Leisurely evening walks.....just because. Quick trips to get ice cream.....just because. Swims in the pool morning, noon and night.....just because. Afternoon naps......just because. Sitting in lawn chairs talking about whatever.......just because. Rounds of mini golf.......just because. Reading a book in the middle of the day......just because. Consuming as much seafood as possible just because it is the most delicious thing ever. Visits with family and friends because you miss them and love them.
That is just a few of the reasons why I should never take another Florida vacation....... because I never want to leave! This year's trip to Florida, back in January, was even better than past Florida vacations because it was one of the most restful vacations I have had in a long time. I can't remember the last time my entire body and mind felt so relaxed. I absolutely LOVED every minute of it! Needless to say that leaving Florida, saying good-bye to friends and family and returning to Colorado was not easy and knowing what awaited us back in Colorado made it even harder to leave Florida. Before we left for Florida I made the huge mistake of not putting away any of our Christmas decorations, including our fully decorated Christmas tree. I dreaded even looking at all those Christmas decorations never mind actually putting them away. It is one thing to deal with Christmas decorations right after the New Year but another thing entirely to tackle Christmas decorations at the end of January after a leisurely Florida vacation. As we drove home to Colorado from Florida I was kicking myself for not taking them down before we left. I also knew that upon returning home to Colorado we had, for me, the much dreaded task of applying for grants for Soaring Wings Ministries. I dreaded the task with a passion. It is a slow, tedious, time consuming task and I can't think of much else that goes against the natural inclination of my personality than applying for grants (unless it is working with Quick Books on the computer. A thank you to Ed for taking on that task and sparing me that torture!!!). I was a grump all during our trip home from Florida. I was having a big pity party and wondering why in the world we were leaving Florida. After all, Ed and I, are in our mid 60's and we were completely entitled to retire in Florida after working hard all of our lives. Each mile that we drove home took me further and further from relaxation, sprawling beautiful live oak trees, warm temperatures, seafood, swims, and most of all further away from family and friends. I was not happy. As you can see, I can complain and pout with the best of them and yes, God hears all of my complaining and pouting and yes, He can still use a complainer and a pouter. I am so thankful that God is so very patient with me. Once I get over my complaining and pouting and confess this sin to Him I am ready to move on, push up my sleeves and get to work. This year, 2017, our main goal at Soaring Wings Ministries is to have the addition completed. I repeat this because it is so very important. In 2017 the addition has to be completed. It has to be completed not only because our building permit will run out and because it is not a good thing to leave a building half finished but it also needs to be completed because we are all more than ready to be done with the task of raising funds for the addition. We want to see a homeless family move in and begin the process of helping them soar on wings like eagles. We are tired of wondering who these people will be. We are ready to know them personally. Right now the picture of this family looks like an outline of a person's head in my minds eye. You know what I mean. It is the filler in a year book or church directory when the person was absent at picture taking time so there is just this empty space with an outline of a head. I don't know about you, but I don't like seeing those vague outlines of a head. I want to see the person's face!!!! That's where we all are at this stage of Soaring Wings Ministries. We want to see the faces of the people we will be serving! The only way for us to see these faces is to finish the addition and the only way to finish the addition is to raise more money because building an addition takes money....... a lot of money. While I am writing this Blog my family is circled up around the television watching the Super Bowl. Not being a foot ball fan, it is a good time for my to have peace and quiet and to have the computer all to myself. Prior to game day we heard all about the pregame excitement on the radio and on the television. People were gathering in Houston for tail gate parties and other pregame events. The news shared that everything around Houston was over the top expensive because of the Super Bowl. One newscaster shared that some people were paying $35,000 a night, with a four night minimum stay, to rent a house in the area around Houston. That is $140,000. When I heard this on the radio, I cringed and gasped. Do you know what Soaring Wings Ministries could do with $140,000!!!! It didn't seem fair that some people could easily pay the $140,000 for a leisurely activity such as football without even thinking twice about it and then here we are working hours, days, weeks, months and years to build a home for a homeless family. So, since we don't have $140,000 to spend without thinking about it, we are left with no choice but to raise the funds and apply for grants to finish the addition so we can see the faces. It is our desire to see the faces and a desire to complete the assignment that God has given us that enabled me to drive away from a place that I love, from friends that I love and from family that I love. Being a Christian calls us to be more like Christ. This means that our Christian lives, like Christ's life, will often be a life of sacrifice. I think so often of missionaries all over the world and in the United States who are serving Christ. We personally know missionaries in China, Dubai, Guam, Michigan and New York and we know that most of their lives are filled with busy, exhausting days and that so many of them are far away from places, family and friends that they love. It is a life of sacrifice to serve Christ. As Christians we don't get to do what we want to do and yet the mystery of it all is that there is no other life or place that we would choose. If I was given the opportunity to retire and have a life of leisure in Florida at this point in our lives, I would say no. We are right where we are suppose to be and doing exactly what we should be doing. Anything that would take us away from this assignment God has given us would not only be a huge mistake it would be wrong. James 4:17 says "Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it". As Christians, our relationship with God calls us to be pleasing to Him in all that we do not the other way around of having God do all that pleases us. Maybe some day God will be pleased with our work here in Colorado and we will be able to "retire"in Florida, but that time is not yet. We have work to do so that we can we see the faces of the people we will be serving rather than just a vague outline of a head. In closing, I would ask that you pray for our grant writing process. We will be submitting 10 grant applications over the next 3 months. We need your prays for God's blessing in order to have our grant requests result in dollars received for the addition. We also ask that you pray about your financial partnership with Soaring Wings Ministries to determine if you are able and feel led to support our work here in Northern Colorado on a monthly basis. Also, please remember our missionaries serving God in foreign countries and in the United States. We know first hand how much a phone call, email, hand written letter or donation means to them. Lastly, we pray that each one of you will love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind and that you serve Him with all your being where ever you are. His Servant, Anita Rennells 499 Trinity Lane Wellington, Colorado 80549
0 Comments
Every year I like to buy a new Christmas book to read during the weeks before Christmas. This Christmas I chose a book called " Hidden Christmas" by Timothy Keller. We were visiting our oldest daughter, Karin, and her family in California and during our visit with her we took a day trip to Solvang, California. Solvang is an interesting and quaint town with lots of shops and good restaurants. There was this very small book store in Solvang and I went in to browse through the books. My browsing time was limited as our youngest 4 year old granddaughter, Payton, was with us. I managed to have a few minutes to look in the religion section, hoping to find a Christmas book to read for the Christmas season, but interestingly enough, the religion section did not have any Christian books. I kept looking around and I found two small shelves under a counter with Christmas books. On the top shelf were two copies of the book by Timothy Keller, "Hidden Christmas". The remainder of the title stated that the book was about "The Surprising Truth Behind the Birth of Christ". The book intrigued me. I have been a Christian almost all of my life and I have celebrated Christmas as a time to remember Christs' birth, so I couldn't imagine what the surprising truth could possible be behind the Birth of Christ. My curiosity led me to purchase the book and I am so glad that I did.
I have to share with you that I have been a Christian all my life and I also have to share with you that during my lifetime as a Christian I have never felt that I loved the Lord with all my heart, my soul, my strength and my mind, and that I loved my neighbor as myself as Jesus has directed us in Luke 10:27. Yes, I loved the Lord, but honestlly could I say that I loved him with all my heart, soul, strength and mind? And what about my neighbors? I wasn't even sure that I loved my neighbors. Sure, I cared about them, but love them, as I loved myself? I don't think so. I knew that I did not love God with all my heart, soul, strength and mind and I did not love my neighbor as myself. I knew I was selfish and wanted to put myself first. My needs, my wants, my ways before all else. Sure I loved God and yes, I cared about my neighbors but not totally and completely as I should. I struggled to figure out what was the matter with me. Other Christians seemed to have it all together and here I was struggling with why I didn't love God with all my heart and why I didn't love my neighbor as myself. The desire to love God with all my heart was there and the desire to love my neighbor as myself was also there but I knew that you can't muster up love, or create it, or fake it. Love is either there or it isn't. So what was my problem? From reading "Hidden Christmas" my problem that I was struggling with became so simple and clear. I needed a Savior to help me love as I should. I needed a Savior and that Savior is Jesus who was sent to us by God. I recognized that my sins weren't just things that I did but also things that I didn't do such as loving God with all my heart, soul, strength and mind and loving my neighbor as myself. The reality that I would never be able to love God and my neighbor within my own power was so freeing. I needed a Savior, Jesus, to help me love as I should and as I wanted to. Some of you reading this may not think this is such a big deal. Some of you may have been blessed to get this from the very beginning and some of you reading this may not care at all, but for me this was a big deal. My lifetime journey of faith in Jesus has not come without questions, wondering, struggling, and searching but in this journey, God has always been by my side guiding and directing. The Bible verse from Isaiah 30:21 is so very real to me. It says "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, "This is the way, walk in it". God has been with me and guiding me as I have wondered, struggled and searched. He was with me during this past Thanksgiving time as I searched through a little book store in Solvang, California for a Christmas book to read during the Christmas season. I am so very thankful for the author, Timothy Keller and for his book "Hidden Christmas". It is a book that tells it like it is.... that we all need a Savior, Jesus Christ. I am so very thankful to God who always guides and directs my life to draw me closer to Himself. He wants to do the same for you too. So what does all this have to do about serving the homeless at Soaring Wings Ministries? As most of you know we are in the process of buidling an addition to house a homeless family or young adults here at Soaring Wings MInistries. My prayer for many months has been that as we prepare a home for a homeless family or young adults that God would also prepare our hearts to love these people as Jesus loves them. Little did I know that in reading "Hidden Christmas" that God was answering my prayer. Within my own power I will never be able to love them as Jesus loves them but by confessing this sin and trusting God to fill me with His love for the homeless then I inded will be able to love them as Jesus would. My prayer for each of you this Christmas is that you will recognize your need for a Savior and that you will "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all you mind and love your neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10:27). Merry Christmas to each one of you from all of us at Soaring Wings Ministries! Anita Rennells 499 Trinity Lane Wellington, Colorado I don't know about you but I am already looking forward to spring and summer with warm temperatures and long days filled with bright sunshine. I am not a cold weather person. I love a lot of light and a lot of heat so the winter months, with cold temperatures and short days, are not my favorite time of year. We had a very warm October and November and I enjoyed every precious minute of those warm, sunny days, but now the reality of winter is settling in. My plants that continued to have green leaves and even some flowers during October and November are now completely brown. Temperatures are no longer above freezing so I hauled out the heated water bowls for our chickens and dogs and dug through our closet to find winter gloves and hats for us. I find that I now hurry to finish my outdoor chores so that I can quickly return to the warmth of our home.
So very frequently, after coming in from outside to our warm house, I think about the homeless people who are living on the street or in their cars. I especially think of one woman who was living in a mini van with her little dog in Fort Collins. Where is this woman living now? How does she manage to stay warm? How does she manage to keep the water that she uses for herself and her little dog from freezing? My water is nice and warm in our house so it doesn't freeze and even our chickens and dogs have electric water heaters to keep their water from freezing! But what about this woman? Her mini van was her home and we all know how cold a vehichle can get when the temperature drops. The back of her mini van was where she and her little dog slept, ate and lived. I have thought of her so many times since winter has settled in. How does she or any homeless person survive during the cold, dark winter months? I feel ashamed for the complaining and whining that I do about winter when I have a nice, warm, cozy house. It must be so very dismal and despairing to be a homeless person during the winter. I can't even imagine it. I can't imagine what it must feel like to not have a warm kitchen or warm living room. I can sit at my kitchen counter and enjoy a nice cup of hot tea anytime I want to or I can curl up on my couch with a good book and a blanket and feel warm and content. I can't imagine always feeling cold! I can't imagine not having any place where you can feel warm and content. The hardship of day to day life for a homeless person is beyond anything most of us can imagine and when you add cold, windy, winter weather into the picture then the life of a homeless person can't be anything but difficult and discouraging. Soaring Wings Ministries does what it can to help the homeless get through the winter months. We have given out coats, hats, gloves and sleeping bags to the homeless but these efforts to help seem so pitiful and puny in light of what they really need. They need a home. They need what most of us reading this blog have. As I am sitting here writing this, I can hear our furnace kicking on to keep our house warm. I can also look out the window and see the addition that is being built for a homeless family. It needs a furnace. There are other things that need to be purchased and put into place before the addition is finished, but for right now a furnace is what comes to mind as I think about how cold it is outside. Most of us are so very blessed with a warm house during the winter months but there are so very many people who are in need of the basic necessity of shelter. As God directs you please remember the homeless during these cold winter months. If you are able to send a donation to help purchase a furance for the addition it would be so greatly appreciated. You can mail a check to the address listed below or you can send a donation via PayPal at this webiste. As you go through each day remember the homeless who are trying to stay warm during the cold winter months. Keep some gloves, hats or warm socks in your car and share them with people that you see in need. If you really want to step out of your comfort zone, offer to take a homeless person to get a cup of coffee, hot chocolate or a hot meal. Even a short time out of the cold with food and a warm drink will reduce the effects of the cold on their bodies and spirits. We here at Soaring Wings Ministries continue on during the winter months to serve the homeless. All that we do is done because God directed us to reach out to the homeless. We serve them with love in the name of Jesus and pray that God will bless, protect and care for the homeless during the cold winter months. Anita Renells Soaring Wings Ministries 499 Trinity Lane Wellington, Colorado 80549 This past week the headline in the Fort Collins Coloradan on Wednesday, March 26th was "Park Goes Private". We immediately knew that this article was referring to the Jefferson Street Park in downtown Fort Collins. This was the park where the homeless gathered during the day and where we would go to pass out water, coffee, donuts, blessing bags, socks, hats, gloves, blankets and sleeping bags to the homeless. The article informed us that the park was officially closed as the property was sold earlier this year and the owners were making plans to build a new restaurant on the site.
We immediately wondered where the homeless people would gather now that the park is closed. The article suggested that perhaps they would gather in another park or maybe in an area along the Poudre River. As I read the article I was left with conflicted feelings. I understood the desire to make downtown Fort Collins attractive and that closing Jefferson Street Park would move the homeless out of that area and yet I felt bad for the homeless people as this is where they gathered and now they would have to find another place. I was also thinking that just because a new restaurant will be on the property where the homeless once gathered it will appear that the issue of homeless in downtown Fort Collins has been addressed but in reality it has not. Homeless people will still be living in downtown Fort Collins and they will still gather together in a specific location even though it won't be in Jefferson Street Park. We know that Soaring Wings Ministries does not have all the answers to address the issue of homelessness in all its' totality. The issue of homelessness is a complex one and homelessness has been around for a very long time. There were homeless people in the Bible who were looked down upon by society and many of them lived out their lives in caves. I don't think there is any one person or any one organization who has the knowledge or finances to completely eliminate homelessness in Larimer County. On the other hand, I do believe that there are many people who can help at least one homeless person. As Ed often says, "It is not rocket science to help a homeless person". Homelessness is a complex issue but to help one homeless individual is not. Homeless people are human beings. They need what every other human being needs. They need someone to invest in their lives with loving care. This investment into someone's life takes time, it takes money and it also takes self sacrifice. If you have children, especially grown children, just think about the amount of time, money and love you invested into each one of your children so that they could grow up to be loving, independent, caring and successful adults. It didn't happen over night, did it? It took years and years and years of loving them even when they weren't very lovable and of caring for them when we barely had the strength to put one foot in front of the other. Just think about the money we have spent or will spend on our children when we provide them clothes, food, dental care, school field trips, helping them with their first car and never mind adding in the cost of college. I can guarantee that very few of the homeless people you see in Fort Collins have had anyone invest in their lives with genuine loving care. It is hard to imagine, isn't it, that there are people in the word who literally have no one to care about them. I remember when I was working at Early Head Start in Concord, New Hampshire as a Home Visitor and I remember one specific visit with a single Mom on my case load. It happened to be her birthday on that day I was visiting her and her children in their home. I naively asked her if she had anything special planned for her birthday with her family. She told me that she had never had any celebration of any kind or done anything special for her birthday. Her family had never made a cake for her or given her a present or taken the time to visit her on her birthday. She told me that she had never even received a birthday card on her birthday. I was heartbroken for her. I told her that her birthday was a very special day and it should be celebrated. She didn't have a lot of money but I told her that every year on her birthday she should take the time to celebrate her birthday. Together we came up with some fun, inexpensive ways to make her birthday special and as I leaving her home after our visit together she headed into her kitchen to pack a picnic lunch. She was taking her children to the city park for an afternoon outing to celebrate her birthday. I believe that there is nothing that has the potential to pull a person out of poverty and homelessness except genuine loving care. Eliminating homelessness requires that we invest our time and resources into the lives of homeless individuals, one at a time. We cannot look at homeless people as a group.....we need to look at each an every homeless person as an individual. Soaring Wings Ministries does not exist to eliminate homelessness. It exits to lovingly care for homeless people as individuals and to create wholeness and an empowered future for homeless and hurting young adults through the love of Jesus. Will Soaring Wings Ministries be able to completely eliminate homeless? Absolutely not. Will we be able to make a difference in a homeless person's life to the point that they will be self sufficient and no longer be homeless? I truly believe that we will. As soon as the addition is completed we will have two individuals living here who will receive what every human being needs in order to be given a chance for success. As Ed says, "What we do here at Soaring Wings Ministries isn't rocket science". It is the act of giving individuals the genuine loving care they desperately need. Anita Rennells Soaring Wings Ministries Wellington, Colorado Hello from 499 Trinity Lane! Today we are so blessed to have 5 generous and hard working men outside working on the roof for the addition. In case you aren't up to speed on what the addition is all about, Soaring Wings Ministries is building an addition to house two people who are currently without a HOME or place to live. Soaring Wings Ministries started this addition with more faith than funds and every step of progress has been accomplished because of God's blessing and faithfulness.
Back in January of this year we met as a staff and decided that it was time to begin the addition. We had a fair amount of funds to begin the addition but we did not have enough funds to complete it. We decided to start with the money we had and prayed that God would provide as we moved forward. He has not failed us. The work that has been done on the addition so far has been mostly completed by volunteers. We paid for the foundation work to be completed but the rest of the labor has been done by volunteers. These volunteers have arrived from New Mexico, New Hampshire and from right here in Colorado. The volunteers come with different interests and different skill levels but they all have one thing in common. Their commonality is their willingness to use their time and skills to serve God through Soaring Wings Ministries in order to create a HOME for two homeless individuals. We know that all of the volunteers have a hundred other things that they could be doing with their time. All of our lives are busy and full and we are humbled and so grateful that they would donate a week, weekend, or a Saturday of their time to come and pound nails on the addition or to lay piping for the plumbing. Each one of the volunteers is an answer to our prayers and a testament to God's faithfulness in getting the addition built. It really is a miracle and so very, very exciting to see the progress that is taking place each time the volunteers are here. The framing is completed and we can see how the whole addition looks now that it is laid out. Today the roof is going up. The windows are on order and the sliding glass doors have already arrived. We hope to have the rough plumbing and the entire addition enclosed before winter sets in. As of this writing, every piece of wood, every box of nails and every window has been paid for with cash. In order to be good stewards of the money that people have donated we made a decision that Soaring Wings Ministries would not take out any loan to complete the addition. As God has provided we have moved forward on the building project. As we look at the work that has been completed our hearts are filled with unspeakable joy to know that we are proceeding with no debt due to the generosity of so many volunteers and supporters from all over the country. The progress that has been made on the addition has been done in faith and trust. We did not know where the funds would come from to reach this point and yet God has been faithful. Right now we do not know where the rest of the money will come from to complete the addition but we do know that God will provide. During the building of the addition we have made many trips to Home Depot to buy supplies. Each trip is a deep depletion in our bank account as the cost of supplies is very expensive and it forces us to dig deep into our bank account for hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Each trip of hundreds of dollars adds up to thousands of dollars over the months. When we pay the cashier for the supplies I often think "Yikes...that is soooo expensive" and then I walk out of the store with gratitude that once again we were able to pay cash for the supplies. Praises to our God!!!!! Right now, after months of investing our funds into the addition, we are scraping the bottom of our bank account at Soaring Wings Ministries. Are we worried? No! Are we hopeful? Yes! Are we trusting God to complete this addition? 100 percent yes! Our goal is to have two homeless individuals move into the addition by the Spring of 2017. We have no idea where the money will come from to complete the addition but we know that God knows and we know that He will provide. The addition being built belongs to God and we know that He will work to bring the addition to completion. We also know that God uses His people to accomplish His work here on earth. We have a little over 400 people on our mailing list. Just one person on our mailing list can make a difference but what if all 400 people joined in to make a difference? WOW! Everyone doing a little bit can accomplish much. I was thinking if everyone on our mailing list invested in the building fund Soaring Wings Ministries would have the funds needed to complete the addition. If everyone on our mailing list donated from $50.00 to $100.00 each, this would translate to anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000. So very much could be accomplished with this amount of money. The septic system could be installed. The electrical work could be completed. A furnace could be purchased along with sheet rocking the interior walls and installing plumbing fixtures. I wish that all of you reading this blog could see the amazing, amazing progress that has been made on the addition without one penny of debt. The addition is solidly built and it has also been lovingly built as each volunteer has recognized the importance of building a HOME for two human beings. A HOME so that two human beings could have a place to live. A HOME. So basic but so necessary. The staff at Soaring Wings Ministries cherishes each and every volunteer and donor. Without the help that Soaring Wings Ministries has received from such wonderful, caring people the addition would still be a thought but instead it is so very close to becoming a completed reality. Please join us in bringing this project to completion. The need is so great as so many people are not able to afford their own place to live. Soaring Wings Ministries is able and so wanting to provide a loving, caring, Christian HOME for two individuals. We need your help to bring this building project HOME. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all that you are able to do and may God bless you as you reach out to help those in need. Anita Rennells and Staff Soaring Wings Ministries 499 Trinity Lane Wellington, Colorado 80549 One of my favorite Bible verses that I have leaned on all my life has been Proverbs 3:5&6. It says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." I have always loved this verse and have turned to it many times when things in life just didn't make sense to me. This verse told me to trust in the Lord rather than my own understanding of a situation or life circumstance. In order for me to trust in the Lord, I had to acknowledge Him. To acknowledge means to express gratitude for; to recognize as being valid or having power. This verse gives me a promise that if I acknowledge God He WILL direct my paths. The word "will" makes it quite clear and leaves no room for doubt that God is with me and guides me through out my life in all situations...even those that don't make sense.
I have tested this verse with my own life many, many times and I have found it to be true. There have been situations in my life that just didn't make sense and I have had to trust God. Through trusting Him and acknowledging Him, I have found that indeed He has directed my paths. One path that that God has recently directed us on here at Soaring Wings Ministries has been the path of beginning the addition to house homeless people. Back in January of this year Ed, Meredith and I sat down for a planning meeting and made plans for what we wanted to see happen at Soaring Wings Ministries in 2016. We all said the exact same thing and we all agreed that we wanted to begin the building project for the addition in 2016. We all prayed together and asked God for his guidance and blessing as we stepped out in faith for this project. We knew that we are embarking on a project that required more financial resources, skills and physical strength than we could muster together. We knew that in order for the building project to even begin, we would need to trust God 100 percent for His guidance along the way. Going down this path of construction for the addition, with God as our guide and project manager, has been amazing and exciting! We are ordinary people with ordinary skills. We are not carpenters, plumbers, builders, engineers or architects. Ed and I were social workers before we retired and Meredith was a youth director in a church before she moved to Colorado. These are not jobs that exactly lend themselves to building an addition! We literally had to trust God for each phase of the project. We did not know how it would be done but we stepped out in faith and moved forward with God as our guide. With the stepping out and moving forward God has provided and directed clearly and abundantly. We had the excavating work done and the foundation poured, not knowing when or how the framing would be completed. God knew and the framing is completed. We ordered the roof trusses not knowing how or when the roof trusses would be put up. God knew and the roof trusses are now in place. We ordered the materials for the outside walls not knowing how they would be put into place. God knew and now the outside walls are up. We had a plumber who was volunteering his time and skills but illness prevented him from coming to do the work. God knew about this too and provided another volunteer plumber for the job. Every job that has been completed, except for the excavation and the foundation, has been completed by wonderful volunteers offering their time, skills and strength. Time and time again God has proven His faithfulness to help us and guide us with this building project. Ed, Meredith and I love to look at the addition and sometimes we will just stand out there and bask in the joy of what God has done. We look at the addition and the amazing progress that has been made and we think back to January and our decision to step out in faith. We acknowledged God and He directed our path. Without God providing, directing and blessing, the addition here at Soaring Wings Ministries would not be happening. The addition truly stands as a testament to God's amazing power, love and faithfulness. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5&6. The addition is not yet finished. There are still pieces that need to come together before it is completed. We need someone with a backhoe to come and dig a trench, 36" deep, from the addition to the septic. We don't know who or how but God knows so we trust Him. We need to have the electrical work done. We don't know who or how but God knows and so we trust Him. We need additional funds to pay for materials and building supplies. We don't know where these funds will come from but God knows and so we trust Him. While we wait for God to provide we continue to acknowledge Him in all our ways. If you have any doubts about God, about whether or not He exists or wonder if you can have a personal relationship with Him, doubt and wonder no more. God exists and He is a personal God who has a relationship with everyone who acknowledges Him as Lord and Savior. Come visit us at Soaring Wings Ministries. We would love to tell you and show you all that God has done and to share with you how trusting God, acknowledging Him and not leaning on your own understanding gives way to God's guidance, blessing and protection. Anita Rennells 499 Trinity Lane Wellington, Colorado 80549 Three years ago today Ed and I said good-bye to New Hampshire and began the trip cross country to Colorado. We were leaving behind friends, family, a home and a church that we loved. We were leaving behind a very familiar and comfortable life. New England had been our home for 60 years and at 60 years of age we were starting out to make a new life in a new state that we knew nothing about. All we knew was that God had called us to serve the homeless in Colorado and in leaving New Hampshire we were being obedient to Him. We had to trust Him every step of the way or we would have turned around and headed right back to New Hampshire.
I recently received a letter from a friend of mine in New Hampshire who is preparing to move to Florida. She was looking forward to living in Florida and getting away from the cold, long winters in New Hampshire and yet at the same time she was sad and a bit anxious about leaving her home in New Hampshire. She asked me if it was hard for us to leave New Hampshire for Colorado. I think she was seeking reassurance from me that the move would be an easy one but I had to honestly answer her that the move was one of the hardest things I have ever done and yet it was also one of the best things that I had ever done. It wasn't because our journey from New Hampshire to Colorado was fun or exciting or because we found Colorado to be a land of opportunity but rather the move from New Hampshire to Colorado was a good one because it forced me to lean hard on God, to walk closely with Him, to trust Him completely and to be completely dependent on Him. The bottom line is that there is no better way to completely trust in God than to have everything familiar stripped away and that is exactly what happened when we left our familiar comfortable life in New Hampshire and moved to Colorado. I completely understand my friend's anxiety about leaving New Hampshire. It is not easy to pull up roots and to put down new ones. It is especially difficult when you are a person, like I am, who likes the familiar, the routine and the same old, same old. New situations create anxiety for me and I don't like feeling anxious so I try to avoid them as much as I can, but God had called me to pull up roots, to leave the familiar and head out to a life filled with unknowns. I Peter 5:7 tells us to "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you". I wish that I could say that on the journey out here that "the casting" happened one time and then I was free of anxiety. No, the casting happened many, many times because with each mile that we traveled from New Hampshire to Colorado I was being taken deeper and deeper into the unknown. The good thing is that God doesn't care how many times we cast our anxieties on Him and the other very good thing is that with each mile and with each "casting" my dependence, faith and trust in God grew. I don't know all the answers as to why God called us specifically to Colorado, but I do know that I would not have learned to be totally dependent on God had we remained in New Hampshire. God knew, that in order for us to develop Soaring Wings Ministries, we would need to be completely dependent on Him and to trust Him when the way seemed impossible. We had to learn Matthew 19:26 "with God all things are possible", and we had to learn it well and the only way for us to learn that was to leave behind everything familiar in New Hampshire and head out to an unfamiliar place. In the leaving we learned that God is faithful and God is trustworthy. In the leaving God became our beloved. Each mile took us further and further from our beloved New Hampshire but each mile took us closer and closer to our beloved God. With each mile our journey of faith and trust in God was being strengthened. We were learning to become totally dependent on God which is something that we had never done before with our comfortable, familiar lives in New Hampshire. Yes we had believed in God, served Him, loved Him and worshipped Him, but there was always that element of safety and security in the familiar that caused us to not be totally dependent on Him. In the three years that we have been out in Colorado, serving God through Soaring Wings Ministries, we have indeed learned and see with our own eyes that "with God all things are possible". That does not mean that with God all things are easy for us but it does mean that God will provide a way according to His will. We have seen God be faithful and provide for Soaring Wings Ministries over and over again and in ways that are too numerous to mention. It is a wonderful thing to be completely dependent on God and to watch Him provide in situations that seem completely impossible. It is so very exciting when people and the world say what we are doing is impossible and then to look out our living room window and watch the impossible being raised up by Godly men and women measuring boards, cutting boards and pounding nails to create a home for two homeless individuals. To see the verse "with God all things are possible" being lived out before our own eyes is truly the most wonderful and amazing thing ever. It is so better than living in beautiful New Hampshire and living out our comfortable, familiar lives on the East Coast. I am so grateful and thankful to God that He called us to Colorado to serve the homeless through Soaring Wings Ministries. The move was not an easy one but God has been with us each step of the way. I am so glad that we said YES to God and answered His call to live out here in Colorado. God has been our guide, our comfort and we have learned to be totally dependent on Him. He has proven Himself to be faithful and trustworthy over and over again. In closing, remember to "Cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for You" and "with God all things are possible". Those are two verses that I have tested with my life and I have found them to be true. His servant, Anita Rennells Soaring Wings Ministries Wellington, Colorado The other morning Ed and I were sitting down to a breakfast of pancakes. Usually we have store bought syrup but this morning I was really looking forward to having some delicious, pure New Hampshire maple syrup on our pancakes. The New Hampshire maple syrup was a gift given to us from the Trinity Bible Church Missions Team that had recently served here at Soaring Wings Ministries. It was such a treat to pour that natural sweetness all over my pancakes but more importantly the bottle of New Hampshire pure maple syrup represented encouragement and love to me. That simple gift of pure maple syrup told me that the people from our home church in New Hampshire were thinking of us, encouraging us, supporting us and loving us.
Ed and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary on July 24th. I was very excited and happy to be celebrating our anniversary and I was thanking God for the blessing of 40 years together. I woke up early on the day of our anniversary and Ed was still sleeping so I reached for my phone to look at the daily verse for the day. As I reaching for my phone I thought to myself wouldn't it be cool if the verse for the day had something to do with our marriage. I was expecting a verse associated with love such as the verse from I Corinthians 13: 4 about love being patient and love being kind but God gave me a verse for our anniversary day that was better than what I was expecting. The verse for the day on our 40th wedding anniversary was Isaiah 40:31 "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary and they will walk and not be faint". For those of you who don't know, Isaiah 40:31 is the verse that Ed and I chose as the Bible Verse for Soaring Wings Ministries. We chose this verse for Soaring Wings Ministries years ago because it speaks of hope and the strength that is given to everyone whose hope is in the Lord. I truly never expected to see this verse as my verse for the day on our 40th wedding anniversary but it was the perfect anniversary gift from God. It gave me encouragement, strength, hope and most importantly, confirmation, to see this verse. It reassured me that Ed and I are on the right path with Soaring Wings Ministries and most importantly that God is on this journey with us. It also made me reflect back on the 40 years of our marriage and all that we have experienced together. 40 years of marriage, with God being the center of our marriage, has brought us to this time of serving God in Colorado with Soaring Wings Ministries. As I read Isaiah 40:31 on my phone I felt as if God was saying to Ed and I, "Your doing good. Your on the right path. Keep going. I am with you." What a blessing it was to receive such confirmation and encouragement from God! Quite often God's guidance and blessing in our lives is not recognized as such but rather is reduced to mere coincidence. I do not believe that reading Isaiah 40:31 on our 40th wedding anniversary day was anything less than God reaching down from heaven to guide me, bless me, and encourage me. It was not a coincidence.....it was a blessing.....a very special blessing from God on our 40th wedding anniversary. God is involved in each one of our lives and He actively blesses and guides each one of us. I hope that those of you who are reading this blog will not miss out on sweet and precious relationship with God by reducing His blessings and guidance to mere coincidences. Our God in heaven is actively involved in our lives. To see this involvement you first need to recognize Him as your Lord and Savior and then look for Him each day as you both journey through life together. Anita Rennells Soaring Wings Ministries 499 Trinity Lane Wellington, Colorado We are asked all the time, what can I give that the homeless need and without hesitation we always say socks. Thick, short, white socks! We have seen socks be used as bandaids, we have seen socks go on top of some gross socks for extra thickness, we have seen socks make shoes almost wearable again and we have seen socks bring grown adults to tears.
|
AuthorAnita Rennells is writer of this blog. She, along with her husband Ed, founded Soaring Wings Ministries to serve the homeless. The purpose of the blog is to tell the story of Soaring Wings Ministries and to give glory to God. Archives
October 2022
Categories |
Soaring Wings Ministries