extend their reach into Mexico.

If you have frequent flyer miles, please email us at info@GiveMeShelterMinistries.org. If you would like to donate to this mission, please do so by clicking the Donate button in the column to the right. Thank you and God bless!

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Mission Accomplished, Praise God!

This is the day that always seems to be the best for me, the day of the house dedication ceremony. I will admit it is very difficult for me emotionally. Knowing the appreciation of something so simple that we as such a fortunate country take for granted. I will always wonder why God chose me of all people to taste the true sweetness of His grace and mercy through what He allows us to do through GMSM.
As we arrived to the new home of the Quientero’s Pastor Felipe was already waiting. We kind of just hung out for a few minutes as we waited for all the players to show (Felipe’s family and the Quientero family). Even Juan the neighbor showed up for the gig. This is the guy I shared with a few days prior. As Felipe read from God’s word to dedicate this house as a light to Colonia Artista I could not help but reflect on why some people refuse to understand or accept what we do. The pure joy to serve God and to see the stoke on the faces of this family, I wish all believers could experience what God has allowed us to be a part of this week.
After the dedication we presented house warming gifts along with a cool toy for the little dude. With many handshakes and hugs everyone started to disperse. Once again at the nudging of the Holy Spirit I felt called to share a little more with Juan. In the presence of Felipe and Jose I told Juan all I could and then just turned it over to the Lord and my two compadres. They spoke a few words and he indicated that he was ready for a true change in his life. We prayed with him and he prayed for Jesus to be his Lord and Savior. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
The harvest is many but the laborers are few. Praise God for His harvest. Felipe and Jose will continue to disciple Juan and train him in the ways of God. Great trip with many blessings! The Kingdom was expanded which is the true essence of what we do.
Kenny
GMSM
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On the 3rd day, God allowed us to complete a house.

It never ceases to amaze me how God can use a few kooks like us to accomplish beautiful things. We completed the house in two and a half days. Not that we were trying to break any records or going to fast, it is just that God assembled a very good team. It also allowed us to take time and reflect on the Goodness of the Lord. The Quintero family has so much excitement and anticipation in their eyes. He has been busy today doing little extra things in his new home. He even built a clothes hanging area. I am not sure but I think he is a laborer of sorts and his wife works in a Sony factory.
As always will buy a house warming gift for the house dedication tomorrow. So after we cleaned up the job site we headed back to the orphanage got cleaned up and did what any good gringo would do, go to the chicken place. After eating we experienced worship with the kids and went house warming gift shopping at the Soreana.
I am so excited for this family and at what God has allowed us to be a part of. It is such a blessing and even for me it is hard to put into words. All I can say is praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Kenny
GMSM
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Mission to Mexico, November 11, 2009

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. What a great day the Lord gave us. The house work is going so smooth and good. The guys are working together with such unity. We as the body of Christ should take a hard look at these kinds of things and model our relationship with Christ’s church in a way that has one common goal, kingdom expansion. It has been so cool so far how God has orchestrated this team. We all have certain levels of talent, yet each one compliments the other. Kind of like when Paul tells us we need the whole body not just pieces and parts of it. It takes the whole thing to work proper. This has really given me the opportunity to soak in all the goodness of the Lords plan through this project. I am usually the one that has to spearhead the whole process of the house building. Although everyone seems to look to me for direction, I can let go and distribute the work out and the guys just pick up and go with it. These men could probably do this on their own without me but for some crazy reason God has put me in the leadership role of His ministry, GMSM. We have in the past had some teams that just did not mesh together. Some with their own agendas and some teams that flat out had too many chiefs and not enough Indians. I wonder sometimes what truly motivates man. I guess that is one thing I really do not have to worry about. My focus is on trying to be the example that God wants me to be. So with all that said, praise God for this wonderful team God has assembled. After only two days we are 90% complete.
Today a neighbor named Johnny came over to see what all we were doing. He is a super kind dude. This cat kept an eye on me and soon enough we were joking around and he began to really help us out. Johnny and I just seemed to mesh. As the afternoon wore on I felt the Lord leading me to talk with this dude about spiritual things. We worked till almost dark today and after all was cleaned up I just had to share Christ with him. He was very receptive and said he was Catholic but know one had ever said things to him like that before. I asked if we could talk more tomorrow and he said that would be cool. I thanked him for his help and told him that I thought God brought him over today for a different reason other than to help on the house. All I did was share about God’s grace and mercy through his son Jesus. I did not ask him to make a “decision”. God will take care of the rest. Praise the Lord for this team working together well that allowed me to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. After all are we here to build houses or the kingdom.
Kenny
GMSM
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Mission to Mexico, November 10, 2009

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. After a not so good night sleep we headed off to the house site. We were met by the Quietero family and Pastor Felipe and his family. As we greeted each other Felipe told me how they had seen the web site and picture of the family. They printed the picture off and gave it to the family and they were so excited. I asked Nathaniel (the pastor’s son) where they saw the web site and he said at a cyber café. As we started work you could see the joy in the eyes of this couple. Words can never describe the joy God has allowed us to receive by doing something so simple. The day went so well and it is a joy to work with a group of talented men. It truly gives me a time of renewal not having to oversee everything. We accomplished so much today. We did not even start work till 10:00 a.m. and by 4:00 we had all the walls up and ready for siding.
The house this family lives in now is twice as small as the house we are building. They sleep on the ground and as you can see by the picture that it is not a very pleasant place to live. But as of now it is all they have and there are so many families just like this one that live in incredible conditions. Right now God is allowing us to provide for one family at a time. Our hope and prayer is that the redemptive plan through Jesus might be shared by the things that God allows us to do and that He continues to open the door for us to share the gift of salvation. After the day we went to the ever famous Pollo Buenavista for a meal of grilled pollo. After that a quick trip to the Soreana for ice cream and then back to the orphanage to hear the kids going crazy and having fun till the wee hours of the morning Thank you God for another blessed day.
Kenny
GMSM
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Mission to Mexico, November 9, 2009

Greetings, love, peace and praise God from Whom all blessings flow. Parting from the family can at times be kinda bittersweet. I love the opportunity that God gives me to serve through GMSM, at the same time it is hard to leave the family again, especially since we just got back from Haiti. I suppose it is a part of suffering that pales in comparison to the martyrs of past, present and future. God has given me a wonderful woman to support me from the home front.
I am so excited that we are going to build a house for a family in the colonias. A family in much need of shelter; physical and spiritual. God is so cool beyond belief. He provided the cash for this house in only a way He can. As of Wednesday we only had $950.00 to build this house. As most know it takes about $2500.00 for this to happen. By Friday God allowed several people to step up and crank out some cash. By the end of the day we had all we needed and more. If that’s not conformation I do not know what is.
We left Sunday night about 9.00 p.m. to head to P’Cola, FL to hook up with Ray White, grab a trailer and hit the white lined asphalt for the long haul west and then south to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. With tools and supplies in tow and no expectations, we are on route to follow the main dude, God. I am traveling with Shaun Ellis (pastor of Beachside Community Church), Scott Capps and Chuck Heiges. Traveling with Ray is Rickey Anderson. We met Shaun’s dad Bill and Shaun’s Uncle Charles who are from Alabama, in Sealy, Texas along the interstate. Now that all the players are visible and accounted for we are headed on down the road to Buc-ee’s. From there to San Antonio, a hard left south and on to Mexico. Once we hit Laredo, TX we will pick up one more truck and trailer and head over to Lowes and start to gather our lumber to take across the border. That will and always will be an adventure in itself.
Praise god the Lowes adventure went off like a hitch. We gathered our chum, got tax exempt, loaded and got out of there. We all headed back to Jaunie’s where Louise her husband had prepared a killer meal of tacos and tamales. WOW! After completely pigging out we once again assembled and headed towards the border. We got through without incident and without having to pay duty on the house supplies. We got to Casa Hogar Elim and bedded down to make ready for a good tomorrow.
Kenny
GMSM
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Haiti, November 1, 2009

T.G.I.S. (Thank God It’s Sunday). Praise god from Whom all blessings flow. What a glorious last day in Haiti God has giving me. Usually we arrive in Z’orange on Sunday and leave on Saturday. My schedule is so different this time with me leaving Haiti early to get ready for the Mexico mission trip that my last day will be spent in worship with my Haitian brothers and sisters.
We went just a little north of Z’Orange to visit the Jerusalem IIII church. Right now this congregation is meeting under a thatched roof with crude post and beam construction. Our prayer is that God will build His church on this spot and let us have a part in it by whatever means He chooses love church here in Haiti, especially out in the country. God is so cool to let us see real worship at it’s finest. People coming together for the common purpose of church, the body of Christ joining together as one, not a bunch of spastic committees working against each other for the common purpose of a power struggle.
We can learn so much from things in which most people want to distance themselves from. I myself have to be careful not to fall prey to the things of this world. Brother Carl preached the truth and the locals sang as if they were angels from heaven. After church we went back to Z,Orange and had a great Haitian lunch with Pastor Dorleon, his wife and Jean Renel the associate pastor. Killer food, goat, rice and beans, fried plantains and greens.
I saw John Wesley’s wife today and talked with her for a little while. As of now they are not together again which seems to be an off and on thing happening between the two. I did not see him but I am very stoked at her commitment to God and the church. I never got to see Pastor Fani either. That saddens me greatly because I have grown to love him and his wife so much. He never came down off the mountain and may not for quiet some time. Next time down I plan to spend some time up with him, God willing. I feel as though I am cheating sometimes with all the blessings I receive serving God. Weather it is Haiti, Mexico or home the blessings I get I do not deserve, but God is so gracious to us and allows us to be a part of His plan if we are obedient and available. God’s plan will go on without us so we ought to take advantage and taste the sweetness of His grace and mercy. Please pray for Haiti.
Kenny
GMSM