Hope Springs Outreach Center

I thank all of you who so faithfully contribute to the ministries of Hope Springs. You bless my heart and bless the lives of hundreds of people who come to Hope Springs Outreach Center for meals, groceries, clothing, furniture, orthopedic medical equipment, dishes, pots, pans, lamps, books, toiletries, diapers etc. I am asking you now to please join us in prayer! We are in desperate need today of $3,000.00 and week after next $3,000.00 more to catch us up for this year. Eac...h time we pray for aid God finds the resources among his people and delivers us. Please join us now in fasting, prayer, and sacrificial giving to keep this vital work in place! We love and need you all! Mail your contribution to: Hope Springs 1025 Baxter Street Athens, GA 30606 Use the donate button on our Hope Springs Outreach Center Facebook page or, Zelle your gift to: Hope Springs (706)255-3615. Thank you in advance for your gift and your prayer!

It seems like this is worth sharing again on a day like today.

The new year is on my mind today because it’s starting just like the old year ended. It’s starting from the bed to the couch. It’s starting way too early in the... morning because I’ve been getting up every hour all night long just like the last 30 nights. After waking up 6 times I’m just tired of going back to sleep and I get up. You see, I’ve never slept on my back before, always on my side every night for 61 years. Now I have to sleep one hour at a time because, I don’t know... it’s just weird. I have to do it because on December 1st I had a heart attack that led to emergency bypass surgery. A cracked open sternum and five bypasses later I awoke in intensive care and now.... I have to sleep on my back. The reason I’m telling you this brief version of the story is because years don’t end as neatly in real life as they do on a calendar and just because something started last year doesn’t mean it stops with the flip of a calendar page. Stuff just keeps coming and it’s important to remember that especially when we can do things that make a difference, that ultimately slow the spread of disease and save lives like staying home, wearing masks and safely separating ourselves from friends, family and definitely strangers. I’m as glad to see 2020 out the door as anyone else is but it’s important to remember that life bleeds across calendar pages, even years worth of pages. There are people whose Dad’s have died, whose Momma’s are still sick or whose kids have developed lifelong heart trouble. There are other folk who have anxiety, depression or panic that won’t let go of their every waking moment. It’s really important that we be thoughtful of one another because people need a lot of patience. I’m sure that my wife(Jane) is tired of my current disabilities but that doesn’t make them go away. I’m sure that we all get tired of the weak and disabled but that won’t make them better. Some of them won’t ever get better and they will always need our patience. Some people have lifelong irreversible problems and our feeling that they should get better and take care of their own business doesn’t heal them and they can’t heal themselves and God may not heal them until they reach heaven. Their troubles bleed across the years of calendar pages. I know many of them. They are the people we serve at Hope Springs Outreach Center. Some of their troubles span not only years but generations. These people are not the government’s problem. They are our problem because we’re in this world, this nation, this life together! We need each other! Please be patient. Love is patient. The King James Version says, Love suffers long. Like my wife Jane is suffering long with me. Thank God for patience like her’s. Oh God give me patience like her’s. My God, Give all of us patience to suffer with one another without becoming selfish or unkind, angry or demanding, without adding up what I’m owed or abandoning the people who need my help. That’s the only way we can exit 2020 without repeating it!

(Matthew 2:8) Herod sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I may go and worship... him. There are a lot of people who say that they worship Jesus but they don’t. The word worship means to passionately kiss...the feet. Eww! I mean I’m a christian and all that but I’m not kissing anybody’s feet. I’m especially not kissing anyone’s feet passionately. There are a lot of people who say that they are, christian, but they aren’t. The word Christian means little Christ. What? I mean I’m a christian and all that but I’m not some miniature Jesus. There’s more to life and living than obeying Jesus. Besides, nobody’s boss over me! There are a lot of people who say that they love the Lord but they don’t. The word love means to commit yourself to someone’s highest and best good no matter the cost. No way! A man’s got to make a living! I love Jesus but I’m not going through any sacrifice so that he can save the lost or serve the poor. Be careful whose claims to faith you believe....They may be the very one’s who are committed to killing Christ for their own convenience, enrichment or advancement. Thank God that the Wise Men were ... wise men.

Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in PEACE. For my eyes have seen your salvation! (Luke 2:29&30) Today I want to talk abo...ut Christmas Peace! The reason is because peace is the central message of the Christmas story and the one most misunderstood by the world and by the church. When we think of peace we usually think of it in terms of the absence of angst. We consider peace to be a state of nirvana in which we are unassailed by the pressures of life. It is a place where there are no commitments or responsibilities pending. A sweet spot where the bills are paid and the debts for house, car, medical needs, utilities, groceries, education, clothing etc. are forever resolved. A peace in which relationships are all copacetic and we live on a beach or a mountain top with a beautiful view and no one disturbing us. This sort of peace is more than elusive. It is unattainable! The main reason being that even if we had it in a short time we would become tense about the lack of stimulation. Think of it this way, when was the last time you wanted to sit still for a two hour movie that was about someone sitting on the beach staring at the horizon or when was the last time you actually finished a novel in which the story consisted of someone sitting on their porch staring at the mountain sunset. How could you bear 300 pages of endless sitting? So, what is Christmas peace? The first clue is found in Zechariah’s words concerning the mission of his son John, the Baptist, which are recorded in, Luke 1:77, where he says, You will...give His people the knowledge of salvation through the FORGIVENESS of sin! So when Simeon meets Jesus at the temple on the eighth day, takes him in his arms and says, You may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation! He is saying in the same breath, I have seen your FORGIVENESS! Thus, I have peace! This is Christmas peace, the forgiveness of sin! All of humanity was at war with God. We still tend to be at war with God. Even those who call themselves, His people, are often at war with God because we claim and demand that we are sovereign over our own livesand can do as we please. This puts us in direct conflict with God our creator who Himself is sovereign over our lives. He alone has right to our service, our possessions, our devotion and our love! We spend most of our existence at war with Him over this like demanding little would be kings fighting for a fiefdom. We deserve destruction for our rebellion and, if we insist, destruction is what we will receive. But, in Christ God is offering us another way. He is offering forgiveness for our rebelliousness and reopening the doors of peace. This is the peace of which the angels sang, Peace in earth good will toward people with whom he is well pleased. This is the peace of sin forgiven and relationship restored. This peace signals the end to a war that we can never win. This is the peace that is available to those who please God. Now, there’s a difficulty. How are we who are at war with God going to be those who please Him and thus obtain peace? Well, according to Hebrews 11:5&6, Faith is pleasing to God. So, if we will trust God He will grant us peace through the forgiveness of our rebelliousness against His right to rule our lives and He will reward us with His presence. He will make us his children and He will be our God! That is the offer of God this Christmas season. He is offering up His son for our forgiveness, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life! For he did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved! You are forgiven. Have peace this Christmas!

Wow! 2020 is almost over. I know that a year’s dates don’t define the edges of troubles but I’ll be glad to be looking at this year in the rear view mirror! I... want to sincerely Thank each one of you who have helped Hope Springs navigate the financial pitfalls of this past year. Your prayers, your gifts of goods or services and your financial contributions have been essential to the ongoing success of our outreach to the poor and homeless. As you approach the end of this memorable year, if you are able, please consider making a year ending contribution to our labor. We’ll be back out there feeding, clothing, furnishing, and befriending the needy and we can’t do it without your aid. Please mail your gifts to: Hope Springs 1025 Baxter Street Athens, GA 30606 Or use the donate button on the Hope Springs Outreach Center Facebook page Or Zelle your gift to us at: (706)255-3615 Thanks again for being the hands and heart of Hope for the needy! God Bless Lee Mcneil

Christmas Joy! It is not really like all other joy. Most joy comes of having something in hand like a new toy or a new relationship. Sometimes it comes from a... new experience or the repeat of a comfortable old experience or of a relationship renewed. In essence most joy erupts from having something we desire. Christmas joy comes as a result of hoping for what we don’t have, believing in what we hope for and patiently waiting for that which is beyond our grasp! When my brother, my sisters and I were children there were always several evenings leading up to Christmas on which our parents had to be away to shop or more often to attend some Christmas function or other. On these nights we children would go into the living room and turn out all of the lights except those on the Christmas tree. We would stack the Goodyear Christmas albums deep on the record player and let them play and drop and play and drop while we squinted our eyes at the bright colored lights, danced to the tunes and lay on our bellies around the tree gazing at the brightly wrapped boxes dreaming of and quessing at what may lie within, behind the paper veil. The room was charged with JOY! Giggles and laughter and good natured fun abounded as each of us hoped for what was beyond our reach and believed for what was to come when Santa added his booty to the lot. In the mean time every package though unknown was like a promissory note of all that was yet to come. That’s what Christmas joy is like. It looks less on what it has in hand or what it is missing and more on what it hopes for even though what it hopes for is still a mystery hidden in times yet to come. Christmas joy knows one thing it is loved. It is loved by a good good father whose nature it is to Give and Save and Restore and Reconcile. This year when we have lost so much and many of us have so little let’s remember the depth of God’s love for us. Let’s hope for all we need. Let’s patiently wait for His love to reveal His gift to us. And, let’s REJOICE with the child like Hope and expectation that knows that our father in heaven will do more than we ever dreamed or imagined possible. Let’s lend our hands and feet and our purses to His purposes and, the pure in heart shall see Emmanuel, God With Us in the land of the living!

It may be earlier than you think...If you forgot to set your clock back it could actually be an hour earlier than your clock says it is. This morning Hope Springs will be on Facebook Live at 10:30 Standard Time. Please join us for a message entitled, THIS!

We made it! We reached our first goal! Through your prayers, your generosity and your willingness to identify with our struggle for the homeless and poor by sp...reading the news of our need, we reached our goal of $3000.00 this week and are on our way to securing $6000,00 for November -December rent. So far we have $500.00 toward that end. Please continue to pray and get out the word. If we can fulfill this next phase of our goal it will liberate me to lay aside fundraising for the vital work of meeting the needs of our community with the wondrous love of God! I can’t thank you enough. God Bless You!!

Please help Hope Springs Outreach Center continue our work among the poor and disabled in Athens Georgia! Over the past few months our regular support has dwin...dled with the economy. The virus has shuttered many businesses and too many of our fellow citizens are now unemployed. We are currently serving over 200 breakfasts per week and daily providing pop-top canned goods to the needy and homeless as we have them in stock. We are also providing clothing, coats, blankets and other cold weather gear to local children and adults through the community warehouse. Though dwindling, we have an inventory of furniture, housewares and kitchen items available to needy families as well as all kinds of medical rehab hardware from canes, walkers and wheelchairs to hospital style beds and hoists. Every day we pray for the sick and try to create some healthy fellowship for the lonely. But we are in a really rough spot right now. We need to raise $3000.00 before this weekend to cover the October rent. Please pray with us for God to break through with the finances needed to cover this deficit and to finish the rest of the year with on time payments! If you would like to contribute financially go to the Hope Springs Outreach Center Facebook page and use the donate button or mail your contribution to: Hope Springs 1025 Baxter Street Athens, GA 30606 Thank you for you prayers and your support! God Bless you!

Amazing supporters are on my mind! Hope Springs is now only $300.00 shy of our $3000.00 goal!! Thank you so much please continue to pray with us for the remain...ing amount! By God’s Grace we’ll be able to pay that rental bill for October before the end of the month! Thank you all and God bless you! See more

The young man standing across the table from me wore a filthy paper mask (which we replaced), a toboggan and a well used sweatshirt. I handed him a breakfast a...s one of our volunteers handed him a coffee with fixings just the way he likes it. His thank you for all y’all do was sincere and appreciated. Then he set his breakfast down and shoved two dollars into my hand. Hope this helps a little! He said, God bless y’all for all you do! He grabbed his breakfast and hurried away! It was all he had. It was more than I could give...would give, because by comparison, I’m very wealthy. How about you? Please consider helping us help the helpless? You can Mail your contribution to : Hope Springs 1025 Baxter Street Athens, GA 30606 Or use the donate button on our Hope Springs Community Outreach Facebook page. We Truly need your help!

Beds! Hope Springs Outreach needs beds in single double and queen sizes. These mattresses and box springs will go to the elderly poor as well as to poor childr...en and their families. If you are able to help us with donations please call us at (706)549-0350. If no one is here please leave your number and a message. We will return your call promptly and happily receive your donation! If you have no bed please help us with a financial donation which we can use toward bedroom furniture or bedding materials. Use the donate button on our Facebook page (Hope Springs Outreach Center) or mail checks to: Hope Springs 1025 Baxter Street Athens, GA 30606 God bless!

We have had so many people ask how to donate to our ministry as a result of this post I am reposting it with information on how to donate. Address your checks ...to: Hope Springs 1025 Baxter St. Athens, GA 30606 Use the donate button on our Facebook page or at www.hopespringsathens.com Zelle to (706)255-3615 Thank you for your contribution! This is John. John is one of the brothers who lives, outside, as he likes to put it. John worries about the times we’re in and the struggles people are going through. He recently said, Pastor, I worry ‘bout these folks who lose they jobs and lose they house. These peoples ain’t never lived outside before. They don’t know what it’s like on these streets at night with all the stuff that goes on ‘round here! This morning at breakfast over 50 of our poor and homeless neighbors came by. John was one of them. He took his breakfast box and went to the back of the building to the Hope Springs Community Warehouse. After shopping a bit, as he was leaving, he gave his breakfast to a lady who had arrived too late to get one. I replaced his meal with a hodgepodge of cookies and bananas that were left over from the morning’s fixings. John said, thanks and asked if he could help me breakdown the tables and clean up. While he was helping me another young man came up also too late for breakfast. John gave this young man the substitute breakfast. His act of kindness, once again, left him with nothing to eat so I offered him the two dollars that were in my office so he could grab a little something at the dollar store. John replied with a huge smile on his face, no thanks Pastor, I’ll just catch you in the morning. No one loves the poor, like poor people. They will give to one another even if it means they suffer loss or lack themselves. By the way, last year about this time, John received Jesus as his Lord and Savior! Thanks for your financial sacrifice which make this ministry possible!

The Community Warehouse at Hope Springs Outreach Center is open from 9:00am-1:00pm Monday through Thursday. We offer free clothing, household items and furnitur...e to the needy in our community! Please help us by donating your gently used items for the benefit and enjoyment of someone less fortunate than you! Contact us at (706)549-0350 for more information. If you would like to make a tax deductible financial contribution please use the donate button on our Facebook page or mail your contribution to: Hope Springs 1025 Baxter Street Athens, GA 30606 Thanks for your help! We’re all in this life together!