Busy and Fulfilling - What a Summer!

“Now glory be to God! By His mighty power at work within us, He is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.” Ephesians 3:20

Summer is here – and busier than ever! I’ll describe in a moment the incredible things happening already, but first please allow me to once again share with you an enormous need coming in the next few weeks. A small group of volunteer missionaries is coming from Reye de Reyes Iglesia de Baptista (King of Kings Baptist Church), Cuernavaca, Moreles, Mexico, led by Oscar Gonzales, a Campus Crusade for Christ missionary in Mexico. They will be in Montgomery to assist four MBA churches and two MBA community ministries, including Forest Park Ministry Center and Community of Hope, as we seek to discover ways to reach the Hispanics in our community, and specifically the Mixtecan population. Through the gracious provision of Ridgecrest, Heritage, and other churches, housing and transportation are being provided while here. These team members have worked hard in their own country to raise funds to travel here. We need to provide food for them while they are here. We are planning to provide initial groceries for them in the house where they are staying, and then allow them to purchase food, gasoline, or essentials as they need them. In order to do so, we need either GIFT CARDS (Walmart, Target, Winn Dixie, or Visa Gift cards) or CASH. Connie Pouncey has offered to help coordinate the initial grocery purchase, so you can forward gifts to her, or you can bring them to Donna at Forest Park Ministry Center or to the MBA office on Perry Hill Road. PLEASE help us with this incredible opportunity to bless missionaries coming here to assist us!

Have you ever felt like your head was spinning? After months, even years, of praying, hoping, and planning, God in His perfect timing has brought forth some incredible volunteer missionaries to share HIM through highly anticipated opportunities now in full swing! It’s so incredible, yet why am I surprised? The Word tells me exactly what He is capable of, and my mind will not be able to wrap around it all!

MissionServe arrives next week, and the construction will be underway. Please pray for each of these precious souls who offer their time, talents, energy, and even their hard earned finances and off-time to help us improve the facility here at Forest Park Ministry Center!

Cooking and nutrition classes are going great, and we are receiving glowing reports from Southlawn Commons. Each week at the Molina Center in the middle of Southlawn Commons Apartment Homes, Ashley Loomis and her volunteers are meeting with 11 – 15 children (and even had a mom join them last week), and learning together about healthy food choices, economical ways to shop for and prepare food, and safe and easy ways for children to prepare food. Thank you, Ashley, for stepping out into the community with your love for sharing Christ in such a practical and loving way!

Summer Stories from the Porch also has many participants among the children in the neighborhood surrounding Forest Park. Each week, children hear stories that illustrate strong Biblical truths, and have fun activities that support the truths illustrated. Thank you, Victoria, Andrea, Nathaniel, Norma Jo, Hope, Jennifer, and David, for your excellent leadership in June. We look forward to sharing with everyone about July’s activities, as Eastern Hills youth lead. We are also sad to say “Aloha” to the Roberts family who helped so much each summer, including this summer. They are moving to Hawaii where their dad will be stationed, so we had an “Aloha” party for them as a part of our last June Summer Stories. We pray God’s blessings on them wherever they are serving!


In June, we saw 115 families representing nearly 300 people in need of food, clothing, and / or financial assistance, gave nearly 1 1/2 tons of food, $800.00 in clothing gift certificates, and numerous referrals for everything from specialized clothing needs, other financial needs, to medical and prescription needs. “Vera” was such a mom in need; her son is disabled and had just been released from the hospital into her care. However, his disability income had not begun, and he had no insurance for prescriptions. She was desperate to get a prescription from his doctor filled because of his intense pain. Recently, we were given a new resource for discount prescription meds (God’s perfect timing), and what was going to cost her over $100 (that she did not have) only cost $15.00. What a blessing, and what praises she voiced to the Lord!

When we reopen on July 19, we will be seeing more and more people who need encouragement, clothing, food and finances, and most importantly, the Hope of Christ! Join us in praying diligently that the love of Christ is what each person sees and experiences as he or she visits this center.

Joyfully serving,
Donna McCullough, Director
Forest Park Ministry Center

God's Timing - always On Time!

"Make me know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation. For You I wait all the day."

His ways are so worth waiting for. We've seen evidence of this truth in recent days. But waiting - that is a real challenge for me. Just yesterday, as the classes for Conversational English were to begin, and the Summer Stories from the Porch began, we were challenged with the need for perseverance and patience. Please pray for the women who are in fear of stepping out in faith to learn how to negotiate life challenges in the U.S. Language barriers are so overwhelming, and cultural norms that keep women from pursuing education are so strong. We are learning - and I have so much yet to learn - to allow God to use our hearts, hands,and voices, to demonstrate His hope and lovingkindness to a people group whose ways we just do not yet totally understand.

To help understand, and to assist us and other ministries reaching the
Mixtecans, Oscar Gonzales and a team of 8 will be traveling to Montgomery, Alabama, from Cuarenevaca, Moreles, Mexico, in July, for outreach evangelism specifically to help build bridges with the parents of the Mixtec children that are so active in ministries in several of our churches! (Two of the girls who attended Summer Stories from the Porch yesterday are going to GA camp at WorldSong this summer, thanks to the generosity of the church that they are attending - what a praise!)

The Mexico Mission Team coming in July has been provided a home in which to stay, thanks to Ridgecrest Baptist Church. What we wish to do is to provide them with the ability to shop for food and necessities and also to dine out as their schedule allows. They will be working with at least five different churches and ministries that are making inroads to ministry to the Mixtec people group, so trying to schedule meals at a central location would not only be difficult for the providers, but also hard for the team who will be traveling neighborhood to neighborhood.

Therefore, Connie Pouncey has agreed to be the "point person" to receive donations of gift cards or cash in order to provide for these needs during their stay. Gift cards to WalMart, Winn-Dixie, or Target, or restaurant gift cards would be most helpful in making their stay enjoyable and their work here productive, alleviating the financial stress and the time stress of when to eat where and how to pay for it! You may call Connie at (334)301-1475 if you have questions, and you may send your gifts to her at 9339 Preston Place, Montgomery, Alabama 36117. You may also drop them by Forest Park Ministry Center on Mondays or Wednesdays or mail them to the center at 2026 East Fourth Street, Montgomery, Alabama 36106. Thanks for your assistance in furthering His kingdom work!

Construction is about to begin at the center! Later today, we will be meeting with a contractor who is offering to do the demolition of the existing carport, and in July, the MissionServe team will be here to frame in the new multipurpose receiving/ storage/classroom! Thanks to all who have generously given for this project; we still are in need of funds to complete the interior - please prayerfully consider how you might be able to assist!

A praise about how Christ's hope has changed lives! We have new believers among the May visitors to the center, and a recent guest who has been so moved that he is now volunteering and such a huge help! Cooking classes at Southlawn Commons apartment complex are underway for the children who live there, and volunteers report eleven excited children who came, participated, and went home the first day armed with information, motivation, and encouragement to make healthy food choices. Pray for Ashley and her volunteers who are giving their Wednesdays this summer to help these precious children.

Finally, continue to pray for the guests who come to the center for food, for clothing assistance, and for financial assistance, and for the volunteer missionaries who offer not just the physical sustenance, but hope in Christ to each person that crosses the threshold of the center.

God's blessings to each of you.

Showers of God's Grace

"The Lord sustains all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him."
Psalm 145:14-16, 18.

I wish all of you could have been there. The moment was so sweet; we stood together, holding hands, and I prayed for the new mom and her baby, for her example to be godly, and for a hedge of protection around her family. As I said "Amen" the tiny voice of her four-year-old son continued, "Thank you Jesus, for my new little sister, and for my mom. AMEN." Out of the mouths of babes....may he grow to be a man after God's own heart.
There are so many opportunities to see God's hand work in the lives of guests and volunteer missionaries alike at Forest Park Ministry Center. The work is not easy; stories that we hear are heartwrenching. But through it all, God's hand covers all, meets the need, and provides His Hope for hurting and lost people.

This month, the numbers of families seeking assistance rose dramatically. It is a sobering reminder that "the poor are always with us." The work will never cease, until Christ returns! So here are some current stats, and then following, read about the ways that new ministry will be accomplished this summer!

Number of families assisted in April: 139 - 32% were new guests of the center.
This represented 335 family members helped.

There were THREE professions of faith - Praise the Lord! - Please pray for them as they begin their new life in Christ, to follow through with public profession and plugging into a church for discipleship and spiritual growth.

3,536 pounds of food distributed to the families.

Please pray for "Danielle" who so sincerely shared with me (during a home visit to see her and her newborn baby) about her desire for her child to attend finish school. She only finished 9th grade, and truly regrets it. But she is working, and is trying to juggle motherhood, work, and GED classes. Pray for her to look to the Only Source, Jesus Christ, as Her Lord and guide in life.

"Danielle's" story is all too familiar. Choices made early that you regret, but you live with the consequences, sometimes for the rest of your life. Pray for cycle of generational poverty to stop with this generation.

This summer, there are at least four new ministry opportunities:
1. Ashley Loomis, a busy home-school Mom from Heritage, has a heart for teaching children healthy and safe ways to prepare food. Many children in the Southlawn Commons and Sherwood Apartment complexes have to prepare their own dinner, because Mom is out of the home in the evening, often working late shifts. Ashley is teaching cooking classes on Wednesdays for kids at the Molina Center (located inside Southlawn Commons), beginning in June. Pray for her and her volunteers as they reach children in this creative way. If you feel led to help with this ministry, email or call and let us know, so we can plug you in!

2. Ann Bush, Mom and career woman, and passionate about teaching Conversational English to Mixtec Moms in the Forest Park neighborhood, will begin classes for these Moms in June at the center on Thursdays. Please pray for Ann and her assistant Evelyn in this incredible opportunity to reach those marginalized in our society because of language barriers.

3. Stories from the Porch is a weekly story hour with related activites for Forest Park neighborhood children. Each Thursday afternoon this summer, children will gather in the front yard of Forest Park Ministry Center to hear a story that shares the truth of Christ's love, and to have activities that reinforce His truth. Pray for the youth from Eastern Hills and Heritage and other churches who will participate in reaching these children each week.

4. In July, MissionServe will send a construction team to the ministry center to construct the multipurpose room (the enclosure of the carport area). We are so excited about having this addition to our facility in the future for classes and groups at the center, as well as for receiving donations during service days.

Speaking of MissionServe, PLEASE consider participating in the MissionServe Banquet in November. You will be treated to a wonderful meal, testimonies and information about MissionServe, and you will be supporting a ministry that is already reaching out to this ministry!!!!! More details to follow.....

Have a blessed May. Mother's Day is this weekend, and I'm reminded of what a blessing it is to have a godly mom who has been an example of being God's vessel. Thanks, Mom, and thank you, God, for my mom. Blessings to all of you.