Flood Blog – Current impact opportunities, stories of impact and classifieds.

Hello Flood Family,
What a great week we have been having. Church services here in Uganda are a sight to see and hear. If you thought Flood services were loud you ain’t heard nothing yet! The last two full days were spent out at the COTN Children’s Village. At any time of the day there is a plethora of kids to play with. The boys love to play soccer. The girls skip rope and dance. Any child will pose for a picture and of course they love to see their photos on the screen.
When we arrive at the village in the morning, the kids that are around will run to meet us before the van comes to a stop. Even with the many, many trips to the village over the last ten days the kids are still so excited to see us. With huge smiles on their faces they greet us every time. These young Ugandans truly know a joy I pray all children, worldwide, could experience.
We have sent the last two mornings preparing crafts for the kids. The afternoons have spent completing annual updates on all 105 kids that are fully or partially sponsored by COTN. The team has really enjoyed this time doing evaluations. Through translators we are able to ask the kids all sorts of questions from favorite color, to dream job to, to questions about their family and parents. Some of the kids are so young that they don’t know many of the answers while others are fully aware of the reality they live in. It has been truly been an eye opening experience for all of us!
Our time is coming to an end here. We have two days left with the kids at the COTN village and I keep hearing “I can’t believe we are leaving so soon” or “The time is going s quickly!” We miss you all and can’t wait to share our hundreds of stories and thousands of photos with you!
Keep us in your prayers as we wrap up our time here and make our way back to San Diego. See you soon!
In Him,
Michelle Turley

Hello Flood Family!
Wow, what an eye opening experience this trip has been for us all! Yesterday we were able to take a trip to Gulu to see the Invisible Children headquarters. It was very interesting to see all of the different branches and groups this non-profit has established. It was nice to hear that although this is not a Christ-centered organization, two of the head founders are Christian and as a hardworking group of men, have still been able to do amazing things for the children and people here in Uganda. The drive back from Gulu was peaceful and we were blessed with experiencing a downpour. It amazes me how much the Lord blesses His people here with such perfect agricultural conditions. It reassures me that although it may seem like these people have very little outwardly to us Americans, they still are provided with SO much. Spiritually many Ugandans worship the Lord in ways I have never seen. Just in worship (which always seems to touch me the most) they sing like no one is around and it is a simple reminder to surrender ALL to the Lord and to truly worship Him in all we do!
Today we are headed to the local hospital, which I am SO excited about (since I am a nursing student). I can’t wait to pray over the sick and injured and to hopefully have some time to help out the nurses and be hands on!
While in Uganda, the Lord has truly put on my heart the real meaning of the word “relationship”. I have been able to fully experience the Lord here and I feel we have, as a group, been able to relax on some of these long car rides and fully enjoy our friendship with Him. Revelation 17:14 states “those who are with Him and can fully trust in Him are called elect and faithful”. I can say that each and every one of us has experienced Christ in our own way here in Uganda and we are significantly growing in our relationship with Him. In John 15, Christ calls us His friend because he has revealed everything he has heard from His Father to us. I cannot wait to continue this growing, loving friendship for the rest of my life.
As much as I still don’t miss “California” and the fast paced life much, I can say and I miss my Flood family! Until next time, continue praying for us. Especially for the Lord to continue to keep us safe from harm and disease as well as the Lord to continually open our eyes and break us for what breaks him. We love you! See you in a week.
Lauren Cheney

You are invited to attend the second Microfinance Impact Team meeting March 28th. We will discuss a future fundraising event to raise money to provide financial services to people in Malawi and Uganda. We will also share how we hope to merge Flood’s involvement in Africa with microfinance services. Please join us Sunday March 28th at 6 pm in the Kearny Library.

My sister and I both attend Point Loma Nazarene University, and live in the same dorm. We decided to invite the girls from our halls to all pray with us at midnight. After explaining the idea, we ended up sitting in the hallway with a circle of 15 girls ready to pray for the hurting.  It is so amazing how God is able to use and work through us by our prayers. Community is such a blessing.  I really do believe in the power of prayer! God is so Good!

We are in this together!
Thank you for the challenge and idea! God Bless.

Strength, Love, Believe,
Marsha Hubbard

I fully intended to enter into this endevour alone.  I knew I would be away from flood folks all evening so I made the commitment to set aside quiet time at midnight.  Boy was I wrong.  I ran into Jason at the YMCA and we had seen each other around.  We shot some texts back and forth and agreed to met up and pray along with his roommate, Todd.  God was even moving in the fact that we barely knew each other but had Flood as a bond already!

Our prayer time was most excellent.  I would say nothing earth shattering, no angels descending from on high (visible ones anyway), yet the simple stillness and hour of intentional prayer will set an incredible space for our hearts for the week.  It was also really binding to know that innumerable lights were also on around the county, praying as we were.  Solidarity and boldness.  What a challenge.  I can’t wait to look up in the near future to see what we really asked God to do with us.  Eyes up.

How generous is our Lord!! I’ve been praying for Haiti since the earthquake and even before I started my prayers at midnight, on the evening news it was announced that the country of Haiti is turning to prayer in this time of heartache and disaster. Additionally, and again so generously, I was reminded of my place in God’s kingdom as His Watchtower. I’d been praying that God would turn Haiti’s disaster into His glory for all the world to witness. As hard times and crises increasingly pummel the earth and our lives, Christians are called upon to turn humanity’s attention to the greatness of God to be found in every situation. While not minimizing the hardships that Haiti’s disaster brings, Christians should be helping and redirecting peoples attention to how each and every situation can magnify God’s glory. Like personal mistakes, worldly disasters are opportunities for God’s glory to shine through. Even when we step away, God is right there waiting with open arms…..How blessed!
Thankful to my Father for the reminder and opportunity to recommit myself to His service-
Mary H

Read the heartfelt thank you note sent from a soldier in Iraq. The Carmel Valley community group sent some Christmas cheer in the form of cards & care packages.

Dearest members of Flood Church,

Greetings from Tallil, Iraq!  My name is First Lieutenant Eric Juarez. I am a Platoon Leader in Bravo Company, 1st of the 130th Attack Recon Battalion, North Carolina National Guard.  On behalf of all the soldiers here, I would like to extend our warmest thank you to all who contributed to the wonderful Christmas cards and care packages that we’ve received.  As you all know, the holidays are a joyous occasion spent with family and friends.  Unfortunately, we were not able to spend this holiday season with our loved ones back homes.  However, you’re kindness has lifted our spirits and we are proud to be defending the US for outstanding citizens like yourselves.  Thank you so very much for taking time out of your busy schedules to think of us and may God bless everyone of you.  Please feel free to communicate with us.  You all are greatly appreciated!

V/R,

1LT Eric Juarez
PL B(-) 1-130ARB

Flood love had the opportunity to serve a pancake breakfast this year to the homeless. We were so blessed to see how God provided for this event and how much He wanted to show his love to people who so desperately needed to see it.

I got the idea while reading the book crazy love by Francis Chan shortly before Thanksgiving. Many of the regulars who do flood love were going to be out of town for Thanksgiving, but a few people said they wanted to do it.  So it began with myself, Dave Gladson, and Reuben and Nicki Rail.At first I really hoped we would be able to feed 50 people and give out 50 blankets as Christmas gifts. We sent out an email and as the weeks went by we had no one else step up. I knew God placed this on my heart so I figured it will just be the four of us, somehow God will provide the resources, and we will get to as many people as possible.

With a couple weeks left until Christmas we started planning out the event one night at Starbucks; at the end of the night we found out Starbucks would donate all of the coffee we needed. We were praising God for something coming off our list! Within the next week we had 50 people volunteer to help us,more than half of the supplies were purchased and dropped off at flood, and  we had a Costco gift card donated that covered everything else. Then I received an email from a guy who said Walmart was going to donate the rest of the blankets we needed and he just needed to know how many we were short! We even had an unexpected donation on the last day to buy the burners for our chafing dishes, which was the last thing we needed. We were so blessed by how God was providing for this and confirmed we were meant to do this.

On Christmas eve seven of us met at 2:30am to make 300 pancakes.  At four am the rest of our wonderful volunteers showed up to wrap ribbons around the blankets, write in the greeting cards, and make bags of butter, syrup, and utensils. We left the offices at 4:50am and got downtown shortly after five am. We had 90 greeting cards, 50 blankets, 20 sweatshirts, 36 pairs of sock, 65 bags of homemade cookies (courtesy of Dave’s mom!), 287 pancakes, two thermoses of hot chocolate, and four thermoses of coffee. We split up into two groups near 15th street. We were really hoping we would be able to distribute everything and not have any left overs, well we ended up running out of everything in about 20 minutes! Everyone was so grateful for being served pancakes and coffee on a cold( for San Diego) morning. One of the volunteers told me one of the men they were serving started to cry as he was given his coffee.  We were able to serve 70 people breakfast that morning.

Many of the people who served breakfast on Christmas morning were able to sit down and talk and pray with people about their current situation. The best part of this is the opportunity we have to pray with people. We saw so much of Gods  love for the homeless and how much He wants to reach them. We were all given an amazing chance to pray with those who are hurting and need Gods love and direction.

For more information on flood love please visit floodlovesd.org

On November 23rd Flood Love hoisted a pre-Thanksgiving ‘Fellowship Feast’ for its friends on the streets.This was the first time we did anything like this, and were very grateful for all of volunteers that showed up, and the delicious food they brought.We broke bread with one another, swapped stories, laughed, and connected with one another in a sense of community. It was a good night.An aspect of the purpose for the dinner was to show our friends from the street how much they matter: to bestow a sense of warmth, dignity, honor, and love.After the laughter had died down, and each one of us had a full belly, and we were driving our friends ‘home’ we could hear a couple that came, Erica + Killian, talking in the back seat to one another. He was posing a rhetorical question to her and then shifted it towards the front.“Who does that? Who does that for just a few people? There was just so much and you guys were all there for us.”They let us know that they truly felt honored and appreciated. That mentioned that they have had dinners before, and that other people have helped out, but there was something different tonight.That night it just felt real to them.This is what we are here for, to genuinely connect with others in the Spirit of Christ to create a sense of community, and in the process to let them know that they are loved, special, and valued: not just by us, but also by God.So we invite you to create, and deepen a sense of community with our friends on the street this next Monday. Bestowing love, grace, respect, and dignity to each and every person we meet…because we are all cared for and equal in the eyes of God.     

The post college ministry of Flood was blessed with an opportunity to host “Thanks Giving” for a beautiful cross section of God’s children. This was an incredible night that was marked by the Holy Spirit. The term community never seemed so perfect a description. The post college/career team hosted Flood Youth; both high school and middle school to a phenomenal dinner. In addition, the San Diego Rescue Mission’s Men’s Choir was also in attendance. As well as other members of the community who literally came in off the street.

Thanks to some incredible food that our local Post College community groups made, we all sat down to a beautiful meal that left no one hungry that night. There was a ton of turkey as well as ham, sweet potatoes, corn bread, stuffing, veggies and much, much more. The spread was phenomenal and a big “thanks” goes to all the community groups who prepared the food. And, from what I heard had a great time doing it.

As we were all stuffing ourselves the way you must when eating any meal known as thanks giving the San Diego Rescue Mission’s Men’s choir absolutely rocked it [see photo above]. This group of men who have humbled themselves and embraced God’s love are truly inspirational. One of their members proclaimed that it was a “Holy Ghost Party”.  And, it definitely was. They had such powerful voices and their music was awesome. They brought so much soul and rhythm even Andy and Noel were leanin and rockin. The atmosphere in the room was electric and everybody couldn’t help but get up and move and dance. There were people dancing, clapping, shaking, baking and just expressing joy. The magic of the moment was so apparent that Floods hip hop dance team, who were practicing next door, couldn’t help but feel the rhythm. They then came over and straight broke it down for us. I learned a few new moves to add to my repertoire and the whole group was blessed by their gifts.

The end of the night included some powerful testimonies from several of the members of the San Diego Rescue Mission’s Men’s choir that moved us all. This was just a perfect night and at one point I had to stop and look around because it was such a beautiful picture of all of God’s Children worshiping together.