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Humbled to share and blessed to be in the company of amazing groups who seek to help others! KJ's Carts for Kids is the second video: http://www.inspired2impact.com/
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, I, 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 (who at the time was five years 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 five and three year old. 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 proceeded to grab a bag, head for the basement, and fill 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 of course I embraced it! That evening, I couldn't sleep because I knew that the Holy Spirit had 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 for 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 costs. 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 and we were off! Click here to see pictures and click here for the Omaha World Herald stories.
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 a truly unfortunate event in their lives, but we hope to SPARK the compassion kids in our community to help others less fortunate. We know that they, too, will be blessed to have the opportunity 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. Please visit our testimony page by clicking here.
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