We Don’t Have Any Resources; But We Trust God

“We Don’t Have Any Resources; But We Trust God”

Yesterday was a big day in ministry; it was also a good day. About two months earlier, I was first contacted about the possibility of a donor giving a car to support my work and was asked, “Would I want a car?” I love those kind of questions. My response was, “Yes!” By God’s grace, we received the car from the donor about two weeks ago and yesterday after time in Prayer and reflection, it was my pleasure to transfer the title and keys to the leadership of our Liberian congregation in Newark- Christ Assembly Lutheran Church.

In the upper picture- Charles Carter, House Church Planter candidate is on the left; Hamilton Zinnah, head Elder is in the middle. Pr. Lawrence Gboeah is in Liberia at this time.

In the picture below, Pr. Gboeah's wife Martha is here and is in this picture with some of the other ladies.

Here are some of the Congregation’s leaders, with me. We are all standing in front of the car, you can hardly even see the car. But, you can see the smiles on their faces.

This summer, we were blessed to have some wonderful mission teams come to Newark. They did Prayer Walking, VBS, church property improvements and connected with the local public school; to include removing all of the gang graffiti from the hallways, classrooms and cafeteria tables (the school staff was ecstatic).

(With Alejandro Echevarria, principal of Luis Munoz Marin Schools; he has over 1,000 students and 60 paid staff).

As a result of this outreach, I was invited to come and speak to the Parents Association for the public schools in our part of Newark. After my first presentation, I was asked to come back, which I did. The purpose for my visit was to talk with the parents and discuss how we could provide an after school mentoring program for them that would help meet their needs. These conversations went excellently. The principal has invited our mentors to come and sit in the classroom with the teachers, this will help our mentors better understand the goals of the teachers and be more supportive. This school has over 1,000 students.

In worship, Charles Carter shared with the congregation, “We don’t have any resources, but we trust God.” One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 66:2closeIsaiah 66:2 2 All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things came to be,
declares the Lord.
But this is the one to whom I will look:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word. (ESV) closeIsaiah 66:2closeIsaiah 66:2 2 All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things came to be,
declares the Lord.
But this is the one to whom I will look:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word. (ESV) 2 All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things came to be,
declares the Lord.
But this is the one to whom I will look:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit
and trembles at my word. (ESV) , “This is the one that I esteem (says God)- he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” Charles Carter is one of the most humble men you will meet; I shared with Charles and the congregation that when Jesus sent the disciples out, He told them that they could not bring any resources with them; the disciples were going to have to trust God’s provision and that whatever is needed for the harvest, God has already prepared in advance of our arrival, in the harvest.

Christ Assembly Lutheran Church is very excited to connect with the children in the community by offering this after school mentoring program in partnership with the public school. We praise God and give Him the glory.

We pray this is a blessing for your outreach efforts and ask that you continue to Pray for this. If you would like to support my work, please go to the NJ District website link:

https://www.eservicepayments.com/cgi-bin/Vanco_ver3.vps?appver3=Fi1giPL8kwX_Oe1AO50jRvL4ZJw54aDGPYBa45Zvr3tfcDUR8Pm2EuvGLceWdCNK2EvVVAEjqawDomKT1pbouSJUgB5KBdySWRhynm7Yff4=&ver=3

Support for my work can be given in the box: “Urban Ministry / Pr. Buckman”

Jim Buckman