Ministry in Asheville, NC

Hey everyone! 

Wow. It has been a hot minute since I posted a blog!!! I wanted to give everyone a slight update to my life right now. 

Currently, in sitting at a small coffee shop in Frisco, Colorado. A good friend of mine, David, and I are backpacking the Colorado Trail. It’s a 500 miles trail that goes from Denver to Durango. So far, we’ve done 104 miles, but David’s feet have over a dozen blisters, so we’ve been resting yesterday and today. We should be back on the trail tomorrow morning, but please be praying for him. I’ll write a whole blog about the trail when we finish, but for now, I want to talk about my time in Asheville, North Carolina. 

Back in February (while I was in Colombia) the Lord told me that something amazing would happen on July 1st of this year. At that time, I was thinking that I was going to be in Peru on that day. Of course lady rona changed that plan, but I was still very expectant. As it got to June, I was wondering what was supposed to happen on that day. Then I got an email. 

I got an email asking if I wanted to go work at a ministry in North Carolina for the whole month of July, fully paid for by the left over funds from the South America trip. The start day? July 1st of course!! I had a hard time saying no. With two weeks before we needed to leave, I made a very quick decision to join the trip. Praise God I did!! 

A team of 16 of us (7 of which were on my South America team) set out to NC to go a ministry we had never heard of and not really knowing what we were going to do. Turns out, we weren’t actually going to a ministry at all. It’s called a mission so community. It’s basically a group of people that all live in close proximity and do life together. They are the closest thing to an Acts 2 church I’ve ever experienced. Most people are either in school or have full time jobs all over the community. Every Tuesday and Thursday, they gather for a huge meal and either a teaching or worship night. Some people live in the neighborhood (where they own half the houses) and others live in other areas. But the whole idea is to gather together as a body of believers and do church the way that Acts describes it. So this community welcomed our team into their homes and hosted us for a whole month. The actual ministry we did was through local organizations in the Black Mountain (a small town 20 minutes from Asheville) community. We got to work in three different areas: Bounty and Soul, Black Mountain Home for Children, and blessing the community. 

Bounty and Soul is an organization that’s committed to ending food waste. The rescue tons (literally tons) of food each week from grocery stores and other local stores. Some of it is donations and some of it is food that was going to be thrown away. They go around and collect it, then set up a free farmers market for anyone to come and pick what food they want. All of it is healthy food and produce. They also hold classes to teach people how to use the food they just picked out. Some it is random stuff like gords that I don’t even know what you would use it for. Some of it is food that most people would thrown away, but they teach you how to repurpose and still use it instead of just throwing it all away. Since COVID, they weren’t able to set up the market or do classes, but we still got to give out food in a food pantry style. Our job as volunteers was to go through the food and produce and pick out the good stuff to give away. After hours of doing that and making up boxes, we would go to a parking lot to hand it all away. This is where the fun was. I got to dress up as different foods and just have fun while doing it. One day I helped in traffic control, other days I was going up to each car handing out watermelons or other random foods, other days I was getting to put boxes in peoples cars. Regardless, the whole time I got to just have fun and pour into people while working. It was amazing to be able to help people out in a tangible way during this crazy time. 

Working in the community was also a rewarding time. We got to go around doing work for people around Black Mountain, NC and blessing them and loving them. We worked with local businesses and households and got to bless them by doing yard work or cleaning for them. It was a really practical way to show the community love. 

Black Mountain Home for Children was amazing. It’s an organization with group homes for foster children. We helped them by remodeling some houses and doing yard work for them on Mondays. For the rest of the week, we would work in their cafe and thrift store. All of the money from the cafe and thrift store go straight to supporting the children in their system. I spent most of my days moving big furniture, doing trash, and receiving donations. We ran a big box truck around to houses to pick up any donations someone couldn’t bring in themselves. This was one of my favorite parts. We got to meet so many people that had such kind hearts. I also was in the receiving bay at the thrift store. As I would unload their car, I got to talk to them and minister to all types of people. One of my favorite stories was when another team mate and I were loading a bookshelf into someone’s car. It wouldn’t fit. She was so angry and kept yelling about how this kind of stuff always happens. Not having a good day. I stood there and asked the Lord what I should do. I pointed to a black truck in the parking lot and told her she should go inside, ask around who owned the truck, then see if they could take it to her house just down the road. She sat there complaining and telling me how that would never work and she doesn’t want to do that. Not even a minute later, a man walks out of the store and looks at us. He yelled, “Do you guys need help with that? I can take it to your house for you?” We of course accepted the help. He said, “Cool! Just put it in the back of this black truck.” And he pointed to the same truck I had before. I looked straight at her and said, “The Lord provides.” From there we had an open door to minister to her. Definitely one of my favorite moments. Everyday the Lord gave me an opportunity to pour into people either buying or donating things. 

When I first got to North Carolina, I was confused how living every day life in a normal job could actually give opportunities to minister to people. But I already said it myself. The Lord provides. 

I hope everyone is doing well and safe. I hope to write another blog within the next month or two about my experience here in Colorado. Even while writing this today, I’ve had multiple encounters with people where I’ve gotten to show them the love of God. I also have a pretty big announcement coming about what my next year will look like. Love you all. Thank you for your prayers.