Baby it's cold outside...

So, this week has been.....cold 

I have lived in Arizona for nearly 11 years and I do not remember a week like this one.  We were at a car dealership in Scottsdale on Thursday and it started snowing. Ok, being from Minnesota, not one Minnesotan in the world that would consider it snow, but us Arizonans definitely saw snow falling from the sky.

My car has a little feature that dings and flashes a snowflake when it is below freezing outside. That little snowflake has been on my dashboard more than it hasn't this past week. I even caught a glimpse of it saying 27 degrees when I was driving to work one morning. twenty seven degrees?!? in the desert?!?!

So yesterday morning at church, I arrive to tons of students walking with mounds of blankets toward the parking lot. I wasn't quite sure what was going on. During our junior high service, I found out that Phoenix Rescue Mission sent out a tweet yesterday morning asking for blankets, jackets, warm clothes, mittens, socks, etc. because their shelter's supply was completely depleted due to the freezing cold weather. Our student ministries director saw the tweet and immediately rented a Uhaul. That is one of my favorite things. He rented a Uhaul because he had no doubt that our church would rise to the occasion in one day to fill that Uhaul.

After service, Matt and I went directly home to our sweater bins that had been completely untouched. We emptied it out, filled trash bags and headed back to church to contribute to the van. I didn't expect the van to be very full yet because people had only just found out about the need (and we had until 5pm to donate...Matt and I headed back around noon). However, this is what I saw when I jumped in to the van...

So beautiful.

I love my church so much. I am reading a book right now called The Hole in the Gospel. The author talks about how many verses in scripture talk about the poor, homeless, and needy and how these verses go completely unnoticed in greater Christianity. I agree with his main premise but I do not see that happening within our church body and I am so proud of that.

Oh yeah, remember this post? Our goal was to reach 1,500 orphans, which would be $60,000. On Christmas Eve, our pastor reported that we did not get $60,000....we got $183,000. That is enough to feed nearly 5,000 orphans for an entire year! I love our church because I see feet to the gospel. I see that our pastors are steering and directing our church in such a way that it allows us as a congregation to bless those in need. It gives us the opportunity to give of our resources and I am so grateful for that.

All over the valley and all over the country there are shelters in need to clothing. Why don't you take the time to clear out your closet and storage bins of clothes that you never wear and drop them off at the nearest shelter and bless a person in need.