Just Between You, Me, & God 9/10/2012

We’ve all seen the speaker that walks up to the podium, taps on the microphone until there’s a shrill feedback and then utters those famous words, “Is this thing on?” Communication is vital in our relationships and it is a two way street. There is a speaker and a listener, the one who receives the message. You may be the most eloquent speaker ever but if the microphone is not on or people are not listening then the message becomes worthless. Jesus even had to get people’s attention when speaking as He did in Matthew 11:15, “He who has ears, let him hear.” As a speaker and a listener I understand the difficulty that occurs on both sides of the communication. Face to face communication at least gives you the opportunity to look eye to eye with your receiver. The message of the Gospel is so vital, so important that the speaker, in preparation, often gets more out of the message than the audience because they have often lived the experience, the grace, the mercy, that they are trying to convey to others. With our blog and Facebook it is often hard to determine who your audience is and whether they actually got the message or not. I am told that this blog is received in countries around the world and in multiple sites around this country as well as a small loyal following locally. I am asking all of you now to please listen to my plea. Living Hope Fellowship is an infant when it comes to many churches in that we are only 5 years old. Our congregation is not large with an average worship attendance of only about 35. We have set ourselves up to be an outreach church that opens our doors to those who have been shunned by other churches or that don’t feel they live up to the standards of others or that may feel that they can’t “afford” to go to church. We have a small group of core members who have tried to financially hold the church together. No one on staff receives a salary so our pastors are all bi-vocational. Our main focus has been to provide spiritual and nutritional support to our community but our financial resources are running out. We are behind on our rent and have had to cut back on support venues like the Backpack Program that sent food home with 50 school kids on the weekends that would otherwise have nothing to eat--yes, right here in the good ole USA we have hungry kids. We are still maintaining our food bank on the second Saturday of each month where we currently provide groceries to 30 families each month. Please hear my plea, if you have ever been touched by God through Living Hope Fellowships worship service, outreach programs, blogs, or other posts, I ask that you would consider a gift of any amount to Living Hope Fellowship Gladewater in order that we may continue God’s work in our community. Gifts can be mailed to Living Hope Fellowship - P O Box 788 - Gladewater, Tx. 75647. Matthew 25: 40, “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” God bless you for your prayerful support of God’s work, Pastor Dean

Pastor Dean Hanssen is the Ministries & Outreach Pastor for LHF