What's Next????

We have had a lot of people asking us, "So, what's the next thing that Vision Onward will be doing?" It is kind of hard for us to answer that question. We do not want our ministry to be about the NEXT BIG thing that we are doing. We want it to be about being a part of the lives of the people we are serving and showing them we TRULY care about them. It isn't the BIG events that make a difference. . . .it is the small acts of love that attract people to Christ. We will occassionally have some bigger events, but if we allow that to be our focus, we will not have the time or money to serve individual families as we feel called to do. We have been focusing a lot of our time with 2-4 particular families and really trying to serve them in different areas of their lives. And because of the time we are pouring into the lives of these few families, we have had more and more interest from other families who are wanting to be involved with what we are doing. It is truly growing organically rather than from anything major we are doing.

We have noticed that there are MANY single moms raising kids with NO father figures in the picture. We have a small group of men that have been spending some time with these kids (especially the boys) and trying to give them some positive male role models. There is such a HUGE need for more men and families to serve and disciple single parent families. We are praying for more and more individuals and families to be called into this area of ministry. It is such a huge blessing to help others. . .we have experienced it first hand. The children in the families we have been serving almost feel like our own now.

So, as far as what we are currently doing. . . .we have been meeting with a group of kids every Wednesday night at Douglas Park and doing devotions and praying with them. We have also been picking this same group up on Sundays and taking them to church.

We are also working on the building so we can hopefully get it functional enough to serve a Thanksgiving Dinner. We may be partnering with Agape for Thanksgiving since they do not have enough room where they are at. Our building still needs lots of work though.

We have also launched Deeds 4 Needs and pray to see the community and churches get involved with serving. Whether as individuals, small groups, families, Sunday school classes or as a church, we pray people will get involved in meeting the needs of those in our community. Steve Sjogren said in Conspiracy of Kindness, “It seems people don’t necessarily remember what they are told of God’s love, but they never forget what they have experienced of God’s love.” It is our prayer that Deeds 4 Needs will allow the body of Christ to make an impact on our community…one family at a time.

Please visit http://www.deeds4needs.org/ for a listing of the current needs we have. The website is updated frequently as new needs arrive, so if you would like to be on our mailing list to receive updates, please email marci@visiononward.org.

Here are some pictures of the building:

301 Quapaw - The outside of the building with the walls we tore out.

The future site of our kitchen.

The BIG community room - -one of the rooms we are trying to get finished for Thanksgiving.

Hallway leading to office space.

As you can see, LOTS of work to do!! :>)