Gateway family,

I want to update you on how God is displaying his goodness and faithfulness in our ministry to Capital Heights Middle School (CHMS). He is working in this city!  As I have previously shared, God has given us an opportunity to help provide for CHMS families that have been affected by area food pantries closing due to Covid19.  By God's grace, we will be able to add another family to our food ministry this week.  We now will be providing essential food items each week for 10 families, a total of 54 people in all (17 adults, 34 children)!

We praise God for these opportunities to care for the poor, the widow, and the orphan.  This is a beautiful thing and close to the heart of God (James 1:27), as we have recently heard from our study in the Book of James on Sunday mornings.  It is so incredible that we get to do this together as the body of Christ.  Each one of you is a part of this ministry through your service, prayers, and support.  Thank you for joining together with us in this ministry!

However, we are not only providing families with physical sustenance each week, but we are also providing spiritual sustenance. This week we delivered a Bible to each of our families. We are also going to start delivering a weekly devotional that will provide them with a scripture to read and a brief explanation.  Joseph Falcione (now the youth/college pastor at Dalraida Baptist Church) is going to write the weekly devotionals. Please pray for Joseph as he writes weekly, concise devotionals to guide our families through the story of Scripture. This will give our food deliverers a more natural opportunity to talk about spiritual things each week.

Nevertheless, while we have additional families in need and resources available to meet those needs, we are lacking additional people to deliver and build relationships with our CHMS families. If you would like to deliver food to a family and minister to them, or know someone who does, please contact me at seth.rhodebeck@gmail.com.

Even if you are not able to help us minister to these families, join us in praying for more laborers to work in the field (Matthew 9:38).  We treasure your prayers for our team each week!  Pray for God to be glorified, for the gospel to go forward into our city, for deep relationships to be formed, and for the safety of our team members.

I appreciate you all!

Seth Rhodebeck