'Be still, and know that I am God'

Psalm 46:10 has been revealed in such a powerful way as we stepped out in faith to purchase our own building.

Love In Action had never owned its own building, but God provided the perfect building in the perfect location in downtown Dothan, AL. The building may not have been perfect as far as the condition it was in, but the second we saw it, we saw the potential of the kind of ministry we could do with it.

As the renovations began, we continued to trust God to provide. I will be the first to tell you I am not a "handyman." So, we trusted God to send people our way to accomplish the tasks needed for the renovations and for the finances to pay for it. He has.

We have the best volunteers. On Tuesday nights and Saturdays you can find many of them giving of their time and talents to renovate the Love In Action Ministry Center. From electrical work to flooring and building and tearing down walls, volunteers are rolling up their sleeves and getting the work done.

Great progress has been made and we still have much more to do. But this past week will be one that Martha and I will always remember as we saw God provide for one need after another.

A few weeks ago I was invited to speak to the Dothan Rotary Club. I showed our new video and explained how Love In Action reaches the homeless and needy. During the presentation I mentioned two vital needs for the renovations - plumbing and HVAC.

After the meeting, a man who owns a very successful heating and cooling business in Dothan handed his business card to me and said, with a smile, that he knew a thing or two about heating and cooling. Bob Woodall of Bob Woodall Air Care Systems and two of his men came out to the Love In Action Ministry Center on Thursday to assess our needs, which are great.

As we stood outside by the old and destroyed condenser units, Bob told the other two men to write down everything that we need, take pictures, and they would take care of it all. Wow! Talk about a grown man ready to cry tears of joy and shout hallelujah! That was me.

I immediately thought back to last summer when we met in our former building that had no A/C. Despite summer temperatures of 100-plus degrees, more than 100 people came out every Tuesday night to worship God. I told them that God would bless us for our faithfulness to worship Him in such extreme heat.

I didn't know how God would do it, but I knew He would. Then, when God did it, He totally blew me away. We serve an awesome God!

Another man called me after the Rotary Club meeting and said he would pay a plumber to do the work we needed. There I was ready to cry tears of joy and shout hallelujah again. The building's plumbing needs to be totally re-worked. Basically, starting from scratch. And now, that work is being done as another individual has committed to purchasing the plumbing materials that we need.

Then, a local business donated about $600 worth of new faucets, then someone else donated an 80-gallon water heater. Praise God!

Add all of that with the great work of our volunteers, and you can see why we are so excited about what God is doing. I told someone the other day that if we ever had any doubts that God wanted us to renovate that building, all doubts were removed last week. Of course, Martha and I didn't have any doubts, but wow, God has certainly showed us time and time again that if we will just "Be still, and know that I am God," He will provide everything we need.