Hi Ministers and Loved Ones:
Just a quick update about our outreach to people who are homeless and needy in our area. We are serving about 100 of our brothers and sisters in need every Saturday. We serve them with love and affection and hope that in the process we are reminding our entire community of the only Hope that can set us free forever - the love of Jesus Christ. We have ongoing needs for soldiers and donations - we are touching more and more lives every week and it is a joy to be able to serve the Lord in this way. We continue offering hot meals and we also want to start providing hygiene items again - so we will also need help putting kits together and gathering those donations. These things can be accomplished during the week if you would like to serve but are busy on Saturdays.
I have a special prayer request from Angela Schoonmaker, who wrote the devotional below. We are asking for you to pray for her husband Bill. We've shared his testimony before: Bill has Hepatitis C but since he's been baptised and has been serving the Lord with such ferver, he has received new life and hasn't been hospitalized in months. However, Bill has had a setback, and he is in the hospital now in serious condition. His infection has cleared up, but another complication has set in - an irregular heartbeat. PLEASE PRAY WITH ALL OF YOUR HEART FOR OUR LORD TO CONTINUE WITH BILL'S HEALING, TO COMFORT ANGELA AND THEIR BOYS, AND FOR HIM TO SHOW THE DOCTORS AND NURSES THERE HOW POWERFUL PRAYER CAN BE SO THAT THEY CAN PASS THIS HOPE ON TO OTHERS WHO NEED IT. Please also go and visit with Bill if you can at University Hospital. He is in CCU in room 3104.
And now, here's Angela's devotional. She is dealing with so much, but she has great faith! I think we can all gain a lot from this devotional.

We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken.
We are perplexed, but we don't give up and quit.
We are hunted down, but God never abandons us.
We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going. 2Corinthians 4:8-9

This verse is in a book I am reading to Bill. I found it especially comforting. Even though I should be in despair because my husband is so ill and he is suffering, I am not. I realize that he is healing.
A really special person told me one time that God can heal us three ways. The first is a miraculous healing, where the illness just dissipates with no apparent explanation. A good example is my friend Ann who was diagnosed with cancer. Her cancer is miraculously gone, and thanks God for answering our prayers.
The second way God heals us is with medicine/doctors. A good example of this is when Bill had an esophageal bleed. He almost bled to death, but he did not because the Lord used the talents of some very special doctors to perform a tips procedure. This is where a small canal is made through a person's liver with a stint, so that the blood may continue flowing through the body completing the filtration processes. This whole procedure is done not by an incision but through a vein in the neck with special instruments.
The third way the Lord heals us is in death. He promises us that there will be no more suffering. I take a lot of comfort knowing that one day Bill will no longer have to suffer. The greatest day of peace for me was when he gave his life to the Lord.
So, you see in one way or another, he is healing. I find a great deal of comfort in this knowledge. It does not take away the exhaustion, sadness, and all the other roller coaster of emotions that I seem to experience every day of his illness. I still cry because it does hurt. I have just learned to put his illness and the complications in perspective.
You know we are only in this world a very short time. And this time in life is really just a façade. If we can learn to take life's choices and hurdles a step at a time then we have won half the battle. The other important thing to remember is to always give God the glory, even when we hurt. See, even when we cannot see it, God is there and he is working for our good. We have a loving Father that loves to show and prove to us everyday just how awesome He was, is, and always will be.
Keep trudging forward and hold your head high, because if He is for us, who can be against us?????
Rejoicing for His Blessings,
Dallas McGlinn
Celebrate Blessings
504-463-3296
I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy. Ps. 140:12

Community Blessings Outreach - HIS (and Homeless Update)

Hi Everyone, this is a short devotional and update because things are so hectic, but things are also going very well and I feel truly blessed.

Recently I was reading my bible and I came across the phrase "his spirit." I realized again that we are all so blessed because we carry His spirit inside of us. 1 Corinthians 6:19 (NLT) says: "Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself." We all know that this is an awesome responsibility - if we carry His Spirit within us then what others see matters a lot. We represent the Spirit of God to others - we reveal Him through our actions.

But after last week's opening day at our new location for our homeless outreach, I saw "His Spirit" from another perspective. When Jesus said that if we have served "the least of them," then we have served Him, He is reminding us that His spirit is inside of the people we serve as well. When we recognize the fact that His Spirit is in all people, it makes it easier to love and to appreciate everyone who we serve and everyone who we serve with.

I got to see God's spirit in our guys in a lot of ways this weekend: when I saw Ronald, who has a withered arm and a bad limp and more faith inside of him than we can imagine, riding one of our children around on his motorized scooter chair; when I saw one of the guys pick up a guitar and sing a Third Day song with such beauty and talent and feeling - then I got to see His Spirit in action. And that is such a gift!

And coincidentally (if there is such a thing), one of our leaders, Susan Yancich, has decided to name her first Saturday team "His Focus." It is really a gift to know that we are all "His" and that He is also inside of so many others, and that we have the blessing to be able to give even more people the opportunity to receive His Spirit and to experience the same joy that His Spirit brings to us.

Romans 8:16 (NLT) says "" For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children." When we serve others we get to practice this verse over and over again, and nothing can be better than experiencing this within ourselves and witnessing it in others.

This weekend at the Mission was a success and went off without a hitch. There is a lot more space and the guys really seemed to enjoy the new location. We had 75 people, which isn't bad for a first day before the word has really spread. We have a feeling that this number will double very soon, and will continue to grow. Pray that we can keep up with the demand and that we can continue to minister to all of the guys who cross the doorway, continuing to show them that they are loved by God and by us.

Susan is starting a blog, which is really exciting. (note from Susan: This is the first devo entered into the blog) It will keep everyone current on her menu and what others can contribute if they want to bring something with them when they come to serve. She has offered to do this for the other three teams as well, and this is really gong to be awesome. We are so blessed with so many people who love Jesus and all of His children.

I'm asking for prayers as well about the growth of this ministry - we have been presented with the possibility of being able to open a shelter thru a new nonprofit and some grants that wlll provide permanent housing and other programs. If it is God's will, it will happen, I bow to His will.

God bless all of you! He is truly good!

Peace and Blessings,

Dallas McGlinn
Celebrate Blessings 504-463-3296 or 504-453-6034
Eph. 4:1: As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.