The latest addition to our family is our cat Bella. She came to live with us in late December of 2015 when she was just a kitten. Bella was born on a farm and when I picked her out from the litter she was living with her brothers and sisters in a shed. She was well cared for with a light to keep her warm, food and good company from her litter mates; however, being a farm cat, her contacts with humans was limited. I remember walking into the shed to see the kittens and all the kittens immediately scattered. They were all so very cute and so I had no idea which one I wanted to take home to Trinity Lane. The kittens were hiding behind boxes and scrambling to get as far away from me as possible. Honestly, the kitten I chose, Bella, was the only kitten that I could catch and even she was not easy! I saw Bella hiding behind a box and I could not coax her out so I reached down behind the box and grabbed her quickly with my hand. I had to hold on to her by the scruff of her neck as it was the only way to keep her from escaping. If I had held her in my gently in my arms she would have jumped out in the blink of an eye. I carried Bella to the car by the scruff of her neck and put her in the box I had brought with me to transport her to our house. I closed the lid on the box and as I was in the process of shutting the car door, Bella bolted from the box, the car and was making a direct escape back to the shed as fast as she could go. I went back to the shed and found her once again hiding behind the box. The entire process of catching her, grabbing her quickly and holding on to her by the scruff of her neck had to be repeated. I carried her to our car once again and this time I did not put her in the box. My husband Ed, was driving our car, so I sat in the passenger seat with Bella on my lap, holding her in place by the scruff of her neck so she would not bolt again. She did not budge, did not make sound and that is how we drove home. When we arrived home and I did not release my grip on her neck until I had her safe and sound inside the house. I put her in our mudroom with food, water, litter box and gave her a warm blanket inside a basket. That is where Bella stayed for the next several weeks. It was not my choice to leave her in the mudroom for several weeks. I wanted her to come out into the house and to enjoy being part of our family but Bella did not want anything to do with us. The minute we entered the mudroom she would run and hide in the closet, under the dryer or behind her basket. She wanted nothing to do with us. Each day I would giver her fresh food, fresh water and talk softly to her. I tried to hold her and stroke her fur, when I could catch her, but there was never a purr or any indication from her that was she content or that she wanted to be with us. All Bella wanted to do was to be left alone to live out her life in the mudroom by herself. I wondered if she was ever going to trust me and if she was ever going to be a cat that would enjoy being part of our family. After about 3 weeks, she reached the point where she did not bolt when I entered the mudroom. She would stay in her basket but when I reached out to pet her she would run and hide. I figured we were making progress if she no longer bolted when she saw me, and yet I still wondered what kind of pet she was going to be if she never let me touch her. Plus what kind of life would she have if she never left the mudroom?!
I continued on with feeding her and giving her water. There were little steps of progress over weeks and weeks of time. She progressed to the point where she would come out of her basket when I was feeding her and I took the opportunity to just be next to her while she was eating. I would talk to her softly so she could get use to my voice. I told tell her that we wanted her to have a happy life and that there was so much waiting for her outside of the mudroom if she would only trust us. I told her that she was safe and that she had a good home and that we would love her and take care of her for the rest of her life. My days of feeding Bella and talking softly to her were having an positive impact on Bella. When I would put her food down she would approach her dish and me! I continued to talk to her while she was eating and one day, while she was eating, I reached out my hand to stroke her fur. She flinched, but she did not bolt, so I knew that we were making progress. Each feeding time became an opportunity for me to stroke her fur and to talk to her gently. As soon as she finished eating she would retreat back to her basket and curl up in her blankets to continue her life in the mudroom. Then one day, while we were eating dinner in the dining area, we saw Bella peeking out of the mudroom door!!! We held our breath and watched. She gingerly and very, very cautiously and slowly walked out the mudroom into the dining area. This was her first time leaving the mudroom in over 6 weeks!!!! We could not approach her and she quickly found safety behind the hutch in the dining area. It was such a huge step for her and after that we made sure that we left the mudroom door open so that she could continue her brave attempts of expanding her life outside of the mudroom. Each time she left the mudroom she would explore a little bit further and so I decided to move her feeding area out of the mudroom into the kitchen where we fed our other cats. She did well eating out in the kitchen and this move encouraged her to explore even more. I continued to stroke her fur while she was eating and I began to pick her up while she was eating so I could hold her and pet her. I would hold her just for a few seconds and then would put her back so she could continue eating. I knew that we were making slow steady progress with Bella and this was confirmed when one day, while I was holding her midway between her feedings, I heard a noise. What was that noise? Could it be? Yes it was!!!! It was a purr!!!! It was the very first time that I had ever heard her purr and I knew that with that first little purr she was on her way to trusting us and towards being a wonderful family pet. I knew that Bella needed to be held more because she would still run away from us when we tried to pick her up. The only time I could pick her up was while she eating. I decided the best time to hold her was when I was watching television in the evenings. Every night, right before I sat down for the evening, I would give Bella a snack and let her eat for a little while. Then, I would pick her up and bring her into the living room to watch tv with Ed and I. At first she would only let me hold her for a few seconds before she wanted to get down but night after night her time with me on the couch would increase. I would always let her go whenever she wanted to get down as I wanted her to choose to be with me. To our delight, Bella has chosen to be with us and to be a part of our family. Today she is a sweet, loving and shy cat. She loves her family and no longer spends anytime at all in the mudroom but rather has full run of the entire house. The thing I love the most about Bella is how much she loves spending time with her family. She is always seeking us out and if we sit down at the computer or to watch tv Bella is right there to jump in our laps. She purrs non stop when we pet her and she trusts us 100 percent. She is still very shy and cautious around strangers and if you come to visit you will probably never see her. She has a stranger danger mentality and will disappear the minute guests arrive and will not make an appearance until hours after our guests are gone. So why am I sharing this story with you about a farm cat that came to be part of our family? My main reason for sharing this story with you is not to tell you a story about our cat Bella but to rather give you a living example of how persistent God's love is in reaching out to His children. I often thought of God when I was spending time with Bella. So many times we run away from God rather than running to Him and embracing the full and wonderful life that He wants to give us as His children. God wants us to come to Him and to trust Him completely with our lives and yet all we want Him to do is to leave us alone. Thankfully God does not give up easily in seeking us out. He pursues us consistently and lovingly as it is his desire that we have a loving, trusting and deep relationship with Him. When Bella was little and would not come out of the mudroom or her little basket, I would think of all the things she was missing out on because she would not trust me. I wanted to love her and care for her and give her a nice warm home with plenty of food and joy but she wanted nothing to do with me and wanted nothing of what I had to offer her. She didn't trust me and so I had to woo her into trusting and loving me. Just as I wanted to give Bella good things and lots of love so God wants to give us good things and lots of love. Just as I had to woo Bella into trusting us and loving us, so God woos us and pursues us into a loving relationship with Him. If you are reading this and you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus, I encourage you to open your eyes and open your heart and look into the ways that Jesus is pursuing you and loving you. No doubt about it....I had to chase Bella from the very first time that I chose her to be a part of our family. I had to love on her and care for her even when she would push me away. God does the same for us. He is patient when we push Him away and He loves us even when we don't want anything to do with Him. There were times when I wondered if Bella would ever become part of our family. Bella had to decide what kind of cat she was going to be. She could either be an aloof cat and live on her own or she could choose to be a loving, trusting cat and be part of our family. Either way, we would have loved her and taken care of her but she would have missed out on a wonderful life had she chosen to be aloof from us. In all my attempts to love on Bella I never forced her to return our love. She had to chose to receive our love that we were giving to her and what a joy it was for Bella and our family when she decided to accept the love we were lavishing on her and in return to love us with her whole being. Bella is a pure delight and I love when she jumps in our laps and spends time with us. Likewise, Jesus is reaching out to you, loving you and waiting and hoping that you will come to Him. He has a wonderful, joyful plan for your life if you will accept His love and in return love Him with your whole being. I hope that if you don't know Jesus and His love that you will make that decision to accept Jesus into your life. He is waiting for you to spend time with Him, to love Him and delight in Him as He loves and delights in you. Don't spend your life in a shed or a mudroom.....trust Jesus, love Him and when you do all that God has to offer in this life and the next is yours. Joyfully, Anita Rennells 499 Trinity Lane Wellington, Colorado
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When we were living in New Hampshire I was employed as a Home Visitor at Early Head Start in Concord. There were several aspects to my job. Some days required that I stay in the office for meetings, to complete some paperwork or to plan for the upcoming home visits with families but the days that I enjoyed the most were field days. These were the days when I was out visiting the families and their children on my caseload. I would visit the families, most of them single Mom's, and their young child or children under the age of three. We would spend time together working on child development, nutrition, health, safety and education. Overtime I would develop a very close relationship with these families as I was in their homes every week for sometimes up to 4 years. It was the time spent with these families, not my time spent in the office, that made my going to work everyday worth my time and effort. Spending time each week with these families in their homes was the reason why I did what I did for my job beyond the obvious of earning a paycheck.
And so it is the same for me here in Colorado. Going out into the field and reaching out to the homeless people on the streets gives me a deeper understanding as to why we do what we do here at Soaring Wings Ministries. Yesterday we spent some time in Fort Collins handing out blessing bags and bottles of water to the homeless. It is one thing to drive by a homeless person in our car but it is a different experience to walk up to a homeless person on the street and to go into their space where they are spending their days. The people we approached yesterday were sitting on curbs on side streets, sitting in the shade on a cement wall, leaning against a tree in a park or walking down the street. Some of them had signs asking for help but most of them did not. When you get up close to a homeless person you cannot deny their need for assistance, care and hope. You also see more than just a homeless person. You see a young girl in her early twenties whose hair hasn't been washed in a long time and whose clothes have been worn for too many days. You see a young man whose sneakers are very worn and ragged and you see an older man who wears too many clothes because it is easier to wear them than to carry them. More importantly you see their faces and when you look into their eyes you see despair, concern, worry and when you first approach them you see fear. We quickly ask them if they would like a bottle of water and a blessing bag and immediately their faces and their eyes change. The fear melts away and for a brief moment you see joy in their eyes and you see hope on their faces. They are quick to give us a smile and many of them will stand up if they are sitting down to thank us or to shake our hands or sometimes to give us a hug. They always, without fail, say thank you and sometimes they will say "God bless you". Yesterday we spent a few minutes giving out water and blessing bags to a group of about 5 people sitting on a cement wall under a tree. As I was walking away one man said "Wait a minute. I want to pray for you". I turned around and approached him again and he spent a few minutes praying for me.....a homeless man praying for me. Do you know how humbling that it is? Do you know how blessed I felt to have a homeless man who had nothing and no home to pray and ask God to protect and bless me? I cannot find the words to describe how much it meant to have that homeless man pray for me. At that moment in time there was no place else I would have rather been and nothing else I would have rather been doing. I wouldn't have missed that moment of blessing from a homeless man for anything in the world. It is always the case, when we are out in Fort Collins reaching out to the homeless people, that there is one person, who for some reason, reaches deep down into my being and grabs my heart. There is just something about them that leaves me with a feeling of wishing I could do more than hand them a blessing bag and a bottle of water. Such was the case yesterday. My daughter Meredith and I approached a young man sitting or actually almost laying on the ground against a tree. As we approached him we saw that he was a younger man. He did not get up when we asked him if he wanted a bottle of water or when we offered him a blessing bag. He looked up at us but he did not smile and as he looked up at us we were able to see his face and eyes. He was a handsome young man with dark hair and expressive eyes. When he looked up at us I immediately no longer saw a homeless man in the park. I saw a young man with much potential and a desperate need for love and hope. I saw a human being, one of God's children. I immediately thought to myself that no matter why this young man was homeless, no human being should have the ground as their home. As we walked away that thought never left me.....this was a human being with the ground as their home. That thought needs to be repeated....this was a human being with the ground as their home and it needs to be repeated over and over again.....this was a human being with the ground as their home. I walked back to our car and I thought of this young man with the ground as his home. As I thought of him I immediately knew why we do what we do at Soaring Wings Ministries. Soaring Wings Ministries exists to create wholeness and an empowered future for homeless and hurting young adults through the love of Jesus. That is our mission statement. That is why Soaring Wings Ministries exists and that is why we do what we do what we do. We are working our hardest to get a homeless person, like this young man with the ground as his home, off the street. We are working our hardest to get the young lady with the dirty hair and unwashed clothes off the street. We are working our hardest to give hopeless, hurting people an environment filled with hope and the love of Jesus. Yesterday we ended our time of reaching out to the homeless by praying for them as we sat in our car. We headed back to Soaring Wings Ministries on Trinity Lane in Wellington with a renewed urgency to get the addition built as quickly as possible in order to provide a home for a homeless family. We also returned to Trinity Lane with a deeper understanding of why we do what we do.....no human being should have the ground as their home. I challenge you to reach out to the homeless people where you live. Be prepared with blessing bags and bottles of water in your car but the next time you see a homeless person on a street corner take the time to park your car and walk up to the homeless person with the blessing bag and bottle of water. It will take a bit more time out of your day but it will make a huge difference to the homeless person that you took the time to personally hand them the items. It will also make a huge difference for you because you will be able to see into their faces. You will no longer see a homeless person but a human being...one of God's children who needs hope and also the interactions of human kindness. You can be that person to offer them hope and kindness and it can be accomplished through the smallest of items in a blessing bag and one bottle of water. I can guarantee that as you walk away from that homeless person back to your car you will feel blessed from knowing that you were the hands and feet of Jesus. Blessings to each of you as you go about your day today and as you reach out to others in the name of Jesus, Anita Rennells Soaring Wings Ministries Wellington, Colorado At the beginning of this year, back in January, Meredith, Ed and I had a staff meeting and the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the direction of Soaring Wings Ministries for 2017. It was unanimous.....this was the year that we wanted to start building the addition for a homeless family. There was no discussion as to what else we wanted to have happen at Soaring Wings Ministries in 2017. Building the addition was first and foremost on all three of our minds and hearts. We were more than ready to have our vision for Soaring Wings Ministries become a reality.
Today is March 28, 2016. It has been 2 years and 3 months since Soaring Wings Ministries purchased 499 Trinity Lane in Wellington, Colorado and it has been 2 years and 7 months since we left New Hampshire and traveled across the country on a journey of faith to plant Soaring Wings Ministries as a temporary home and an offering of hope to homeless families and young adults in Northern Colorado.
I don't know what has caused me to reflect back on our journey here as it isn't an official anniversary date of leaving New Hampshire or of purchasing 499 Trinity Lane in Wellington but nevertheless, my thoughts have caused me to reflect on how far we have come and how much God has done in two and a half years since we left New Hampshire. I remember so very well arriving here in Colorado from New Hampshire. Meredith, her husband Todd, and their little girl Payton, traveled with us. We traveled in two vehicles with 4 dogs and 1 cat. The journey was a hard, emotional one for me. I did not like the adventure of the journey. I longed for the mundane and the ordinary. Meredith and Ed kept trying to encourage me along the way and said I would feel better when the journey was over and we were in Colorado. I was not convinced. I remember when we pulled into a campground in Wellington, Colorado after our long, cross country journey and Meredith said to me that we had arrived. I remember thinking arrived where? Arrived to what? This campground was to be our home until we could get settled? Get settled? Get settled into....into what and into where? I felt so all alone and so afraid. It was so hard to say good-bye to Meredith, Todd and Payton as they flew back home to their life on Cape Cod. Ed and I were left living in a campground to begin a ministry to the homeless and needy in northern Colorado. Little did I know during those hard, lonely days at the campground that God had a little house on the prairie waiting for us just 10 miles from where we were staying. Little did I know that in a housing market where the prices were through the roof, that God had a house on 40 acres waiting for us that Soaring Wings Ministries could afford to purchase, with cash, so that the ministry would have no mortgage. Little did I know that over the next 2 years God would send us wonderful, generous and ORDINARY people to help us along our journey to grow Soaring Wings Ministries. I can't give you an exact number of people that have helped us since we have arrived here but the number is well over 500 people!!!! Over 500 ordinary, everyday people!!!! Over 500 people that God has used and directed to do His work of growing Soaring Wings Ministries!!! Over 500 people reaching out to help the homeless and needy in Northern Colorado!!!!! Over 500 generous, hard working, everyday people, doing what they could to help Soaring Wings Ministries progress from a vision to a reality!!!! What a miracle and what an amazing God we serve!!!!! Maybe my thoughts are reflecting back to our journey here because we are so very, very close to making our vision, of Trinity Lane being a temporary home for a homeless family, a reality. That Soaring Wings Ministries, on March 28, 2016, would be this close to realizing a vision truly is a miracle and a testament to God's power, guidance and blessing. The reason this is such a miracle is because Ed, Meredith and I are just ordinary people and because all of our financial support, gifts, prayers and encouragement has come from ordinary people. Never doubt that God is a God of miracles and never doubt that God guides and blesses ordinary people to accomplish His will. Ed, Meredith and I are not extraordinary people, wealthy people or people with great talents. We are not, by any means, accomplished or gifted writers, speakers, fundraisers, planners, builders or organizers....WE ARE ORDINARY PEOPLE SERVING AN EXTRAORDINARY GOD! The fact of the matter is that Meredith, Ed and I are way out of our comfort zone. We are all introverts. We like the ordinary, we like the mundane, we like time our at home and we like the uneventful. But, as much as we like these things, we like saying yes to God more and we like seeing how God can work through ordinary people who say yes to Him. The ONLY reason why Soaring Wings Ministries has come this far is because we serve a great, mighty, powerful, generous, good and loving God. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. The God of the Old Testament, the God who sent His son Jesus to die on the cross and then defeat death through the resurrection three days later, is the very same God who leads, guides, directs and blesses Soaring Wings Ministries. Ed, Meredith and I draw on the power, blessing and guidance of God everyday. We lean hard on Him when our introverted personalities and ordinary desires cause us to shy away from the task at hand. We tell Him that we are doing the best that we can and we ask Him to bless our meager efforts. God hears our prayers and God does indeed bless our efforts. My heart is full of praise, gratitude, humility and amazement as I think of all that God has accomplished through over 500 ordinary people that said yes to God. There is a huge lump in my throat and I am pushing back tears as I think about God's goodness and greatness. We are all so very ordinary but God is not. He deserves all of our praise and He deserves ordinary people, giving their lives over to Him, to serve Him without reservation. His humble and grateful servant, Anita Rennells Wellington, Colorado So often people will ask us what a typical day looks like here at Soaring Wings Ministries. I have to answer that question by saying that there is no such thing as a typical day here, in fact, we sometimes long for a typical day but then we remember that what we are doing here is not very typical! Would you consider praying with a homeless man who is in his car part of a typical day? I sure wouldn't....but that is exactly what our daughter, Meredith, did last week. We were in Fort Collins, getting ready to set up for our time serving Donuts With Friends. It was a bit chilly outside and there was major construction going on around the park where the homeless people gather so we had to go looking for the homeless people. We walked down a street, coffee and donuts in hand, hoping to run into some people in need. It didn't take us long before we saw two vehicles parked along the side of the road. One was a camper with several people coming out of it and another was a car with a man sitting in the driver's seat. The camper had a young boy, about 7 years old, playing outside of it. He was very excited to see us, but his mother was not. As we walked over to the camper the man in the car rolled down his window and so Meredith approached him and asked if he would like some coffee and donuts. The man told Meredith that he didn't need anything but he said he was a Christian and he asked Meredith if she would pray with him. I wish I had a picture to show you of Meredith standing in the street, her hand through the window on the shoulder of the homeless man...both of their heads bowed and eyes closed in prayer to their Lord and Savior. I don't know what they prayed for or about, I didn't ask, but I know that Meredith fed him in a way that was more important than food.
Today is March 1st and we have put out our building fund drive online. We are excited about what could come from doing this building fund drive. We are excited to see God move through people, businesses and churches to get a homeless family a place on the Soaring Wings Ranch! We know and trust that God can do amazing things and can get 15 people, businesses and churches together to give a different future to a homeless family that would either wise live in their car, on the street or in a shelter. As a mom, I can not imagine raising a child in a car or shelter. It is hard enough to teach a child the way they should live in a supportive house never mind in a car. I can't imagine getting a child ready for school and wondering where they will brush their teeth or if the car is warm enough before school starts. I can't imagine what it would be like to get breakfast at a shelter with my kid wanting to have breakfast before getting dressed for the day but knowing we would see too many strangers for that to be okay. I can't imagine what it would be like to wonder where the best and safest place to sleep for the night would be with my little family. We want to change all those worries and fear for a family. We want to give a homeless family a space that is theirs. A space with their own bathroom, living area, laundry space, bedrooms. We want to give a homeless family a mentor and some spiritual guidance to move forward with their future.We will help connect the homeless family to health insurance, job training or schooling, counseling and teach them the skills needed to be successful in moving out and having an independent future. This can be done with YOUR help, with YOUR investment in the building fund. Soaring Wings Ministries believes that this building fund is God's desire for Soaring Wings Ranch, to help a family receive God's love, grace and mercy while getting the necessary skills to be independent when they leave the ranch. But we can not do it on our own! We need you to invest! We are looking to raise $31,100 to get the building addition up. That is: 5 people/businesses/churches giving $5000 4 people/businesses/churches giving $1000 3 people/businesses/churches giving $500 2 people/businesses/churches giving $250 1 person/business/church giving $100 What can you/your business/ or church give today? There are two ways to give: You can give by mailing a check to Soaring Wings Ministries and in the memo write "Building Fund Drive" or you can give through Paypal (there is a link on the building fund page on this website http://www.soaringwingsministries.org/building-fund.html). We are trusting and praying that God will provide people like you to say yes I will invest in getting a homeless family off the streets in Northern Colorado and into a supportive caring home at Soaring Wings Ranch. We have the permit from the county. We have people ready to build. We now need you to invest and help get a homeless family out of the shelters/streets and into their own space at Soaring Wings Ranch. Please visit our building fund page today to read more about our building drive. Share it with your friends and join us in pray about how much you will invest TODAY! In Christ, Meredith Peters "In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive."' Acts 20:35 Dear Blog Reader,
Hello from Trinity Lane!!! This is a personal letter from me to you to update you on the goings on here at Soaring Wings Ministries. I love writing and receiving letters so I thought you would enjoy getting caught up on all the news via a letter. The last blog you read was written by our daughter, Meredith, who has been dealing with pneumonia and other health issues. Thank you so much for your prayers. To give you and update on her health, she still has pneumonia in her lungs and as of yet they still do not know what else is causing her high heart rate and low oxygen levels. All of the tests that she has taken have come back normal. For that we are very, very thankful. She is feeling better each day and her activity levels increase each day and we know it is because so many of you are praying for her and God is answering our prayers for healing. We had our very first big snowstorm since we moved here to Colorado. The past two winters we have had minimal snow, about 6 inches at the most, but on February 2nd this year we received 13 inches of snow. It was a lot to deal with all at once. Soaring Wings Ministries is at the end of a 1/2 mile private dirt road so it was quite a bit of snow to move around. Ed did a good job clearing the road and we were thankful for the tractor and a truck with 4 wheel drive. Of course the snow doesn't last long here with the bright sunshine and with mild temperatures all of the snow has melted and we are back to normal. Last month, found us with a new kitten at our house. It is a grey and white kitten named Bella by our granddaughter, Payton. Since we have to keep on top of the mice around here so we hoped that another cat would help. Of course, we have soft hearts and we just can't seem to let our cats just be barn cats. So the kitten spends more time inside than outside at this point in time. He is turning into a very friendly, almost too friendly, kitty but come spring and the warmer weather we know that he will be a great mouser and will help keep the mouse population down. We still have our 7 chickens and they are laying 7 eggs faithfully each day. They are quite friendly and they follow me all around the yard the minute they spot me outside. Right now they have their run of the entire property but before I start to plant flowers and vegetables they will need to be contained in an enclosure as they eat everything in sight. I also think they are southern chickens as they did not like the snow and would not venture out of the barn until the snow melted. The big news from Colorado is that the Broncos won the Super Bowl! For me personally, since I don't follow football, this news doesn't cause me to be all that excited (sorry Bronco fans) but I know it is an exciting event for so many people here in Colorado so Congratulations to the Broncos! Because of the Super Bowl we had to reschedule our 2nd Annual Women's Tea which was originally scheduled for Super Bowl Sunday. Who knew the Broncos would go all the way?! So the tea is rescheduled for Sunday, March 6th from 2-4 pm here at Soaring Wings Ministries Ranch. If you would like to come please let me know so I can reserve a spot for you. I always look forward to tea time as it is a time to relax, visit, and enjoy delightful goodies at a slower pace of life. Tea time is good for the soul so I hope you can join us. We are busy preparing for summer here at Soaring Wings Ministries. We are making plans to have Week of Hope teens and a volunteer group from Trinity Bible Church in Sutton, New Hampshire here during the summer. The Week of Hope teens will be here for 6 weeks, a different group each week, and Trinity Bible Church will be here for one week. It is a huge blessing and joy to have volunteers and visitors here during the summer. Will we be seeing you here sometime during the summer?!! We love to have friends and family visit us here so please come for a visit if you can. With the new year, I have begun to fast and pray for God's blessing in moving Soaring Wings Ministries forward. We are so very, very close to having the necessary funds to begin the site work and foundation for the addition but we aren't quite there yet. Meredith, Ed and I have begun the new year with a renewed determination, hope and expectation that this will be the year that we see the addition start to go up. Please join us in praying for the funds to complete the site work and the foundation. Once that is completed, we have volunteers waiting to pound some nails for the actually building. Also with the start of the New Year we are looking for a very special person to head up a horse therapy program. We have 40 acres and a huge barn that is crying out for someone who has the desire to serve God on the plains in Colorado. This special person must love horses, people and God and must have the skills and training to head up a horse therapy program. If you know of someone who might be a good candidate for this position please have them send their resume to Ed Rennells, here at Soaring Wings Ministries. We continue to reach out to the homeless through Blessings Bags and as always the homeless are so very grateful for what we give them. We will begin to resume serving donuts and coffee in the homeless park in the spring. As I end this letter to you, I am looking out our east facing window and I wish you could see the beauty that fills my eyes. It is 6:45 am and the sunrise that fills the sky is so vast and beautiful that I cannot take it all in. There is also a ridge in the distance and grazing on the top of the ridge is one lone antelope. The only thing I see is what God created. What beauty!!! We serve an amazing God that deserves ALL of our praise and love. During the difficult times that we have gone through lately with heavy snow, prolonged illnesses, too much to do and not enough hands to do it, a bank account that is strong but not strong enough to handle the site work for an addition, we praise God. We thank God for the difficult times because it brings us closer to Him and we have learned to dig deep and to lean hard on Him for strength and guidance. There is no bigger or better blessing than to have a closer walk with God. He alone is our rock, our shield and our reason for why we do what we do here at Soaring Wings Ministries. In closing I have to share this beautiful Psalm with you. It describes what fills my heart as I praise God for all of His blessing and care! From Psalm 148... "Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights above. Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his heavenly hosts. Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars. Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies. Let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created. He set them in place for ever and ever; he gave a decree that will never pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and close, storm winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rules on earth, young men and maidens, old men and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens. He has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his saints, of Israel, the people close to his heart. Praise the Lord." Praising God in all things, Anita Rennells As many of you know I, Meredith, was in and out of the hospital in January with pneumonia and other health issues. As I was in the hospital I was blessed with many visitors; my husband, kid, parents, siblings, friends and pastor. I also received cards from friend, gifts and meals and was blessed by my friends here in Fort Collins, CO and from MA.
One night I was laying in bed in the hospital thanking God for the many people who continued to encourage me and say prayers for me and I thought about those who I was ready to serve. Who visits the homeless when they are sick in the hospital? Do other homeless check to see how they are doing? Who cares for the least of these when they are already the least? It was lonely just to think about days of being in the hospital with no visitors, with no encouragement, no stories of the outside world, no clean clothes and no push to get better and get back "home." To leave the hospital and go back to living in a car or shelter seemed so overwhelming and hard. As I left the hospital in my car with my husband driving to get my medicines, the good food I needed to be healthy at home and my family waiting for me at home, I was filled with peace. I knew they would take care of me and allow me time to heal but the homeless that leave the hospital don't have the same opportunities and it was hard to think about and pray through. When we were leaving the drug store we saw a homeless man on the side of the street and he was holding a sign and it said, "Homeless but not hopeless." We gave him a blessing bag as we headed home and I prayed that the homeless would all feel God's hope. I pray for the homeless that get sick this winter that they find encouragement through daily interacts in the hospital and that they can get tools while in the hospital to move towards a health living situation. Please join me in praying for the homeless this winter. Pray for their continued health. Pray for them to be filled with God's hope and love. Pray that we at Soaring Wings Ministries can continue to have meaningful interactions with the homeless that encourages them and points them to God and to resources to move forward to permanent living situations that are healthy. My husband Ed and I recently drove to Phoenix, Arizona from Wellington, Colorado for a weeks vacation. As we were packing the car for the trip we made sure that we also packed some blessing bags just in case we ran into someone who needed some help. It was on our return trip home on a Sunday afternoon that we stopped in Las Vegas, New Mexico for some lunch. We love trying small non-chain restaurants and this one was just what we were looking for. It was downtown Las Vegas and Las Vegas, New Mexico is not anything at all like Las Vegas, Nevada. It is a very small town and so we were able to pull up right in front of the restaurant. The minute we stepped out of our car a man crossed the street and in a very loud voice, almost yelling, began to ask us for some money for church on Sunday. He was becoming very animated and each word out of his mouth was getting louder and louder. He kept telling us he needed money for church. It is not our custom to give people money when they ask for help but we knew that we had to give this man something. I remembered the blessing bags that we had in the car and so I told him to wait where he was for just a minute. I walked the short distance back to our car, unlocked it and reached in for the blessing bag. I quickly walked back to the man who was still loudly asking for money. I handed him a blessing bag and told him we hoped that this would help him out. His demeanor quickly changed from being animated and loud to peaceful and quiet. He was intrigued with the blessing bag and kept turning it over and looking at it to see what was inside. He quietly said thank you and then walked away very content with the blessing bag we had given him. I have to honestly say that in all our encounters with homeless individuals, this was the first time that I felt very uneasy and uncomfortable. He was so animated, so loud and so determined that we give him some money. I was very grateful that he was so very happy with the blessing bag that we gave him. It was a reminder to me of how much truth there is in the Bible. Proverbs 15:1 tells us that "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh words stirs up anger". Our gentle words and actions truly helped this man to become instantly calm. I also realized that this man didn't necessarily want money, even though that was what he was asking for. What this man really wanted was someone to care about him. It reinforced our belief that human kindness goes a long way in relieving stress and anger. In our short encounter with this animated and loud man I remembered how much God travels with us each and every step of our lives no matter what the circumstance. God was with us in our interactions with this man. God diffused this situation. He gave this man peace and protected us. The lessons I learned from our stop in Las Vegas, New Mexico are to always be prepared with blessing bags, also have a gentle answer and always trust God with all my heart. We enjoyed our short stop at this small restaurant and bought some of the most delicious cookies ever to take with us to enjoy on our journey home to Colorado. We also took along with us a sense of peace that God travels with us and a heart of joy that for a moment we had helped a man find peace if only for a short while. We serve an amazing God and praise Him for His care and love that extends to all people.
Anita Rennells Soaring Wings Ministries Wellington, Colorado I love the word JOY. During the Christmas season we hear the word JOY quite a bit. We even have the word JOY right next to the entrance to our house. JOY is a good solid word. It is easy to spell and easy to remember and I love the meaning of the word JOY. When I looked the word joy up in the Merriam Webster dictionary it defined JOY as "a feeling of great happiness; a source or cause of great happiness".
This Christmas season we had the pleasure of putting together blessing bags to hand out to the homeless. We decided to do something special since it was Christmas and so we used bright red Christmas stockings as the blessing bags. We filled the stockings with hats, gloves, scarves, socks, toiletries, snacks, candy, and a Christmas devotional. We carried these stockings around with us wherever we went in case we ran into a homeless person needing or asking for help. Sometimes a man or woman would be standing on a street corner with a cardboard sign and we would hand them a Christmas stocking from our car window as we drove by. Another time we went to the homeless park and handed out the Christmas stockings to people who were there. The look on the peoples' faces every time we gave them a Christmas stocking was quite interesting. They were always surprised, always grateful and always said thank-you and it gave us pleasure to share Christmas in a small way with these individuals. There were, however, three interactions with people that went beyond giving us pleasure and instead filled out hearts with JOY. These individuals reminded us of how such a simple thing of giving someone a Christmas stocking was really not a simple thing but rather a very big thing. The first individual was a gentleman standing with a sign outside of King Scooper. For those of you who don't know what King Scooper is, it is the grocery store in this area, similar to Market Basket or Shaws back east. It was a cold night and we had just finished up an afternoon of shopping and we were on our way home. We saw this man standing on the corner of the parking lot outside of King Scooper. He was holding a cardboard sign. I don't remember what the sign said, all I remember is that we knew he needed some help and so we reached around to the back seat of our car to get him a Christmas stocking. When I handed him the stocking he didn't know what to say to me. He was quite surprised and almost speechless. His only words to me were "I haven't had a Christmas stocking in 20 years. Thank you so very much". How does a person go 20 years without getting a Christmas stocking? I thought most people have a Christmas stocking every year. My eyes were opened and I could only begin to imagine and didn't really want to imagine why this man had not had a Christmas stocking in 20 years. As we pulled away from King Scooper my heart was filled with JOY that this man now had the simple pleasure of opening a Christmas stocking two days before Christmas. The second time Ed and I were at the homeless park in downtown Fort Collins giving out the Christmas stockings. There were several men in the park that bitter cold day. They were clearly chronically homeless as they had their belongings in a shopping cart next to them. One man sitting on a cement wall. We walked over to him and handed him a Christmas stocking and told him "Merry Christmas". All he could say was "Oh my goodness....a Christmas stocking". When he took the stocking from me I noticed that he had no gloves on and his hands were dirty and purplish colored from the cold. I felt so bad for him and told him that he would find a pair of gloves in the stocking to keep his hands warm. He thanked us several times and as we walked away we saw that he was smiling as he was looking through his Christmas stocking. Once again our hearts were filled with not only pleasure, but with JOY. We were approaching Christmas and we only had two stockings left. One stocking was for a man and the other was filled with items more suited for a woman. Ed and I were walking around downtown Fort Collins. It was late in the afternoon and the streets looked so beautiful as all the Christmas lights were lit. It was also busy downtown as all the stores were open and there were many shoppers finishing up their Christmas shopping. As always, we carried our bag with the Christmas stockings. It was then, as we were walking down the streets Fort Collins, that we ran into the third individual who filled my heart with JOY. We saw a man and a woman standing on a street corner with a cardboard sign asking for help. We walked over to them and I first handed the man the Christmas stocking and then I handed the woman her Christmas stocking. She just stood there looking at me and did not take the stocking from me. Her friend said to her "Take the stocking". Rather than reaching out to take the stocking from me her hands went up to cover her face and she broke down crying. I just stood there with the Christmas stocking in my hand. I told her it was ok and her friend told her again, "just take the stocking". She pulled her hands away from her face, still crying and said, "A Christmas stocking!". She still didn't take it, she was still crying but her face was filled with JOY. Her friend once again told her to take the stocking and she did. I stood there with her for a few minutes, my hand on her shoulder, wishing her a Merry Christmas. She thanked us so many times with tears streaming down her face and as we said good-bye I realized that indeed my heart was full of JOY and I knew that in giving JOY to another person I had also received JOY. JOY is a two way street. You give JOY to another person when you take the time to help them and in the giving you also receive JOY. I am convinced that to truly find JOY you need to give of yourself to help others. I believe that Jesus knew that we would find JOY in helping others. In this new year Soaring Wings Ministries will continue to reach out to others in need in the name of Jesus and in the process we will be filled with JOY. It truly is our JOY to serve others and there is nothing else we would rather be doing at this time in our lives. During the new year I encourage you to keep your eyes open to the need of others around you. Look for the opportunities that are there and take the time to give JOY to another person. You will indeed find JOY, a special kind of JOY, the feeling of great happiness that comes when you take the time to help someone in need. Praying that God will bless and guide you in the new year, Anita Rennells Soaring Wings Ministries Wellington, Colorado |
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
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