Brown Bags And Jesus

Why do we ever doubt God? Last month, we had an outdoor event for the homeless on Christmas Eve, and there was a 100% chance of rain. Now for 7 months, we have been feeding the homeless every Sunday and not 1 time has it ever rained while we were feeding and fellowshipping. It rained the entire 67 miles from Bush to New Orleans, and then rained again all the way home, but not once in over 30 weeks has it ever rained us out. You would think that in itsself would be enough to convince even a doubting Thomas that God was in control, but satan planted the seed that I needed a back up plan and I fell for it. Well, I DIDN'T need a back up plan, as God had it all worked out well in advance. As people from all over New Orleans began to show up with food, blankets, coats, hats, gloves, and the love of Jesus Christ the crowd of homeless people grew larger than I have ever seen it. We sat up tables and started going with my plan of feeding, then having a service and then passing out the other items. I had it planned this way because I thought that if they were going to get something free after the service, most of them might stick around for the service, but God had His own plan. We started serving the food, and a lite shower came in prompting us to go ahead and pass out the clothing that we brought before the heavier rains moved in, and then we quickly moved the service under the over pass where ALL of the homeless people go when it rains. Now our plan was for some of the people to stick around and hear the word God had prepared for them, but GOD'S plan was for all of them to hear the word He had prepared, you see when it rains, the only place they have to go is under that bridge. Now if you were there that day, you might think it was way to loud and nobody could hear the message, but I am telling you, those people are used to having conversations under that bridge and they were able to hear every word that God had intended for them to hear. It was amazing as always to see God's plan in action. We served probably over 150 people, and as we were leaving, you could just feel the love and joy in the air, something I am sure many of these people have not felt in quite some time!

In closing, I want to thank all the individuals and churches that joined us that day, I hope it was an experience you won't soon forget!

In His Service,

Justin

    As the Christmas Season nears, and our Christmas Eve Service for the homeless on the streets of New Orleans gets closer, I am more and more amazed at how many churches and individuals are contacting us and offering help and support and volunteering their efforts. Families from as far as 3 hours away are driving to spend Christmas Eve to serve the less fortunate for 4 hours or less. These people are collecting gloves, scarves, hats, coats, blankets and other items to help provide for the homeless. As touching as all this is, nothing could have prepared me for what I was going to see today as we were passing out lunches. Last week I put flyers in each bag to let them know that we were going to have an outdoor service and provide them with some of these essentials, when we got there today, I was floored to see the area we plan on having the service. It is a vacant lot with a brick wall on three sides, it had been covered in graffiti for months, and I had planned on going a few days in advance and covering it the best I could, so to hide the vulgarity that was there for everyone to see. As we started feeding today, I was looking around the area to see what I was going to have to plan for and to my surprise, every wall had been covered in white paint.....No graffiti anywhere. When I asked about it, numerous people (homeless people) started offering to clean up the trash before we had the service if we would provide them with the garbage bags they needed. I guess you could take that many different ways, but I took it to mean that these people are starting to have some kind of hope....they want better for themselves, and they respect what God is doing for them! 

Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Where ever you are this Christmas, may the God of Hope be with you!Merry Christmas,Justin and Lisa

Last week I left New Orleans with a terrible feeling in my heart. We were asked not to feed the homeless people under the bridge, and some suggestions were given as to where we could volunteer our time that was more convenient for the City rather than for the purpose of serving God. After being told this we took matters into our own hands and didn't seek God first. While we were able to feed the homeless last week it just didn't seem right, while everyone was fed physically, nobody was fed spiritually. Well, this week we returned and to our amazement, even though we were not feeding in the same location, word spread and within minutes we were surrounded by hungry people.....not just people hungry and ready to eat, but hungry for the word of God. I am in church almost every Sunday, and it is not a small church but I have to tell you, today I heard more people praising God in 3 hours than I have heard in church in 3 weeks.

While I was very upset the week before for not seeking God before I acted, I was very comforted by these verse's my pastor pointed out to me.

Matthew 26:40-46 (New International Version)

40Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?" he asked Peter. 41"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak."

42He went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done."

43When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

45Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is near, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46Rise, let us go! Here comes my betrayer!"

It was encouraging to see that even though Jesus had asked the disciples to pray, yet the fell asleep instead, when it was time to leave He was not upset or mad, he simply told them come on, we have work to do.

Remember, whatever it is you are doing, God has it planned out already....just seek Him and let Him carry out that plan through you!

All week we have been facing a direct, frontal attack by Satan. We were informed by New Orleans PD that they "strongly suggest" that we not feed the homeless under the bridge any longer. It was suggested that we volunteer somewhere else that feeds rather than doing the work that God sent us to do. We have worried ourselves sick about how we were going to get around this and we finally came up with a solution. We found private property that gave us permission to serve as long as we cleaned up the mess. When we arrived in New Orleans, as expected there were Cresent City police officers under the bridge(not sure if they were waiting for us or not, but we didn't want to take any chances) but we weren't too worried as we already figured out a plan ourselves. Being very cautious, we quickly unloaded our lunches and served 120 hungry homeless people. VICTORY!!!!!!! Well, not victory for us, but victory for satan. We did manage to feed 120 poor and needy people, but that is not what Brown Bags And Jesus is about. It is about feedinn the needy physically AND spiritually. Satan won today because we only took the time to feed physically.....The true reason for this ministry was completely over looked. We didn't bless the food, we didn't have our prayer circle, all we did was serve the food.  To make matters worse, not only did we not pray and minister to these people, but instead of praying to our Lord and listening to what He wanted us to do, we made our own decisions and completely missed out on what we have been called to do. Satan, you may have gotten one over on me today, but make no mistake, you have already been defeated and anything you do to us is only what God has allowed

 you to further His Kindom.   

   (Romans 8:28) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Well, today's lunch was as amazing as any. We enjoyed a visit from Pastor Vincent Burkhalter from Jerusalem Gospel Church located at 841 Teche Street New Orleans, La. After passing out lunches and a little fellowshipping, we asked Brother Vincent to say a prayer at which time quite a few of the people we delivered lunch to joined us in a circle. Just as it says in  Matthew 18:20  For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,  you could just feel the Spirit of God among us, and possibly bring a little hope to a few lost souls!

It was just amazing to see how God is working through Brown Bags and Jesus over the last month. We have helped God serve over 400 lunches, over 650 waters, helped 1 man find a job, and today we learned that 12 people that we feed have been going to church and 3 of them made a decision to invite God into their heart today. Also while we were pumping gas at a station in Metairie, on our way to serve the lunches, we were talking to the man at the pump next to us who was from Sun, La only 5 minutes from where we live in Bush, La. It was obvious that they were just leaving church, so we asked them to pray over our bags, they agreed and then he handed us a card and come to find out he was the Pastor at a nearby church in the area and was looking to get involved in something like what we have been doing. We are excited to see where the Good Lord will take the this opportunity!

The kids passed out lunches like they were old pro's, and the men and women just love seeing the kids and talking to them. We delivered 60 lunches and about 125 waters, and then helped the other family set up for passing out their hygiene products, after a little fellowshipping we called it a day and headed back home to plan next weeks trip.

Please remember, that while there are people using drugs that are homeless, a lot of these people are just people that were in a bad situation, many of them could pass a drug test at any given time and would be willing to work for a lot less than what you could pay an illegal immigrant standing out in front of the lumber superstores in the area. If you think you could hire one of these people, let me know what skills you are looking for, and I can put you in touch with them. The homeless range from Restaurant managers to heavy equipment operators to labors and construction workers and remember, most of them are not bad people in a situation, they are just people in a BAD situation!

If you feel led to donate, please do not hesitate, we need all the help we can get, just click 1 of the donate buttons on every page, or join Club 54

Today we had 50 brown bag lunches and they were gone in less than 20 minutes. We had people standing around hoping we could find something else to give them. Lisa had packed the kids some snacks, so we talked the kids into passing out their snacks as well. We would really like to increase to 75 lunches per week, and would like to ask a few families in the area to help us by making say 5 lunches per family and delivering them to our house Saturday nights. If you would be interested in helping, please contact us at brownbagsandjesus@live.com . We could also use some help putting the lunches together at our house in Bush. Of course  monetary donations are welcome as well and they can be sent via Credit Card using the donation button on the bottom of the page, or by mailing a check to Hebron Baptist Church 79614 Hwy 41 Bush, La 70431. Please write in the Memo "Brown Bags"

Thank you to all those that have already donated, and those who donate every week!

God Bless,

Justin