H. Henry Williams

Celebrate Impact!

Well you and many others joined in and the results were incredible. And here's Jerry Meras' report:

Sunday night, at just past 9:00 pm, Five Oaks Church achieved its goal of packing 500,000 meals for hungry kids world-wide through our Feed My Starving Children MobilePack Event.
 
This moment was significant because it was the culmination of nearly a year of planning, fundraising, gathering volunteers and hard work that even included a small group of us cycling 2,200 miles through the desert in August!
 
Through the generous giving of our congregation and community, we were able to keep packing until we used up every bit of the ingredients we had on location. In the end, we packed 520,992 meals. That is an impressive number, but what is more important to know is that we all came together to feed 1,427 starving children, every day, for a full year!

Thank you to everyone who participated in this event.  We could not have done it without you!

Prayers for Impact

I love praying through the requests you share on your Communication Cards each week. As I was praying today I noticed how many prayers were for Impact--evangelism, compassion and missions. Here are a few:

• Three family members are going on a short-term missions trip with a college group of athletes.
• The need for someone to lead GriefShare with kids.
• The desire to be a strong witness for Christ.
• The desire to be faithful in leading people to Christ is a prison ministry.

If you were at the Leadership Summit last summer you heard a very moving faith story by Carly Fiorina. It's seven minutes long. If you have more time, the story is followed by an interview with Bill Hybels regarding how to effectively coach influential leaders in their faith journey. The interview part is not from the Summit. It's from the monthly leadership podcast called Defining Moments put out by the Willow Creek Association.

 

Post Sandy Update from Keith Miraldi

I received this email today from Keith Miraldi, a former Five Oaks staff member who now serves in an EFree church on Staten Island, NY.

Hey Henry! 

I just wanted to give you all an update as to how we were as a church and how you can pray for us.  We are in the middle of a pseudo war zone here on Staten Island.  As you have probably seen on the news we had some pretty incredible damage on Staten Island with homes washed into the ocean, massive flooding, an ever growing death toll, and over 10,000 trees down. We have power at the church but almost 75% of the Island doesn't have any power.  For once I don't think the media is overhyping a situation, we actually feel it is way worse than what you see on TV.

Here are few things to pray for us as a church

1.  That we would be the hands of Christ to our church and community. We have multiple families that have lost houses, had their houses completely gutted, or have lost their source of income (we have a truck driver whose whole trucking company with all their trucks was washed into the ocean) from this storm.
2. That we would find that ONE thing we can do for our community. We are thinking right now we can best serve as a hosting and launching point for teams that travel in for rebuilding.  However, this fits into more of a longer term role.  What is something that we can do for the next 2 weeks to make a difference? 
3.  That we would have the sustained focus and energy to run this race. This is not a short-term calling to needs of our community.  We know that this is something that we will be working through for the next 6-12 months (and potentially beyond).  We have a lot of momentum as a church and want to leverage it for the gospel as we touch our community.  We also just have the everyday needs that every urban church deals with.  We can't take our eye off the ball!

Thanks for your prayers. 

Keith

$10,000 matching gift through Labor Day - Miles 4 Meals

This in from Jerry Meras on Friday.

As of today, we have raised $39,939 on our webpage. I spoke with Deb at Five Oaks and she informed me that we also have another $7,000ish in checks waiting to be deposited. Here's the big news, to commemorate the end of the Miles 4 Meals ride we have $10,000 in matching funds for donations made to the website THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT. Let's see how much we can raise this Labor day weekend! We promise we will peddle hard into Woodbury, if all of you just pass our story on to a family member, friend or co-worker and ask each of them to donate just a $ or two for starving children world-wide. Together, we can give these kids a chance at life. To donate go here.

Jerry's Latest Miles 4 Meals Update

Right now on the Miles4Meals site it shows the team about 50 miles from Albuquerque traveling at 11 miles per hour. This update is from last night.

Hello Everyone,

The Miles 4 Meals ride continues! As of today, we have surpassed the $17,000 point in our fund raising. That will provide 77,272 meals for starving children world-wide. That is good, but we have a God sized goal of 500,000 meals so that we can feed 1,370 starving children, every day, for a full year!  I know we can do this. You can follow our teams progress, both our location and our fund raising at 5oaks.info/m4m, and if you would like to provide a life-saving meal for a hungry child, please donate a $ or two. [I think Jerry means a hundred or two.]

Today, we crossed into New Mexico and rode into Gallup. We are experiencing the fatigue, aches and pains you would expect after seven days of long rides through very hot temperatures, but the team's spirits and determination is still very high. We have witnessed God's hand in this in so many ways and have been truly blessed. I want to thank everyone who has been praying for us.  

Tonight we are the guests of Bethany Church, Don & Margo, Alan & Lizzie, and Scott. We just had a wonderful meal that Margo prepared for everyone. You would think that riding 100 miles per day would result in weight loss, but sadly we have been too well fed by our hosts. Not a bad problem to have. We were also interviewed and photographed by The Gallup Independent who will be running a story on our ride.

Yesterday, we were the guests of First Baptist Church in Winslow, AZ.

They provided us with roomy sleeping quarters in their new building. 

This past Wednesday, we were hosted by North Point Church in Flagstaff, AZ. We stayed in the homes of Dan & Elizabeth and George & Nevitta. Each of our team were also treated to a half hour massage by Theodora, who is a church administrative assistant for North Point Church and a licensed masseuse. The massage was such a blessing and it made the next day's ride so much more pleasant. Thank you again, Theodora!

Again, one of the true blessings of this event has been the time we have shared with our brothers and sisters in Christ. These churches and families have been so generous, hospitable and just wonderful. I cannot say enough about them. I am so looking forward to meeting our future hosts.

Tomorrow, we will be cycling to Albuquerque, NM and our hosts, John & Joletha Sturdy!

We really could not do this without the support each of you has offered us.

Thank you again and God bless!

Jerry Meras
Outreach Director

Miles 4 Meals Update

Grueling and brutal is all I can say about the hills and temperatures our Miles 4 Meals team is facing. But they seem to be holding it together. Here's an update that came in from Jerry yesterday.

Sorry, that I haven't posted an update in a couple of days, but we have had limited internet connectivity. To catch all of you up, since that last time I emailed you, we have gone through Newberry Springs, CA and Bullhead City, AZ. Today, we began our ride in Needles, AZ and rode over some tough hills to east of Kingman, AZ. The heat did subside, somewhat. We only had to ride in 105 instead of the 116 we had riding into Needles. I almost brought out my riding jacket, brrr.

I have been overwhelmed by the incredible generosity our hosts have shown us. We have been truly blessed by the time we have been able to spend with each of them and the relationships we have built. Today, we are the guests of Journey Church at the home of Rex & Kathy.  Monday, we were the guests of City Bible Church at the homes of Ray & Barney, and Whitney & Kris. Sunday evening, we were the guests of Newberry Community Church at the homes of Pastor Vaughn & Molly and Harry & Mary. Pastor Vaughn invited us to their Sunday evening monthly communion service. It was a great service and a lot of fun meeting everyone at the service.

As we work our way across this wonderful country of ours, we have seen unbelievable sunrises in the deserts, and many fun and interesting sights, but remember we are not riding to sight see. We are out there to raise awareness and funds to pack 500,000 meals for starving children world-wide. Please tell your friends about what we are doing and follow our progress at 5oaks.info/m4m. Together, we will feed 1,370 starving children every day for a full year!

Thank you all for all your support. God bless! Jerry Meras

If you get a chance, go to the site and make a contribution (a big one if you can). If this event raises enough money, we can extend the days we will do the Feed event and reach our goal of 500,000 meals!

Also check out this article from the Woodbury Patch: "Miles for Meals Ride: 3 Dads from Woodbury, MN to Ride 2,000 Miles for Feed My Starving Children."

 

Provocative Video

John Piper's challenge to make the most of retirement by abandoning retirement as a reward for working hard.

One Child, One Hour, One Church, One School...And You!

Five Oaks Impact Ministry is proud to announce a partnership we are developing with Kids Hope USA. KHUSA offers churches and schools a proven, award-winning model to meet the emotional, social and academic needs of children. KHUSA programs create one-on-one mentoring relationships between adult church members, willing to give a little time and a lot of love, and at-risk elementary schoolchildren in their community who desperately need loving, caring adults in their lives.

Each participating church partners with a single school, and each KHUSA church-sponsored mentor spends one hour each week with their “one-and-only child” at the school.

To get this program off the ground Jerry Meras (Outreach Director) is in need of a volunteer to work as Co-Director with him to oversee and implement this program at Five Oaks. If you have a passion for children, and a program like this one speaks to you, please pray about this opportunity. For further information about Kids Hope USA link here.

Once selected, you will join Jerry at a two-day training session provided by KHUSA where you will be fully equipped to recruit, screen, train, match and supervise church members using the KIDS HOPE USA model and video materials. You will be trained in leadership, working with the school, and more. And you will have the opportunity to network with other Directors to share ideas, strategies, hopes and prayers.

For more information, contact me by going to my blog home page and click on "Email me" under my picture on the left column.

Five Oaks' Impact in Hollywood

This is the kind of video that makes you feel like you're part of something bigger than yourself. That our church is part of something bigger than ourselves, too. Greg Larson is one of many people and ministries we help support. 12% of our General Fund goes to partner with other ministries locally and globally.

Greg Larson's ministry is in Hollywood. If you missed it, check it out. We call him the "Matrix" guy. You'll understand if you've seen the movie. Greg's doing great work on the front lines.

 

Drum Roll Please...

Here's Jerry's report on the Feed My Starving Children event from the weekend. Way to go Five Oaks and friends! I had a great time with the Hudson Campus group yesterday afternoon.

The Feed Event is over and we are finished tearing down. A huge, "Thank you!" to all who participated! The final numbers are, drum roll please...306,504 meals packed in 1,419 boxes, on 43 pallets. That feeds 839 children for a full year! We had 1,379 volunteers who packed food or worked the warehouse over 11 shifts in three days.

I also have to give a loud shout out to Deb Carr, who really was the backbone of this operation, and to my lovely wife, Patti, who assisted me in countless ways this weekend. Also a big thanks to Mary Hilton who kept the staff fed with tasty food overthe three days, and to all the behind the scenes volunteers who made the event a huge success. (I feel like I am giving an acceptance speech at the Oscars and do not want to forget anyone.) Thanks again!