My family doesn’t like winter.  There is a physical relief coming from the outside cold to the inside warmth.  It’s warm inside.  We believe God desires that physical and spiritual warmth for all people by being in a family.  He tells us about that in Psalms 68:6.  He sets the lonely in families.

We have heard some amazing stories over the last few months about the warmth of the church.  We hope you will enjoy hearing about some of the things God is doing all across the state!

At City Church in Tulsa, their members connected with a biological father who recently had gone through a divorce.  Through the divorce he was able to receive full custody of his girls and remove the threats of an unsafe situation.  To be reunified with his children he needed to move into his own apartment and did’t have one thing.  The church was notified about the need through the CarePortal.  About 20 individuals from the church got him all kinds of things he needed including toiletries, towels, kitchen items, to a Christmas tree and presents for the girls.  The church scheduled for the dad to come by the church around the time of one of the Christmas services to pick up everything.  The dad decided to stay for one of the services and through the message chose to give his life to Christ.  There is warmth in the church!

Shelly Hooker of Council Road Baptist Church has been one of our key volunteers in the Oklahoma City area.  Shelly has responded to numerous requests but we love the continuing story of the first request in which she responded.  It has demonstrated the warmth of relationship.  Shelly said this “Our first CarePortal experience was the reunification of a single mom with her 2 elementary age children.  The request was for a gift card to buy school uniforms.  It so happened the family lived really close to my office so the case worker asked if I wanted to take it directly to the family, so I did.  That will be a year in August and I still have regular contact with the family.  We have enjoyed a variety of activities together ranging from attending the child’s basketball game to celebrating holidays and just spending time together.”  We love hearing that even though this request was over a year ago there is still a relationship because the church and Shelly said yes!

111Project receives no government funding and is able to provide the support to churches all across the state because of generous local partners.  These churches, foundations, and individual donors allow us to continue to provide the services to mobilize the local church.  Would you consider a 2017 year end donation or consider committing to monthly support in 2018.  We would love to see our work expand to all 77 counties of Oklahoma and into more states!

Here are a few reminders as you consider a 2017 year-end gift:

If you would like your year-end gift to be included on your 2017 Contribution Statement, it must be received at online through our website or postmarked by midnight CST on Sunday, December 31.

To Donate a one time or recurring gift you can visit www.111project.org/donate.

Sincerely,

Chris Campbell

111Project Executive Director