Kindness Weekends

FHL Week 2013: Heal the Land

August 7, 2013 Merlin Gonzales Backyard Missions, FHL Indiana, FHL Week, Kindness Weekends

We were blessed to work with Great Lakes Region INROADS Inc, for the first time to mobilize volunteers for this cleanup. INROADS sent about nine of the twelve volunteers who participated in the neighborhood cleanup. A local homeowner , who owns two homes in the area, helped with the cleanup for the first time as well.

Our thanks to Keep Indianapolis Beautiful for arranging to have a thirty yard dumpster placed in the cleanup area. This dumpster is being used to store trash collected during the cleanup until the dumpster is removed from the area.

The following areas were cleaned:

Graceland Avenue from 38th Street to 39th Street, sidewalks medians and street gutters;

West 39th Street from Boulevard Place to Capitol Avenue, sidewalks and street gutters;

Kenwood Avenue/Illinois Street alley, 38th Street to 40th Street, large items removed;

Capitol Avenue/Graceland Avenue alley, 38th Street to 40th Street, large items removed.

The dumpster provided through KIB was filled to about two thirds of the dumpster capacity with trash collected during the cleanup. Water and snacks were made available to all volunteers, who worked for about two hours to help to continue to clean this neighborhood.

There are at least two homes in this neighborhood that are being renovated.

We continue our relationship with the Tree of Life Church at 40th Street and Boulevard Place. The resident of the house that is adjacent to our meeting place came out of her home to see us and spend time with us. We are thankful to serve her and other residents of this area.

After the cleanup was finished, the area where we had worked was checked for stray tools, trash bags or piles of debris. None of these items were left behind by the cleanup crew.

It seems that I do not have have the words to adequately express my thanks to the Lord for all I have seen him do in this neighborhood. Even so, I give Him my thanks.

My THANKS!!!!!!!! to all who have supported this neighborhood through: prayer, street ministry, local congregations, cleanups, city services and home renovation.
Bill Lamb
Faith Hope and Love

Living by the Spirit; not by flesh Part 1

May 29, 2013 Merlin Gonzales FHL Indiana, Kindness Weekends, Message

Galatians 5:16-25 (NIV), “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever^[a] you want. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

When we live by the Spirit:

We live by grace and not under the bondage to the Law
- Grace is unmerited favor, which means we receive what we don’t deserve. Grace is based on our relationship with God
- The Law is the commandments from God in the Old Testament. The Law is based on our performance. No one is perfect to follow God’s entire commandment. Only Jesus was the perfect one and lived a sinless life.
- We are controlled by the Spirit instead of the flesh
  - We are led by the Spirit
  - We have the grace to withstand the desires of our flesh
  - We live for God’s Glory rather than for ourselves
    - We start living with Biblical worldview; being aware of God within us
    - We become aware of our selfish actions and we start to think of others first before ourselves

The Spirit and the flesh are at war with each other. They have different appetites and different perspectives. Our “human body” is not sinful; it is neutral. In verse 16, Apostle Paul said “the desires of the flesh” not the body. So if our body is neutral, and the Holy Spirit controls it, then we keep in step with the Spirit.

However, if the flesh controls our body, then we walk in the lusts or desires of the flesh. We live by the worldview instead of living with Biblical perspectives.

This is a brief overview of living in the Spirit. In my next issue, we will take a look at the second part of the equation. Until then, live in His blessings!

Merlin

God wants to answer our prayers

October 15, 2012 Merlin Gonzales FHL Indiana, Kindness Weekends, Self-Sustained Food Pantriy

I hope that you will be blessed with the stories below.

We have been busy these past few days with our regular Kindness Days and Food pantries. On October 8, we helped a person in need of yard clean up, household chores, built a chicken coop and light construction. Thanks to Southport Presbyterian Church for sending 17 Youth and 2 adults to bless an individual who is in need of assistance. After the outreach, we found out that this person has been praying for help.

Our Pantry of Faith was on Oct. 13th at Iglesia Wesleyana Monte de Sion. This church has been praying for ways to serve the community and God has been using FHL to plant a self-sustained pantry since April 2012. They now serve between 40-50 families and have 20+ regular volunteers.

There are many ways we can communicate with God and one of them is through prayers.

Just this past weekend, FHL partnered with Northview Church in Carmel, IN to mobilize more than 200 volunteers for their “Good Neighbor Weekend.” We brought a few groups to our Heal the Land Project. Before we gave instructions for the neighborhood clean up, I shared with the group that cleaning the streets is only secondary to their collective presence and prayers in the area. Since we have God in our hearts, we can also release His Presence wherever we are. I encouraged them to do prayer walk as well. We prayed together before we started the clean up.

This particular outreach site is in a tough neighborhood with prostitution and drug problems. It seems like the majority of the residents (and/or the residents near the area) do not care for their surrounding since they have chronic problem of trashing the alleys and the vacant and abandoned lots. We have been bringing volunteers in this same area for almost two years on a regular basis but with some progress. However, we believe that God wants to heal this land.

After a few hours of clean up we gathered together for testimonials and debriefing. One of the testimonials was about a couple that badly needs assistance in clearing and cleaning their backyard. The lady of the house is 81 years old. Their backyard was full of overgrown weeds and all kinds of trash. After one of the volunteers prayed for them, I had the opportunity to interview the man of the house. He shared that he was fasting and praying that God would send help to assist in cleaning their yard. He almost broke down when one of the groups showed up in his backyard that afternoon. His prayers reached God and He got his answer immediately.

We ended the outreach with debriefing and prayer. As our Project Manager , Bill was leading the prayer in front of about 70 volunteers on the side of a street, I noticed a woman walking in front of me. She looked depressed and she looked surprised that a bunch of people in her neighborhood is praying together on the street. I continued to pray and forgot about the woman. Soon, all the volunteers left. As I was gathering our tools, I saw the same woman being prayed for by Bill & Donna. She came back and spilled her heart to them. God convicted her to come back to us instead to pursuing her plan to shoplift. She had a black eye and backache because her boyfriend beat her and left her. She did not have anyone in her life because her children were taken away from her a number of years ago while she was in jail. She was going to help herself at one of the grocery stores to clean her apartment because she will be kicked out in the streets in the next few days. She will go to court the following week because of her habitual shoplifting. Bill & Donna led her to the Lord. I asked her if I can pray for healing of her black eye. She hesitantly agreed and within a minute of prayer she said that her eye was not hurting anymore. Bill & Donna ended up providing her assistance for her clothes, supplies and food.

Daniel 9:23, “As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed.” God had heard the prayers of the church who wanted assistance in starting a food pantry, a person in need of assistance for yard work and household chores, a couple that needed help in their backyard, a woman in desperation and for our group to be a part of what He is doing in a neighborhood.

Be encouraged that your prayers are heard in heaven. God wants to provide the best for His children and He wants to answer your prayers.

Here’s what’s happening

September 26, 2012 Merlin Gonzales FHL Indiana, FHL Mobile Food Pantry, Kindness Weekends

My last written Blog was in early August. You are probably wondering what’s been happening beside what’s on my Podcast. We had some pretty awesome interviews, real time reporting, and Podcast about FHL’s plan in Food Pantry Planting Movement.

So, in the past 6 weeks, FHL trained and mobilized volunteers for the Food Pantry Planting. The launching (9/22) was simple. There were about 30 volunteers who worshiped and prayed together at the FHL office. By Monday 9/24, we had mobilized around 40 volunteers who passed out about 750 grocery bags to several neighborhoods encouraging them to donate non perishable food items for 3 food pantries. Our fearless volunteers also visited several businesses to encourage them to participate in food collection. In particular, Noodles & Co located at 3450 W. 86th St. 46268 is partnering with 2 of FHL Food Pantries to collect food on Saturday, Sept. 29 from 5p-9p. They are also donating 25% of sales during the hours of collection through FHL referrals. Please drop by and bring some canned goods on the 29th.

FHL had mobilized around 90 volunteers from IUPUI and New Hope Presbyterian Church during the last 2 Kindness Days at 38th/Illinois. The next Kindness Days are on Oct 8th to help a person in yard work, minor construction and house clean up. This project is sponsored by Southport Presbyterian Church. They are bringing their Youth for a short-term mission in our own backyard. On Oct 13-14, FHL is partnering with Northview Christian Church who will be sending around 400 volunteers for FHL’s Heal the Land Project.

On Oct 5-6, will FHL Disaster Preparedness Seminar. Thanks to our Project Manager, Donna Cherry for putting this together. For more info, please visit http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=39cc0dd2d86044c04d68bcf7c&id=7e596cbd9d

My plan was to slow down a little bit to catch up on admin and update our websites and social media outlets. Thanks to our great IT Director who kept up in our technical needs while the rest of our staff were busy out in the streets. Id’ like to also thank Bill Lamb, our Food Pantry & Kindness Day Director, Susannah Francis, my Executive Asst. who is great not only in helping me put procedures on paper but also in many administrative training and operations. Most specially, I am very thankful for our full-time Art Director volunteer, my wife Annie, for helping me run and maintain the FHL office.

I have more stuff to share with you but this one getting long. So until then, keep the faith…in our Lord Jesus Christ!

What’s next after FHL Week

August 10, 2012 Merlin Gonzales FHL Indiana, FHL Week, Kindness Weekends, Mobile Food Pantry

My last written post was about the last day of FHL Week. I hope you enjoyed following some of the activities during that action packed week. We saw miracles, challenges, wonders and the unexpected happen. That’s to be expected when you mobilize 100+ organizations, more than 800 volunteers, 30 some projects sustained for 7 days with zero budget and lots of faith.

Imagine if a group of people ask you to come up with a plan to bring churches, businesses, neighborhood associations, government, etc., to work together for an entire week on all various projects without any guarantee of working capital and a support team. That’s crazy!

In 2005, I never thought an organization could do just that. All I wanted was to introduce the concept of unifying churches through local mission – “A Mission Trip in their Own Backyard”

After 7 years of pouring my life into it, FHL has evolved to be an organization that connects, facilitates and coordinates volunteers to identify needs and to come up with resources to bring hope in our communities.

It’s a monumental task to bring churches together let alone encourage them to work together. FHL has worked with numerous Christian denominations and even non-Christians since then. I have seen different reactions from people of different walks of life, from positive to negative, condemnation and praise, love and judgment.

There’s a price to pay to follow Christ and continue the calling that He has for each of us, especially if you do not have the entire picture and the details that go along with an outstanding plan. I’ve written a Blog “God wants our faithfulness, not our success.” Through walking in faith with Him, we start to gain more revelation along the way. The next step has been revealed. Some people may call it miracle. Unless we experience Him in our lives, it would be hard for our faith to develop.

Many times, revelation comes when we obey Him no matter how absurd the plan. It usually requires us to step outside our comfort zone. The next step is shown after we take the initial step. The next door opens after we walk through the previous one.

FHL Week has taught many groups of people to trust one another, to watch their backs and to rely on each other. No one has the complete answer and the resources needed to accomplish all the projects. Through the process of walking alongside each other, brainstorming and coming up with a plan, a team is born. Once people start trusting each other, their relationships grow and things are accomplished.

In the end, it’s not about the projects, it’s about having relationships with each other. Confidence with others and within ourselves can change the dynamic of a community. For example, many Noblesville churches (Serve: Noblesville) are now working regularly together because of their experience with FHL since 2006. It’s not that other churches were not working together before, but FHL was a catalyst that led them to work even closer together.

FHL Week, “A Mission Trip in Your Own Backyard”, has taught us that it’s ok to venture with others to serve and to trust the God in us. It may not look great but deep inside, seeds of unity are being planted. As Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 4:12 & 13, “equip God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” Paul also added that we grow to become a mature body of Christ by working together and performing our part as we build up each other in love.

Now that you have read the inside scoop about FHL Week, you don’t need to wait until next July. Why not entertain having FHL Week all year long? Not as big and intensive as the annual “Mission Trip in your Own Backyard”, but something small and tangible that your neighborhood can do together to build each other up in love? Next month and in October, FHL will be mobilizing between 300-500 volunteers for the “Heal the Land” project at 38th/Illinois area. Consider joining us if you are available. You can be the miracle that others have been waiting for.

How about planting Food Pantries all around our cities through the resources within the local neighborhoods? My next Blog will discuss this in detail.