CHICAGO MINISTRY WAS AWESOME!!

Greetings!

Many of us felt that yesterday's outreach was one of the most powerful spritually that we have had. Steve Ignowski and I had talked Friday night about how THE WORD had to be turned up on the streets. We discussed with the team prior to leaving that we may be the only Jesus that these people see. We are not an organization stopping to drop off a meal and then move on. I don't remember anywhere in the Bible where Jesus just stopped off to feed the people without giving them His Word. The team of Steve & Jodi, Jill, Adam, Kim, Johnny, Brother John, Rich & Debbi and also Brother Rev.Darren and his nephew Joshua from Chicago joined us and were awesome!!

Some of you that read the e-mails may remember the name "Too Tall". This was my bud in the Maxwell St. area. He was severely burned at the beginning of the winter and we had not seen or heard from him. He was there yesterday and although we were happy to know that he was alright, it was not good that he was back out on the streets. Too Tall knows the Word but he has to choose who he is going to follow. Jesus loves him and cares for him but Too Tall will never be able to stand in front of the Lord and say that no one ever warned him of what lies ahead. We are believing that he will get it together but again it is his decision. We ministered to many and had a beautiful day to do it. It was the first time in Chicago that we had a dad and his 5 kids come to us for food. He said that he was walking along on the upper level (as we were on Lower Wacker Dr.) and he looked down and saw us and he knew that it was the Lord having him look down to where he and his kids would get food and clothing along with extra food to take along with them. It is so good to finally have some descent weather.

We were also blessed Saturday to be able to drive our own van. It is not complete yet but it is getting very close. We had every bit of space occupied along with having coolers stacked two high between the two front seats. The others wrestled with an eight foot table all day but we were so blessed to not have to look around for a van to use. We had another blessing come our way last week when we stopped at American Hauler Trailers to see a friend of Steve's. He is getting us a trailer at their cost ($1750.00). We have already had $700 of that amount spoken for and again we are asking that if the Lord lays it on your heart to help out it would be greatly appreciated. There may be some that think, "they are always needing money" and if you think that you are right because we do. I am not saying that to be smart but I have not seen a ministry that operated without partners or a church that operated without the tithe and offerings from the congregation. We encourage any of you that feel led to give or to become monthly partners to come with us so that you can see exactly where the money you give is going.

Saturday we went through:100 lbs. of bbq chicken, 20 lbs of baked beans, 5 cases of pop, 4 cases of water, many snacks, cookies, and 10 dozen donuts (donated by our good friends at Dixie Cream).

Here are some outreaches coming up:

Eileen and I will be going to Santa Rosa, California to hook up with RAVEN West Coast for their "Papago Court" outreach, this takes place in a heavily populated hispanic gang area. I will also be ministering at "my Cali Pastor Russ's" church next Sunday.
*-May 7th we will begin hitting the streets in our area. We have had a number of shootings and gang related activities here lately. We will be hitting the streets at different times so if you are interested please get in touch with us.
*-May 13th we will be back in Detroit. We are excited about those of you in that area that are looking to do the outreaches up there on a regular basis!!
*-May 18th a group of 20-30 men will hit the streets of New York City for an evangelism boot camp.
*-May 27th we will be back in Chicago.
Please keep the ministry in your prayers and prayerfully consider being a monthly partner of RAVEN Midwest.

God Bless You!!!
-RAVEN MIDWEST