God is moving.

I’ve heard so many people saying that recently, yet it’s still so easy for us to continue sitting in our pews at church and leave the moving to God. So I’d like to say instead that God isn’t just moving… God is calling His children to move. And so my friends and I are doing our best to answer that call and we are imploring everyone who isn’t already involved in a movement to join us. This is the battle cry of the Christian; to stretch the soul and challenge the flesh… And to love the least of these!

On June 8th, my friend Viktor, and I will be setting out from Los Angeles, CA on a cross-country trip with the mission to serve the “least of these.” We are just two college students with a heart and a passion to love God’s children. We will be loading up my little Ford Taurus with care packages and stopping in every city along the way to feed, clothe, and comfort the poor, the homeless, the lost, and the hurting.

We will be helping at homeless missions and with the people we meet on the streets, but also anyone we come into contact with. We have started our mission in the streets of LA, getting to know the homeless that sleep on skid row. These people just need the rest of the world to take notice and offer a helping hand. Our purpose is to show everyone that love that God first showed us. We will be telling everyone the Good News and helping out wherever help is needed.

My friend Susan, who has lived homeless on the streets of Long Beach, CA for over 10 years once told me that she really appreciates all of the people that walk up to her and tell her that God loves her. She knows God loves her, and she loves these people for taking the time out of their day to bless her in that way. However, she told me, she wishes that instead of telling her that God loves her, she wishes they would walk up and tell her that they wanted to take her to dinner or had a warm bed for her to sleep in that night. 1 John 3:18 challenges us to not love people just with word or tongue but with deed and truth; Jesus didn’t just tell people he loved them. He LOVED them, as a verb, as a very passionate action. We want to embody this in our trip this summer.

So we need your help. We want to fill my car to capacity. We want to have to buy a UHaul trailer because we have too many donations. We need things to fill our care packages. Items we are looking for are the following:

• Clothes – new or lightly used
• Shoes – new or lightly used
• Food – preferably nonperishable
• Bibles
• Toiletries – toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, etc.
• Forks
• Spoons
• Bags
• Sleeping bags
• Blankets
• First Aid Kits

If you can help out with any of these items, please let us know! We will be picking up donations in Northern California during the first week of June. We will pick up donations in Southern California June 6-June 8. After that, if you live anywhere in the states along our route, we would greatly appreciate donations from you if you have any, as well.

We also are looking for contacts along our route. Here is a list of the main cities we are driving through:

• Los Angeles, CA
• Barstow, CA
• Kingman, AZ
• Flagstaff, AZ
• Holbrook, AZ
• Grants, NM
• Albuquerque, NM
• Amarillo, TX
• Wichita Falls, TX
• Denton, TX
• Dallas, TX
• Shreveport, LA
• Jackson, MS
• Birmingham, AL
• Franklin, TN
• Nashville, TN

Our tentative schedule is as follows:

• June 9th – AZ
• June 10th – NM
• June 11-13 – TX
• June 14 – LA
• June 15 – MS, AL
• June 16-19 TN

If you live near any of these cities and can offer us some donations, a bed to sleep in, or a warm meal, it would be much appreciated! If your church would like to join us in the streets for a day or help give us a place to crash for the night, we would appreciate that, as well. We are leaving this trip completely in God’s hands. We know He cares for the flowers of the field. How much more He will care for us!

Also, I really would like to ask everyone to search their hearts, and if God is calling you to join us, then please do! We are completely open to caravanning with anyone. This is not just our mission. This is the purpose of followers of Christ: to follow in Jesus’ footsteps and love the least of these.

I can be reached at mail@andishaw.com. If God is calling you to help us in anyway, please let me know! Even if it is through prayer! We need as much of that as we can get.

You can follow the details of our trip while we are out in the streets here on BibleDude.net. You can also join our group on Facebook. Just search for “2010 Cross Country Road Trip: Support the Vision.”

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Some food for thought:

“A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, ‘Come, the banquet is ready.’ But they all began making excuses. One said, ‘I have just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I have just bought five pairs of oxen, and I want to try them out. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I now have a wife, so I can’t come.”

“The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, ‘Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’ After the servant had done this, he reported, ‘There is still room for more.’ So his master said, ‘Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full. For none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet.’ ”
Luke 14:16-24

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