Nothing gives a parent joy like seeing the excitement of their kids opening gifts at Christmas. The girls have been running the neighborhood with their scooters. Little man got his LSU helmet & hasn’t taken it off for 3 days. We’ve been feeding him through his face mask!!

Mt 7:11 says “If you being sinful know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give to those who ask.” Imagine the joy of our heavenly Father over our response to His gift.

The most significant gift of all time–literally split time in two…BC & AD. Heaven came to earth in the form of a small child–Jesus Christ. Everytime we write a check & put the date on it, we give recognition to the gift of God’s Son.
“You shall call His name Jesus He will save His people from their sins.”

This past Sunday I had the privilege of praying with a single dad at the end of our 12pm service. With tears in his eyes he came forward–desperate for life change–with 4 bubbly little girls tagging along behind him. They snuggled under his arm & patted his back while he called on the name of the Lord. What a beautiful moment!! That’s exactly why Jesus came.

    

Here are some pictures from the outreach in Donaldsonville last Saturday!

Trevor and Dad in the Van (that boy never leaves his football)    

Attack of the kamikaze parakeet

Alexa and a team of Next Gens on the outreach

This Saturday the entire Haman family headed to the Donaldsonville Dream Center for the HPC Christmas Outreach. It was incredible to see nearly a 100 volunteers come together to serve those in need. Team Haman loaded the van with other families and with bags of groceries to hand out in the community. These are just some snapshots of the homes we were able to visit:

 

We came to the door of Ms. Mary who was reading the Good Book.  I talked with her about the scripture in John 13 and that we were there to “wash her feet” by serving her needs. We asked her about any prayer needs and she said she struggled with nervous anxiety so we were able to pray God’s peace over her life.

 

Next stop was Ms. Loretta- we found her in tears. She hugged/kissed all of us. She just kept touching my face  and saying “Thank you baby doll”. She had lost her husband earlier this year and this would be her first Christmas without him. We prayed that God’s presence would fill her heart.

 

We then brought groceries to Ms. Alice. She had next to nothing. Trevor went right in and began playing with her dog. Then Trevor walked into her kitchen and started raiding her fridge. We all couldn’t help but laugh. 

 

Ms. Janelle was another stop. Her home looked like the country club of the entire duplex. She had the most Christmas spirit. We listened to her story-  She was a cancer survivor and had suffered glaucoma eye degeneration, so she could barely see. This made her unable to care for her grand-kids. She was mad at God for while. But wanted to get back in church. We prayed God’s grace for today.

 

Our final stop was to Ms. Gail in the nursing home. As soon as we opened door, I was attacked by kamikaze parakeet! It crawled all over my back & shoulders. It was tough praying with a parakeet staring right in my face but we handed her groceries and enjoyed the company.

 

Praise God for the privilege we have to impact whole communities and change lives through serving. We are truly Reaching the World by Serving One. These are just of the few of the ones today that we were able to share God’s love with.

I received this letter from the HPC: Swaziland Campus Pastor and wanted to share it with you. It is amazing to see what a difference our giving makes around the world:

Dear Pastor,

We want to thank HPC for sponsoring the two HPC Campus Care Points this Christmas. We were actually able to use your offering to host an additional carepoint as well! Over 900 kids were reached at the Christmas parties at your carepoints and in the six days we are expecting to serve 10,600 kids!

Today is day three of six days of 21 Children’s Cup Christmas parties. It was an awesome day; the kids at all the  carepoints had an immensely great time.  One of today’s Christmas parties was at a place called Lomahasha, this community is right on the border between Swaziland and Mozambique. Because it is on the border with Mozambique it is a community full of Mozambiqueans that are forgotten about by the rest of Swaziland. It is a very rural area where very few people have access to electricity or clean water. So yesterday we brought Christmas right up in the middle of their world- inflatables, water slide, dancing, ice cream, lots of candy, and tons of fun.

The water slide was a huge win because we were able to serve a dual purpose. Most of these kids don’t have water to bath in, so we dumped lots of soap on the slip and slide and the kdis were able to have fun while they are getting clean!

However there was one part of the day that will stay in my heart forever. I was busy all day giving kids water since it was about 100 degrees all day. As I was mobbed for a little drink of clean water, I realized that for many of the 4 and 5 year olds, this was the first time in their lives they were drinking clean water. You can’t help by cry as you watch little kids chug water desperate for each drop. I thought of the scripture that inspired Children’s Cup’s beginning, “If you give a cup of cold water to even one of these little ones…” Matt 10:42.

I want to thank  you and Healing Place Church for your generous giving which enables us to show these children the love of Christ. We truly are what our sign says, “a healing place for a hurting world”.

Ben and Susan Rodgers

 

This weekend Pastor Johnny preached one of his best messages about valuing kids! He reminded us of the priority of the next generation and that kids spell love “T-I-M-E”.

This weekend we will have the opportunity to apply this message to our lives as we participate in the Christmas Outreaches.  I am so pumped up for the outreach as it gives us the chance to be who we say we are. We believe that the church is best expressed outside of the walls. So this Saturday we will take it to the streets. We will meet at the Baton Rouge and Donaldsonville Dream Centers at 10am to bring toys to children in the community. Bring your families and come out to the Dream Centers on Saturday, December 19th to share the joy of Christmas with the kids!