Over the course of this spring, a young man has been seeking help at Serve Wenatchee to find housing and job. He’s been working on regaining custody of his child and needed some real solutions.

As his needs have been increasingly met, God began to open doors in amazing ways and he was able to get a job where he is thriving and an apartment that will allow him to be reunited with his child. Additionally, he has been able to get the furniture he needs through the Serve Wenatchee furniture coop ReFind and he has a church home that he loves.

He has needed a little extra help, but because of your generous support at just the right time, he has the tools he needs to restore and support his family! God is using you to bring families together. Please pray for this single Dad!

Serve Wenatchee Valley’s mission is to serve as a cooperative of the local church and community, being the hands and heart of Jesus Christ, by helping families overcome crisis and stay in their homes. The local church is in our DNA. DNA is defined in Webster’s as “fundamental characteristics or qualities of someone or something, especially when regarded as unchangeable.

For 15 years of Serve Wenatchee Valley’s existence, there have been many changing expressions of what we’ve done together. There were days when families were served a meal at the PAC at Thanksgiving time and a season of coordinating Apple Blossom Safety Zones. Changes in what we do are inevitable. How we do it is part of our unchanging DNA that serves as a missional outpost of more than 45 churches in our community. Bottom line, what we do, we do together.

This same DNA imprinting runs through all of us who are part of the body of Christ. Yes, I said it, ALL OF US! 2000 years ago, when Christ suffered and died, was raised from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of the Father, we were given this DNA imprinting to live and serve as His body. WE are now the physical representation of God in this generation, in the same way that Jesus was in first century Palestine. Not me or you as an individual, or any single church expression, but all of us together.

Serve Wenatchee Valley is so grateful for your willingness to recognize us as inseparably connected with each of you as we do the work together. As we serve as your missional outpost on Mission St., we commit to upholding the summation of the law that Christ gave in Matthew 22, “To Love God and Love People” and to stay true to our God given DNA which holds us all together.

When we successfully embrace our connectedness in Christ, our community will see what the Church is doing together. They will recognize right here in our community, that we are working together to bring good news to the poor, proclaiming freedom for prisoners, and setting the oppressed free. They will observe our shared DNA that bears witness to its source.

At Serve Wenatchee Valley, a lady that we have been serving for a few years, recently came into the office. She is on a fixed income, completely alone and has no ability to improve her situation. Her food stamps are not enough to take care of her food needs for the entire month and because of a recent illness, she had to choose between purchasing prescriptions and paying her rent. Thanks to the generous support of people like you, her most basic needs of food and housing were met.

She has the security of knowing that she doesn’t have to be hungry or face an eviction. This security provides her with the sense of knowing she is not alone - all because of your generosity.

Just days ago a woman visited the Serve Wenatchee Valley office. We had never met her before, it was her first time seeking out help. She just lost her job, which impacted her living situation, and she was struggling to feed herself. That’s where folks just like you step in.

She discovered Serve Wenatchee Valley online and made her way to the office. Once there, thanks to the generous donations of individuals across the Wenatchee Valley, she was provided with the food she needed. Providing food for families is often about so much more than just food. In addition, SWV staff was able to pray with her, learn more about her needs, and locate additional resources in the community—all because of your generosity.

I actually love the seasons of the year and the transitions in between. We have had quite a winter with more snow in February than we’re used to and now we are anticipating the coming of spring. Flowers and trees will be blooming, and warmer days will come, but there will be a lot of mud and mess in between. There is a time and a season for each of these and try as we may, we can’t control them.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heaven. Ephesians 3:1

This month, Melanie and I were in North Dakota for her father, Wes’s, Celebration of Life service. He was 95 years young and as a lifetime farmer, he knew well about the uncontrollable seasons of the year and of life. As my mentor, he taught me to take things in stride and stop fighting against the things I can’t control. By his modeling in life, I learned to spend my effort on the things I can control which really comes down to my attitude and actions in response to it.

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. Ecclesiastes 3:2
a time to tear down and a time to build. Ecclesiastes 3:3

The other thing that Wes taught me, was that seasons of life were not meant to stay. I have gone through very difficult seasons of loss, and weeping was a part of it. But by my willing to submit myself to the season, I have discovered repeatedly that it “came to pass…. It didn’t come to stay”. 

There is a time to weep and time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. Ecclesiastes 3:4

Through Serve Wenatchee, you are coming along people every day who are in very difficult seasons of life. They are feeling the barrenness of Winter and the blooming of Spring seems so distant that the feeling is it may never arrive. The season of life in which they find themselves, we cannot control. But what we can and do control is our attitudes and actions in response to it. This is were our seasons of life overlap. In their season of need, we are given the opportunity to respond with a season of help. We simply need to answer the question, WHAT TIME IS IT?

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heaven. Ephesians 3:1

View fullsize

On Saturday morning, March 10th I found myself in a parking lot on S Wenatchee Ave. praying for God’s provision and preparing for a food drive at Grocery Outlet. The sunshine on that crisp morning held out hope for a beautiful day but I had no idea just how beautiful it would actually be. And the amazing thing is that it had little to do the weather.  

Just a couple of days earlier, several volunteers responded to a call for assistance to help fill 68 bags with items that we need in order to serve families at our food banks. On the day of the food bank, there were again a handful of volunteers who generously gave their time to help. Throughout the day we had the opportunity to interact with so many people from different walks of life as they came to shop as we simply invited them to support families with a gift of a $5 bag of food.

One man came in and left the store with a bag of chips and gave us 4 bags of food to serve our food bank. Several times people came by not to shop for themselves but to just respond to a need. Repeatedly, there were expressions of appreciation for what Serve Wenatchee has meant to them personally and our community. We were there from 8 in the morning until 3 and about the midpoint of the day we had already gone through almost all the 68 bags we had prepared. Yet the bags kept coming out. I couldn’t help but think of the Gospel story of the multiplying of the fish and loaves. They just kept coming. Only later did I find out that the staff of Grocery Outlet was putting together extra bags to meet the generous response of our community. In all, we received over 140 bags of groceries that I promised each donor would find a good home. And it will.

I guess the residual beauty I observed that day was the coming together of a compassionate community to respond to a need that couldn’t have just been orchestrated or planned by me. It was God leading our volunteers to give of themselves. The many interactions we had. And the people who will receive the support they need to help keep them safely home. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but God has a way of take a few small things and making them big. What we collectively experienced on that day was something only God could pull off. Every day I discover that this is at the heart and mission of Serve Wenatchee Valley.

Thank you to the God we find in generous volunteers. Thank you to the God we find in compassionate donors. And thank you for the God we find in those we serve. Thank you God.