We received a letter a couple of days ago that I thought would be well worth passing along to our supporters and ministry partners:
"My son and daughter-in-law, Michael and Lynn Winters of Evans, GA, told me your organization 'Kingdom Here' could use some help in the ministry to the homeless.
I am enclosing a check for $100.00 as a memorial gift in memory of my granson, Tommy Winters. He died on December 30, 2005 at the age of 19.
Hope this gift will help you a little bit in your ministry to the homeless.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Winters"
What an incredible way to carry on the memory of Tommy by helping those in need! Kathleen's gift not only honors her grandson's life but will also provide 100 meals for men and women in downtown Augusta who otherwise would quite possible be hungry that day. Here's a big thanks to her.
It's also worth noting that Lynn, Tommy's sweet mother (who Kathleen mentions in her letter) has been one of KH's most committed supporters. Every other Tuesday night, without fail, Lynn drops off crackers, juice, clothes, shoes, hats, & WHATEVER else we might need for our Wednesday morning missions. Lynn doesn't do this for any sort of recognition. She does it because she believes Matthew 6:19-21:
"19Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and ruste destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
We are incredibly grateful for people like Kathleen & Lynn. They truly are the hands and feet of Jesus.
So, here's to Tommy!
Be Love!
Jamie for Kingdom Here
Monday, January 30, 2012
Monday, December 12, 2011
Year End Update
Well, it has been an awesome first year of learning, meeting new folks and spreading the Good News to the homeless community in downtown Augusta. While the first year has taught us many new lessons, we have found several truths to be consistent:
1. God is working in downtown Augusta in numerous ways
2. There is an awesome opportunity and need for local folks to get involved in our community
3. We have a daily impact on the people we meet, and potentially an everlasting impact!
We have also been blessed with contributions and donations, and the partnership with Fireside Ministries and Industries. However, since we make trips every other week, and average seeing 60+ folks a trip you can imagine how any supplies we build up diminish quickly. Currently, our biggest areas of need are toiletries (soap, deodorant, shampoo) and winter clothing (stocking caps, gloves, socks, jackets). We are also in need of a self storage unit where we can store supplies and clothing. If you can help us with any of these we'd be most grateful.
Thank you for taking a few minutes to read about this ministry, and we ask that you pray for our continued progress. We would love to have anyone join us for an early morning trip! We leave out from Warren Baptist Church's parking lot every other Wednesday at 6:45am. We hope you'll consider joining us.
From all of us at Kingdom Here Ministries we wish you a Christmas filled with Christ's blessings and a New Year of love and HOPE!
Graham for Kingdom Here
1. God is working in downtown Augusta in numerous ways
2. There is an awesome opportunity and need for local folks to get involved in our community
3. We have a daily impact on the people we meet, and potentially an everlasting impact!
We have also been blessed with contributions and donations, and the partnership with Fireside Ministries and Industries. However, since we make trips every other week, and average seeing 60+ folks a trip you can imagine how any supplies we build up diminish quickly. Currently, our biggest areas of need are toiletries (soap, deodorant, shampoo) and winter clothing (stocking caps, gloves, socks, jackets). We are also in need of a self storage unit where we can store supplies and clothing. If you can help us with any of these we'd be most grateful.
Thank you for taking a few minutes to read about this ministry, and we ask that you pray for our continued progress. We would love to have anyone join us for an early morning trip! We leave out from Warren Baptist Church's parking lot every other Wednesday at 6:45am. We hope you'll consider joining us.
From all of us at Kingdom Here Ministries we wish you a Christmas filled with Christ's blessings and a New Year of love and HOPE!
Graham for Kingdom Here
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Kingdom Here on The Morning Show With John & Cleve
Hey folks!
In case you missed it this morning, we had an opportunity to visit with John & Cleve on The Morning Show at 88.3 WAFJ. You can listen to the entire interview below.
Click here for Interview
Special thanks to them for allowing us the opportunity to stop by and tell them about some of the awesome things happening downtown.
Be Love!
Jamie for Kingdom Here
In case you missed it this morning, we had an opportunity to visit with John & Cleve on The Morning Show at 88.3 WAFJ. You can listen to the entire interview below.
Click here for Interview
Special thanks to them for allowing us the opportunity to stop by and tell them about some of the awesome things happening downtown.
Be Love!
Jamie for Kingdom Here
Friday, September 9, 2011
What's Been Going On?
Greetings supporters and encouragers!! It has been a while since we posted a blog, but let me assure you this is NOT a result of us twiddling our thumbs. In fact, the last few months have perhaps been the busiest we have had as we near our 1 year anniversary as a God-focused, feet on the streets, Bible-sharing, biscuit-providing crusade to reach the physical and spiritual needs of the homeless folks in our downtown community. I thought I would just update you on what we’ve been doing.
It seems that each time we make a trip (every other Wednesday) we are learning some new way to be more efficient, more effective, and more impactful. We have had more “first timers” in the past 2 months, and I am sure I will leave someone out so I apologize: Tim Smith, Alan Smith, Drake Carter, Pastor David McKinley, Don Brandenburg (Beau’s pop,) Sean Allen, some youth from WBC, Wade McNeil. These folks give us great encouragement…we usually have a “de-brief” after our trips, and when newcomers share their experiences and thoughts it really means a lot to us and gives us more motivation to keep on keeping on!
We have also been working (in coordination with our ministry partner Fireside Ministries and Industries) on some video clips to better share our story with a larger audience. You can check those out here and here and let us know what you think. Another thing we have done a little differently to better serve and keep some inventory is to focus on 1-2 clothing items and 1-2 hygiene items per trip. This has worked very well on many levels, and helps us monitor inventories and requests much better. For example, we may bring just toothbrushes and toothpaste for hygiene, and just socks and underwear for clothing. We will always have breakfast and juice and water (thank you for you consistent support Mrs. Lynn Winters), and Bibles. One of the most exciting days is what we call Shoe Wednesday. We do this once a quarter, and our next day to bring shoes is Nov. 16, so if you have some softly worn or decent shape used shoes, we’d love to have them! Our last Shoe Wednesday was August 10th (huge thanks to Hitch-n-Post for their help,) and it just warms our hearts to see these folks putting on their new shoes. They show them off to other folks and they are so proud of their new kicks! Also, we would like to extend a big thank you to Drs. Will Anderson and Adam Scott for donating a ton of toothbrushes and toothpaste recently—that was awesome! They will go to great use soon.
We have shared some very applicable and powerful scripture lately as well. This is another fairly new adjustment we have made—having a Bible Study/Devotional time. They last few weeks we’ve read from Heb 4:12-13, Col 3:23-24, and 1 Peter 2. We start at each location (Salvation Army and Mercy Ministries) with the devotion, then we ask one of our friends to say the blessing, and then we hand out the food and clothes. Actually, our friend Donnell (who was baptized a few months back) won’t let us start the devotional without praying first!! Is that awesome or what?!?! I can’t tell you how good it feels when these guys pray for our group, the ones physically there and the folks supporting us. They do appreciate what is happening what we’re all doing.
We continue to meet new folks and learn their stories each week. Just this past week, we met a sharp gentleman. His name is Porter, and he gave me a copy of his resume! He has a college education, is well spoken, and seems to be the type of guy who just needs a break. This is actually one of the goals of our group; of course to reach them spiritually, but also line them up with work and folks who can give them work. That is one of the many reasons we partnered with Fireside and Phin Hitchcock—someone who is actively rebuilding and reclaiming downtown, Harrisburg, etc…one block at a time!
As you can see, things are going well, but we are always looking to share our story with new folks, so please pass this blog along. There a many ways to help us: pray for our visits and that these folks would be open to what we have to share, donate anything you are getting rid of—clothes, shoes, etc.., ask folks you know who may be able to make similar donations, make a financial (tax deductible) contribution, or simply join us one Wednesday morning. Thank you for all you do, and we’re making a difference!!!
Graham for KH
It seems that each time we make a trip (every other Wednesday) we are learning some new way to be more efficient, more effective, and more impactful. We have had more “first timers” in the past 2 months, and I am sure I will leave someone out so I apologize: Tim Smith, Alan Smith, Drake Carter, Pastor David McKinley, Don Brandenburg (Beau’s pop,) Sean Allen, some youth from WBC, Wade McNeil. These folks give us great encouragement…we usually have a “de-brief” after our trips, and when newcomers share their experiences and thoughts it really means a lot to us and gives us more motivation to keep on keeping on!
We have also been working (in coordination with our ministry partner Fireside Ministries and Industries) on some video clips to better share our story with a larger audience. You can check those out here and here and let us know what you think. Another thing we have done a little differently to better serve and keep some inventory is to focus on 1-2 clothing items and 1-2 hygiene items per trip. This has worked very well on many levels, and helps us monitor inventories and requests much better. For example, we may bring just toothbrushes and toothpaste for hygiene, and just socks and underwear for clothing. We will always have breakfast and juice and water (thank you for you consistent support Mrs. Lynn Winters), and Bibles. One of the most exciting days is what we call Shoe Wednesday. We do this once a quarter, and our next day to bring shoes is Nov. 16, so if you have some softly worn or decent shape used shoes, we’d love to have them! Our last Shoe Wednesday was August 10th (huge thanks to Hitch-n-Post for their help,) and it just warms our hearts to see these folks putting on their new shoes. They show them off to other folks and they are so proud of their new kicks! Also, we would like to extend a big thank you to Drs. Will Anderson and Adam Scott for donating a ton of toothbrushes and toothpaste recently—that was awesome! They will go to great use soon.
We have shared some very applicable and powerful scripture lately as well. This is another fairly new adjustment we have made—having a Bible Study/Devotional time. They last few weeks we’ve read from Heb 4:12-13, Col 3:23-24, and 1 Peter 2. We start at each location (Salvation Army and Mercy Ministries) with the devotion, then we ask one of our friends to say the blessing, and then we hand out the food and clothes. Actually, our friend Donnell (who was baptized a few months back) won’t let us start the devotional without praying first!! Is that awesome or what?!?! I can’t tell you how good it feels when these guys pray for our group, the ones physically there and the folks supporting us. They do appreciate what is happening what we’re all doing.
We continue to meet new folks and learn their stories each week. Just this past week, we met a sharp gentleman. His name is Porter, and he gave me a copy of his resume! He has a college education, is well spoken, and seems to be the type of guy who just needs a break. This is actually one of the goals of our group; of course to reach them spiritually, but also line them up with work and folks who can give them work. That is one of the many reasons we partnered with Fireside and Phin Hitchcock—someone who is actively rebuilding and reclaiming downtown, Harrisburg, etc…one block at a time!
As you can see, things are going well, but we are always looking to share our story with new folks, so please pass this blog along. There a many ways to help us: pray for our visits and that these folks would be open to what we have to share, donate anything you are getting rid of—clothes, shoes, etc.., ask folks you know who may be able to make similar donations, make a financial (tax deductible) contribution, or simply join us one Wednesday morning. Thank you for all you do, and we’re making a difference!!!
Graham for KH
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Zac's Take on Kingdom Here
Our bro, Chuck Young, put together a great video of our other bro, Zac Martin, talking about his involvement & the heart of Kingdom Here. You can check that video out here. A huge thanks to Chuck & Zac for making this thing happen!
Monday, July 18, 2011
Strength For Today
I heard a homeless man pray Wednesday morning and what he said was profound. I am ashamed to say that I don’t even know his name, but his words have resonated with me the last few days.
As he prayed for the biscuit and random articles of clothing, bags, socks, etc. he was preparing to receive in the mid-July early morning Georgia heat, he asked that God would “be with me on this journey…. today.” Not that profound you say?
I often think of, and many times refer to, my life as a journey. We’ve all heard it said before… life is a journey not a destination. I fully expected that man to say “life”, not “today”, and when he didn’t it caught me by surprise for some reason. It’s a very slight difference, but I think it is significant.
Here’s a thought. Have you ever thought of the day you are in as a journey? A journey is the long haul, right? It’s supposed to be this far-reaching voyage that will take many years to work through.
How sad is it that as I stood there listening to the prayer of a homeless man downtown I was preparing to go hop back in a nice car, head back out to the nice part of town, hang out in a really nice air conditioned home, and have a couple of really nice meals later in the day. I didn’t even have to go to work. I really didn’t have a care in the world. God is good, right?
But what if I were to be standing in that homeless man’s shoes? What if I were preparing to battle through another day of uncertainty and chaos? What if I truly didn’t know where my next meal was coming from? What if my DAY were a journey? What kind of faith would I have? Could I stand and pray to a God who had allowed such things to happen to me?
It’s easy for me and most other “believers” I know to have faith. What reason do I have not to? I would like to think that I could trust as Job did in Job 13:15-16. But could I? I’ve never had to surrender all. I’ve never suffered significant trials or loss in my life. I’ve never had to awaken to the challenge of journeying through a day.
All I know to do is truly praise my savior for the unbelievable blessings he so undeservedly gives me and awaken each morning with a thankful heart. How could I ever keep from singing His praise? Thank you God and thank you my downtown brother in Christ for speaking to my spirit.
Bryce, For Kingdom Here
As he prayed for the biscuit and random articles of clothing, bags, socks, etc. he was preparing to receive in the mid-July early morning Georgia heat, he asked that God would “be with me on this journey…. today.” Not that profound you say?
I often think of, and many times refer to, my life as a journey. We’ve all heard it said before… life is a journey not a destination. I fully expected that man to say “life”, not “today”, and when he didn’t it caught me by surprise for some reason. It’s a very slight difference, but I think it is significant.
Here’s a thought. Have you ever thought of the day you are in as a journey? A journey is the long haul, right? It’s supposed to be this far-reaching voyage that will take many years to work through.
How sad is it that as I stood there listening to the prayer of a homeless man downtown I was preparing to go hop back in a nice car, head back out to the nice part of town, hang out in a really nice air conditioned home, and have a couple of really nice meals later in the day. I didn’t even have to go to work. I really didn’t have a care in the world. God is good, right?
But what if I were to be standing in that homeless man’s shoes? What if I were preparing to battle through another day of uncertainty and chaos? What if I truly didn’t know where my next meal was coming from? What if my DAY were a journey? What kind of faith would I have? Could I stand and pray to a God who had allowed such things to happen to me?
It’s easy for me and most other “believers” I know to have faith. What reason do I have not to? I would like to think that I could trust as Job did in Job 13:15-16. But could I? I’ve never had to surrender all. I’ve never suffered significant trials or loss in my life. I’ve never had to awaken to the challenge of journeying through a day.
All I know to do is truly praise my savior for the unbelievable blessings he so undeservedly gives me and awaken each morning with a thankful heart. How could I ever keep from singing His praise? Thank you God and thank you my downtown brother in Christ for speaking to my spirit.
Bryce, For Kingdom Here
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
His Mercies Are New EVERY Morning
We just wanted to share some neat insights from our last visit downtown to see our friends We have developed a lot of relationships, which was our first purpose. We want these folks to know we really care about their well being, both here on earth, and for eternity. We strive to be a consistent, dependable source of hope — we hope! In fact, that’s what we talked about today. Pastor David McKinley, from Warren Baptist, joined us this morning, and shared some scripture from Lamentations. We have hope in Jesus Christ EVERY morning. Our souls need hope, and the only source of hope--real, permanent, everlasting hope-- is found in Jesus Christ. The hope he gives all of us, every sinner among us, is readily available. Much like the soles of our shoes help to build a solid foundation for our physical body, hope in Christ gives our human souls the foundation we need spiritually.
We met several new folks, but the highlight for me was sharing the video I took this past Saturday during “Under the Bridge.” Our friend Donnell—Mr. 76 Days himself—followed through on his public commitment and was baptized. It was awesome. I showed him the quick 20 second video clip I took on my phone, and he put his arm around me and just said, “I love you man.” That one success story, even though he had turned things around prior to meeting us, has made all the trips and coordinating over the past 8 months absolutely worth it. As many of you know and experience daily, when you serve others, and put other’s needs ahead of your own, it seems that God rewards you with an unmatchable sense of accomplishment. That is how we feel; we are on fire with His mission for us, and every trip downtown we are more and more encouraged and determined.
On another note, we spent some time talking with our friend, Greg, this morning. He works as a volunteer at the VA and at Mercy Ministries. I have seen Greg on numerous occasions, but this is the first time I have had the chance to talk. He actually came up to a group of us and talked about how some of the guys really DO want to work. Another long term goal of ours is to do everything we can to line up the folks willing to work with people downtown who can hire them. He shared his own struggles with addiction and bad habits, but that he had turned things around—one day at a time, he got his life back on track. Not to paint an unrealistic picture, he mentioned that a lot of folks were in need of some serious adjustments in things like character, humility, discipline, selflessness, patience, etc…but encouraged us to keep sharing devotionals and continue to teach some of these principles going forward.
Thank you for all of your support and hopefully, sooner rather than later, you’ll witness some of these stories firsthand. We meet up every other Wednesday morning at Warren Baptist’s, Fury’s Ferry parking lot…645am and we’re back by 830. You should join us. You have no idea how you'll be blessed.
Graham, for Kingdom Here
We met several new folks, but the highlight for me was sharing the video I took this past Saturday during “Under the Bridge.” Our friend Donnell—Mr. 76 Days himself—followed through on his public commitment and was baptized. It was awesome. I showed him the quick 20 second video clip I took on my phone, and he put his arm around me and just said, “I love you man.” That one success story, even though he had turned things around prior to meeting us, has made all the trips and coordinating over the past 8 months absolutely worth it. As many of you know and experience daily, when you serve others, and put other’s needs ahead of your own, it seems that God rewards you with an unmatchable sense of accomplishment. That is how we feel; we are on fire with His mission for us, and every trip downtown we are more and more encouraged and determined.
On another note, we spent some time talking with our friend, Greg, this morning. He works as a volunteer at the VA and at Mercy Ministries. I have seen Greg on numerous occasions, but this is the first time I have had the chance to talk. He actually came up to a group of us and talked about how some of the guys really DO want to work. Another long term goal of ours is to do everything we can to line up the folks willing to work with people downtown who can hire them. He shared his own struggles with addiction and bad habits, but that he had turned things around—one day at a time, he got his life back on track. Not to paint an unrealistic picture, he mentioned that a lot of folks were in need of some serious adjustments in things like character, humility, discipline, selflessness, patience, etc…but encouraged us to keep sharing devotionals and continue to teach some of these principles going forward.
Thank you for all of your support and hopefully, sooner rather than later, you’ll witness some of these stories firsthand. We meet up every other Wednesday morning at Warren Baptist’s, Fury’s Ferry parking lot…645am and we’re back by 830. You should join us. You have no idea how you'll be blessed.
Graham, for Kingdom Here
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