Merry Christmas and Other Ministries

This has been a wonderful year for ministry and for living. We have been active in God’s service trying to bring change and joy into the lives of those who are in transition or seeking to find hope. Early blogs describe our Ethiopia work. Following is a summary of other activities in the US.

Above all, Jeanne and I wish you all a very Merry and Joyous Christmas.

Congregations for the Homeless
Working with homeless men in Bellevue, WA, 30 of whom stay each night in a church with a hot meal. 12 churches each take a month to host the men and hundreds of volunteers prepare food. We have paid case managers and volunteer executives and life coaches to help the men in their transition.
•A Bible study started in December 2009 and has continued almost every Tuesday morning. There has been an average of 8-10 men who attend with some excellent discussions during and after the study.
•In April Sterling Crum, a volunteer bible study leader joined and has been active in the program ever since. He has provided new ideas and is encouraging starting businesses with the men. God provided Paul with a contact, Gary Lee Clark, former head of men’s ministries at Union Gospel Mission. Gary is going to lead a Thursday night study starting December 16 and bring us expertise.
•Spiritual counsel has been provided to numerous men
Bible Studies
•Paul continues to lead a Bible study with a business team in Bellevue on every other Tuesday. There has been personal and business growth in these sessions.
•Paul and Jeanne lead a Wednesday night Life Group for Canyon Hills Community Church

Career Counsel 
•A number of men were offered career counsel through Living Perspectives. With seminars and counsel the number of men and women helped for the year totals near 100.
•Throughout the year we have heard of numerous men and women receiving jobs such as 4 former employees with Pro Athletes Outreach, numerous men from Canyon Hills Community church and others who were counseled through LP. Totals have not been tracked but numbers are substantial a testimony to men who believe that Christ cares for them (Ephesians 2:10 and 3:20-21).
•A major career and life coaching effort has been with a former pro athlete player

Personal and Marriage Counsel
•Since January I served as Power of Attorney for an elderly woman with financial problems. The POA ended in November but during this time we were able to sell her house and gain some additional funding. This required hours of counsel with the woman and family members.
•We ended counseling with one couple with a great outcome in their marriage
•Another couple, we counseled for over a year and neither seem to capture God’s purpose for their marriage but they are still together
•Jeanne and I assisted Chinese evangelist Johnny To and his wife with seminars in an Indonesian Church and marriage seminar in the Chinese Evangelical Church.
•Jeanne and I have each counseled other individuals regarding marriage issues.

Other Projects
•Granite Falls High School – Paul continues to help Michael Werner with his project of getting two cars built by students to Houston for competition like last year. Paul, as part of outreach will be doing a career seminar for 5 seniors including plan for life issues in the presentation.
•Paul has provided life coaching input and training to 3 organizations dealing with homeless men and women and low income couples.

We look forward to following what God is doing in 2011 and being available to assist where called.
Paul