It’s All God’s

What is the connection between blankets, food and the gospel?

Our calling is to glorify God by leading homeless people to Christ and stabilizing broken lives as they begin God-honoring lifestyles. So, why do we take blankets and food under bridges? Sometimes the noise of a growling stomach or teeth chattering with cold make the gospel difficult to hear.

We use blankets and food to help meet physical needs. Those are felt needs, as the pain of hunger robs your attention. In order to get an opportunity to tell someone about God’s love, we must show them what it looks like. Sometimes it’s a warm handshake or a warm blanket. Other days it may include helping someone find a job or providing the basics for a newly acquired apartment.

This morning a man called me that has been moved out of a shelter and into his own subsidized apartment. It is a blessing to move off of the concrete and into a carpeted space! But how well does this meet his needs? In reality, he moved into the space with his clothes and a single blanket. He has no soap or towels, dishes or cookware nor does he have any furniture or food. He has traded sleeping on the sidewalk to sleeping on carpet.  He can control the temperature, but he cannot shower, shave or eat.

One of the privileges we have is to help meet those needs. Often, we connect the dots between those who have and those who need. We may take donated items and redirect them to someone with a need, or maybe we might purchase slightly used items from a thrift store to stock an apartment.

Jesus was not in the food business, yet he was recorded to have fed many. Why? Was it because he wanted to impress people  with his his culinary talents? Maybe it was because in the process of leading people to the Father, their physical needs had to be addressed. Maybe he recognized that there is a connection between addressing felt needs, in order to address real needs.

Please pray that God will continue to provide opportunities to meet the needs of the community. If we can spend a couple of hours stocking a man’s apartment – do you really think I’m going to spend the whole time discussing furniture?

^Eph6:19Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel

What is the connection between blankets, food and the gospel?

Our calling is to glorify God by leading homeless people to Christ and stabilizing broken lives as they begin God-honoring lifestyles. So, why do we take blankets and food under bridges? Sometimes the noise of a growling stomach or teeth chattering with cold make the gospel difficult to hear.

We use blankets and food to help meet physical needs. Those are felt needs, as the pain of hunger robs your attention. In order to get an opportunity to tell someone about God’s love, we must show them what it looks like. Sometimes it’s a warm handshake or a warm blanket. Other days it may include helping someone find a job or providing the basics for a newly acquired apartment.

This morning a man called me that has been moved out of a shelter and into his own subsidized apartment. It is a blessing to move off of the concrete and into a carpeted space! But how well does this meet his needs? In reality, he moved into the space with his clothes and a single blanket. He has no soap or towels, dishes or cookware nor does he have any furniture or food. He has traded sleeping on the sidewalk to sleeping on carpet.  He can control the temperature, but he cannot shower, shave or eat.

One of the privileges we have is to help meet those needs. Often, we connect the dots between those who have and those who need. We may take donated items and redirect them to someone with a need, or maybe we might purchase slightly used items from a thrift store to stock an apartment.

Jesus was not in the food business, yet he was recorded to have fed many. Why? Was it because he wanted to impress people  with his his culinary talents? Maybe it was because in the process of leading people to the Father, their physical needs had to be addressed. Maybe he recognized that there is a connection between addressing felt needs, in order to address real needs.

Please pray that God will continue to provide opportunities to meet the needs of the community. If we can spend a couple of hours stocking a man’s apartment – do you really think I’m going to spend the whole time discussing furniture?

^Eph6:19Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel

Join us from 1PM to 4PM on Saturday March 13 as we hit the streets of downtown Dallas with clothes, food, personal care items, and the gospel! We will meet at our storage building behind Northwest Bible Church ( 8505 Douglas Ave. Dallas, TX 75225 ). From there we will gather our distribution supplies and caravan downtown to serve in a few street locations.  We will complete the day with a time of extended prayer with the homeless. We will be praying for the city, the homeless, the ministry, and for God to continue to be glorified in everything that we do. We need your arms to serve!

• Do I need to bring anything? We can always use new tshirts. Bring a package (or more) in your size (or larger).
• What if it rains? If it rains, you might get wet. Dress accordingly.
• Can my friends come? Yes. Invite your friends and your family. We need hands to serve!
• Can my kids come? Yes. You should always keep your kids close in every public setting. Bring your kids, watch your kids and serve with your kids!
• What if I can’t make it? Check our volunteer schedule for the next opportunity to serve.

We have raised the first phase of our annual commitments and I will begin serving as a full-time missionary on the streets of Dallas within the next few weeks! We still have needs in our annual budget, but we are excited to launch in faith, trusting God to lead others to join our calling.

Over the past year, we have been blessed by the commitment of donors who have partnered with us. This “calling” to serve the homeless has become the calling of many! The men and women whom we serve (over 3,500 last year) deserve this full-time commitment and I am so excited!

This is truly a gift from God and I am reminded of the words of Jesus in John 15, “apart from Me you can do nothing.”
This is truly a blessing from God Himself and we give Him all of the glory.

We are still seeking new partners who will join us in annual commitments to meet our total ministry budget. The classes that we host and the resources that we distribute require the support and dedication of many. Does your church have a missions department that would want to partner with us?

Praise God!We have raised the first phase of our annual commitments and I will begin serving as a full-time missionary on the streets of Dallas within the next few weeks!
Over the past year, we have been blessed by the commitment of donors who have partnered with us. This “calling” to serve the homeless has become the calling of many! The men and women whom we serve (over 3,500 last year) deserve this full-time commitment and I am so excited!This is truly a gift from God and I am reminded of the words of Jesus in John 15, “apart from me you can do nothing.” This is truly a blessing from God Himself and we give Him all of the glory. We are still seeking new partners who will join us in annual commitments to meet our total ministry budget. The classes that we host and the resources that we distribute require the support and dedication of many. Does your church have a missions department that would want to partner with us?

PM731 Lecture 08 Scopes

How can we technically measure what we see?

In this lecture we looked at the Vectorscope, the Waveform monitor, the Histogram and the RGB parade.

PM731 Lecture 07 Cameras

What are the basic functions of a video camera?

PM731 Lecture 06 Formats

In this lecture we looked at various video formats. We discussed the technical differences between SD, HD and other flavors of video.

Last Saturday we had over 100 volunteers who joined with one purpose – to share the love of Christ with homeless men and women on the streets of Dallas.

Click the pic to see the detail. Try to count the number of people serving people.

We distributed bags with socks, t-shirts, snacks, combs, vitamins, water bottles, and gospel tracts. We had bins of various clothes that included pants, sweaters, shirts and other items. We also gave out cases of Bibles in both English and Spanish.

Will you pray for a stranger?

Every day thousands of homeless men and women walk the streets of Dallas. Often they are ignored or looked down upon. How would you feel if everyone you looked at quickly looked away as if to avoid eye contact?

Our volunteers were challenged to engage people, look into their eyes and shake their hands. They were not afraid to give a hug and spend time asking someone “How can I pray for you?” We bring these items as a ministry to meet physical needs in order to gain an opportunity to engage their emotional and spiritual needs.

It was a beautiful sight. Groups were talking together, laughing together, praying together and crying together. This is what the Body of Christ is supposed to look like every day.

To our volunteers: Thank you so much for your commitment to give your time to serve people in need. You can never underestimate the power of showing the love of Christ.

To our donors: Thank you so much for your commitment to give your resources to serve people in need. Your gifts were used to provide needed physical resources that become a bridge to the gospel.

Volunteers: 100+
Homeless men and women served: 700+
Eternal Perspective:

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
“Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ Matthew 25:34-40 NLT

We don’t do this to earn anything from Jesus. We do this because this is what He did.

Special thanks to the students at Dallas Theological Seminary and the Disciple Now group from Hampton Road Baptist Church.

This video was produced by Joey Woestman at DTS. He plays a vital role in the Media Production department at DTS.

PM731 Lecture 02 – Editing