Loving Leesburg
by Kris Benitez, Jan Fearing, and John Nuzum
"LovingLeesburg" is the CHS initiative to "serve the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the underserved in the greater Loudoung County area by impacting people's lives with the love of Jesus Christ." Pastor and CHS Deacon John Nuzum leads a team of volunteers in providing: emergency help to people in need, donating supplies and necessary items for the homeless, and preparing and serving meals at the local homeless center.
Part of the Loving Leesburg ministry at Church of the Holy Spirit is loving the residents at the Homeless Shelter in Leesburg. As new residents enter the shelter they come with various physical needs; many need clothes, shoes, school supplies or baby items. Loving Leesburg has an email list that anyone can be included on and as soon as a need arises we get the word out and people begin to contribute. Since August of 2011 we have provided a bassinette full of baby supplies, 15 backpacks full of school supplies (for elementary through high school students), and clothes for about 10 people to the shelter. Kris Benitez is our official Loudoun County Homeless Shelter coordinator to find specific items for shelter residents. If you'd like to get on her email list to receive word of current needs, contact Kris at 540-882-4789 or kbenitezlv34@hotmail.com.
We're already seeing fruit from this ministry. The young couple who received the baby basinet started coming to CHS and were baptized on October 10!
The Loving Leesburg team has also been helping serve meals at the center since August, on the second Sunday from 5:30pm to 7:00 of each month. Groups of four adults (can be older teens) prepare meals at their homes then bring it in and serve it to the people at the shelter. The CHS Youth Group also served Sunday breakfast at the facility in September.
Two families attend CHS resulting from this ministry of love!
More teams are needed for this important ministry. Each team (of 4-5 adults or older teens) is responsible for preparing a simple meal for 40 (about half are kids) consisting of a main dish, salad, and dessert. Linda Wenkel heads up this Loving Leesburg project. Linda is encouraging home groups and Bible study groups to each take a month. To help, contact Linda at lerwenkel@yahoo.com. (Picture at right: Mike and Linda Wenkel) For complete details, click here.
Other LovingLeesburg activities include participating with the Walk for the Homeless,helping people who are behind on their rent or mortgage or an energy bill, providing shelter at a local hotel, buying food to help feed a family, helping with co-pays for medicine, and in one case helping with dental co-pay for infected teeth. Fueling empty automobile gas tanks and making car payments to keep the repo man away are other ways LovingLeesburg has helped.
Just recently a family of four was helped to transition from the homeless shelter to a home and a new job. In another case a single mom with three children displaced from their home because of a significant water leak on the top floor of their home was put up in a local motel while the water damage was fixed. They lost most of their bedding, clothing, and upholstered furniture. LovingLeesburg also bought replacement winter coats for the children that were ruined so they could stay warm when outside and going to school.
Funding for LovingLeesburg is from people giving above and beyond their normal giving to the church. LovingLeesburg is a non-budgeted program that many times has little or no money to help with the mounting needs as winter approaches. Ministering to those who are hurting is also an opportunity to lead people to Christ or to encourage them to get into a church fellowship, to pray with them, and let them know Jesus loves them and cares about them through His church, the Body of Christ.
It is wonderful to see people who are desperately down and out get a smile on their face when we are able to help them. Many times they can't believe CHS is helping them after being turned down in so many places around Loudoun and Leesburg," said Pastor John Nuzum, who administers LovingLeesburg for CHS. Pastor John went on to say, "LovingLeesburg is an example of the church reaching our (being missional or apostolic) into the community and being incarnational (being the eyes, ears, hands, and feet of Jesus) and doing so in the name of Jesus Christ.
LovingLeesburg is open to anyone who wants to help and be part of this ministry. If you can't help physically then you can help by funding it by giving on Sunday morning or by e-Giving at anytime. To e-Give just go to https://e-giving.org/ and mark your gift for LovingLeesburg.egivinglogin.asp
Visit the LovingLeesburg Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/LovingLeesburg/217345111626157?sk=info
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Mike Evans Healing Conference
At The Falls Church on December 2-3
by Jan Fearing
Pastor Clancy says, "I want everybody to go to this conference!" What's all the excitement about? This is a practice what you preach, learn to do what Jesus did - and then do it, kind of a weekend. Rev. Mike Evans is the director of Wholeness Ministries, which he founded in 1989 for the purpose of training and equipping believers to minister to those in need of physical, spiritual or emotional healing. Training in praying for others will take place on Friday evening and Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon is a "treasure hunt" - going out into the community in groups and following the Holy Spirit's lead on praying for people. Saturday evening will be a time for testimonies from the afternoon. This is a great opportunity to help overcome hesitancy in doing street ministry. For all the details, click here.
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Voice of the Apostlesby Sue Thompson
What do you get when you put five thousand of God's people together in one place for three days, add two great praise and worship bands, seven anointed teachers and the Holy Spirit? You get unplugged, extravagant worship, excellent teaching, miraculous healings and powerful impartations. You get people drawn deeper into the Father's love, with new revelations of God's call on their lives. If this sounds familiar, you might have been at Global Awakening's Voice of the Apostles 2011 Conference in Lancaster, Pennsylvania last week. Several couples from CHS were in attendance. My husband Tim and I were among them and are happy to share our experiences.
"Speakers Randy Clark, Bill Johnson, Heidi Baker, Che Ahn, John Arnott, Larry Randolph and Georgian Banov were outstanding. They delighted us, brought us to tears, sent us to our knees, and had us jumping to our feet shouting our praises to the Lord as they shared wisdom gathered from their years spent traveling the globe, demonstrating the awesome power of the Lord to heal.
Miracles, signs and wonders follow them wherever they go, drawing people into relationship with our Father God. It's impossible not to be profoundly impacted by what God is doing all over the world." (Picture at right: Heidi Baker and friends in Mozambique where she and husband Rolland have ministered for decades.)
"We were the blessed recipients of so much at this conference. On Friday night, both Tim and I received a fresh anointing for healing. Tim prayed for a man for healing of his knee that had no cartilage. His knee was completely restored. There were literally thousands of healings that took place during the three days, both physical healings and inner healings. It was truly transformative." (Picture below: CHS members Sue and Tim Thompson)
"This mighty move of God that is happening around the world through Randy Clark and Global Awakening and others like him is pushing open the walls of the church, expanding and uniting the body of Christ around the globe, gathering new believers to the Father and reviving thirsty workers who have been laboring for the harvest. It takes nothing away from the local church but in fact enhances it by equipping and refreshing it. It's so exciting to see. We urge everyone to consider attending a Global Awakening event if possible. The events are also webcast and available on CD and DVD."
Syd Fearing was moved to go out in the streets and minister to young people involved in an Occupy Wallstreet demonstration happening in Lancaster. While praying for a woman who had been living in a great deal of pain and who had difficulty walking, the woman experienced a relief from her pain and was walking much more easily. She told him she would have to rewrite the paper she was working on for her religion class to include her experience. She also said that as of that afternoon, she had had only two spiritual revelations in her life and one was that moment!
Next year's Voice of the Apostles Conference is filling up quickly. If you or someone you know might be interested, you will find information at http://globalawakening.com/.
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Many of you will have seen a new cabinet that looks a bit like a gun case on our platform this week. It is called an Ark, for it contains an ancient scroll of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. It belongs to