LOL Minstries and Shutting my Mouth!

In 2010 I was given a full paid trip to Belize to meet the founders of a ministry in Belize called LOL Ministry. I met the young couple that started this orphanage and see what they do.  I totally feel in love with their heart for God and their heart to help not only orphans but the people of Belize.  After parting I and Melissa (one of the founders) knew that some how God would use Supplying Needs to send goods to them.  We didn't know how and we didn't know when but some day. 


Last week one morning when I was spending time with God I started to think about Melissa and LOL Ministry.  That desire came up again to be able to have Supplying Needs help in some way, shape, or form.  But I didn't see how it was possible at this stage in the game so I pushed the thoughts aside and thought "that isn't for another few years"

To my surprise that same morning I received an email from Melissa telling me they had a company that would ship one pallet of goods, once a month, free of charge from Alabama to Belize. How awesome is that.  The only probably was how were we going to get it from Supplying Needs in California to Alabama.

A few days later I looked into companies that would ship from where we are to where the pallet would leave the country.  I found a website that compared trucking companies and their prices.  I signed up with the website and started looking at the different companies.  About 30 minutes later I received a phone call from the company to make sure I logged everything in correctly to get the best deal. The lady asked what I was doing it for. I told her we wanted to get the pallet space donated so we could help an orphanage. The lady responded and said "Oh that is wonderful but you will never get it for free"

I felt my blood start to boil. I instantly got angry. How dare she tell me what God can or cannot do. But I kept my mouth shut and tried to be courteous the rest of the conversation even though I really wanted to give this woman a piece of my mind. At the end of our conversation the lady said "Oh I wish I could help you I just love kids" I told her "Thank you for your time." but what I really wanted to say was "Then shut your mouth and just do it"  I know I know I am ashamed of my thoughts at times as well.  After we got off the phone I said to Joel "I don't know why I am so mad. What is wrong with me. But what she said really angered me" 

As I went about calling and emailing companies the Lady called me back and said "I just couldn't get those babies out of my head and I really want to help so I told my boss and they are working on it"   Praise God that He gave me self control to shut my mouth. 

I got an email from a woman at her company and we have been working on it ever since.  I don't know what the results are going to be (they may or may not be able to help) but I do feel if I had not kept my mouth shut God could not have used me like he did.  I am excited that we will be able to help the orphanage.  I am pumped it is going to be sooner than later. 

If you know of any company or truckers that could help us that would be so great.

God truly is mind blowing. He never cease to amaze me!
Blow away by God,
Dess

LOL Ministries

Hopelessness to God being Victorious!

This was part of the reason I was so down but I didn't want to say it because I wanted to tell the story after good came through. This is from my Facebook notes so you might have already read it. It is long but worth every word to praise God!

This picture represents Hopelessness and all the feelings I had when it happened.  Hopelessness is one of the worst feelings.  Even as a believer you can still feel it at times. Doesn't mean it is true because with Christ there is always hope.  Even though that was my feeling I had on this very fateful day my feelings were absolutely wrong.

"So what happened?" you may ask.  Well Joel and I were doing our normal routine on Friday which is going to Tracy to pick up a load of produce.  We were driving on the free way when all of a sudden a 15 passenger van with a big read trailer pulls out in front of us almost side swiping us with his trailer.  If it were not for Joel swerving and slamming on the breaks we would have been hit.  But out of the frying pan and into the fire.  Our breaks locked and they wouldn't unlock.  We were stuck on the free way with cars honking at us and traffic piling up.  Joel made a good decision in that moment and put it in low gear and got off the free way.

When we parked Joel jumped out of the truck to check for damages. Joel came running back saying there was a fire. He grabbed our water jug. I jump out grab the fire distinguisher but Joel told me water was better in this situation.  You see when the breaks locked up it caused friction which made the rim so hot the paint on the rim started burning.  There were small flames and lots of smoke.  I think that did it for me, emotionally.

We happened to park at an international truck dealership and what do you know our truck is an international.  "Oh God," I thought "Did you bring us here so they could help us?" You just never know with God so I went in explained we were a non-profit with little to no money and to see if they could come help.  They sent a guy out and he looked at it but said for a couple thousand dollars they could help.  We didn't even have a thousand in the account.  When He walked away I felt Hopelessness creep up and stay with me.

I walked off to talk to God about it.  "God what do we do" I said as I started to cry.  "How do you want us to handle this?"  The only thing God asked was "Do you trust me" I didn't have an answer for him at the time.  He then told me to get back to my husband. Joel was calling a tow truck.

More Hopelessness.

The guy was nice and without us even asking, after he dropped us off gave us a 50 dollar discount for the tow.

A little hope but still Hopelessness decided to stick around.

NOW WHAT?

After we jumped in the bus to do another pick up I called our Stockton parents to let them know we couldn't come to see them that night. Almost every Friday we go to visit our Stockton parents.  Said a few words but didnt' explain too much.

I cried all weekend.  More Hopelessness.  The truck was out of commission I prayed and all I got from God on Saturday was we could fix it. I brought that up with Joel He said we didn't have enough money in the account to even buy parts.  I cried more, More Hopelessness.  It felt like a dead in.

You see Joel and I have had many situations where there was no hope but God and if God is all knowing and He is a loving Father then we don't need to tell any one about our need except God and he will take care of it.  And you know what, time and time again God has come through without anyone knowing we were in need.

But the Hopelessness came from not knowing WHEN God was going to act. You see I trusted God that in the end He would either have the truck fixed or get us another one.  That I didn't question but it was "the WHEN" that I cried about.  We had donation pick ups the following week, didn't God know that.  Didn't he know that the truck was our only means to pick up pallets of donations to help people that HE had called us to help.  Didn't he know that it was like cutting off our legs and telling us to walk. It just wasn't fair.  So at church I went to the alter and I bawled. BAWLED and BAWLED!!!  I let go of my expectations, of my reputation I had with other companies for being a reliable non-profit.  For being able to drop everything for a food company and be there in an hour.  I gave that all to God and said "God you are good. I surrender. I surrender and let go of my expectation of you "needing" to fix it by Friday, giving you my reputation of caring what others think and I believe You being good will get to it when the time is right and you see fit even if that means loosing all our contacts and having the worst reputation in town"

Now that sounds dramatic but it was exactly where God wanted me and to show me How little of control I really had at Supplying Needs that He truly is CEO over Supplying Needs and He truly is the one calling the shots.

Well after church I really wanted to see our Stockton Parents since we did not get to see them Friday.  As we were driving there I knew they would have questions what happened but i didn't want to tell them because I wanted God to have his way with the situation.  I asked God if we should tell them what Happened. God said yes.  "But I don't want them to help if you don't want them to. I am not going to ask for their help but what if they see the need and want to fill it." I said.  God then spoke to me and said "Dess it doesn't matter if you tell them, I am the one that chooses if a person helps or not. I may or may not put it on their heart to help you but I do want you to tell them."

And that is what we did, told them the whole story.  And never said or asked "Will you help us" Just told them the story.  And you know what God did Put it on their hearts to help.  They payed for all the parts and came out to help us Monday.  They even found a Christian who owns a truck fixing business to help us take off the tire.  God used them mightily.  And by Wednesday the truck was all fixed.

Glory to God.  Now I don't want you thinking it was the people that came through in the story. They did but in the end God is the one that was truly in control and put it on the hearts of the tow truck driver, our Stockton parents, and the business owner to help with God's organization.

In the middle of all this going on I was talking to a friend about my Stockton parents and said how bad I felt for even breathing a word to Dad and Mom. (Even though God told me to)  Do you know she said "Dess it doesn't matter if you tell them God is the one that chooses if a person helps or not. God may or may not put it on their heart to help you."  I didn't even tell her anything God had said about it.  I knew God was speaking once again reminding me that He is God!

So to all that read this.  God is Hope and He makes a way out of no way. He truly is CEO, Big Boss, Head Honcho of Supplying Needs and I wouldn't have it any other way!
God's Slave for Life,
Dess

Been to long!

It has been way too long since writing a blog on our personal blog.  I decided to check the rest of our friends blog I have the links to on our page and most people have stopped blogging a year+ ago besides 4 or 5 of our friends.  My educated guess is that Facebook has taken over and with updating every day or every week for most people who needs a blog.  Well I would like to start back up. I don't know how often I/we will be writing but it is nice to try again.

This is a new season for Joel and I.  This is a huge transitional time for Joel and I.  We are stepping down from a lot of responsiblities at our church and training people to do what we have been doing. 

Supplying Needs is also transitioning in a lot of ways and it is all in all a hard season of transition. 

Out of everyone I know that has transitioned in life it is never an easy period.  Unknowns, good-byes, starting overs, so on and so forth.  It is uncomfortable.

Today I finally realized it was the transition that has had me really down. I have been feeling almost depressed you could say.  Which is very unusual for me. Though as I get older I feel a bit more moody than I ever wanted to be but in this case I was feeling super down and even not wanting to leave my bed.  VERY WEIRD.  Though I never gave into those feelings it was still there pressing me down.

Well after much thought and prayer I realized it was because of all the transitioning and letting go, mostly at church. I am no longer on the 7 event team, I am training a man to be over friday night services that I did all last year, I am training a woman to be over adopt-a-block, and I am slowing backing away from other things at church.  I didn't realize the affect it has had on me.  Didn't see how much I loved doing what I did at church even though it was hard to commit to so many things with so much demand. 

By the end of March I will be hands free. I am hoping the transition to leave our church will come soon after that. I am still waiting on Joel to decide when we leave to start our new adventure.  I hope it is not too long I hate to think I would be just sitting doing little, we will see.

Other than that life is life.  Not much more to say. 

Thanks for reading my ramble. Hopefully the next one will be a bit more exciting. LOL

Dess

CRAZINESS (At the Higest level)

I feel this is the craziest and most emotional my life has been thus far. Maybe that is an exaggeration and maybe it is not. I know each time you go through something you slowly forget all the emotions and hardships of the storm in life but this one just seems like it went from crazy to extreme crazy.

There is a lot taking place in our lives right now. I feel each day is already jam packed before I wake up in the morning with little room to add anything else that wants to pop up. And when new things do pop up (recently) I have been throwing tantrums or crying. I don't know if it is just emotions at their rawest or what.

But as God has warned me this past weekend don't get distracted. Yes for sure there is a lot going on and there is a lot more heading our way but the enemy's job is to distract and if I get distracted with overwhelmedness (think i made that word up) and what not then I will either just sit down and not move because of feeling like I can't accomplish any thing or I will start focusing to much on self to pay attention to all that God is trying to do outside of me.

So what does our schedule look like.
Supplying Needs: Daily we are sending out letters for donations requests, calling companies to follow up with those letters, picking up food, sending out Thanks yous and doing it all over again. Joel blessed me by saying yes to a new Database for Supplying Needs. This year we have started asking other companies beside food companies and so Excel is no longer sufficient for keeping record of of companies. And I got just the one I wanted which tickles me to no end. So on top of everything else I listed I am filling out our new datebase with wonderful information. And in a month we will be filing out our yearly report for the IRS. Oh my goodness my head is spinning just with things we need to do for SN.
God has also made it clear this past month that we will be doing Disaster Response. So as of now we are collecting items needed to respond to a natural disaster in the state of California.

Then there is church. God has asked us to be heavily involved with the church we attend. Again God said it is all to prepare us for SN in the future when we have crew. With all that we do at our church it is training us to be better leaders. So with this training comes lots of responsibility. I am taking classes at church once a week, we do Adopt-a-Block which is under our church but SN is also heavily involved with this ministry with needs of the people, I am going to be getting my license from the church, and now I have started a jewelry class every Saturday night.

I just feel there is no time for much else these days. And as God has made it clear it is not going to slow down for a while but get even more crazy. I keep reminding myself of the verse in the bible. God doesn't give you more than you can handle but I keep wondering if he pushes us to the max of the max of our limits where it feels at times we can't handle it. I don't know. Shrug shrug.

And on top of all of this we are picking up my baby girl Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from school and helping her with homework. It has brought me so much joy to be involved in her life. I am learning a lot from her. If I ever have kids of my own God has used Amiyah to make me a better parent than i would have ever been if not for her.

So that is our life. So hectic. I think I will appreciate it more when a season of quietness and less to do comes back around instead of thinking it is such a nuisance. But I know I will be thanking God even more later when i see all that He was doing during this time to teach and train us to be better for His Kingdom and leading people to a life with Him. What an honor and Joy to serve our God with all your heart mind soul and strength and leave nothing on the table but it all has been used for Him and His will for your life.

To God be The Glory,
the Butlers

God & His Provision for A Family!

There is a family we know that lost everything in the fall due to a fire that was above their apartment which caused water damage to their place and they lost everything. The word went out and God provided furniture, food, and other items they needed to help get them back on their feet. The day we delivered the items we were in their house after we had loaded them up, we all got in a circle and prayed that God would bless the family. When Joel was praying the Lord spoke and said "Adopt this family" I was excited.

A company who wants to remain anonymous helped us last year with adopting a family for Christmas that was in need. They wanted to do it again this year. So when God spoke clearly to me I told the company of this family. I got the families information and told them they were going to be adopted by a group of us. The family was excited. When I sent the information to the company they let me know they could not adopt this family because of certain requirements. I did not know about the requirements because the year before with out knowing it I had found a family that had met all the requirements. They asked me to find another family that met all the requirements. I understood and found another family for them but it left us in a bind. For months I wondered if I had really heard from God or if I was crazy. I knew Joel and I couldn't afford to get this family a good Christmas.

I put it off hoping that by Christmas something would come through. But as time ticked down nothing came in. This past week Joel and I went shopping for our family at the Galt Flee Market and got gifts for our family and the family that had the fire. It wasn't much. About 2 gifts for each person but it wasn't anything they need. We really couldn't afford to get them anything they needed.

We were wrapping all the gifts on Wednesday night when a friend of mine called. We talked for a while but then I told her I had get off the phone to wrap gifts. Because she is one of my closest friends I confided in her my concerns and worry and how I felt I was left to face the family and have to tell them the situation. I had not told anyone about it only Joel and I knew. I don't know why I told her I usually keep these things to myself but God knew.

She said her company she works for usually adopts families for Christmas but has not in the past few years and if I would send her the information she would see if they would adopt this family.

Well all Glory belongs to God because she called me the next day and said the company would adopt and go shopping for the family and spend 1,000 dollars on this family.

I can't tell you the relief. 1) Because this family was going to have the most beautiful Christmas and 2) I am not Crazy LOL :D

God is so awesome and takes care of our needs and wants. Once again it has increased my faith and trust in my God.

Through this I have seen my limitations. That if it were only Joel and I getting something for the family it amounted to a small box of a few items for this family and none of their needs were met. But when God stepped in and did what He does best the family is taken care of above and beyond anything I could hope or imagine.

God is amazing. My life is so much better because of Him. He truly takes care of all things. So how about you. Why don't you let Jesus in your heart and life and see the awesome things He can do.

HE WILL BLOW YOUR MIND. :D

All Jesus's!

Dess

God's Design

So Lately the Lord has been teaching/dealing with me about how He set up our lives. He first started talking to me about how Joel is to take care of me until Jesus's return. That Joel is only my husband temporarily to cherish, love and keep me safe. That Jesus is my husband and will come back for me but until then God has put Joel over me until Jesus comes back.

Then today as I was at church watching Amiyah dance her heart out for Jesus, God started to show me how he set up the family. That the Dad and Mom are supposed to show the children how a husband and wife should act first by their example and then by their instructions. The mom should show and tell the daughters how to treat their husband with respect and submission. How to be and act like a lady. The Father should treasure the daughter so that she feels loved and like a beautiful treasure so she does not go looking for worth in the wrong places. And so that when a man comes that would treat her less than she should be treated the daughter would be able to recognize it and walk away from it. Both roles are important.

Same with a son the Father is to show and instruct how to be a good husband and to love the wife and treat her with love and like a treasure. The Mother is to teach the son how to treat women and how to respect them by speaking kind to them, opening the door, etc.

So it goes in order from being taught at a young age how you should treat your spouse, to treating your spouse, to going to Jesus. That each step is important. For Children are a gift from God and are God's to begin with and marriage is a gift and the spouse is promised to Jesus when He returns and that we are all on loan until Jesus comes and gets us.

So as God was showing me about the Mother teaching the daughter how to act like a lady God then told me He wanted me to take Amiyah out on a Ladies night, to pour into her and love her. To instruct her how to act as a Lady and to show love to her. To teach her how a man should treat her and If he doesn't then she needs to say DUECES. That the one she wants to marry needs to love God first and foremost because she will be loved like she should.

So Amiyah and I dressed up like beautiful Ladies and went to the Olive Garden. It was wonderful night. We had fun like only we can.

Thank you God for what you are teaching me. May I apply it to all that you allow me to encounter on this level.

All yours Daddy,

Dess

Free Toy Give Away Account

My God blew the roof off of the event. Lets start at the beginning shall we. So August 8 at 4 in the morning God showed me the free toy give away. I saw all these toys being given to tons of kids. I was so excited and said "Let's do it in December for the Christmas holiday"

God said "I don't want it around a holiday"

I said "November"

God "NO"

Me " October"

God "No"

Me "Not September Daddy anything but September"

God "September 9th"

I started to beg and plead with God in such a way i had never pleaded before that I thought He was for sure going to change his mind. After I was done groveling and pleading God said "I want to get all the Glory"

In which I replied "Oh you will if we do it in December you will, All the glory I won't get any as well as any one else. I promise Daddy you will get all the glory." Needless to say He never budged. So September 9th it was.

I went about doing what had to be done to get the event. Since it was going to be at our Church Victory in Praise I had to fill out an event form which is supposed to be filled out 90 days before the event. Yeah I only gave them 30 days. And I asked our Bishop as well since it was such a big event and there were other events planned around this time. To my great surprise I got approval from both sources. A few days after everything was rolling one of our good friends at the church said "Dess do you have any toys" In which I replied "No" Then he asked "Do you have any raffle prizes" In which I again replied "NO" He laughed and said "Oh that's faith" I said to myself "No that is just obedience I don't really have a choice at this point. I just want to obey God"A week after everything was rolling I got up in the morning to spend time with God and said "God we don't have any toys, not one. I know you said to do this event but I am so nervous and don't' know what to do. Supplying Needs has never received much Toys I don't have a toy contact." My God was so caring and said to me "Dess it is going to be like the feeding of the 5,000 with 2 fish and 5 loaves. You will have enough for everyone and there will be left overs." Just to give an understanding Jesus was teaching 5,000 men plus women and children. THey had no food so he took a boys lunch of 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread and was able to feed all those people plus they had 12 baskets of food left over. So i understood that God was going to supply all we needed for this event plus we would have left overs.The same day God had told me about the "leftovers" A man that allows Supplying Needs to keep our truck in his warehouse parking lot called and said that his family had just moved and was going to have a garage sale but didn't have enough time. if we could come and get all the items they were going to sell. Joel went and picked it up that day and to our great surprise 15 of the 19 boxes were kids, clothes, books, movies, and toys. Our friend didn't even know God told us to have a free toy give away. We were so excited.

The next week we had a load of food donated to Supplying Needs and God put a group on my heart to give to. When we got to their property they were so grateful and thanked us because their pantry was almost empty. Then it popped in my head that they receive toy donations as well. So I asked them if they had any toys they could help us out with for the event. Again to my great surprise they said they never keep the toys they get but give them all to other groups or something like that. They gave us a few bags full of nice toys and said they would hold toys just for us for the event. We received 2 more bus loads full of toys from them through out the month.

We had donations coming from the north, south, east and west. It was amazing. My dear friend Diahanna said we could keep toys in her empty garage that she had just cleaned out because our Bishop had preached a message about cleaning out your space because God is going to do something. So she had just cleaned out her whole garage. So we would bring the donated toys to our garage and go through them then take them to Diahanna's garage to store. Our garage would get so full of toys that we could not put any more in so we would take them over and by the next day if not that same day we would get more toys from other sources and our garage would be full again. It was so amazing to see God work.

Also my hearts desire was to have free raffle prizes for the kids. Bikes of all things. We advertised that we needed bikes but not one came it. So a week and a half before the event I was talking to God and told him that if He wanted us to have bikes than please provide but if not I was going to be fine with it. Well a few days later in the mail I get a package from my dear friend in LA. We email back and forth telling each other what God is doing in our lives. I had mentioned that God asked me to do a Free Toy Give-AWAY but that is all I really said. In the package was a card that said use this money for what ever you need for your event and in it was a check for 1,500 dollars. Can you believe it. I asked God what to do with it and he said it was for my bikes that I had been wanting. i said oh that is wonderful and i can buy a few more things we need for the event as well God said No it is for bikes only.

So we went the day before the event and bought 19 brand new bikes for $1,500.82. Isn't God just so awesome.

So the day of the event we were setting up. All the games, movies, clothes, and books and some toys. We had all the tables up and chairs and everything was in place. then it started to rain. And rain and then thunder and lightening close to us. People were freaking out. I was even freaking out because we had weather issues the last time God told me to do an event. But after praying and talking to God and God saying JUST TRUST ME we just went about what we were doing. And about 15 minutes before the event officially started it had stopped raining where we were at and was sunny and hot. But through the event you could see a wall of rain all around us on all four sides as well as lightening. God likes to show off I believe (In a good way of course) People came out we had about 180 people for the event church members and people we had never seen before.

People would come on to the property and immediately receive one raffle ticket for the bike give away. Then they could look through clothes, or go get movies, books, and games. There was a table for balloon animals, face painting, and helium balloons. There were 6 tables set up for arts and crafts for parents and kids. I even saw some painting piggy banks. It was amazing. Then at 7:30 all the tables shut down to do 3 skits for everyone that were so hilarious and told about Jesus's love for us. Right after the skits we asked if any one wanted Jesus as their Lord and savior or prayer. 5-7 families came up. By that time it was dark and we had not planned for that. We had no light. So the Safeway that we share a parking lot with had their lights. So after prayer we did the free raffle for the 19 bikes. And everyone was loving it, parents and kids, adults and youth. They were reading their ticket from their cell phone light or the safeway light. And not one person left because it was dark!!! There were so many stories of kids needing bikes to get to school or a family just had 4 bikes stolen from them a little bit ago and they received 2 bikes that night. A little girl I know loves princesses and got a princess bike. And another little girl won a bike and would not get off of it. Even when it was time for every child to receive a toy she just sat on her bike NOT moving and didn't want to get off not matter how much the mom tried and some of our members tried she loved her new bike so much.

So after the raffle we had two lines. 2 mini buses were packed with toys with tables in front to put some of the toys. And the kids each received at least one toy. A person came up to me and said "Okay Dess all the kids have received a toy can we tell them to come back and get as much as they want" so that is what I did I got on the mic and said just that and you could see kids running to get back in line. I even saw a family that was almost to their car turn back around to get more toys. It was amazing.

and Guess what we still had toys left over. Just like God promised. It was a night I will never forget. My God took care of everything from toys, to books, to bikes, to the help we needed.

And this same God who takes care of me can supplying all your needs according to His glorious riches which have been given to us in Christ Jesus -Phillipians 4:19

I know I missed a ton of stories and if you would like to comment and add a story of what you saw God do you are more than welcome. Or just comment even if you don't have a story either way God deserves all the credit for the awesome event He put on through us VICTORY IN PRAISE CHURCH!!! Thank you to all who came out and was God's hands and feet. God used you in a mighty way and I am so blessed you were able to do what you did selflessly!!! thank you all.

and Thank you My Daddy!!!