God opened a door.
One morning last year, I woke up out of my sleep and felt I should get up and
pray.
As I started to wait upon the Lord, I was led to read Proverbs 31 with
verses 8 - 9 speaking to me and touching my heart. It was speaking about those
who cannot speak up for themselves.
Proverbs 31v8-9
Speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves, for the rights of
all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor
and needy.”
As I read this, I said to God,’ where are they Lord?
How can we help them, if we don't know where they are? Lead me to those hurting
people that you are talking to me about this morning; which took place on the 13th
May 2020.
I shared this with our Prayer Academy team and
we all felt the same, a heart to reach the unlovable, poor and afflicted; and
so we put it to prayer.
This year around Mother Day, I thought it would be
nice to give a Mother’s Day gift to hurting mothers, and as I emailed these
thoughts’ back and forth with the leadership team. Anna said about a woman’s
refuge and so I started to look, and found that there was one in West Bromwich,
right on our doorstep.
So I gave them a call and I spoke to a lovely lady, who dealt with the
fundraising for the refuge and she told me about everything they were doing to
support these vulnerable women and their families.
Some of these women and children had been abused, some had escaped being
trafficked and others were Asylum seekers.
This year Peter Kay shared and prayed about us being more generous this
year as a church and so the opportunity came for us to give the Women’s Refuge
some gifts for the ladies, who the organisation care for.
So as a church, we were able to bless 54 ladies on Mother’s Day with
some nail polish and eye shadow; which you might think is a funny gift to give
them, but if you think about it, they already get household provision given to
them, but sometimes just to get a small gift from someone who is thinking about
them, truly means a lot.
The representative we spoke to on the day when
we delivered them said; that they were lovely and the women would really appreciate
the church's kind thought.
Malcolm Hannah made some lovely cards with our church website details on
them, so that if they wanted to get in touch with the church, they could if
they wanted too.
Also, we had the great privilege of giving out
51 Easter Eggs to the children in the refuge for Easter. God is so good; please
keep them in your prayers, praying that we can see an open door to build greater
friendships, and to be able to minister to them in the near future.
