Making a child's day

The first three Saturdays of each month our awesome volunteers serve so beautifully as the homeless and needy come to our ministry center for help with food, hygiene items and clothes. The homeless also come to take showers and to have their laundry washed.

We also see children. They are all precious, and most are from single mother homes. There are two children we see each month who are always smiling, and they love Rick and Martha Denney. Rick and Martha are faithful volunteers and leaders at LIA. They always take up time with the children.

Rick found out this one young boy likes basketball. However, the child didn't have a basketball. Rick told the child that he would get him a basketball. Rick delivered on his promise today. The smile on the child’s face was priceless.

Click here for a link to the video showing Rick surprising the child with the basketball.
Thank you, Bro. Rick, for showing this precious child the love of Jesus.

This video epitomizes how all of our volunteers serve at LIA. Lives are being changed for the glory of God, because of people giving of their time to show the love of Jesus to the "least of these."

Great Team LIA meeting today

Martha and I want to thank everyone for coming to this morning's LIA volunteers meeting. We had a great crowd with 22 people there.

For those who were unable to attend, here are the highlights:

- We are moving forward with renovation projects. We are turning Suite 4 into a warehouse for storage. The front of Suite 4 will be an extension of our clothing section, to include clothes for children.

- We must repair the roof on our two-story building before renovating Suites 5 & 7. We are looking at turning Suite 5 into office and meeting spaces for other ministries. Our plan for Suite 7 is turn it into an educational suite to provide job training and educational opportunities for the people we serve, as well as discipleship training classes.

- We must replace HVAC units on top of both buildings - one each for suites 2, 3, 5 & 7, and we need one for suite 4.

- We need to make roof repairs on our one-story building.

- We are going to reopen the coffee shop where Dakota was located. LIA owns that building. We are at the planning stage for it. It will be a place for people to connect ... connect with God, with each other, with LIA and with LIA's missionaries and indigenous pastors and schools around the world. We will train the homeless and the needy in the hospitality industry. It will be a job to help them improve their lives, but it will also be a place for them to learn and grow to move on to bigger and better jobs in the hospitality industry.

- Team LIA spent the rest of the morning cleaning the coffee shop. It was the first cleaning. That shop hasn't been used in a couple of years.

- Help us expand by continuing to serve, by sharing from information on our Facebook page, Twitter feed and other social media on your social media pages, feeds, statuses, etc. The more we share, the more people learn what God is doing through LIA.

- If you know people in businesses such as HVAC, plumbing, electric, roofing, etc., please tell them about our needs and connect us.

- Please give and ask people to give toward our building fund, so we can accomplish everything.

- If you do not receive our electronic newsletter called "LIA Update," please send me your email address. Please share the newsletters with others through Facebook, email, etc.

- We will hold a big yard sale Sept. 23-24 at LIA to raise money for our building fund. We are asking for good items for the yard sale. We will also sell Boston butts that day. We will pre-sell them.

Martha and I thank all of you for serving at LIA. Hundreds of lives are being touched by the love of Jesus, because of each of you. People are being saved, encouraged, and they are having their physical needs met. Each of you are also growing in the Lord. We are growing together. Thank you.

May God continue to bless all of you and your families.