Life Circle – November 22 2014 – A litany of blessings

• The first team of the 2015 work team season, the annual ladies trip, is just seven weeks away (January 7 – 16, 2015).  Please pray for the ladies who are preparing to come: many will be teaching and leading various activities and other are coming to Haiti for the first time.  Please pray that this will be a life changing experience for them.    

• Continued prayers for Rob, Lifeline’s Database Manager; we are thankful that his surgery was successful! 

• Prayers for Bob, who is in Haiti this week.

• Pray for Kelly  & Baby Dimbath (daugher-in-law and soon-to-be grandbaby of Keith & Christi): Kelly went into premature labor but thankfully medication has been able to stop the contractions for now.

Our volunteers are simply the best! 

Let us introduce Loretta Garee, who has served over 1000 volunteer hours with Lifeline so far this year!  Loretta wears many hats as a volunteer at Lifeline’s office: she is the receptionist on Friday morning and she is a part of the Lovelink Gift Team on Thursdays.

As a member of the Gift Team, Loretta’s main role is to “treasure hunt,” as she likes to call it.  She goes through all of the wonderful sponsor gifts that are brought or mailed in and finds the check or cash so that it can be deposited in a timely manner. She also makes sure the gifts are identified and ready for the next steps that take place in the gift process. 

So far this year, Loretta has logged 1003 volunteer hours, and she’s not finished yet! With the October gift deadline I’m sure she will be spending many more hours deep in the treasure box making sure to keep that gift process moving smoothly.

Loretta is retired from Mt Carmel Hospital where she worked for 27 years in surgery as a clerk. She is an active member of the Westerville Christian Church with her husband Ron and two daughters, Julie and Janet. 

We would like to give a big THANK YOU to Loretta and all the volunteers that have served over 11,000 hours in 2014 to build God’s kingdom together with Lifeline. 

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Would you like to be one of our amazing volunteers? 

Simply email Dana@lifeline.org or call the office at 614-794-0108.  

We’d love to have you be part of our volunteer team! 

One of the things that my wife Christi and I enjoy when leading work teams on one of Lifeline’s fields is hearing the stories of the journey that led people to come on the trip.  For some, they didn’t know where the money would come from to pay for the trip, but they prayed and sought God’s leading, took a step of faith and God provided the needed resources, often times in unexpected ways.  For others, they wondered how they would get the time off of work, but they prayed and sought God’s leading, took a step of faith and their employer gave the green light for the time off. 

You have no doubt heard the saying, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”  As I hear the stirring accounts of the path that leads to the reality of people coming on a mission trip, I have learned that it may be better stated this way, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step — of faith.” 

That is true for every area of our lives.  Galatians 5:25 reminds us, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”  This is what makes the Christian journey so exciting.  When we are in tune with the Spirit of God and allowing Him to guide our steps, He will use us to His glory and bless us. 

In Psalm 143:8 David prays, “Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.”  David realized that to know God’s direction, he must listen.  We listen best by staying in tune with the Spirit of God.  Taking a step of faith isn’t an arbitrary “blind leap.”  It is a step that is taken based on what we hear God saying to us through His Word, through prayer, and from seeking godly counsel from other believers who have a track record of listening to and following God. 

David also realized the need to learn.  Look at his words in Psalm 143:10, “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”   Learning God’s direction for our lives is a process.  It’s an education that never stops, unless we stop listening and learning.  Each day brings with it a point of decision on our part – will we listen to God today?  As we listen to His voice, we will see a progression of spiritual growth.

The spiritual journey of a thousand miles with God begins with a step of faith that says it’s not our agenda, it’s God’s.  It’s not our will, it’s His. 

Are you listening to Him as you go about your day?  Are you learning His ways in all you do?  God has great things in store for all of us when we are willing to listen and learn from Him.  Put your faith in Him to guide your steps. 

written by Keith Dimbath, Lifeline’s Work Team Director