Refreshing More than Just the Streets!

This summer we hosted a large number of groups who served our community by cleaning up litter. So far they have cleaned up more than 1,000 lbs of litter from the blocks surrounding the mission!

Before a group goes out I attempt to give them a bigger picture of their work than simply picking up litter. I believe that an area littered with trash is often a sign of a depressed hopeless community where people’s lives are weighed down with the cares of this world and feelings of hopelessness. I encourage them to walk with their eyes open for these signs and to pray over the houses and families that God would restore hope in our neighborhoods.

Last week a group came back reporting a conversation that started when a young man thanked them for cleaning up. They engaged this man in conversation and the talk led to spiritual things, they ended up addressing some of this man’s resistance to God and praying with him to trust Jesus with his life! They were an encouragement with the joy that comes form being alert to what God is wanting to do in the moment.

Dean Wenger • Redistribution Manager, Water Street Ministries

Interruptions and God-Moments at Wonder Club

Last week I went into work to get a couple of things done before I "officially" go back to work. Well, I walked in the door and the maintenance man from the church asked me whether a particular shelf unit was Wonder Club's. I immediately recognized the unit, and told him that yes it was ours. He said that the church was cleaning house and accidentally put it in the give-away pile.

So, this was my opportunity to depend upon God... He is the one who let this interaction happen at this moment. Therefore I needed to deal with them before getting to the things I had on my to-do list. I went to the basement to talk with the youth minister about the cabinet. It was neat... she has been around for about a year and I have not had much time to interact with her, and now God ordained the moment.

We talked about the revisions she is doing to their space and how the job is going and also about the cabinet. She didn't know it was ours and apologized and we were able to figure out what stuff belonged to Wonder Club and what stuff belonged to the church.

As I was bringing up our items to our floor, I was glancing through them. Wow! I have seen these letter people (see picture) for a few years now, but for some reason this time it stuck out to me. When I brought everything upstairs, I cleaned the posters and I really liked them! It seems like fun ways to incorporate letters into the classroom. I had left the storage box downstairs and was about to throw it away, but then I remembered that another teacher was looking for a place to store big books and I thought this may just work. That teacher came in later in the day (as I was still going through the letter people items) and I showed her the box. Wow! She said it would work wonderfully!

As I left for the day, I realized that I did not even touch anything that I had planned on doing, but since I depended on God's moments instead of mine, much more happened, and not just for me. Through following God's "interruptions", 1) I was able to build a relationship with one of the ministers of the church, 2) I found a fun way to talk about letters with my students, 3) another teacher was able to be blessed with an item she has been wanting, and 4) Wonder Club ended up cleaning house a little too! God's "interruption" was not an interruption but an opportunity to depend upon Him with the next steps. Thanks, God!!!

Nicole Imhof – Wonder Club Teacher/Site Supervisor

Prayer Jars

Prayer is something that has been heavy on my heart lately. Something I know is important but I need to do more of. Janae and I were given the opportunity to have a devotional session with the women in the Women’s Shelter this morning. We weren’t sure what to focus on, but prayer kept coming up. I had a bunch of leftover pint sized mason jars from my wedding, so after some brainstorming we decided it would be neat to make Prayer Jars. We knew the women were very creative and enjoyed decoupage so we gathered supplies, asked staff to donate old magazines and got some tissue paper.

It was an amazing morning. Janae shared about the power of prayer. How we can pray in times of brokenness and loss – which she recently experienced after her grandfather passed away. She shared how prayer can overcome situations that seem hopeless; like she saw in her friend who was healed of a brain tumor. And about how we need to be careful to not let prayer become routine, but remember how sacred it is. I shared the story of the hummingbird my mother saw during a weekend full of a lot of heavy and heartbreaking stories (the kind you just don’t know how to pray for) – it was a reminder to her that not only is God completely engaged with the hard things, but he’s also there in all the little details too. He cares and wants to be in relationship and conversation with us!

Right before the class, a counselor came in with a few of her magazines to donate to the project. As we started to make our jars, I picked up one of her editions and it was full of hummingbirds! I asked the ladies if any of them wanted one on their prayer jar and they were gone in seconds.

The women- there were about 30 of us - dove right into making their jars. It represents a place for them to keep prayers and praises but also a place for them to keep verses or other things they hear from God – a two-way conversation!

We had an hour but we could have actually used more time! The jars were turning out beautifully! We had a brief sharing time at the end and most of the images and colors on the jars carried so much meaning. A picture of a path, representing prayer as the road to God, a picture of a little dog, much like the one someone had as a child, tissue paper as stained glass, words that represented challenges and hopes in someone’s life (life-change – what she wants, married – she wants to keep this, honesty – needs to work on this with her husband, lies - needs to stop the lies she tells).

Janae and I even got to make our very own prayer jars. It was a really encouraging time and the ladies were all really excited about their jars and some placed them immediately by their beds. There were even three teenage boys who participated and just diligently worked on their jars the whole time.

Carrie King • Graphic and Publication Design Specialist

GOD IS OMNISCIENT...SO WHY DID TODAY SURPRISE ME?

Psalm 19:14 “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

How did the all-knowing Creator know that I would be declaring His praise today with a group of adult men on a hanging rock? Was this scene just an accident of time and place? No, my God foreknew all things before they were even created and is not limited to time or space. He planned for me to speak out loud these words today. I expressed the desire of my heart in this passage to be pleasing to Almighty God. My voice and meditations were aloud, and intentional, to guys, many with life-controlling issues, and challenges. These were men, like me, who all need the Rock and Redeemer.

This steamy August day was a planned trip to Pinnacle Overlook – hundreds of feet above the river. Fifteen men all gathered to check out the beauty of nature and spend the day together off campus from Water Street Mission's LifeRecovery Program in Lancaster city. Birds sang praise to the Creator, the wind tickled my hair, and the humidity saturated my shoes in the grass as I walked down the trail. Many times I had been to the big rock alone, or with close friends and family. Today, I was with a group of men that had never experienced time at this rock. Did God know and plan for me to be with these other guys and see a new view, a higher view, of the Susquehanna River at the Pinnacle Overlook, and of Himself?

My prayer – “Lord, I know that You did plan today and I give You the praise for that beautiful snapshot of time and place in Your grace...at the rock... with some men that needed to experience You personally. You surprise me, Lord. You are the all-knowing Rock.”

James W. Stanton, Water Street Mission, Program Counselor

WSHS's Medicine Inventory Day!

A few weeks ago I was preparing for the medicines inventory count. The day was getting closer when we would once again count every, YES EVERY, prescription pill in the med room. I began to wonder how things would go. Did I have the prep work done thoroughly? Would we have enough help? What if everyone came at once and we didn’t have enough pill counters to use? Would there be unforeseen problems with the computer system when we made a change to entering by the National Drug Code numbers? Would we be here all day and all night???? I hoped for the best but must admit I had some anxiety as I occasionally imagined the worst!

As the day came, I was amazed by God. He literally provided just the right people for the right tasks at the right times to make the day go very smoothly! It was like a puzzle that fit together perfectly! And…we were even finished by 6:00pm with meds counted, entered into the computer, and back on their shelves neatly! Thank you, God, for being in control and knowing our every need…even in something as little as the med count.

Water Street Health Services is a division of Water Street Ministries that provides Christian medical, dental and behavioral health services to over 2,000 individuals who would otherwise be without access to health care.

By Jean Benedict, RN & Nurse Administrator, Water Street Health Services

Wonder Club Field Day get's Goliath Again!

If your boss asked you to dress up as one of the baddest dudes in the Bible and told you to go outside and scare a bunch of kids, and oh by the way dodge water balloons while you’re at it, how could you say no? I know I sure couldn’t. So, for the last 2 out of 3 years I’ve gotten to be Goliath at the Wonder Club field day.

When I’m not playing Goliath I’m just Joel the “guy who brings us our snacks,” I have the pleasure of bringing the milk and snacks that God provides to these kids each week. It’s so awesome to hear stories throughout the year of how the kids were praying for a certain cereal or their favorite fruit to come in and then to see how God provides those things. It’s also such a neat thing to see how the kids grow throughout the year, kids who at the beginning of school were so shy turn into water balloon throwing maniacs.

That brings me back to field day, the one day a year I get to make a crazy costume and splatter it with fake blood and swing my sword and shield and dodge water balloons. As I’m doing that I get to see the faces of these kids and see them smile and laugh and forget about any troubles or cares that they have. For a few minutes at field day these kids get to feel like David, they get to experience what its like to conquer a giant and they get to learn the story of how God is always on our side even when the odds are not.

- Joel Henry, Food Services Truck Driver

An Invitation

You’re invited.

Isn’t that exciting?

You feel accepted, loved, and understood. An invitation has the power to transform an outcast into a member; one who belongs. But in my life, God always has a way of flipping things on their heads.

Let’s start at the beginning of the story. I am an amateur photographer. I mean amateur. Thanks to an extremely generous co-worker, I even have a camera and a small array of accessories. Through this gift, photography has become my mainstay hobby of personal exploration. But who has time for hobbies, really? If it’s not for some hope of profit, it’s obviously a worthless endeavor, at least that’s what my checkbook keeps telling me.

A few weeks ago, a group of artists at a local church decided to ‘share’ their creative talents with the rest of the congregation at an ‘art retreat.’ What a great idea, a forum to discuss the importance of a creative outlet. I thought this was a fantastic idea. Everyone needs to be able to express themselves creatively, even if their work isn’t hung in a museum. They even asked me to submit some work for the show. I jumped at the invitation. The members of the group, without question, are very talented individuals. I could not believe I had been admitted into the inner circle. Desired, loved, accepted, and needed. I could have run for days on the emotional adrenaline.

I worked diligently to prepare. I printed a few select photos, mounted them to a piece of leftover foam core and proudly placed my work on the shelf at church. To my disbelief, everything had a price tag. Instead of an open forum to discuss the importance of a creative outlet, I was smack between ‘buy one get one free’ and $25 ‘specials’. The ‘art retreat’ had turned into a promotion for profit. The group of artists had traded an opportunity for deep spiritual growth and outreach; for personal wealth. Seriously, where is Jesus with a whip when you need him? I could have used some over-turned tables to mirror the pieces of my broken heart. I felt so betrayed. I wanted so desperately to be a part of a group to reach out and encourage others creatively.

But God knew my heart, he knew what I desired most of all. A week later I heard Water Street Ministries needed paint supplies for its art program. I had recently cleaned out my old college art supplies including a bag full of acrylic paints. Was this a coincidence? As a result, there is such a joy when I stroll through the mission and see all the meaningful artwork adorning the halls. When I see a client working on a sketch during his break at the Learning Center, there is a feeling of deep connection. This was the real invitation I had been longing for. This was the membership of significance, the acceptance and community I had desired. I was finally able to help others discover themselves through artistic expression. I feel so blessed to have been able to participate.

- Written By: Jon Sullenberger, Learning Center Volunteer