A grand Saturday celebration

What an amazing Saturday we experienced this past weekend at the Love In Action Ministry Center as we opened the ministry center for the community. There were seven people who made decisions for Jesus Christ, and we served 282 lunches. Praise God! Now that was a grand, grand opening!

Our friends from Baton Rouge, La., No Place Outreach and Cooking for Jesus, traveled to Dothan to cook for our celebration. Oh man, did they do some cooking! They started early Saturday morning and cooked a delicious meal of Jambalaya, white beans, rolls and brownies. Watching them put it all together was fun.

I took a team of volunteers into the community around the ministry center Saturday morning, and we canvased the entire area inviting people. Many of them responded.

A good number of the homeless attended. We got the word out to them and they enjoyed the afternoon with us, and we enjoyed them. We get to meet some great people doing this ministry.

A surprise to the lineup was a praise team from the Lighthouse Outreach Center in Waipahu, Hawaii. They were leading a revival at First United Methodist Church in New Brockton where one of our board members, Dwight Deal, is pastor. They wanted to do something on Saturday, so they came to Love In Action. Our new Hawaiian friends were great and led two worship songs.

Then the praise team from Crossroads Community Church in Enterprise, Ala., led worship. We always enjoy worshiping with Crossroads. They did a great job, then Crossroads pastor and LIA board member Gene Oden preached a wonderful message.

Following Gene's message, seven people made decisions for Jesus Christ. Praise God! That's what it's all about. We also had a great time of prayer with people about a number of different needs.

Then, as we like to say, we strapped on the feedbag and ate some Cajun food. It was delicious! Our Louisiana friends have a passion for cooking for the homeless and needy, and they do an awesome job.

After lunch, the "Gospel Jubilees" sang. These precious women love to worship the Lord.

Later in the day, we loaded up the back of my pickup truck and took a team of volunteers to deliver food to people in the neighborhood. We also visited a homeless camp. The excitement of our volunteers was incredible, and the people were so thankful.

We also delivered some blankets to the homeless.

It was a great day and we thank God for giving us the opportunity to serve Him. What an honor and a privilege it is to serve the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus is awesome!

We thank God for all of the volunteers who helped us on Saturday and who help us every week to show God's love to the needy. We also thank God for everyone who prays for us and gives financially. We could not do this without you.