Meet The Need Atlanta

We are not sure who is more excited……… MTN or this single mom that was walking to work. the ministry was donated a van several years ago. It needed some work which our men have done. When it was finally road worthy and safe, we received a call from a single mom with a son that was walking to work. She asked if we had anything we could sell her. God gave this to us, and we were not going to sell it to her. We wanted to bless her with it. She picked the van up last week, and now can have transportation for herself and her son We just love passing God’s blessing along.

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Directors Rene’ and Jane Alvarez recently had the pleasure of blessing a program participant that completed a year with Meet the Need. Thomas “Woody” Woodall  became a house coordinator shortly after he came to Meet the Need. It was quite obvious that he had leadership qualities and has demonstrated at every turn that he was serious about getting his life turned in the right direction, and that he desired to put his past behind him.

It is always the pleasure  of the ministry when we can pass on a blessing. Woody had driven a Ford van that was donated to the ministry for months. He kept it clean, and up to date with service needs  and took it under his wing. His “baby” is now really “his baby”.

God bless you and “Old Blue” Woody. We are proud of you.

Many of the Meet the Need program participants just went to Lake Lanier for a camping trip. As you can see from the picture they are doing a bible study. These trips are still quite informative to us, as so many men share they have never been camping or ridden in a boat. We use these times to show them that they can have fun and not be drunk, or high on drugs. They come back saying what a great time they had, but mostly it is something they can remember. Being a Christian isn’t so bad!!!!

They all braved the rain and cold weather, but are looking forward to going back soon.

One of the things we love to do here, is praise and worship the Lord for all He has done for us. On September 6, Meet the Need had the opportunity to make a joyful noise at Campton United Methodist Church in Campton Ga.

Pastor Jim Draper and his members put on quite a spread for us, the likes we may never see again. After all the home cooked goodies, we were still able to make a joyful noise. days of elisha mtn

We hope this will be the first of many to come. As you can see, we looked quite wonderful with our newly donated red shirts. In case you cannot make it out, the back says… Don’t just go to church… Be the church.

Jane was quite ecstatic as she was playing on a beautiful baby grand piano that was in tune. This has not happened for years!!! Her piano belonged to her mother and grandmother. Although it still looks beautiful it is past the stage that it can even be tuned. We are believing that God will bring Jane and Meet the Need an equally beautiful baby grand to use for our Tuesday night and Sunday services.

Thank you to St. James United Methodist Church in Alpharetta for their financial blessing. God is last minute but never late. Their blessing covered total utility expenses (gas, water, and electric) for the month of August. We so appreciate their support of Meet the Need.

We are blessed each week by men from their congregation that desire to plant into the lives of Meet the Need program participants. Thank you Bill and Dennis for your faithfulness to our men.

PS… Bill and Dennis always,

[caption id="attachment_280" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Bill Hardison, Burney Bailey, and Dennis Redic"][/caption]

receive the “drive the longest way award” !!!

What a blessing. We are so excited that God chose to bless us through Jackson EMC Foundation and Operation Round Up. We want to thank the foundation and particularly  Operation Round-UP board member Joyce Britt and Roger C. Willis- Gwinnett District Manager, Jackson EMC for bringing us this beautiful blessing.

As with their blessing last year, this money will allow us to continue to keep 6 houses going so that more men can be assured of a place to stay when they come out of jail or prison, or when they find themselves in need of addiction recovery assistance. It is quite costly to provide housing each month for as many as 48 men. Most of all the men that come to us come with only the shirt on their back. They are not able to contribute to their own upkeep for quite some time. This need is even greater now because of the economy and the current employment situation.

Thank you Jackson EMC and Operation Roundup for helping us to help others. Thank you for helping us to provide a safe haven for men that desire to start their lives over. Thank you for believing in us and what we are trying to do for the community.

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On Wednesday the International House of Prayer hosted Meet The Need Ministry at their location on Collins Hill Rd.  IHOP Atlanta is a ministry serving the entire metro-Atlanta area, open 24 hours a day for any person or group desiring to come at any time to worship and pray individually and/or corporately. The Prayer Room is the heartbeat of all that goes on at the IHOP Atlanta Missions Base. Structured in 84, two hour prayer meetings per week, full teams of musicians, singers, and intercessors lift their voices in praise and supplication, asking God to fulfill His promise and give the nations of the earth to Jesus as His inheritance. Each prayer meeting functions with live worship teams in one of the following four formats: devotional worship, prophetic worship, worship with the Word or intercession. IHOP staff prepared hamburgers, hot dogs, and various other home cooked items to ensure that the men would be very satisfied.  After dinner and fellowship the men proceeded to the IHOP Prayer Room.  The attitude of the men and the spiritual motivation they experienced at IHOP is unmistakable.  Meet The Need would like to lift up IHOP and thank them for their continuing support of the ministry.

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Meet The Need Ministry welcomes a new member of the wildlife at the main ministry campus.  A Great Blue Heron was spotted at the ministry pond. 

Come get connected to Meet The Need at our weekly meetings — Every Tuesday at 7pm

Each Tuesday Night a large group of men come together with one common purpose… to learn how to overcome the addictions in their lives. These meeting are not only focused on overcoming drugs and alcohol addiction, but any type of bondage a man may be struggling with. This can be bondage to pornography, sex, gambling, or money.

We are pretty radical in that we do not believe in teaching a man that he will always be an addict. We do not believe that a man  should go to a series of meetings all his life to stand up and say, “Hi, My name is John and I am a drug addict”. We believe they should say what the Word of God says which is that they are an overcomer through Christ Jesus. ( Romans 8: 37  In all things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us) Yes, they were addicts, but if Jesus lives inside of them, then they are no longer an addict, but an overcomer (Colossians 1:27, Christ, Himself, is in me). We do not believe that a series of meeting will teach you to overcome anything. You can only overcome through Jesus. We also do not believe that addictions are diseases, we believe the Word of God teaches they are sin. We teach that addictions come from strongholds of the enemy that must be broken by the power of the Word and the Blood of Jesus. We believe that the battlefield is in the mind, and the mind is Satan’s playground (1 Corinthians 2:16, I have been given the mind of Christ). We believe that just as Jesus overcame the enemy through the Word, so can addictions be overcome through learning who we are in Christ Jesus. We believe as the Word says that “As a man thinketh, so is he”(Proverbs 23:7). MTN program participants are taught to think of themselves as God sees them, not as society sees them (Ephesians 4:24, I am righteous and holy. 1 Peter 2:5, I am one of God’s living stones and am being built up in Christ as a spiritual house.  Romans 6:1-6, I died with Christ, I died to the power of sin’s rule over my life)

Our Tuesday night meetings are taught by Pastor Bob Vann. Pastor Bob is currently a counselor at The Potters House in Jefferson, GA, as well as an ordained minister and a published author and teacher. He has a masters in Addiction Counseling and is a former addict and inmate. Bob and his wife Maria have dedicated themselves to the teaching of Biblical principals of alcohol and drug recovery. They are in constant demand for speaking engagements as well as the teaching of Relapse Prevention and Mentoring ex-offenders. Pastor Bob may be reached through Meet the Need.

We invite you to experience the powerful work of God that we experience on Tuesday night. Men’s lives are being changed and addictions, stronghold, and bondages are being exposed and dealt with. Please feel free to come any time. You may contact us for directions.

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Every morning the men of Meet the Need gather for a Bible study.  The study consists of Proverbs, Psalms, and a chapter in one of the books of the Bible.  The men are also studying Joyce Meyers book “The Battlefield of the Mind”, which is an amazing book that describes overcoming strongholds by cognitive change in a Christian perspective, and T.D. Jakes book “So You Call Yourself a Man”.  The men are also journaling their days events and all are provided a spiritual growth plan. 

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