Tweaking our logo

We tweaked our Love In Action logo. For more than seven years the cross in the logo has been yellow. Martha suggested that we try making it red. We changed it and liked it. It makes the cross stand out more. Jesus paid the ultimate price for all of us on the cross, and that's the message we are sharing throughout the nation and world.

What do you think about the tweak?

Blankets for Dothan

This afternoon during my lunch break at work, I drove over to our warehouse and loaded the back of my Tundra with blankets. I had called Mama Tina's Mission House here in Dothan, Alabama, and asked if they needed blankets. Mama Tina said they did.

I took more than 50 blankets over there this afternoon and they were so thankful. Mama Tina shouted "Thank You Jesus!"

A woman was there whose house had burned a week ago. She said that she needed blankets for her children and herself. God's timing is always perfect!

It's turned winter time here in southeast Alabama, and throughout the most of the country. I thank God that we had blankets on hand to help those who are in need. Back in September, we delivered a lot of blankets to Eagle's Nest in Atlanta, so they would have them when it turned cold. They are able to hand them out to the homeless now. We also gave out a lot of blankets to the homeless then too, even to a couple and their 1-year-old baby. I pray that precious child is safe and warm tonight.

No matter where you live, there are people who are poor and cannot afford to pay for heat. Look around, ask, find them and help them. God will bless you for doing so.

"If you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded." - Matthew 10:42

We're about to run out of blankets, so another trip to Orange Beach, Alabama, will be coming up soon. Our goal with the warehouse is to fill it up and empty it out, fill it up, empty it ... While we haven't filled up that huge warehouse yet, we have put a lot of supplies in there, and we have given most of it away to those in need. I know God will bless us with more to put in the warehouse, so we can help even more people.

Pray for the poor and homeless as the winter weather has moved in, and in many places it won't warm up again until next spring. Here in Alabama, it will warm up again soon, but we still have some cold nights ahead of us this winter. For the poor and homeless, there are a lot of cold nights ahead.

The Dominican Republic Project

I finally got the video edited and posted about the Dominican Republic Project. Please go to www.loveinactionministries.com and click either on the "Click here" link in the Dominican Project box or click on the link for Love In Action Ministries.com TV. Or, here on this blog page the Dominican video is at the top of the video choices.

Please watch it as it describes the situation and the opportunities we have to make a huge difference in the lives of 162 very poor children and about 750 adults living in slums outside of Santo Domingo. These are people without a country. Back in the 1950s, the Dominican needed help harvesting sugar cane. Haiti sent a large group of poor, uneducated people to work. The money went back to the government of Haiti, so the people were basically used as slaves.

Generation after generation are still living that way. The Dominican government does not recognize these people and neither does the Haiti government. They need our help desperately. We have the opportunity to repair a building, which will be used as a school, so the children can receive an education. We will also use it to provide at least one good meal a day for them, then expand it to provide meals for about 900 people. We also have a vision to provide medical care by setting up clinics.

There is a lot to be done, and we need your help to do it. Please pray about what God would have you to do. We need $8,000 to do all of the basic repairs. If you would like to go with us when Martha and I go to the Dominican, please get ready by getting your passport and going to your local county health department to get your vaccinations. As soon as we raise the money, we will be going.

Thanks and God bless,

Ken

Check out our Web site

I encourage everyone to check out our Web site at http://www.loveinactionministries.com. We have updated it with new information, photos and videos. You can learn more about Project Haiti and Project Dominican (I still have one video to edit and post for Project Dominican. Hopefully I will be able to do that tonight).

You can see and hear about the horrible living conditions in Haiti. We have online photo galleries showing you scenes from Haiti and the Dominican. I will warn you, the photos are heartbreaking. Even during Katrina, we haven't seen this kind of destruction here in the U.S. Plus, the Haiti government doesn't have the means to help their people like the U.S. does.

We also have our Christmas Shoeboxes for the Homeless highlighted on our home page. It's time to start putting the shoeboxes together. We will be in Atlanta Dec. 13, for our annual Christmas outreach.

Please visit our Web site often. We keep it updated, and it gives you the opportunity to see and hear what is going on with the ministry. It's amazing what God has done through Love In Action this year, and there is more coming up.

Martha and I are very thankful for all of you who pray for us, give financially to LIA, and give of your time to help us reach the lost and the hurting throughout the U.S. and the world.

We're back home

Elva Dalberis, Martha Tuck, Marie Nelson and Ken Tuck stand in front of a 24-foot truck filled with supplies that Love In Action delivered to Ft. Lauderdale to be shipped to Haiti.


Martha and I made it back home this morning around 4. We had a great trip. It was great finally meeting Marie in person. She's a wonderful woman of God. And we met her husband Raoul, daughter Samantha, and friend Elva. They are a wonderful family, and are committed to doing all they can to help in Haiti.

Marie, Raoul and Elva were all born in Haiti and moved to the U.S. years ago and are U.S. citizens. They can't believe the devastation of their native country. Raoul shared stories about how as a child everything he ate - meats and vegetables - all came from Haiti. He said they didn't need to purchase food from other countries, although it was available. Now, after the deforestation, soil is eroding into the sea. This makes it very tough to grow anything. Then, after four hurricanes in one month, the country is in disarray.

We are excited to be partners with them - Love In Action World Ministries - helping the people of Haiti. Together, we can and are making a difference. While the situation is tremendous, we know that we can make a difference one person, one church, one village at a time.

The supplies we trucked down to Ft. Lauderdale nearly filled a storage building. Everything was stacked to the ceiling. Soon, the container will be filled and shipped to Haiti.

We will soon have some slideshows on our Web site showing the desperation and destruction in Haiti. We will leave some photos out, because of the graphic content. However, it is reality. We have photos of dead children following one of the hurricanes. It would break your heart.

Also, did you know Haitians pay money for cakes of clay to eat? Marie and Raoul gave us a piece of hard, heat baked clay that Haitians eat just to have something on their stomachs. Tears filled mine and Martha's eyes as we held and looked at a piece of dirt that is used as food.

As I've stated before, this wasn't a one time event for Love In Action International Ministries. We are committed to the long-term. It may take a lifetime of helping in Haiti, and we will be there helping. Helping to meet the needs of the people, and most importantly, introducing them to Jesus Christ.

We are committed to helping in the Dominican Republic as well, and I will have more on that later.

And, we are committed to helping the homeless throughout the U.S. Thank you for your prayers and financial support. Please, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." (Galatians 6:9)

We made it

Martha and I arrived at our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale at 2:30 a.m. local time (1:30 a.m. Alabama time). The Web site I used to "map" our "quest" here showed that it would be about 8.5 hours from Dothan. They were wrong. It took 10.5 hours. But, the truck rides really good, so it was an easy trip.

We're excited about meeting Marie for the first time in person. We've been working together with her and her ministry, which has a very similar name - Love In Action World Ministries - for over a year now, but this will be the first time we have ever met in person.

We're going to get some sleep though, then call Marie. We'll then unload the truck, chat for a while and do some planning for Haiti and the Dominican Republic, then we'll get back in the truck and drive home.

It's a lot of driving, but more than worth it. To know that we are helping people in Haiti who are literally starving and have absolutely nothing makes it all worthwhile.

Thanks to everyone who gave financially and who gave food for this trip. The fuel to get down here and back and the cost of shipping a container to Haiti is not cheap, but many of you have given financially to help cover the costs. Many of you gave so we could buy all of the food. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thanks for everyone's prayers. Martha and I know we have a lot of people praying for us and praying for traveling mercies.

Good night ... or is it good morning?

Helping in Haiti one person at a time

We have most of the food on pallets at the warehouse ready to be loaded onto the 24-foot rental truck. I'll pick the truck up late Thursday afternoon, then we'll work until everything is loaded Thursday night. Then, when Martha and I get off work Friday afternoon all we have to do is get in the truck and drive to Ft. Lauderdale.

I thought the 24-foot truck would be too big at first, but I think we will come close to filling it up. We have a good amount of food, and a lot of sheets, blankets and soap.

The need is so great in Haiti that it could be overwhelming. But, we're looking at this just like we look at working with the homeless here in the U.S. God has called us to reach them one person at a time. We'll do that in Haiti too. There are churches we will be working with to help the pastors provide food for their congregatons and villages. We'll help them one person, one church, one village at a time.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support.

Helping people of Haiti

It was another busy, but good weekend for Martha and me. Last Saturday we worked for about 11 hours at our warehouse. This past Saturday we drove to Orange Beach, Ala., and back to Dothan. We made the trip to pick up thousands of sheets to ship to Haiti.

Thanks to the generosity of Brett/Robinson Real Estate and Vacation Rentals in Orange Beach, Love In Action will be able to ship thousands of sheets to Haiti. The hospitals in Haiti have very little to work with, including no sheets for beds. They will soon have sheets, pillow cases and blankets.

This coming weekend, we will rent a truck and fill it with sheets, pillow cases, blankets, towels, food and hygiene items. We will drive to Miami where we will combine that truckload of supplies with our partners in South Florida, then ship it all to Haiti.

As I mentioned in my precious blog entry, Love In Action is committed to helping for the long term. It's going to take our help and that of many other organizations and many countries. Pray for a miracle. That's what Haitians need.

Please keep praying for the people of Haiti. Please keep praying for us as we help them. It's isn't cheap to ship containers to Haiti. The cost of shipping one container and getting it out of customs is between $4,000-$4,500 dollars. If you are able to give to help us, please do.

300,000 children displaced

Martha and I just finished talking with our partners we're working with to help the people in Haiti. The situation has not gotten any better there. People have no homes. They're sleeping in the streets, in the mud, any where and every where. They have little to no food. The most heart-wrenching news was more than 300,000 children are displaced.

Marie said children told them they lost their parents, aunts, uncles and other relatives in the hurricanes. The children are literally on their own. Many say at night they get touched in inappropriate ways.

Americans think things are bad because the economy has gone south. We don't know tough times. It's unimagineable what the people of Haiti go through every day.

We must continue to pray and help. Within the next week, Love In Action will ship food to our partners in Ft. Lauderdale to help fill a container and then ship it to Haiti where it will be distributed to the people. The problem is so bad that a large shipping container of food will barely make a dent in the situation. However, every little bit of help is needed.

Love In Action is committed to helping for the long term. It's going to take our help and that of many other organizations and many countries. Pray for a miracle. That's what Haitians need.

Martha and I won't be able to make it to Haiti this year, but we will next year. They need help and they need to hear about the one true God who loves them and sent His only Son to save them. The door is wide open to share Jesus in Haiti. We have church contacts in Haiti and we're excited about working with them to help the people with their physical needs, which opens the door to help them with their spiritual needs.

We're also still working on helping repair a school in a poor village in the Dominican Republic. We're trying to raise funds to do that and to continue our work in Haiti.

Please pray and please help us help those who can't help themselves.

Give Me Your Eyes

Have you ever heard Brandon Heath's song "Give Me Your Eyes"? If you listen to contemporary Christian music I'm sure you have since it's No. 7 on 20 The Countdown Magazine this week.

It's an awesome song and really speaks to my heart. We need to look at people through God's eyes. There are millions of people with broken hearts and millions who live on the streets who are forgotten by society. God can mend all of those broken hearts, and He has not forgotten the homeless.

All God asks of us is to allow Him to work through us; be His hands and feet. We just need to be obedient to God and willing for Him to work through us. When we do, it's amazing what God does. That's what Love In Action is all about - proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ through acts of compassion. Putting feet to Matthew 25:35-36. Letting the broken hearted know that God loves them and has a plan for them (Jeremiah 29:11).

Here's a link to Brandon Heath's Give Me Your Eyes video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTsYAZvHsEQ (copy and paste it into your Internet browser)

Watch the video and listen to the song and let it minister to you and challenge you to look at people through the eyes of God.

Here are the lyrics:

Looked down from a broken sky
Traced out by the city lights
My world from a mile high
Best seat in the house tonight
Touched down on the cold black tile
Hold on for the sudden stop
Breath in the familiar shock
Of confusion and chaos
All those people going somewhere?
Why have I never cared?

Chorus:
Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that live far beyond my reach
Give me your heart for the once forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see.
yeah
yeah
yeah
yeah

Step out on a busy street
See a girl and our eyes meet
Does her best to smile at me
To hide whats underneath
There's a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie
Too ashamed to tell his wife
Hes out of work
Hes buying time
all those people going somewhere?
Why have I never cared?

Chorus

I've Been there a million times
A couple of million eyes
just move and pass me by
I swear I never thought that I was wrong
Well I want a second glance
So give me a second chance
To see the way you see the people all alone

Chorus X 2

God's provision in troubled times

I believe one thing God is doing during these horrible economic times our country is suffering through is to show His great provision. I have never been one who has relied on the government to provide for my needs. I have depended upon the Lord and He has always come through for Love In Action and for me personally.

You hear people talking about giving to charitable groups are lower because of the economic meltdown. But, when God wants to accomplish something, He will make the way. If God gives you the vision, He will supply the provision. We have witnessed that with Love In Action.

The past few months have been an incredible time of blessing. We were blessed with a huge warehouse for an incredibly low rent. A trucking company is now donating food to us. Churches are conducting food drives for our Food for Haiti project. Four or five 50-gallon barrels of peanut oil is being donated from a company for Haiti. There's a good possibility that a local trucking company is going to ship the food for Haiti to south Florida free of charge. Before going to Atlanta a few weeks ago, we were given hundreds of pairs of new jeans and socks. A company in Orange Beach, Ala., donates a large quantity of blankets, towels and soap to Love In Action on a regular basis. We were given a pallet jack for the warehouse. People have been giving faithfully and new people are now supporting Love In Action. There's a big mud hole in front of the garage at the warehouse, but the cement and labor to fix it is being donated. We have new volunteers donating their time to help with the ministry.

Tell me our God can't do things in the good and so-called bad times! We serve the one true God who created this universe, sent His one and only Son to die on the cross for our sins, and raised Jesus from the dead. We serve a very loving God. God is love, and He will provide all of our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

I like this verse in 2 Corinthians 9:10: "Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness."

I'm getting so excited about what God is doing, I'm about to get my "preach" on just writing this.

This blog is to encourage you that if you are going through tough times, keep trusting in God. He will make the way. He will sustain you and bless you. You can't beat the faithfulness of God.

Thank you to those who are involved with Love In Action. Thank you for your time, your resources and financial contributions. Together, we are reaching our local community, the nation and the world with the love of Jesus Christ. There is much to do, so don't grow weary in well doing. Let's keep the momentum going. I can't wait to see what God is going to do next.