Gobble Gobble Gobble

'Ello all!

It has been a crazy busy week this past week. I've spent the bulk of this week inside a semi trailer of one sort or another. Last Saturday we had our Thanksgiving food drive, so the first half of the week was spent counting, then bagging all the food we got. We ended up with close to 400 bags of food (which include corn, green beans, stuffing, mashed potato mix, gravy, some sort off desert and a stick of butter). Saturday was our big delivery day. We were able to purchase over 450 turkeys. I spent close to over 10 hours running around town giving out meals in housing projects here, as well as at homes the schools have identified as needing aid. Then in the evening we had some extras so we did some spirit-led handing out which was quite rewarding. We walked up to one house Tna picked out and we give a lady the meal and her daughter who is about six or seven ran up yelling "is that food, they're bringing us food!" All our hearts broke. Also our big van broke down (again) so we got to have an adventure trying to get the thing out of the busy intersection. It started after it sat for 20 minutes, but we don't trust it so it needs some prayer. We still have a few meals to hand out for people t hat weren't home on the weekend, but it's winding down nicely. I also spent a bit of time over at a Baptist Church here which is the local drop off for Operation Christmas Child loading all the shoeboxes on their trucks. So a lot of heavy lifting was done this week, and I'll be going back this afternoon. Mondays are their busiest days.

Thursday is Thanksgiving here, so we have a half-week this week. Cam Speer, who just came to staff here after finishing a School of Biblical Studies (a 9-month intense Bible course) in Montana, is doing a Biblical overview the next two days. So he'll go over what the Bible is, why it's considered reliable and authentic, and how to get a lot out of it. Wednesday we have a half-day and then... I have four days of nothing to do because I already had Thanksgiving. I'll see what work I can get done while it's quiet around here.

The church I sort-of attend and plan on actually attending called Forest Hill is going through a series on Justice. This week was about sex-trafficking which is the big issue on my heart. Sex-trafficking is said to be one of the world's largest industries, similar in scope to drug-trafficking. The average age of targeted girls is 12 years old. Twelve. Let that sink in a moment. This isn't an issue that only exists in poorer countries. Charlotte is a major North American hub. One of the members at the church became entwined in it at the University of North Carolina - Charlotte Campus. She was raped repeatedly and blackmailed to continue. She thinks she would still be involved if the FBI hadn't picked up her blackmailer for something else. She goes to my church. Don't turn a blind eye to justice. People are being abused on our very doorsteps. As the Church, it's our job to bring hope to the hopeless, and these girls don't have a lot of hope.
It's my goal here to get involved with the University. Not just to start another university group, but to utilise what is already there and expand it to not only evangelise, but to stop stuff like this from happening. That's my call, and that's my purpose. /endrant

So yeah, that was this week.
God Bless everyone,
Christopher