From: Muriel Luedeman
Independence Is Alive and Well Initiative Report and Upcoming Activities January 19
Hello, Initiative and Unity Center Friends,
Our monthly meeting is coming up:
January 26th, 6:30pm at the Unity Center, 803 w. 23rd Street.Please mask up for entry.
Saturday, January 30th, 8:00am - 10:00am: Meal Prep, Work Day, and Prayer Time
January 16th's work day went well. We bagged 120 meals for our Beloveds and had a crew to help the RCJC, Central Church clean the building and clear out and reorganize a room. Billy Tharp postponed the cleaning out of the Unity Center hallways to prepare for an upcoming visit and tour by Independence city officials. The new work date is January 30th at 8:00am. All hands of deck for that. Central Church may need some more assistance with their building as they position themselves for greater ministry in the community and their neighborhood. We will have a rotating prayer team interceding for the Unity Center and asking God what he would have us do for Him to reach our Beloveds effectively.
I pose a challenge to all IIAW/Unity Center Friends:
Collect your pocket change daily and make a donation to the Unity Center at the monthly IIAW meeting. You can also send your donation to The Unity Center, PO Box 521141, Independence, MO, 64052.
The Spirit spoke to me earlier this week about generating many small and big ways to provide care for our Beloveds, making them our top concern. A daily prayer group meets at my art studio. I asked the members to join me in collecting pocket change for the Unity Center and give it at the monthly meetings. They happily agreed it was a good idea. Doing this will help us all remember the daily needs of our Beloveds and continually move the Unity Center in a forward direction in meeting those needs. It's a small thing, yet it all adds up and I look at it as planting seed for greater blessings to come. It keeps us all encouraged. It puts all of us in the game at all times and shows our Father God that we are seriously on board with His Heart and Will.
Another thing I was encouraged to do is make up my own meal bags of nonperishable food, personal items, socks, etc. and information to have ready to hand to Beloveds I encounter. I am to get their names and offer to pray for and with them.
The Holy Spirit gave great light and clarity this past week regarding His mind about the "least" among us. On January 11th, my daily scripture calendar was Deuteronomy 10:17-19. Moses is exhorting Israel in obedience as they enter the land God gave them. "For the Lord God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regards not persons, nor takes reward;He executes the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loves the stranger,in giving him food and raiment. Love you therefore the stranger; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."
Then I was led to begin reading Isaiah at Chapter 1. Israel is rebuked for their disobedience. This is what God found fault with them. Isaiah 1:23"Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; everyone loves gifts, and follows after rewards;they judge not the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come unto them."
A ton of other scriptures flooded my mind to confirm this truth, showing me that this one thing is of utmost importance to our Heavenly Father. It is the essence of His steadfast love for His children and the center of all His actions, through His Son, Jesus, who demonstrated and championed the cause of the poor, ministering to them with steadfast love and compassion. This one thing has been the great lacking of all churches up to this point. We give only token consideration to the poor among us. They cross our paths, but we warily keep them at arm's length. We don't make it easy to come into our churches. We don't engage them in conversation when we encounter them to find out who they are and what they may need. We have nothing in our hands and cars that will help relieve their suffering. Most of the Body of Christ, latter day Israel, throws them crumbs. Most Latter day Israel are guilty of the same as Israel of old.
I felt gently, but firmly rebuked by the Spirit. I have done some things, but I am not personally all in against this evil. The Spirit spoke a great promise:"When you begin to align yourselves with this work with your whole hearts, minds and strength, I will richly bless all you do. I will bring revival to magnify and multiply your efforts and make the work easy. You will see miracles, healings, and deliverance for our Beloveds. Your city will be transformed very quickly. Nothing will stand in your way. Nothing will stop you. Nothing will be withheld from you in accomplishing this work, for this is My business in the World. There is nothingI won't do for you if you put your work with our Beloveds first."I confirm this to be true, having seen what God has done in two short years with the Independence Is Alive and Well Initiative and the Unity Center. He has opened doors, hearts wallets, and bank accounts to favor us. He has shown He is very pleased that we have laid aside our differences in doctrine and chosen the way of cooperation and LOVE that never fails and always prevails for our Beloveds sake.
The Spirit gave me a vision yesterday of jewels lying embedded in mud. These are our Beloveds. That's what He wants us to call them - not "the" Beloveds, but "OUR" Beloveds. I could see some at the surface, showing a little color and glint of what they are. Others were so completely submerged, ground deep in the muck, it required my digging them out. I knew they were there. When I reached down, I could feel their forms.
Brothers and Sisters, the work with our Beloveds is the biggest part of putting the Kingdom first, caring for and providing whatever is needed, and the time that is needed, to help the ones lost and alone. What God wants is for each member of the Body of Christ to think of our brothers and sisters before as ourselves, or at least on equal standing, in our daily providing for ourselves. We should not go to sleep at night without knowing that we are doing all we can to ensure this city has no poor in it and every soul in our city has felt the love of Jesus. We must ask daily what we can do individually, in two's and three's, in small groups, and large companies. We must educate ourselves on how to best serve. We must train, fight and win, taking care of each other as one team, and get the job done. We are better together in brain power and work power, than we are alone. This is God's open door for infusing the Kingdom of God into our city. When we find the Beloveds, we will find Jesus. This is the thing we can all agree to be one in with our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Tili Ayala, one of our members who was once without a home, tells of the Spirit saying to her,"You care of My business; I will take care of your business." What a promise!!!
The Unity Center exists to help. That facility is on its way to completion and other properties in the area are being investigated to provide more transitional housing and services for Beloveds.
PRAY for this effort. PRAY for the part you can play on a daily basis. PRAY that this time next year this city will be better, safer, and shining brighter than she is right now.
Muriel Luedeman
IIAW Communications Secretary
816-726-8425
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