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A (Bus) Loaded Day of Faith Hope and Love...

Here's the photo-log of all the places we found acts of 'faith hope & love' in the city yesterday...



A bus-load of 'Weeks of Hope' volunteers from around the country came down the Unleavened Bread Cafe neighborhood to participate in FHL Week.



Many of them were from Christus Lutheran Church in Greenville, Wisconsin. We praise God for their encouraging service to Indianapolis!



Pastor Joe Reaves, Greater Faith House of Prayer, welcomed the group. Sister Elease Womack, the cafe founder, gave her testimony of how God gave her a vision to start a cafe ministry in the neighborhood... to offer hospitality and hope in the name of Christ.



Pastor Eric Whitaker, Mercy Seat Christian Church, led devotions before the group went out to do community service projects around the urban area.


DON'T MISS THE LICENSE PLATE! LOL

This morning I also had the pleasure of (finally) meeting a long-time internet tech friend, Jeff Miller, 'Xagronaut', from Columbus Ohio. He had turned down an opportunity to go to Grand Rapids for the 'Geeks & God' tech conference (whaddaya crazy? LOL)... and decided instead to come to Indy to join our Faith Hope & Love 'Communications Team'. One of our projects was to go throughout the city during the week, and FIND great works of faith hope and love. Such as...



We found Bob Goodrum up on the roof, threatening to stay there 48 hours...



...or until he gets 48 mentors for his inner-city kids. See the photo-stream (link below) for more photos, and then go surf StarfishInitiative.org.



We also found Chris Provence wandering his urban neighborhood, checking on the progress of the various projects (and potential projects) for Rebuilding The Wall.



Chris told us rather matter-of-factly... "We don't 'help' people, and we don't have any 'programs' "... to which he quickly added... "What we do... is offer opportunities."



Here's one of the RTW projects underway. Rebuilding The Wall is a CCDA type of urban ministry. Click to see some other CCDA affiliates in the city.



We found our friends Becki Jenkins, Anthony Stone and others from Missionary Connection... having breakfast at the cafe before heading out to the streets to do what they do best... find resources to meet needs in the city. In this case, they'll be looking to pick up bread to be distributed at New Wineskin Ministries location at 38th Street and Lafayette Road.



Jeff and I ended up having lunch with Jeff's brother Rich, and his (pastor/author) father, Sam... who'd come with him to help with Faith Hope & Love today... and who had been helping paint inside 'Grace Place'. Founder Dan Gushee (pictured, right) shared his personal testimony about the need for ex-offender housing and accountability.



While many people are leary of such a ministry in THEIR neighborhood, Jeff found one of Dan's guys... Jason... blessing the neighborhood. He was across the street in the yard of a recently widowed neighbor...



...helping yet-other FHL volunteers spruce up her yard and do home maintenance she couldn't otherwise do.



We also found Mark Robinson, Indy's Pro Graphix, dropping off the FHL 'Prayer Trailer' today...



...compliments of our common friend, Bob Irvin (EventPro.com).



Prayer... for the neighborhood. Later, Sister Elease (Womack, ministry-leader at the cafe) shared with me what a blessing it was for her personally to be able to go out and pray with our prayer-trailer volunteers. [Thank you all so much!]



I went out to White River Christian Church (Noblesville) to hear FHL's special guest speakers for the week... Daniel Bernard and Steve Sjogren.


Neil Cox, Steve Sjogren and Ellen Spencer

I'd had a chance to meet Steve for the first time, just a few hours earlier at the Prayer Trailer when it was set up in the cafe neighborhood. Several years ago, Steve coined the term 'Servant Evangelism' as he entitled his book by that name. [In fact, he introduced himself to us as 'the pastor who had cleaned the most toilets in the world'. *LOL* ]

Steve has now planted churches in several cities... most recently in Tampa Bay.



It was good to see our friend Daniel Bernard (Somebody Cares Tampa Bay) again too. Daniel's book 'City Impact' has been highly instrumental here in Indy, including its usage for the final course before students can graduate at Crossroads Bible College.

The book now is being republished by its new title... "The Church At Its Best".

Come to think of it... that's a great summarization of today's activities... "the Church at its best"!


See the photo-stream so far during 'Faith Hope & Love Week' here in Indy.

'FHLinternational' tagged items around the net.

posted by IndyChristian @ 7:57 AM