Wow! The summer went by so fast and here we all are in the middle of fall, staring down Halloween and wondering which relative will host Thanksgiving. Since the last Ministry Update, we have kept the focus of our attention where it should be – encouraging and supporting married guys one corner booth and a beverage at a time. In our last update I shared a couple of the awesome stories of how God is working through this ministry in the lives of these guys and those stories just continue to pile up!
In the last six weeks we have had the honor of bringing God’s truth to the lives of Rob and Sally. Sally contacted me after leaving Rob in Tennessee and moving back to the West Michigan area. She told me that, after 19 years of enduring neglect, disrespect, and verbal abuse, she simply could not live with him anymore. I asked Sally for permission to contact Rob and find out where his heart was. The first conversation I had with him was filled with tears and remorse. Rob told me that he had started going to church and was meeting regularly with the pastor there. A few weeks later Sally told me that she was really irritated with Rob because he was taking away the reasons she had for leaving him. I’m incredibly hopeful for the two of them. The last time we had coffee together, Sally told me that she planned to go home soon and rejoin her husband in Tennessee. As you read this great story, I want you to clearly understand that this reunion has very little to do with 4BetterOr4Worse and everything to do God turning Rob’s life upside down and chasing after his heart.
This past September we embarked on the adventure of our first annual pledge drive. We received pledges from 16 people (more than I expected) and raised roughly $1500 in pledges, or 75% of the $2000 goal for next year’s budget. Even though the pledge drive is finished for the year, we’ll still continue to seek out people who believe in the work God is doing through us and wish to support us financially. We also held our 2nd quarterly E4M (Encouragement 4 Men) event at New Community Church on the Northeast side of Grand Rapids. Big thank you to Pastor Mark Vander Meer for giving us an incredible venue and to Carpenter’s Cross for providing some awesome praise and worship music. We doubled the attendance of our June event and it’s clear that God is building a community of men.
Our next big event is coming just after the New Year. On January 13 we’re holding the next E4M event which will be an open house. There is a lot to be excited about because we’re combining a number of things in one evening including a special prayer meeting for our donors. Early in January we’ll be calling our pledge donors for prayer concerns and we’ll be bringing together a group of people to cover those concerns in prayer. There will also be a session to review some of the important spiritual material we use with the men we mentor. The open house is a family event that will provide an opportunity for people to get to know us and how we operate. Bring the wife. Bring the kids. Save room for desert. There’s something there for everyone!
We’re constantly looking for areas to improve 4BetterOr4Worse Ministry. Simply, we want to be open to the Spirit flowing through us and affecting the lives of married men around us. We’re already making improvements to our internet presence. We’ve removed some areas of the web community that never seem to get any attention. We have moved the prayer aspect of the ministry from our website to Facebook. We believe this move will make it much easier for people involved in the ministry to ask for and receive prayer (On that note, let me also say that we are still looking for a web savvy man to lead our prayer team. I’m not discouraged that God hasn’t given us the right man for this job and I’m content to wait on His timing.).
I’d like to thank you all of your continued support of 4BetterOr4Worse Ministry. With your prayers and support God can continue to bring men closer to Jesus and deeper in their relationships with their wives and families.
