Deeper into addiction

This morning I went deeper into the world o addiction.
In fact over the course of the last five days I have gone deeper and deeper into the addictive world... and man is it great!

Now let share why this is so great.

Earlier this year our leadership team agreed with my feelings that God wanted us to press in even deeper into the recovery and addiction ministry area. Over half of the people that attend Journey each month are opening struggling with some form of addiction.
Over the years we have seen God do some amazing things in these peoples live.
They are often the modern day, "lame, sick, blind" that Jesus touched and reached so well. Our passion to see God work powerfully had lead us to want to see the most broken of people fully healed and restored.

So decided to be even more intentional about reaching, loving and serving these people whom God cares deeply about. The week after we shared this at our annual vision night, we saw a new wave of addictive, hurting and searching people come in our doors....and that wave has no stopped since.

Sunday I was in a different mens recovery / re-entry house and this morning I was invited to visit the Gables Recovery House (For women). Each place wanted to hear about our outreach / coffee house called Uturn, and the Gables has asked me to come semi-regular (rotating basis) on Fridays and talk, listen, help give spiritual advice to these ladies in recovery.

It is amazing how we heard God leading us more this way, how we intentionally responded and now how he has added, and added to this already. We did not go seeking these new connections, they came to us.

Add to all this, on Thursday of this past week a women in recovery meet with me and another lady and she gave her life to Jesus! God has clearly called us to step out and reach these people in recovery. We are reaching them on their terms, in their comfort zone, at church, at recovery meetings and one-on-one settings.

To reach the lost, hurting and broken... we must intentionally be looking for ways to meet up with them and hear their stories. I can see that we are doing that better and better each day, and God is taking us deeper and deeper into this unique area of ministry.

God confirmed how much of an impact we are already having in this new wave of people.
One young lady was proudly wearing the Uturn T-shirt that she bought this Sunday at Journey. The staff at the Gables stated, "They had no idea that you were coming today".

To save a life, you must go to wear people are dying.

I look for and expect God to continue to do even more amazing things as we go deeper into addiction.