Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Christmas Box Outreach Testimonies & Pics




I want to start out with a loud shout of “Thanks!” to all who gave finances and to those  who prayed.- “Thank you!” 

This was our eight annual Christmas Outreach-they are all special- this one was no exception. It really is an awesome time to go out and be a blessing this time of year as we celebrate the birth of Jesus. So many people in America are wrapped up into the commercial side of Christmas. This is why I especially love reminding everyone we meet that it’s about a living Savior who was born and grew up and lived a sinless life to be the sacrifice for our sins, those who cry out to Him and repent. Amen.

We had an incredible time ministering to seventeen families. We targeted needy families, (many single mothers with kids) we prearranged the delivery of these boxes so we could go right to their homes. We do it this way, so we can spend some quality time with each family- to minister to them; offering prayer, sharing the real meaning of Christmas, sharing the Gospel, loving on the people- It’s an incredible opportunity.

By the way, we loaded these boxes up! We put everything in them for a family time meal. We did the math and every box came to around $30.00. (Again, a big shout of thanks to those who gave financially). We also put some gifts in these boxes for the kids and teens and we offered everyone a Bible.

The Boxes were loaded up!
17 Blessed Christmas Boxes!!

Also, we tackled the elements as well, we got nailed with several inches of snow, but that didn’t stop us, it actually added to the Christmas event.

Christmas Box Weather!!...amen!
A big thanks to Andy, Corrie, and Parker VanArsdale for their help delivering five of the boxes also a shout out to my comrade & brother in Christ Lance Prathaftakis who is always more than eager to share the love of  Jesus! We all had a great time ministering.

All of the families we talked to were so thankful for the Christmas Box. Some of the people we met were followers of Christ and we were able to exhort and encourage them in their walk with the Lord. We met many who were seeking God and had a lot of questions- we ministered, we loved on them and testified of Jesus-sharing with them as the Holy Spirit was leading us. We gave out many Bibles and encouraged those who received Bibles to talk to God and read His Word.

Some Testimonies:

The whole day was marvelous and each encounter is unique and a story in and of itself. Lance, Parker and myself went to twelve separate homes/apartments here are a few of the encounters:

 One lady named faith- cried out to Jesus for forgiveness of sins and to be her Lord & Savior! She had a couple of teen age sons; it was so awesome seeing them watch her Mother cry out to Jesus. The young guys took Bibles and were encouraged.
A Soul won to Jesus!
 One apartment we entered had a single mom with 4 little boys. Her name was Kasha and we spent some time ministering to her. She was struggling as a single Mom with four little boys. She said she knew the Lord. We encouraged her to stay connected with other believers and to keep close to Jesus. It is so sad to see many of these young woman with all these children with no father around. It breaks your heart.

An Awesome family!
We ministered to a sweet little lady named Jeanette, we crossed paths by accident and she was sharing her situation and struggles to make ends meet. We had an extra Christmas Box an we were stirred to bless her. So we joined her in her apartment sharing and ministering to her for a while. She was so grateful and she was so appreciative as tears of thanks flowed from her eyes. Amen!
Jeanette was so thankful to receive a Christmas box
 Another apartment we went into had several families in it. There was some great dialog in there as many people were asking questions and desiring to know more about Jesus. In fact, the longer we were there the more people started showing up. The little kids had tons of energy, and it got hectic at times with so many talking at once, but it was a blessing being with them. We testified, shared Christ, prayed with everyone and handed out several Bibles in this apartment.
We had an awesome time with all of these folk!
We also ministered to these families: Roberto, Arthur, Tatiana, Mike, Ella, Shania and many either knew the Lord or weren’t quite ready to call out to him this day but they were blessed and seen the tangible love of Christ as we blessed them sowed into them.

 Probably the highlight of the day came for us at Linda’s apartment. She was an elderly very needy lady and so thankful that we came. As we walked into her small apartment we noticed several other people seated around the kitchen table. They were blasting some Marvin Gaye music- so it wasn’t the easiest to talk. You almost had to shout to be heard. We carried the Christmas Box in and as we set it in the kitchen and as we talked for minute- and this one big fellow who was seated at the table grabbed my arm and started pulling me toward himself. As I got a good look at him I could see he was weeping. I bent down to him to try to hear him (over the Marvin Gay music), he kept saying between sob’s, “I’m running from God- I’m hiding from the Lord.”
 
Great Encounter with these people...PTL!
There were three people, including this big fellow named LaRosa, seated around the kitchen table. They were all playing cards, drinking beer and listening to Marvin Gaye. Ha!.. You just never know what you will encounter on these type of outreaches. So as LaRosa- was weeping, the other fellow started sharing that he used to hang out at the Salvation Army. The gal at the table remained quite the whole time we were there.

Lance and I turned loose on the group exhorting to them the Lord’s goodness as we turn from our sins and go after God. Both Lance and I testified of our wretched pasts and how God set us free, delivered us and made us brand new!. The good part is he will do the same for you! By this time, someone had turned the music down to the point where we didn’t have to shout -Praise the Lord! We then had LaRosa stand up and we laid hands on him and lead him in a prayer of repentance calling out to God for forgiveness. It was a beautiful! We embraced and prayed over them all… just simply sharing the love of Christ!

Thanks for reading this. Thanks for your prayers and support. I am so looking forward to what the Lord has in store next…God bless you all

Steve

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Teen Challenge Christmas Chapel...It was an awesome night!!




I just want to shout out a huge “Thank You!” to all who prayed and gave toward for the Lifeline/Teen Challenge Christmas Chapel. This was our second annual event and it was marvelous! We absolutely love the Teen Challenge ministry. A big shout out to Andy Collins the Director of the Northern Indiana Teen Challenge and all the staff, they are doing a tremendous work ministering to men who are coming off addictions. What I love so much about TC is that Jesus is first and center- they preach and teach that He is the way of deliverance. Amen.

That being said, it is always a pleasure and an honor to bless the ministry and especially to be part of the Friday Chapel services. (please see the picks posted below)

We started the night with a pizza dinner (amen!-this is always a nice way to start..lol). Then we entered into pre-service prayer. The way we were lead to do the corporate prayer was to have several different people come up and pray. We had several topics that we gave each person to pray and let me tell you, this was some powerful prayers! One of the cool things about this, was we asked a few of the Teen Challenge students to pray-and they were awesome! Very anointed and powerful!

After the prayer time we all entered into praise and Worship. The band “Out Of The Dust” was ministering in music and it was incredible! There guys are not only gifted and talented, they are extremely anointed. The presence of God was so strong as we all praised and worshiped the Lord. I totally love these brothers and their humble hearts.

After worship, I delivered a word the Lord put on my heart entitled, “The Young Son” this was from the parable Jesus told in Luke 15. I shared four points from this message. 1. The Young Sons thought life. 2. Famine entered the Young Sons life when he left the Father. 3. Coming to his senses -The Young Son’s repentance. 4. The Fathers Response.

After the message, we opened up the altars for personal prayer, repentance and to seek the Lord. Several students came forward to cry out to the Lord. The Lord moved in a powerful way as God was touching many lives and dealing with hearts.

We ended the evening by having some awesome deserts and blessing all the students with a Christmas Gift bag- filled with commissary items, a cross necklace, a wrist band, some snacks and an awesome book by David Wilkerson. The guys were very appreciative and thankful. It was an incredible evening!

Thanks so much for your prayers…

**Please keep the Christmas Box Outreach in your prayers.. this Saturday (Dec 14th) at noon We will be blessing and ministering to seventeen needy families for God’s glory….

Steve Ignowski
Lifeline Outreach Ministries
574-612-0555

Some awesome gift bags for the students

 Started the evening with pizza!


Pre-Service Prayer was awesome!...



Powerful time of Worship

 Preaching the message "The Young Son."


 Altar Ministry
Blessing the Students!
 
Various Pic's
The Band "Out Of The Dust" (before Chapel)








Thursday, November 14, 2013

Two outreaches coming up in December.... Can you help?




Lifeline Outreach is excited to be reaching out to our community this December with two separate outreaches. We are asking for your prayers and offering you the opportunity to help.

The first outreach will be Friday, December 6th at the Teen Challenge Center here in Elkhart, IN. Teen Challenge is a residential Christian recovery program that is geared towards life recovery for men eighteen years and older who have struggled with addictions- drugs and alcohol being the predominate vice.


The TC Center houses twenty to twenty five men for a period of twelve to eighteen months. During this time these men are discipled and taught the word of God. We praise God to be connected with TC, and we so appreciate the staff led by director, Andy Collins.

This will be our second annual Teen Challenge Lifeline Christmas Chapel. We had a great time last year and we are expecting another incredible time this year.

We will start out the evening by blessing the guys with a pizza meal. (Everyone always loves that.) Then we will lead the chapel time with pre-service prayer taking us right into worship as we start the chapel. We are happy to announce that the band “Out of the Dust” will be with us leading the worship time. This is the band that was part of the South Bend Work Release Outreach Concert we had in July. We just love these brothers, their passion, and their hearts to serve and shine Christ, so we are excited to have them with us!

After Worship, I will deliver a word from the Lord to the guys trusting the Lord to do a searching work. Amen.


After the Chapel service, we will spend time fellowshipping with all the guys.  Our plan is to bless every one of the Teen Challenge residents with a Christmas gift bag. This is a real highlight for us, to reach out and make it special for these guys; to give them their own gift bag. For many of these guys this might be the only gift they get for Christmas. We love doing this. We believe that as love is extended in a tangible way, hearts soften and the Living Christ can bring healing and restoration. This is our prayer, and this is why we love to reach out.


Please pray about being part of this outreach. If you live close by, please come and be a part of it. If you desire to contribute some items for the Christmas gift bags that would be awesome. If you would like to give financially toward this that is good too, but by all means, please pray for the Lord to do a life changing work in this Christmas Chapel.


Please see the list below of items to donate in the Teen Challenge Gift bags.


Our second outreach in December will be Saturday the 14th. Lifeline Outreach will be conducting its eighth annualChristmas Box Outreach.” We have had some incredible moments and memories from the past years and we are excited for what God is going to do this year! Amen!


We will be targeting some very needy people in the Elkhart area and hand delivering these Christmas Boxes right into their homes. These will be prearranged appointments-so the people will know we are coming, and they will be waiting for us. The ministry opportunities for an outreach like this are incredible! We will literally be in the homes of people to love on them, bless them, testify to them, and offer prayer as we build relationships with them sharing the life-changing Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is going to be incredible! I am excited!

These Christmas Boxes will be stuffed full as our aim is to have enough food in them for these families to make a holiday meal. We are including a 5lb ham and all the trimmings to make this happen. We also plan on blessing these families’ children and teenagers with a Christmas gift, doing what we can to make an impact for Christ! Every Christmas box will also include a band new Bible and other items.

We will not only be blessing these families with food and gifts to make their Christmas more enjoyable, but our goal is also to so love on them that they will want to know our Jesus! The Bible says that love never fails and the goodness of God leads men to repentance (1 Cor. 13:8, Romans 2:4). This is our heart for the outreach- to so love people and shine Jesus that they desire to know Jesus, themselves. Please pray that lives will be radically changed by God!

We are estimating that each Christmas box will cost around $20.00. If anyone would like to donate food items toward this outreach please see the list below. Those of you who would like to contribute financially to this outreach or the Teen challenge outreach, you can donate two ways:
 
#1 Through PayPal.

If you go to the  the upper right hand corner of this blog page you will see a  “PayPal Donate” button. Just click and you may donate securely on-line.


#2 Through postal mail.

*Please make checks payable to "Lifeline Outreach Ministries" & send to:

Lifeline Outreach Ministries

23060 Scottswood Ct.

Elkhart, IN 46514

 

Blow is the list of items if anyone in my local area would like to donate anything specific.



List of items for Teen Challenge Christmas Gift Bags:

Soap, deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrush, floss, towels, wash clothes, cologne, pencils, paper, notebooks, highlighters, erasers, stamps, envelopes, etc.



List of Items for Christmas Box Outreach:

5Lb Ham, canned vegetables, canned sweet potatoes, crackers, boxes noodles canned soup, canned yams, bag of candy, boxed potatoes, boxed stuffing, toys, coloring books, stuffed animals, crayons, new Bibles.

Please call me or reply back to me to work out details on how we can connect. If anyone desires to help deliver a Christmas box to a family, please contact me so we can discuss availability. If you have any other questions or comments, please call me.

Thanks for reading this, and thanks for your prayers.


Steve Ignowski

574-612-0555




Lifeline Outreach Ministries

23060 Scottswood Ct.

Elkhart, IN 46514

Monday, October 7, 2013

OCTOBER 1st BASHOR "180 EVENT" UPDATE



We recently concluded our final 180 event of the year at Bashor Home in Goshen. As always, the event was incredible! it seemed  to be the largest 180 event that we have had so far. I’m estimating that most all of the student at Bashor attended this event. I personally was able to connect with several students for the first time and I invited them to come visit our Bible Study that we have at Bashor twice a month, many said they would attend. Praise God!...Please check out the pic's below.

The whole Lifeline team did an outstanding job greeting and loving on the students!  

 It was awesome having Bro Rick Thompson with us as he ministered in song. Totally love this brother’s spirit.

A couple of the Teen challenge brothers shared their personal testimonies and they were powerful and I know that some of the students were impacted by them. I brought forth a message on how God is looking for the broken. Many students came forward for prayer and ministry during the altar call. God was touching lives in a big way!

We closed the meeting with some cool raffle give-a way’s, blessing the Bashor students with some cool prizes.  (..please see the pic’s below)

We are trusting God that He will continue to draw these young people and bring lasting change. Amen! Please keep us in prayer as we continue to minister in Bashor several times a month. Thanks so much!
-Steve 

The Lifeline Bashor 180 team!!        

Bro Rick Ministering in song!


Juan sharing his testimony

Eric sharing his story!



Preaching to the students on how God is looking for broken people!!



Powerful Altar Call!

Prayers going up!

TC brothers praying for the Bashor Students!

Sister Dee and Chantell ministering to the girls

praying for a young soul...
This Bashor Student won a Beanie Hat

This young guy won the Grand Prize...A fish pole set!...

..Please continue to pray for God to draw these kids at Bashor!!...Thanks so much!