Over the past two weeks it continues to be exciting, heartwarming and overwhelming to see all God is doing in our community and in our ministry here. 

Last week I started my week with a great day at The Potter’s House, where I had a chance to talk with our leaders of Thrift Stores and More and from The Potters House about leadership from my presentation on SALT!  It was an engaging time where we talked about leadership, we talked about our learning's and we got to share our hearts with each other!   I also got to talk and spend time with Kevin, Dean, Tony and Jeff to hear what they are doing and what their teams are doing-what a blessing these men are to the ministry and what a difference they and their teams are making every day in the lives of people and in the overall impact of the Mission.

Jay and I got to have lunch with the clients as well, which is always a highlight of my time in the centers.  I got to hear of a story of a young man, who, was on the streets in another city, addicted and feeling of no value but he is seeing how much God loves him through the love of all of the people at the Potters House on him. 

That night, I got to participate in a dinner that The Potters House Staff had for Jay, to thank him for his leadership and to tell him just how much they love and appreciate him.  In addition they did tell some funny stories and gave him some great funny gifts!   It was a moving night as people shared what God had done in their lives.  It is true-real Men do Cry-especially real Men who love Jesus!

On Tuesday last week a great friend of the Mission, John Rice-Vice Chairman of GE held a reception at their offices to welcome me to the Mission with guests from the community.  I was overwhelmed again by the goodness of God, with the warm welcome, with the hearts for the Mission that all these people have.  As I talked about our desire around the needs of people in the areas of rescue, recovery and re-entry and the stories of some of the people I have already met it was a humbling and heartwarming night.  We are so blessed to have great community leaders like John and his wife who care so deeply for the Mission. 

Thursday we re-opened our Thrift Store and More in Gainesville!  It was an exciting day where the Mayor of Gainesville proclaimed it Atlanta Union Mission day and we had shoppers and people donating all day.  We cut the chains of addiction as a mark of what God does in the programs of the Atlanta Union Mission.   A powerful God honoring testimony was then shared by one of our alumni, on how God had brought him out of the chains of recovery to now working to complete his training to be a counselor himself!  How great is our God!  To Donna and her whole team-you have done amazing work in transforming that location to a light in the community!  We are excited to see what all these improvements will represent in our desired growth of our Thrift Store and More operation. 

My wife and I attended the graduation at My Sister's House on Tuesday night to watch three ladies graduate!  It was a great time to hear the stories of these women and their journey and how God and The Atlanta Union Mission had changed their lives.  It was so moving to watch them walk in to a standing ovation from their families and their peers!   One of the most powerful moments for me that night was when one of the ladies sharing her story, thanked her dad who was in the audience-for never giving up on her, for never stopping to pray for her even though the way she had lived her life gave him every reason to!   I hugged and thanked that Dad for being a man who loved his daughter so much!   It was a moving and great night to see the power of our God to change and restore lives!  

Yesterday we had the Senior Leadership team and the Leadership team in our old Executive Office.  I say old because we are not calling it that in more, we are calling it “Mission Support Center” to highlight the focus of our work here being to support the work of the Mission in the field.  We met and talked about being an effective team, what does it look like, how do we do it, what stands in the way of it.   We then broke into four small groups and identified the areas that the Mission Support Center was doing well, areas we could improve in and how we should measure the success! 

It was a great day with these leaders doing great work.    

We have a lot going on across the Mission, which is exciting and challenging!   I have only captured some of the stories of my time in the centers. 

I shared yesterday in our meeting from God’s word, John 13:34-35 “A new command I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”.  Our ability to love others doesn’t come from us but comes from our love first for God and through that love we can love others!  As I am across the Mission, your love for one another and your love for those we come in contact with, be they a client or guest, a volunteer, a person in the community or someone who has nothing to do with the Mission is amazing.  May we all be the disciples that Christ spoke of by showing that love! 

God is doing great things!  I am humbled to get the chance to serve with you here!  May He be truly glorified by all we do and may we do all we do with excellence for Him!

Blessings and I thank God for each of you!

Jim