A great day in Brooklyn

Martha, Pastor Larry and Ken.

Martha, Benjamin and Ken

It was such a blessing to be back at Sunset Park Community Church in Brooklyn, NY, yesterday (Thursday, July 23, 2009). It was great seeing Pastor Larry Pitta and his wonderful wife Margie. It was great seeing Benjamin again. It's been four years since we last saw him. It was great seeing the ministry to the homeless still going strong. It was a great day all the way around.

We started working with Sunset Park six years ago to help them reach out to the homeless and poor in their community. That's where we met Benjamin for the first time. He was a homeless man, completely broken and contemplating suicide. That's when God sent a team from Love In Action all the way to Brooklyn from Alabama to minister His love to Benjamin. Since then, he's been to Alabama twice - once to sing at mine and Martha's wedding.

He's had some trouble since then, but he's back on the right path and is doing really good. He still has a ways to go, but he's determined this time. He wants to live for God and minister Jesus to those who are in the situation he was in. But first, he knows he needs to let God restore and renew him.

Pastor Larry is a great man of God. He has been ministering to the homeless and poor in Brooklyn for 28 years. That's amazing! His wife is a great woman of God with a tremendous heart for the hurting.

Every Tuesday and Thursday the homeless come to Sunset Park Community Church to pick up a sack lunch. Whether it's sandwiches and sides like yesterday or hot soup and coffee during the winter months, they know they are welcome at Sunset Park and they know they will have a good meal on those days.

They can also come to take showers. Love In Action helped Sunset Park start their shower ministry, and it's been a great blessing to the homeless. That part of the ministry has been going on for four years now.

Yesterday we sat down with Pastor Larry and started planning an outreach for August 2010. We would like to bring a big team up here to help them reach their community through a block party. I will have more information about that later. But, if you are interested in coming to NYC with us next August, go ahead and start planning and saving money. We will make it as affordable as possible. If you don't mind sleeping in a sleeping bag, members of the team can sleep at the church. That will save you a lot of money on hotel rooms.

Thanks Pastor Larry and Margie for having us with you yesterday. You two are a great blessing to the homeless and poor in Brooklyn, and to Martha and me as well. Your friendship means a lot to us.

We will post videos to our Web site later of interviews with Pastor Larry and Benjamin. You will also get to hear my great New York accent. :-)

Keep Pastor Larry, Margie and Sunset Park Community Church in your prayers. And, keep praying for Benjamin.