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Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares
the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm
you, plans to give you hope and a future."
God knows the future, and his plans for us are good and
full of hope. As long as God provides our agenda and goes
with us as we fulfill his mission, we can have boundless
hope. This does not mean that we will be spared pain,
suffering, or hardship, but that God will see us through to a
glorious conclusion.
Origin of Our Ministry
As Christians, our desire is to do all things unto the Lord. As parents,
we are told to, "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old
he will not turn from it." Proverbs 22:6
Our parental instinct is to protect our children from worldly challenges
and struggles. However, one of my personal favorites is found in
Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of
those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
As parents, we pray on how to help our children understand this
passage! The Lord reminded us in 1 Peter 4:10, "...use whatever gift we
have received and serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in
its various forms." Therefore, as parents, it made sense to develop
and pray for compassion in our children (Colossians 3:12) and train
them to be courageous in helping others less fortunate -- knowing that
God had a plan and we needed to trust Him.
When HURRICANE KATRINA hit, like so many, I was glued to the TV and
often times would just stop dead in my tracks and have to sit down and
gasp. KJ (five-year-old) noticed the image of a little girl standing on the
hood of a car yelling for help and asked me what happened. I decided to
use this as one of our "teachable moments". I asked my two children to
come and pray with me and then explained the Hurricane the best I
could to a 5 and 3 year old. My 5 yr old son (KJ) wanted to know if the
children lost ALL their toys. I told him that I was sure that they did
because they lost their homes! He went and grabbed a bag, headed for
the basement, and filled it with some of his toys. He brought them to me
and said we needed to take these to the children.
I was moved by his gesture and you bet I embraced it! That evening, I
couldn't sleep because I know as I prayed the Holy Spirit called on ME.
The next day I told my son that an Angel kept me up ALL night telling me
how we were going to get not only HIS TOYS to the Katrina's Kids, but
how we were going to have a fun toy party to collect more toys to the
children. I did some research online to find a location that was accepting toys
and then arranged for a local shipping company to donate the shipping. Later,
KJ asked if HE could personally give them to the children so we were later
blessed with the Omaha World Herald writing a story and they mentioned
KJ wanting to fly to the location to hand out the toys. One person donated
their frequent flyer miles. We were off! See exciting pictures from our trip here.
The POWER of seeing first-hand how you or your child can bring a smile
to another is truly a gift. We hope our ministry will not only bless
children who have experienced an unfortunate event in their lives, but
we hope to SPARK the compassion in our children to help others less
fortunate and to be able to see first-hand how they brought hope to
another! THAT'S experiencing God's Love and something to celebrate!
This is why we hold a celebration event/fundraiser.
To read more from our local and national news articles, visit our EVENTS page.
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