Merry Christmas

What a blessing to see the body of Christ GROWING HIS KINGDOM through all of you and your prayers! We PRAISE YOU LORD!


Prayer and Praise!
Cary and Apex

• Christmas Day a Clayton missionary plans to feed those at Moore Square. She has been feeding at Moore Square each Sunday, as well as Christmas, for over 3 years. Brothers and Sisters in Christ have asked for opportunities to serve Christmas Day and are blessing those with food - hams and turkeys, drinks, sweets… The Body of Christ is amazing! Thank YOU Jesus!
• The Brown Bag ministry is providing blankets and scarves for the Christmas Eve service at the Wilmington Street Shelter, as well as gift bags. The ministry was short 23 blankets, but the Lord provided them from an area storage unit.
• While shopping this week, missionaries met a brother in Christ who wants to consider making a large pot of soup and serving those in need a hot meal until the pot is emptied. Please pray for the Lord’s leading of a location.
• Christmas Eve missionaries are out of town an unable to pick-up donated food. A missionary who serves at the Healing Place is able to pick-up the food and bring it to those in need at the Healing Place. What a blessing to see the Body of Christ!
• “Manna From Heaven” We are thanking Jesus for your hands, feet, pocketbooks, cars, and willing hearts. The Lord truly multiplied the bags. In the lobby there were about 60 bags. The bags began to multiple. Every home (84 of them) was given a bag. Each bag not only contained groceries but a “Love Letter from the Father” in English or Spanish. People also were able to hand out Bibles. We Praise You Jesus!
  The bags continued to multiply. A team took the abundance to another neighborhood and gave away ~ 18 bags; a family took 3 bags to “families in need” in Holly Springs. There were still ~ 10 extra bags. These went to other homes on Stephenson Road. The best calculation is ~ 115 bags. Go GOD!
  All the drivers were incredible. What a blessing to see families going door-to-door bringing the love of Jesus to each home!
  It was true a gift!
• The Lord is answering your prayers. A lamb’s biopsy was normal as was a second PAP. THANK YOU JESUS!
• The Lord is also answering prayers for the lamb whose apartment burned down. He still has a job and has found a place to stay. PRAISE GOD! Members of his support circle have donated groceries, helped purchase gas to get to work and purchased Christmas gifts for his daughter. THANK YOU JESUS!
• A White Flag shelter is being offered at Hope Community again this winter. Thank You Jesus! If anyone would like to volunteer at the shelter or supply meals please contact Stephanie Narron at 274-8120. They need two men to spend the night each night the temperature dips to 32 or below.
• The Lord has utilized the donated non-perishable food with many families in need.
• The Backyard Bible Club’s Christmas party was a huge blessing. Every child received an abundance of gifts, even children who have never attended. THANK YOU JESUS for being a God of provision.
• A family who accepted Jesus in August wants to continue the Backyard Bible Club in her home until the spring. Please pray for her as she opens her home to all the children of the neighborhood. Thank You Jesus for bring Your Church to their hearts and home!
• Keep a missionary’s sister-in-law in prayer. Here is the prayer request.
  She had a mole removed last week that was cancerous and is waiting to hear back on blood work. I would like to agree that any pathology that might be in her blood or any other part of her body for that matter would be destroyed in the strong name of Jesus. She is not a believer but what an awesome opportunity for her to see a community of faith that loved her enough to pray for her and a God that loved her enough to heal her. Faith begins when we know the will of God.
• A lamb’s mother was told she had one year to live. She is the caretaker of the couples’ children. Please pray the Lord blesses them with their children during this time period so the children don’t become part of the system. Pray for intervention.
• Shirley’s ministry is a non-profit for the animals in the woods. She is in need of financial contributions as well as pet food.Shirley Companion Ministry, PO Box 1468, Fuquay, NC 27526, 210-3096
• Please keep in prayer all the Apex and Cary missions. If you feel called to serve the socially and economically challenged in the Cary/Apex are please contact Cindy at cboyce@nc.rr.com .
  
  Garner
  
• What a trying week for God’s lamb. He has been in and out of the ER three times since his biopsy. His appointment at UNC has been postponed until the 31st. At this appointment the doctors will do a stress test and plan for surgery to remove at least a portion of his lung. His tumor has grown according to the latest MRI.
• Another lamb has left Garner. He has taken a job in FL. Thank you Jesus for the provision of bus tickets to a better life. He called the morning he left asking for prayer and was surprised when a missionary met him at the bus station to pray for him and his safe travel. He called missionaries when he arrived to his destination. Please keep him in your prayers that he uses this time to grow closer to Jesus, realizing that ALL things come from the Lord.
• A lamb who was in Garner for many years turned up this week in a phone call from Maryland, where he has found a place to stay. He cooks and cleans for a doctor who provides his food and lodging. He said he has been off drugs and alcohol for a couple of months. Praise God!
• Another lamb has found housing this week. He is staying with a friend. Praise God!
• Lambs received their glasses this week. They are so excited to SEE, may they see Him more clearly as well. Three other lambs have gone for eye exams. PRAISE GOD!
• The Lord provided more Christmas packages this Sunday. He has provided gifts every Sunday of Advent. This week the lambs received candy canes, toothbrushes, and chocolate cigarettes, from one addiction to another. J
• A family from an Apex church joined missionaries Sunday as bags were delivered. What a blessing to find out they teach Spanish at NC State! Thank You Jesus!
  
• A Hispanic lamb was transferred to a FL prison this week. He is to serve ~ a week there and then released. Pray for the Lord’s provision after he is released. His address is
  Jaime Hernandez Sanchez
  Manatee County Jail
  Palmetto, FL 34221His public defender is Peter Coen. If any one wants to write to him on Jaime’s behalf, the address is Public Defender OfficeAttn. Peter Coen
  Case # 1994CF2938 920 Manatee Ave WBardenton, FL 34205
  Please pray that lambs’ hearts are opened to seeing God’s hand in everything and feeling the love of Jesus poured into each one. Pray they know they are adopted children of Christ.
  
  Missionary Testimony
  God continues to multiply efforts to bring His lambs out of the woods. The Church in the Woods was again able to draw from some money donated by a family that was reunited with a lost lamb a couple of years ago.
  
  The latest lamb had been coming to church regularly and, even as he sometimes grumbled about the message, God was tugging on his heart. When an opportunity came up for a job in Florida, he asked a missionary to check it out for him, “Make sure it is legit.”
  
  The missionary reminded the lamb that he had talked about going to his land in Arkansas, but never did. He had talked about going to relatives in Connecticut, but never did. “Sometimes you have to step out in faith.”
  
  After bus tickets had been purchased, the lamb called to say goodbye and confessed he might have “cold feet.” Missionaries jokingly suggested he wear warm socks and boots.
  At one point, he told the missionaries, “I know you bought me that bus ticket.” He seemed very touched by that and would not hear anything to the contrary. When the missionary said, “We’ll never for get you,” he replied, “Believe me, I’ll never forget you either.”
  
  Later, a missionary met him at the bus station for a final goodbye and the lamb was fighting back tears as he spoke with hope about the future.
  
  The lamb called missionaries on their cellphone the next day to say he had arrived in Florida, had a job and a room.
  
  Praise God!
  
  God’s Provision – Donations of Time & Finances
  · Thank the Lord for the showers each week from the Garner Methodist church Thank You Jesus for serving hearts! Thank You Lord for the laundermat that continues to hold the homeless laundry account.
  · Thank you Jesus for all the food donated by area Food Lion stores, Macedonia Baptist church, the Apex Stake, individuals, the Dorcus shop of Cary, and Catering-by-Design! Thank you Lord for all the donations of clothing, storage places (Hope Chapel), towels and sweat clothes from the Dorcas shop, and sheets, jackets, & toiletries items from individuals, and toiletries donated this week.
  · We thank you, Jesus, for those who have donated time showing the love of Jesus through relationships and support circles, especially as new ones are developing across Cary and Apex. Praise God!
  
  
  Community Awareness – Meetings and missions
  
• There will be a Christmas Outreach, Christmas Eve at the Wilmington St Shelter from 7-9 PM. Volunteers are needed to pray with people and hand out Christmas gifts. Christmas gifts have been donated by area churches.
• Christmas Day at Moore Square missionaries will be serving the homeless at noon. For those who would like to serve please contact Barbara Tart at 803-6720