Hi Friends of 180 Outreach,
Merry Christmas! and hope everyone is doing well!
I would like to thank all of you who prayed and
supported us toward these three Christmas Outreaches we had this month. Below
is a brief update with the pictures of these events. It is always a blessing to
witness and testify of Jesus and Christmas time just makes it that much better.
Thanks again and God bless!
Teen Challenge Christmas
Chapel (4th annual)
We had a great time at Teen Challenge loving on the students
and worshiping with everyone. Always a great time! We opened up with the night
with a great meal together. A shout of thanks to the 180 team for preparing
that and making that available for the staff and students. We were also blessed
to have special music with us as PS150 from Knox,
IN joined us along with two brothers from San Antonio, TX.
Jarrell Flowers and A-ron. And let me tell you, the place jammed for Jesus!!..
It was awesome! We also had a great time praying together, plus I brought a
message entitled, "Being on Guard". After the Chapel time it was a
blessing to hand out to every student a Christmas Bag. We loaded them up with
some awesome stuff. The night was awesome!
Elkhart Juvenile Detention Christmas Party (2nd
annual)
We had an incredible time with the incarcerated students. Ten
students were able to attend; the ages ranged from thirteen to sixteen. They
were very open to the fellowship we brought and the time we all had together. We
were able to bring in pizza, we shared some Christmas Poems, (one student, a
gal, shared her poem- “The 12 Days of Christmas at JDC” …ha! It was hilarious!
but very gifted. We had some great dialog together. We broke into the Word, I shared
a message on the “True Meaning Of Christmas” the response was great as we all prayed
and called out to Jesus! We brought in and handed out some nice Christmas Bags
to every students. It was a great night! thanks to all the team that came and
helped.
Christmas Box Outreach
(10th annual)
I totally love this outreach as this gives us opportunity to
go right into peoples homes and minister to them. We received names and contact
info from the local Jail of family members of those incarcerated. So we were literally able to go to these homes
with a food box and Christmas gifts for their kids to love on these people, to
pray and testify to them about Jesus. It is an incredible time!
We had a total of eleven families that we ministered to. Another
cool thing was I had three former Teen Challenge Students helping me deliver
these boxes. ( Al, Justin and Chad)
These guys all completed their time at TC, they live locally, and it what great
having them with me to minister to the needy. Also on the final night of delivering
the boxes, I had my Dad out in the mix helping out... thanks Pops!
All of these families were real needy, so it was blessing to
be able to help them with food and gifts for their children. Some "highlights"
from outreach:
Our very first stop we met a young man named Mason. After a
short time of greeting each other he started opening up, as the Spirit of God
was ministering to him in strong way. He shared of an addiction that he had
been clean from for two weeks, but he was still dealing with the battle of it
in his mind. Plus a recent divorce was also a battle he was dealing with. We
all prayed and encouraged him. The TC brothers were really able to sow into him
with testifying of their battles and victories. We all prayed for Mason and
exchanged phone numbers- please keep him in prayer.
Another stop we had I was able to give a ten year old girl
her very first Bible. What a blessing that was! I shared to her and her Grandma
why Jesus came and our responsibility to
respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. We all prayed together calling out
to Jesus.
We stopped at one home and the young woman answered the door
while she was on the phone with her incarcerated husband. He was the one who
signed her up. It was so cool as she put him on speaker phone and we all prayed
together! Only God could work the timing out like that! Glory to God!
We also came into some homes that were not so friendly. Some
of the people had stone faces and were silent giving only one word answers as we
tried to create dialog. But we planted Gospel seed, sharing the judgment to come.
Now we trust God for His drawing and prompting to their hearts. Amen.
We were able to pray for man named Larry, he had a work
related accident to his hip. We prayed as we laid hands on him calling on the
name of Jesus for healing.
All in all it was an incredible three days of ministering to
folk in their homes. Along with the Food Box, Kids Presents and big Ham we gave
everyone a Bible and we invited them to our Church homes, plus we loaded the
boxes up with Gospel tracts, trusting they would be read and meditated on. So
praise Jesus! We trust God to draw and prompt.
CHRISTMAS CHAPEL PICS (Teen Challenge):
ELKHART JUVENILE DETENTION
CHRISTMAS BOX OUTREACH -INMATES FAMILIES
Thanks again to all of you who prayed for us and sowed financial
support, we are trusting God will continue to bless you and meet your needs.
Have a merry Christmas! and a great new years break. I am
certainly looking forward to an incredible 2016..
Steve Ignowski
180 Outreach Ministries
