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

Well it was a fun FIESTA night at Rob Bautista’s house last night (2/27) for TJO team’s first quarterly prayer night of 2010.  After learning a little about the orphanage and the kids, we read over some of their prayer requests for January and February.  It was great to see so many new faces at Fiesta Night and to pray together as a group for a good hour.  Afterward, Robert’s roommate Cesar cooked up some delicious food!  Chicken & steak tacos, pinto beans, yummy rice, chips & salsa, and Maiko & Lily’s homemade brownies and cheesecake.  To top it off, we ended the night with Dave Gladson dressed in an authentic Mexican sombrero playing a mini-accordion bought at the TJ/USA border.  Rob attempted to accompany him as a singer. Let’s just say it was the BEST and the WORST mariachi band ever!

Here are a couple prayer requests from the night. To see more prayer requests or learn more about TJO, email orphanage@diveintoflood.com or find us under Flood Church Mexico Impact Teams on Facebook. You can read prayer requests and submit your own under the Discussion tab on FB.

  —Luis: Please repair the road and for my friends.
  —Byboh: We don’t want any theft here.
  —Rodrigo: For all my family and the whole world.
  —Moises: I’d like to ask to take care for my dad and mom.
  —Salvador: Pray for my family and friends. That I could find good friends in school.
  —Antonio: That Casa Hogar is taken care of and pray for it and all of us.

 We also want to pray for Bertha, a staff member at the orphanage, who is no longer in touch with three of her children due to a past of drug abuse. Although she is now recovered from her addictions, she is still suffering the painful consequences of losing contact with 3 children. She requested prayer for their health and safety, as well as for the safety of El Faro orphanage. We as a team also want to lift up Bertha’s life so that she can experience God’s grace, goodness, peace, and redemption in her life.

January is National Mentoring Month, a time to celebrate accomplishments and re-commit to serving children in San Diego County.  As a grateful partner of The Flood, Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) would like to invite you to join us in our January FUNdraising events. 

Tuesday, January 26th (4pm-10pm) – Join us at Stone Brewing Company’s World Bistro for an evening of great food and drink.  Come dine in the Bistro and 15% of your sales will be donated to BBBS. Location: 1999 Citracado Parkway, Escondido 92029.

Thursday, January 29th (5pm-9pm) – Join us at the Lucha Libre Gourmet Taco Shop for “Chow for Charity”.  Order up fresh Mexican food and see a real Lucha Libre wrestler! Proceeds from the evening will be donated to BBBS.  Location: 1810 W. Washington St, San Diego 92103

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

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

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.

Here’s a look at what’s happening with our ministry:

This past week we met a new couple.  Their names escape me, but I remember the conversation.  When we walk up, they are pretty loud, playing some kind of game.  The wife looks very young, and her loud, childish demeanor relates possible mental instability.  Turns out that was true.  The husband is older, solemn as a rock, a look of sadness on his face.  We decide to talk.  The conversation goes something like this:

-The wife is bipolar, scizophrenic, and can only afford half of her medication.  They are both drunk and high to ease the pain.
-They are confident that none of us could understand their pain, and that God has given up on them.

-We try to offer encouragement.  Hope goes nowhere.  Scripture goes nowhere.  The offering of physical gifts (including offering to pay for medicine) goes nowhere.  Nothing we offer is taken as credible.
-They ask why we are even out there.  We try to answer, but the truth is, it was a loaded question.  No answer is acceptable to them.  Yet still we debate.

-At least an hour later, we get frustrated and decide the conversation is futile.  It’s time to keep moving on with the night

-End of interaction

Sometimes the stories we take back with us Monday nights don’t always feel positive.  Often they can leave us dejected and sorrowful.  We walk away feeling helpless that we can’t do anything.  But we must realize that our encouragement comes from knowing that Jesus can.  He reminds us that it doesn’t need to be our burden to alter someone’s situation.  By doing what we do in Flood Love, Jesus allows us to participate in the hope and salvation that can truly only come from Him.

As we walked away from the couple, the husband thanked us for letting him vent.  I don’t know about you, but that kept me from feeling the conversation was completely hopeless

Prayer is the most powerful tool we have:

• Please pray for this unnamed couple to allow Christ into their hearts, to heal their pain, erase their sorrow, and lift their spirits.
• Please pray for the thousands upon thousands more homeless who share similar pain, but lack the Love of Christ in their life to help them through it.
• Please pray that we in Flood Love would be constantly encouraged by the Holy Spirit to continue our ministry in faith and joy and humility.  Pray that we never lose confidence in our purpose.  Pray that we see our ministry as a blessed opportunity from Christ and not a burden.

Flood Love meets Monday nights at 6:45pm, (departing at 7:00pm) on 15^th St, between F & G in front of Smart & Final (Map).

Thanks to all who made Shine Day a huge success last Saturday, October 3rd! We had 200 volunteers cleaning, painting, building and organizing — it’s amazing the huge impact we can make when we all offer a few hours of our weekend.

Here’s part of a letter from the facilities manager of Kearny High School:

“Words can not express the overwhelming feeling I have. I am brought to my knees in gratefulness and thank you’s to all of you. I’d like to especially thank everyone who didn’t give up from last year’s cancellation and the wonderful way of organizing and hearing our needs and cheerfully responding to the school. You have made Kearny a place to be proud of,  and a place that “shines!” once again. I am so lucky to be part of Kearny and to get to know such wonderful people as Flood has and is.   It’s been a long time since I’ve been around a group of folks who are truly filled with the spirit.   It was so nice to be here and be part of this.”

Check out these photos from the day:

There was some wall washing…

Some lunch table scrubbing…

And a whole lot of gum scraping…

Clearing out some space in the backstage area

Painting the KHS picnic tables

Thanks to all the kids & families who participated!

Kearny Komets’ cheerleaders kept our morale high.

Thanks to the marrieds’ community group for grilling all those burgers!

It’s great to see God build community as we serve together!

Thank you all for making Kearny a cleaner campus. If you missed out, we’ll see you next year when it’s time to SHINE!

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16

Here’s a look at what’s happening with our ministry:

I have a brother.  His name is Robert.  Robert is in his fifties (though you would never know) and sleeps on the sidewalk of G Street in downtown San Diego. Ok, so Robert isn’t my actual brother. But he might as well be.  Robert is the type of person I usually walk away feeling that he ministered to me, when the intention was the opposite.  Robert, like most people living on the streets, has a story that could fill a best-selling book.  I encourage you to meet Robert and hear it one day.  But for now, I want to fill you in on a recent chapter in the powerful story God has written for him.
 
I met Robert well over a year ago, and when I see him we talk.  About life, our stories, our problems, about God and the Word.  For me, I always enjoy talking with someone on the streets who already has God’s hope.  It’s actually a relief and a rest from the pressures we put on ourselves for ministry.  Then one day, we (Flood Love) roll up to Robert and his neighbors, and he just looks like a wreck.  So naturally I want to know what’s going on.  Well, Robert has been really struggling recently with the current state of his life. He turned to drinking, but realized that wasn’t the right way to call out his pain.  He needs support.  He needs family.  So Robert caught us up, tears in his eyes and a shakiness in his voice that tugs at your heart and makes you want to cry out to God with him.  So we did.  We prayed. And we prayed.  And we laid hands on him.  And we embraced him to remind him that he is not alone.  He is not forgotten.  He is loved.  And after an hour, a new look came  upon his face- that of hope.  Of joy. Of peace.  God had sent Robert family in his time of need.  And we realized in that moment that Flood Love isn’t just about passing out snacks, or even about reading scripture to homeless people.  It’s about relationships.  It’s about community.  It’s about Love.  It’s about us being like Christ as much as it’s about us telling people about Christ.  Flood Love is a very personal ministry.  People like Robert who live on the streets aren’t homeless.  No, they’re still people.  And that means they deserve our love just the same as your roommate, or your sister, or the person sitting next you to at Flood on Sundays.
 
 
Prayer is the most powerful tool we have:
 
-Please pray for Robert to grow his faith and be strengthened.  That he would receive peace in his position and not give up the fight both inside and out.
-Please pray that Robert and everyone else living on the streets would be lifted into better circumstances, that their physical needs would be met, whatever they may be.
-Please pray for us in Flood Love to continue to have our hearts opened to people living on the streets.  Pray that our group would flourish both in numbers and impact.  Pray that God will continue to lead this group and produce encouraging and uplifting stories such as this

Flood Love meets Monday nights at 6:45pm, (departing at 7:00pm) on 15th St, between F & G in front of Smart & Final (Map).

 For more information, email FloodLove@DIVEintoFLOOD.com