Mission Moments

Mission.  What is our mission statement by the way?  Our mission is to reach out and gather people into the family of God, equipping them to be disciples of Jesus Christ in our community, nation, and world.

Project Serve Day Testimonials

Here are just two of the testimonials from servants impacted by their opportunity to serve.  We give you praise for the transformation taking place in their hearts and our hearts.  We also realize this is just the beginning.  Praise God!!

Just a note to let you know how much we enjoyed our day on Sat! It was dusty, stinky, hot, muscle-stretching, back-aching, somewhat bloody, and we absolutely loved it!!! There is no greater endorphin rush than really hard work, stepping back to look at the progress, and then seeing a real difference!

Thanks for inviting us to be in on this terrific day. We have been changed by what we've heard and seen within the Abide Ministry and want to continue helping as the Lord leads us

Once again, thanks for a very faithful and effective Project Serve Day, and we're looking forward to the next one!

When my wife and I signed up to participate in T!LC's Project Serve Day on July 26th, I asked her to pick the location she thought would be interesting to serve. She asked "why do I have to choose..." to which I replied (like any other seasoned husband) "...because if you don't like it, it won't be my fault!" After the sign up slip went in the offering plate, I asked "so which one did you pick?" She informed me that we would be spending the day at Abide Network doing demo/construction work. My mind raced by reflex thinking "do you know where that is located?"

Before the dozen or so of us from T!LC began work efforts at Abide Network, we were taken on a tour of the main facility by our host, Art. During the walk around, we were shown pictures of people benefited by Abide, many of them children, as well as a map of Omaha that brought a sobering reality to the front. The map included red pins which represented each murder that had taken place through the years in the city. While west and central Omaha were lightly dotted and South Omaha a little more colorful, it was North Omaha that was a solid field of red. The same city streets where we were standing and where the pictures were taken of all those adults and children. We all hear about it so much in the news that we get pretty desensitized, but that experience dissolved all of that.

The greatest way God reached me that day was through the testimony of Myron- now a student at Grace and a staff member at Abide. He spoke of his childhood 10 blocks away as a member of a rival gang, his crimes, arrests, prison experiences, his daughter, and his realization that his life was over and to be spent in a cell. All by the age of nineteen. Myron's life was transformed by the Lord through the Holy Spirit touching others who were reaching out in ministry and prayer and found Myron. He spoke of being "on fire with love for God", being  filled with the Holy Spirit, and feeling alive with a real future. He spoke with so much energy and emotion about being saved and I was envious. Myron had his very foundation shaken by God and felt true life transformation.

Does it really take severe hardship or tragedy to feel that kind of life transformation by God? Can it be found in someone who grew up in suburbia, went to college, has a career, a family, and plenty of material treasures?  It can be, it should be...it needs to be. Yeah, I'm starting to understand it...shake my foundation Lord.