I am exhausted and
exhilarated. Today was a day of ministry and a day of accomplishment. A team of
wonderful people with servant hearts of love from Cornerstone EFC in Easton PA,
under the umbrella of TouchGlobal arrived in Hoboken to begin repairing the church
basement while allowing the church to do ministry. They came with people and
tools. They came with generators. They came with over a thousand hotdogs, hot
chocolate, chips, cookies and more. And they came with God’s love. You see,
that is what they do. They serve freely and allow ministry to happen.
As they demolished our
basement in preparation for rebuilding we served the people of Hoboken. With
the strength and love of Jesus, we shared the grilled food on site and
delivered into the homes of people shut in. Using generators, we provided
charging stations for electronic devices. We served grateful people. One woman
had not had a hot meal in five days. We served National Guard troops who were
delivering goods throughout the city. We fed a police officer who was sitting
in his car providing security. We shared our story with a news reporter from a
New York TV station. We located several from the church who we had not had
contact with since the storm. And we reunited a concerned son with his father. We
made new friends as we shared the love of Jesus. We were blessed beyond
explanation. God is so good
And like the account of the
loaves and fishes, the ministry grew. A
couple from nearby Weehawken, who had never been to the church before dropped
in and took over the grill. A neighbor
dropped by and spent the day helping. A group from Steven’s Institute of
Technology came in and cleaned all our contaminated folding chairs with bleach.
A team of people from Times Square Church, delivering food to Hoboken, decided
to stop in and help and plan to come back next week. Another neighbor dropped
off two dozen sandwiches. People from
the city of Hoboken gave us MRE’s to distribute. And still another couple, who
had lost everything in the storm came to share their story and brought us boxes
to store what we could salvage.
And at the end of the day the
lights came on.
Last Sunday, the Hoboken
Evangelical Free Church celebrated its 29th anniversary and praised
God for His faithfulness and for His gracious, good hand. On Monday, hurricane
Sandy hit. On this Saturday we truly saw God’s faithfulness and His good
hand. Sunday morning we will
worship. God is good!
Next Saturday (Nov 10th), an even bigger
block party is planned, as a team from Hershey EFC, under the umbrella of TouchGlobal,
comes to help us multiply the loaves and fishes. I look forward to once again
being exhausted and exhilarated.
Pastor Paul
Hoboken EFC
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