Our Daily Bread Ministries

Wow, what a week that was! We left Coquille for Crescent City on the 21^st to spend the week helping at the Our Daily Bread Ministries/mission. It amazed me at how blessed we were by going there – for cooking, art, and for spiritual/counseling help, which we were able to supply, with God’s guidance and help. I brought my drawing supplies to do art therapy and I had several throughout the week take part in that, while William and I talked with and counseled several people throughout the week, as well as me doing a ton of cooking! Also, one heck of a storm came in (we ran just ahead of it all the way down 101) and the mission was open for the night – 20 additional people came in for the night. Poor William was up most all night dealing with issues!

We got there the 21^st after having driving down Hwy. 101, with intermittent rain, which was a problem because of the leaky windshield. The windshield was installed wrong last year by the guy who fixed our car after the accident and the couple times this past year we’ve taken it to him to fix, he didn’t have time to fix it; therefore, it got looser to where wind would come through the sides as well as rain, which ran down into the electronics and flooded the floorboard of the car. We’ve been covering the car with a tarp for a couple months now, it would start to get dried out, then we would drive in the rain and start all over again – sometimes it would be weeks before we could get the interior dried out. Also, the electronics seem to be effected and shorting out various things off and on. So driving down the 21^st (after it was almost dry again) was a problem and we got there with the interior wet again.

Anyway, we got there mid-afternoon, everyone was glad to see us. We just basically talked with people, I did art therapy with a few of the guys (there are 10 disciples staying there now), talked a lot with a new guy who had just came in also that afternoon – he’s 63, newly homeless (4 days) and so clueless as to how to live this way. After talking with him a while, we told Daphne that we thought he was a candidate for the discipleship program and recommended he stay there as well. It was almost midnight before Daphne and I got to her house (William stayed at the mission all week).

We told her we’d be back again for a week before Christmas and for 2 months in the spring and probably for a year after July of next year, but that was all we could say for now. God leads us and gives us direction and he’s given us indication that this is the schedule – God could change things up, we don’t know, but we are open for change if He so chooses.

Helping in the kitchen!

On Wednesday, I cooked and cleaned all day getting ready for the Thanksgiving feed that evening. I haven’t done that much work in months! I was exhausted! 4 turkeys was not enough (I even said earlier that day that maybe we should have made 2 more and I was right!) – there were almost a hundred in attendance for dinner. The next day, (it was prearranged) each disciple was to cook a special dish and bring it at 3 pm to Daphne’s daughter’s for a family thanksgiving dinner. So, I was in the kitchen again all day, monitoring they guys, who did quite well – they each cooked something. I taught one guy how to make bread from scratch and he took over after it rose the first time, stuffed it with blue cheese and covered it in garlic butter – it turned out incredibly awesome!

William borrowed Daphne’s truck and hauled tables/chairs to her daughter’s and I hauled people and food over. Between friends/family and disciples, the place was quite full! Daphne got there about 3:30 and pulled me aside and thanked me for taking over that morning. After dinner, most of the people left except for about 6 of us, so we sat there and played charades and cards and had fun for the evening. Me and a couple disciples got back to the mission after 10 that night, then I went back to Daphne’s. What an exhausting couple days that was!

I was actually surprised at how well I handled certain circumstances this week – when any of the guys ‘flipped’ out or ‘anger’ issues showed up. In the past, that kind of thing would pretty much shut me down, but this time, I stepped in and helped resolve situations. Like this one situation I used it as a teaching opportunity for the others and stated that in order to take command of a situation, to use the authority of Jesus He has given us – “In the Name of Jesus” – I explained that demons have to obey that authority (if we are truly saved) and leave or quit what they are doing if we, using Jesus’ name, tell them to go. It’s cool to see how I’ve grown in the Spirit and in this area to take control rather than to run.

Prayer time before dinner.

Nov. 28 – we left Crescent City and headed for the Rogue Valley early afternoon the 25^th after having convened a meeting of all those at the mission, giving some instruction on repentance and revival – we gave out the pamphlets about this, and discussed how we want to come back at Christmas time and really enter into a time of prayer with all their hearts in it, to expect them to have worked through various ‘sin’ and ‘bondage’ issues, so we can see that true freedom can occur.