Happy Birthday Living Bridges!
The cliché says, “time flies when you are having fun” and that could not
be more true of our first year as Living Bridges Ministry! We have chosen to
celebrate the date the state of Georgia granted our request for incoporation (April
30, 2014) as our birthday! So as of today, we are officially 1 year old! Whoopee! J
We have met so many wonderful people through this journey! When we were praying about the direction God
was taking us and our family, we knew He would guide us and that He would
provide people and resources, but we were not prepared for all the things He
was going to do in and through us and our vounteers! We were not prepared for how much we would
love the people we would meet nor were we prepared for all the needs we would
be challenged to meet! It has been a growing experience for our whole family,
our volunteers, and our participants as we have literally watched God work in
South Valdosta.
As we meet new people, we are often asked about our name: Living Bridges
Ministry! They want to know where we
came up with that name and what it means.
Living bridges are difficult to adequately describe in print, but there
is a video link that does it beautifully at the end of this post! In short, living
bridges are true things in India. The premise that we fell in love with, and
which I can‘t share with people without crying, is the sacrifice of the older
generation of a tribe for the overall betterment of the tribe. You see the
bridges that a generation builds, will likely never be walked on by them
because of the number of years it takes to complete the project and the
advanced age at which they begin the project! They build these bridges anyway
for the betterment of their tribe! They also train the youth of the tribe how
to build and care for them regardless of the fact that they may not see the end
result! (I urge you to watch the video!)
Now that we are already in year number two of our ministry, we are
asking each of you to prayerfully consider your part in a “living bridge!” We are working to transform a community where
poverty is rampant, where crime is on the rise, and dark clouds of financial desperation
are covering the light of hope! We are asking for your involvement whether you
pray for us, you come out and volunteer one Saturday or several, you pick out
some things on our “needs list” and donate, you help us get the word out about
what we are doing by sharing our blog/Facebook posts/newsletters, or you decide
to financially partner with us by donating money. No part in God’s plan is too small and every gift
is needed! We even recently met someone
whose God given talent is shopping (I thought I was the only one, but I was
wrong! J). This lady is going to come on board and help
shop for our bingo prizes and help us with our Christmas shopping (Toys for
Tots here closed and we are on our own to get our toys for Christmas this
year!!!!!!!!)We have no guarantee that we are going to see the completion of
God’s project. It could indeed be many years before the neighborhood is
transformed completely, but we are investing for the betterment of the
community. Seeing the end result is less important than restoring hope to the
hopeless and bringing the light of Jesus into the lives of the people in South
Valdosta!
Perhaps, you have read our posts before and God has stirred something in
your heart, but you weren’t sure what to do about it! We have people who message us, call us, and some
who even come out to our events to see exactly what we do. We are always happy to talk to people about
where their gifts and talents can be used whether they are volunteering one time
or several! We know life is hectic! We understand that people are busy. We acknowledge the sacrifice that people make
to volunteer their time, but we also know few leave our events without feeling
more blessed than when they came! If you
can’t physically help or God has asked you to pray for us instead, we love and
appreciate all prayers! There is nothing
we do, that is not bathed in prayer and we are confident that prayer makes a huge
difference in the life of our ministry!
Lastly, our donors help keep the material part of this ministry
flowing. We publish a “Needs List” every
month where we collect all kinds of things necessary for the Kids’ Connection
and other activities we have going on.
We also need monetary donors who help fund things like pavilion rental,
textbooks for our Transformations program, food that we serve, prizes that we
give, craft supplies, and the list goes on!
Again, no matter how God calls you to help, we are happy to have you and
hope you will reach out to us so we can help you find your place on our team!
Until next time,
Darcy
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