Worship so hard your feet cramp

Then one of them, when he saw he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He fell with his face to the ground at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. (Now he was a Samaritan.) Then Jesus said, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to turn back and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to the man, “Get up and go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

Luke 17:15-19

Thankful for those who keep showing up to worship and be among us as a thank-offering for the grace they have received from Jesus.

Last Week’s Update…stay connected!


Heyya!

Here is the handoff note from Saturday. It's short and sweet.
Blessings!

Crystal


Logistics

  • Served: ~75

  • Last week's leaders: Geoff, Crystal

  • Next week's leaders: Bryan

  • Next week's preacher: Bryan

Gifts

  • Last week: underwear

  • Next week: nothing… Saint Patrick’s day…

Looking Ahead

Service

My first interaction that morning was with Jody as she stopped by to donate a jacket that we could hand out that morning. Storage packing was a breeze! Three men from 180 Life Church in West Hartford (Josiah, Bryce, and Keith) showed up alongside Geoff. Made my life easier!

We had great help downtown with members from 180 Life Church serving alongside volunteers from Vox and Wintonbury. Geoff brought tasty donuts and we did forgo using the tents due to the wind and that was a good idea because it was windy and cold! 

Overall, all was calm and beautiful as Geoff led us off with Scripture readings and then handed it over to me for the message. I spoke about what it looks like to be a disciple who is being transformed by Jesus. We are not called to simply be a Christian, we are called to be disciples! A disciple is someone who is following Jesus, being changed by Jesus, and committed to the mission of Jesus.

We spent time in prayer and young Evangeline helped hand out communion. The day couldn't have gone better and it was over before we knew it! 
Blessings,

Crystal

From the Community Churches

I had an A-MAZING weekend serving as the speaker for Black Rock Church’s winter youth retreat! Such a honor and joy to be with this ruckus, faith-filled part of the Family of God. 150 students and a small horde of leaders doused in the Holy Spirit and I got to toss a match on the whole pile! I was talking to one of the freshman boys over breakfast and he told me his feet were killing him during worship last night because he was jumping so much…

“So I prayed and asked God to take the pain so I could keep praising him, and if not, I would still praise him anyway! And guess what! A minute later the pain was gone!”…. his face was plastered in a grin…

Then his friend next to him was complaining that his legs were hurting today but that was ok….

This is what happens when you worship and dance like the redeemed children we are! You get cramps and strain your muscles during worship!

Then it was back to the local community churches at Brookdale and River Ridge… they praised just as hard as arthritic hands clapped in praise and feet tapped out the time on the foot rests of their wheel chairs.

The Clairbridge Community Church @ Brookdale

The Community Church at Brookdale

The Community Church at Brookdale/Chatfield

The Clairbridge Community Church @ Brookdale/Chatfield

The Farmington Station Community Church

The Gables Community Church

The River Ridge Community Church

The West Hartford Health and Rehab Community Church

GIVE HERE TO SUPPORT US FINANCIALLY

SIGN UP HERE TO HELP SERVE.

SIGN UP HERE, TO PROVIDE FOOD DONATIONS  

Help Us Load Up @ 10am 164 South Street in West Hartford

visit our website thestreetchurch.org to learn more

or feel free to contact us at

admin@thestreetchurch.org

Bryan
Street Church Administrator & Volunteer Coordinator
(860) 578-2961 TEXT ONLY
bryan@thestreetchurch.org

A day of Godly connections

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

                                                                   Mark 9:24

Last Week’s Update…stay connected!

Hey Family,

Here is the very late handoff note. 

Logistics

  • Served: ~85

  • Last week's leaders: Geoff, Bryan

  • Next week's leaders: Crystal, Geoff

  • Next week's preacher: Crystal

  • Speakers Handoff: In the unit

Gifts

  • Last week's: socks

  • Next week's: underwear. NOTE, we are finished handing out hats and gloves for the year

Looking Ahead

  • We restocked all of the weekly bins

  • 180 has packed lunches for this week

  •  The Jacobs are signed up for soup

Miscellaneous

  • St Patties Day Parade is March 15, for planning purposes. We show up but it is a one table event.

Service

Easy day at storage with lunches packed. We had a big van and handed out socks so there was plenty of room. 

Got downtown to a smaller group but as always God brings who and what we need and never misses a beat. Geoff is giving lots of time and it has been a huge blessing to us all. A young woman named Nellee showed up who was a very dedicated regular from pre-COVID days as well as two men who had not been there for years. "You still here doin' this?!" is a testimony to all who join us each week. 

Young Sebastian read this week, that kid is so great. His mom caught me after the service and mentioned that he told her that he is not sure about church at times, but he believes what we believe, that every person is made in the image of God and worthy of respect. Amen to that, young follower of Jesus. 

We did have a rather loud and drunk woman shouting about Trump and other things at the start of the service, and although no one mentioned sexuality at all in the mic, during prayer before communion she came and loudly repented of her homoxesuality with lots of tears. A missionary friend of Br Benson's and I prayed over her and clearly she had some demonic activity under the addictions and lust. She was quiet after that.  I am amazed how satan dries to distract us but it keeps going,

Geoff brought the officer who led him to faith and I gave him room to share their testimony. It was powerful, and many came for healing prayer after he ended. A large group gathered around them and prayed. 

I invited Willie who is with us weekly to help with communion. I was encouraged to continue asking others to rotate in and help. 

Great week. I'll be away but praying for you all,

B

  From the Community Churches

“I look upon all the world as my parish; thus far I mean, that, in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation. This is the work which I know God has called me to; and sure I am that His blessing attends it.”

                                                                                                 -John Wesley

Last week I kept running into Street Church friends all over, but my favorite was seeing Micheal after I came out of the gym. We wanted to proudly show me he was wearing his Street Church sweatshirt. Preach on, brother, preach on!

The Clairbridge Community Church @ Brookdale

The Community Church at Brookdale

The Community Church at Brookdale/Chatfield

The Clairbridge Community Church @ Brookdale/Chatfield

The Farmington Station Community Church

The Gables Community Church

The River Ridge Community Church

The West Hartford Health and Rehab Community Church

GIVE HERE TO SUPPORT US FINANCIALLY

SIGN UP HERE TO HELP SERVE.

SIGN UP HERE, TO PROVIDE FOOD DONATIONS  

Help Us Load Up @ 10am 164 South Street in West Hartford

visit our website thestreetchurch.org to learn more

or feel free to contact us at

admin@thestreetchurch.org

Bryan
Street Church Administrator & Volunteer Coordinator
(860) 578-2961 TEXT ONLY
bryan@thestreetchurch.org

Be where you are

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, 

whenever you face trials of many kinds, 

because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 

Let perseverance finish its work

so that you may be mature and complete,  

not lacking anything.”

                                                                                                        James 1:2-4

Q. What do you do if it snows?

A. We get cold.

Q. What do you do if it rains?

A. We get wet.


 Last Week’s Update…stay connected!

Hello Friends! ( from Crystal Hall)

Below is a write up from church on Saturday. Hope you all are well :)

Logistics

  • Served: ~70

  • Last week's leaders: Geoff, Crystal, Bryan, Jody

  • Next week's leaders: Kenny, Bryan

Gifts

  • Last week's: underwear

  • Next week's: Hygiene, 100 three-piece boxes of Russell Stover assorted chocolates for some Valentine’s Day love!

Looking Ahead

  • Looking forward to having Vox staff join us at storage next week to help out!

  • We are still looking for monthly friends to partner with us financially and offer up lunches. You can give either way here; https://www.thestreetchurch.org/get-involved

Service

What a joy-filled time we had on Saturday! So many lovely people were there from Valley Brook, Vox, 180 Life Church,  and Wintonbury. The morning started out at U-Haul with Bryan grabbing the truck, and Geoff and Ken (from Valley Brook) helping to load. 

I  met up with them downtown alongside a Men's group from Valley Brook. This made setup so easy! Another plus is that Valley Brook made all the lunches the night before so Pastor Clark brought that over to City Hall to unload.

Geoff did a fantastic job leading Scripture reading and when that was over, Pastor Bryan gave a heartfelt message. What stood out to me was his call for a "holy hunger." He asked, "Have you ever prayed to God asking Him to give you a holy hunger?" This is something I hope you pray for, that God would grant you a holy hunger for Him, His Word, and HIs people. 

We prayed together, and then participated in the Lord's Supper and had lots of help from Emerson, Kayleah and Zoya, young girls of families who came to help. It is beautiful to see children serving the Lord. Aside from those three girls, we also had two toddlers from Wintonbury hand out hand warmers to everyone to keep our hands warm since it was cold out. All the kids were so helpful and brought a smile to our faces.

As we closed in a circle, one woman named Nicole shared how my message from January about fearing God and not man touched her. It was encouraging to hear since it was a month ago that I gave that message. 

After that the crew headed back to U-Haul to unload. What a wonderful time we had!

Love,

Crystal

From the Community Churches

The Kingdom hit the streets again as I headed to the warming shelters to hand out hand warmers, emergency blankets, and granola bars to folks waiting in line..

We had great fun at Claire Bridge with Mary joining me. Albert was on fire with his usual joy and smiles and we sang and sang and sang.

Andrea and I were at River Ridge in Avon together. We were up in the memory care unit and we arrive while they were wrapping up their exercises and I jumped right in with my best Richard Simmons impersonation. IFKYK. I didn’t take any pictures because we were caught up in the Spirit of God together in a powerful way. There are no human words to describe what happens in these place when you love and look past the exterior and intentionally seek the soul of another human being.

The Clairbridge Community Church @ Brookdale

The Community Church at Brookdale

The Community Church at Brookdale/Chatfield

The Clairbridge Community Church @ Brookdale/Chatfield

The Farmington Station Community Church

The Gables Community Church

The River Ridge Community Church

The West Hartford Health and Rehab Community Church

GIVE HERE TO SUPPORT US FINANCIALLY

SIGN UP HERE TO HELP SERVE.

SIGN UP HERE, TO PROVIDE FOOD DONATIONS  

Help Us Load Up @ 10am 164 South Street in West Hartford



visit our website thestreetchurch.org to learn more

or feel free to contact us at

admin@thestreetchurch.org







Bryan
Street Church Administrator & Volunteer Coordinator
(860) 578-2961 TEXT ONLY
bryan@thestreetchurch.org

A life laid down

They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
    as to shrink from death.

Revelation 12:11

While Kenny was leading Street Church, I attended a conference at Valley Community Baptist Church (as did Geoff and his daughter Jen)…

While there I ran into a friend I have not seen in forever. He and his wife adopted four kids each from a different Asian country. They taught me first hand and in real-time what loving the foreigner among you looks like. They are some of my heroes of the faith… all of them.

Last Week’s Update…stay connected!

Hi fam,

My heart was heavy over the past week for our friends, but it was a blissful few hours in the oasis of love at Street Church. Notes below.

Logistics

  • Served: ~70

  • Last week's leaders: Kenny

  • Next week's leaders: Geoff, Crystal

  • Next week's preacher: Bryan

Gifts

  • Last week's: socks

  • Next week's: underwear

Looking Ahead

  • A men's group from Valley Brook is handling all of the food for next week.

Miscellaneous

Service

It was just me (Kenny) today and UHaul was understaffed so it was a small fiasco.  

It was super slow getting the van, so I actually jumped out of the line to get to the unit because we had a family coming to help us out: Matt, Madi and their 3 young kids. They were awesome. Bryan organized the unit on Friday and had a few tasks for the kids to do.

We had just a small crew downtown other than the regulars. Two moms each with their middle school-aged sons were there, as was Zach who came for the first time last week (and is now hooked). Eric showed up for the first time in a while. I had a good chat with him. He got out of the hospital last Friday (a week ago) and Saturday was his first day out of the house. He's just been resting and letting his meds work. He said he felt like he needed to be here, and it was really nice to be with him. 

I gave a message on loving your neighbor. I was originally struck this week by Jesus' words that "A prophet is not accepted in his hometown" in Luke 4. We are in a season where many feel isolated in their “church hometowns”. We are in need of great empathy, compassion, kindness, and care and less flexing, hatred and discord.

I found God pointing me to Luke 10 and Jesus' parable about the Good Samaritan, where a religious leader tries to get Jesus to say he doesn't have to love everyone by asking "Who is my neighbor?" It seems to me like many people today are asking the same question in order to “justify themselves” on who they do and do not have to care for.  I told them I wasn't preaching a universalist message as God certainly has a specific design for how life is to be lived, but we can get too caught up in the Xs and Os of Christianity and lose sight of Jesus' bigger commandment… "go and do likewise [show mercy to all]….

I ended with the Beatitudes and reminded us all that it is how God sees us is what matters and that the best thing we can do to love our neighbor is to pray for them. Not so God “fixes them”, or their attitudes to change, but for God to meet them in their heart and to change our hearts towards them.  People seemed to resonate with it. Everyone was attentive and people felt it spoke to them. 

We had a great time of prayer and communion, lunch and giveaways. Benson, Eric, and Liz were dancing and praising at the altar. It was a great sight. I went back and unloaded on my own, which was good. 

My heart felt better after Street Church. It always does.

Have a wonderful week,

-Kenny

 From the Community Churches

Great worship time at The Farmington Station Community Church. It fills my heart so see staff and traveling OT’s and PT’s jumping into the gathered circle to take communion with the ones the care for…. neither male nor female, Greek nor Jew, Slave nor free, therapist nor patient… we are all one in Christ Jesus. Amen and Amen!

The Clairbridge Community Church @ Brookdale

The Community Church at Brookdale

The Community Church at Brookdale/Chatfield

The Clairbridge Community Church @ Brookdale/Chatfield

The Farmington Station Community Church

The Gables Community Church

The River Ridge Community Church

The West Hartford Health and Rehab Community Church

GIVE HERE TO SUPPORT US FINANCIALLY

SIGN UP HERE TO HELP SERVE.

SIGN UP HERE, TO PROVIDE FOOD DONATIONS  

Help Us Load Up @ 10am 164 South Street in West Hartford

visit our website thestreetchurch.org to learn more

or feel free to contact us at

admin@thestreetchurch.org

Bryan
Street Church Administrator & Volunteer Coordinator
(860) 578-2961 TEXT ONLY
bryan@thestreetchurch.org

soli Deo gloria… to God be the glory alone

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans,

for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

                                                                       Matthew 6:7-8

 

Last Week’s Update…stay connected!


Logistics

  • Served: 80

  • Last week's leaders: Geoff, Bryan 

  • Next week's leaders: Kenny

Gifts

  • Last week's: snack bags

  • Next week's: socks

Looking Ahead

Miscellaneous.

I like pizza 

Service

Great service this weekend... have we ever said anything else?

There was a smaller group but as is always the case we had what we needed. Geoff led us off and did a fine job. I'm so thankful for all of those whom God has sent to lead. It is not simply a "relief" of the burden, but it is a true blessing and joy to see "the glory of God"... as St. Irenaeus said..."the glory of God is man(kind) fully alive, and the life of man(kind) is the vision of God."

We had new folks from VOX join us and they jumped right in without a single bump. One man brought his son who got a little cold so we wrapped him up and his smile never faded. I met Loren, the son of Street Church's dear friend Sue Davis, at a local church before heading downtown. He works at an airport and when one of the local sports teams flies he gets the leftover food and he donates it to us. Such a blessing to have hundreds of sports drinks and snacks! God intentionally set up our food collection so that we would be dependent upon the hearts of others as Elijiah was fed by ravens. It keep us dependent and thankful. 
Chi Chi gave us a solid message from the Lord that He has been sharing with her during her personal time of reading and praying on the intimacy of Jesus and the healings of lepers. This led to people sharing stories during prayer, and tears fell as people were set free to say they were not ok. Maybe that's what we are here, a colony of full of “the one leper” who was healed and came back to say thank you.

We paused to hand out english and spanish copies of materials we were given by our friend Ali Rice on immigration rights. Please keep in mind that even those who are "legal" immigrants can we stopped and are living in fear. Our protocol is just gives names and no other information on any one. Churches are no longer safe places in the eyes of the administration. 

We've got a new friend, "Gloria" who is a bit over the top on the outfit spectrum. Please show the love we always do to everyone. Keep Chino in prayer as he is sick and in a warming shelter, for Eric and his mental health, and Malaree as she heals from back surgery. 

From the Community Churches

Mary and I got to the Farmington Station Community Church last week and it was a HOOT. There is a child-like joy that is often missed in memory care units. Perhaps it’s because we are afraid of thinking we might act like children when we are old too. I pray I do and some one comes to bring me joy! I sing and run and dance around like it’s an elementary school music class and then enter into deep worship, and read the Bible, preach and they listen and we have communion in such solemn unity. There are lots of courses and books written on this stuff, but I believe we are seeing the Father’s Heart for His children when we are here. We actually had staff and visiting therapists making their rounds line up for communion. What a gift! Their faces are full of joy and I can’t miss the fact that in this act of Table Unity they are proclaiming they and their “clients” are one family.

soli Deo gloria…to God be the glory alone

The Clairbridge Community Church @ Brookdale

The Community Church at Brookdale

The Community Church at Brookdale/Chatfield

The Clairbridge Community Church @ Brookdale/Chatfield

The Farmington Station Community Church

The Gables Community Church

The River Ridge Community Church

The West Hartford Health and Rehab Community Church

GIVE HERE TO SUPPORT US FINANCIALLY

SIGN UP HERE TO HELP SERVE.

SIGN UP HERE, TO PROVIDE FOOD DONATIONS  

Help Us Load Up @ 10am 164 South Street in West Hartford

visit our website thestreetchurch.org to learn more

or feel free to contact us at

admin@thestreetchurch.org

Bryan
Street Church Administrator & Volunteer Coordinator
(860) 578-2961 TEXT ONLY
bryan@thestreetchurch.org