Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Volunteer Testimony

A great testimony from Otto, one of our volunteers from Sovereign Grace Church in Marlton, NJ. Enjoy!


Little did we know what God had in store for us when arriving in New City Fellowship Church.  I sent one of my team leaders and his crew to 234 Nevada Ave.  Looking back I could not have asked for a better servant than Sam Cardillo who, by the way, is also one of our Community Group leaders at our church.  His heart to serve in a very conscious manner was exactly what God had planned for the Ahmed family at 234 Nevada, Ave.

His gentle touch had this family in tears of joy as they experienced the gospel at work in their home.  They kept asking the team, “Why are you doing this?”  Being of a Muslim background, they just could not understand why we were helping them and kept calling the teams that continued to come down, “angels.”  Even the teens who volunteered saw their own hearts changing as they engaged themselves in the lives of the Ahmed children. The Ahmed children were begging the teens to come back down again and have stayed in contact with our teens to this day.

The greatest blessing for me happened the weekend before Christmas. My goal was to give the Ahmed’s a functional kitchen by the end of Saturday, 12/22/12. In spite of some unplanned set backs, God was so kind to allow us to make that goal happen.  The greatest joy came on one Saturday, around 11:00 AM, when Mr. and Mrs. Ahmed came to me and said how fortunate they have been and still could not wrap their minds around why we were helping them rebuild their home.  In the words of Mrs. Ahmed, “my husband and I have discussed it and we want to volunteer to work side by side with you on the next house.”  Well, praise be to God, because understanding their culture, you do not rub shoulders in this way with Christians.  BUT GOD...

Another great plan that God has is the skilled people, who themselves, are not Christians that have joined our teams in serving.  These skills are what have helped us complete several different goals.  In just a few short weeks, not only have we rubbed shoulders with skilled unsaved volunteers, but I have seen volunteers who are in broken marriages, as well as  those struggling with despair in their own personal lives, begin to heal through serving.  Therefore even solid Christians are seeing first hand how God increases their faith.

I hope and pray this note encourages you as it has me.

We here in Marlton, NJ cannot wait to see what God has in store in the next five homes and how He will play the gospel out in them.  Please be reminded that this is just a few of the many miracles that God has performed in our lives while going through this journey.

Serving the Risen Savior,
Otto Lubrich, Jr.