Fed By Faith Newsletter

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Hey everyone,

I wanted to give you all kind of a final update on our family for the month of December. I was so fortunate to be able to meet one of the girls and three kids from this family. Meeting them made it more exciting to be giving them all this stuff, I think.

People from both our church and the community wanted to give Christmas to this family. People donated a Christmas tree, tree skirt, lights, and decorations. With a monetary donation we bought stockings for the children and tree ornaments. People donated stocking stuffers, books and toys for the children as well. I know some people donated from their children's toy chests, but some went out and spent their own Christmas money on toys for these children. Either way, I am so grateful for those of you who donated!

We had several blankets donated. With another monetary donation we were able to buy a blender and toaster for the family, which they had asked for at the last minute. Someone also donated a mixer to them. With yet another monetary donation we were able to buy diapers and baby wipes for the children. We also had several bags of clothes donated that fit members of this family, so thank you to all these people as well who donated items or money!

I wanted to try to give you a figure so that you know how much good is being done with the items you have donated. As I put things in boxes to give to the family, I inventoried everything we were giving them, and then I priced out every item possible. That means items such as clothes or blankets were not priced, but items such as rice or toothpaste were. Please note this figure also does not include the blender, toaster, mixer, diapers or baby wipes, or any of the Christmas items. The amount came to approximately $293.00 worth of necessities we gave to this family. To be honest, I didn't even want to stop boxing items up, but we were going to move these people out of their house if we kept taking things to them!! It's been estimated that this family will eat off this food for months, which is so amazing to me.

The 22-year old confessed to Cindy the other day that she had taken some of the canned meat to a neighbor because he lives alone and "has nothing." How rich this family must feel now, when only weeks ago they probably felt like they had nothing! To me, that is proof that this ministry can reach further than any of us will ever know. What might that man do now that someone has reached out to him? And the person he reaches out to, what might they do for someone else? It's going to be a chain reaction.

We've donated a Bible to this family and I so hope that they read it. I want them to really understand why we're spending time writing emails, purchasing items, clipping coupons, rummaging through our attics, and praying for them. If one person gets saved from this ministry, all that time will be totally worth it.

So I'll tell you what I told our congregation at church yesterday - continue praying, giving, and praising God for all His blessings. I believe these are the key ingredients to being able to feed people by faith.

God bless and Merry CHRISTmas everyone! I will be in touch again in January about a new family.

Amanda