Testimony of 2019
The majority of 2019 was such a whirlwind of events, disaster relief, grieving, thankfulness and praise. So due to the craziness of the year we had not been able to share nearly as many posts here as we would have liked. However, what we want to do is start posting testimonies of how people saw God move through Declare events or serving opportunities. We are going to start with someone who came on staff with us last year right after the tornadoes hit - this is her testimony.
A Year with Declare
A year ago I remember driving down the streets of North Dayton and Northridge on my way to work in Miamisburg and being heartbroken at the devastation that 14 tornadoes did to our community. My attention span was torn while I was sitting at my cushy desk job being a bean counter for a local CPA firm and thinking about all the work I could be helping with and things I could be doing instead. My employers were so gracious at the time because they knew my heart to serve and, as long as my work was done timely, would give allowances to serve and help where I could. My husband was also so patient with me as I was in, what felt like a mid-life crisis of sorts, and trying to fit everything into a 24-hour period. At that point my friend Steve Bowen said why don’t you connect with my friends over at Living City Project – they are doing so much to help and have just started a project with St. Vincent de Paul and may need some help. Little did I know that reaching out and making a simple phone call would change the entire trajectory of my life.
From my first Living City Project meeting, I knew these people were different…
Their heart to serve the Greater Dayton community was not just service oriented alone, but a spurring on of the Spirit to bind up the broken-hearted and truly connect with the communities around them. The way they walked out their message of unity and compassion was unlike anything I had witnessed on that scale previously.
Initially, I started out by volunteering and serving wherever they needed people, which in the beginning was stocking, sorting and inventorying all the donated essential items to tornado survivors. It evolved quickly, and they said they were looking for people to come alongside them to serve in a larger, ongoing capacity. I felt a major tug on my heart from the Holy Spirit that this was something He was not only calling me to do, but in hindsight He was unlocking dreams and goals in me I didn’t even know were there. Pretty much immediately I told my husband that I felt like I was supposed to quit my job at the firm where I worked and give all my attention and energy to serving in the community. He was ELATED…just kidding he thought I was insane! But I simply said, “just pray about it, and see what you are hearing Holy Spirit say about it.” One day, while he was travelling for work, he called me and said in a reluctant tone, “I feel like God spoke to me today. In my flesh, I do NOT want you to quit your job, but I very clearly heard that this is what you are supposed to do.” And that my friends, is what co-laboring with God looks like – haha!
Because of Declare’s involvement in the city, I was able to help in volunteering with tornado damage clean-ups and delivering furniture to people who had lost everything, prayer vigils to mourn with our community after a gut-wrenching shooting and now through the food shortages during the pandemic. What started out as finding ways to volunteer last year, turned into an adventure in discovering this wonderful city full of amazing people that, previously, I knew very little about. There were areas of my city I had never seen, people I would probably have never interacted with if it had not been for volunteering through Living City Project/Declare. It took the blinders off for me of how much I avoided the unfamiliar and uncomfortable. I will be forever grateful for those experiences that revealed and reshaped my world view for the better.
Declare has been such a wonderful example to me of faith in action and actually walking out the commands that Jesus gave of serving those in need, connecting with humanity around us and declaring the good news of Jesus Christ, that He has come to seek and to save every single person!
