Awww Lovin that Thing you Do!!! Thanks God!!

Hey EveryOne,

God continues to blow me away with what He does!! So This week when I was praying the Lord said to start going back to the grocery stores. (You know the ones that said no to us.) I don't know yet if He meant all 64 that said no. But I started and sent about 5 to 6 letters out. We called them on Friday and one Lady from a store said something like this "Oh yes I was going to call you today. We would love for you guys to pick up. A church is already picking up from us. So it will be you and a church. You mentioned that you would like our produce. We have produce that we put on clearance but we would rather give it to you guys. We will call you when we have stuff and we pull food weekly" We went in that hour and picked up so much food that it filled our mini-bus. Juices, dessert mixes, and tons of wonderful bread!!! THis was the same store that said no to us about a year ago maybe a little less and said they were giving to a lot of Groups and didn't want to give to us. God just blows me away.

I am learning that God can do what ever He wants, when ever he wants. He can harden or soften any mans heart. He is in total control. I was watching VeggieTales (Suprise Suprise) with Amiyah and she had picked up Gideon Tuba warrior. And in the song it talks about God making the whole universe and never asking for advice. And I was thinking oh yeah God you really don't need my help. You know what we are going through and what we are doing. All we have to do is follow you. I mean you did make the earth and it is so beautiful and you never once asked how I wanted it done so why would you need my hand in it now unless you ask. Hm food for thought huh!!!

Also Joel and I had two weeks vaca with my family. The first week I was in bed with a fever, soar throat, snot and so much more gross stuff. The second week was so much better. So much quality time with the fam. I just loved it!!! I love my nephews I just adore them. I love Mom and Dad Wendle and my sister and her husband. It was fabulous seeing them. Ew yes and playing a mean game of spades with my sister her husband and a couple that they try and get together with every Friday for cards or what not.

And we had an open house for the Three churches that have loved and supported us since me being at Friend Ships. It was so awesome showing them what God is doing here in Stockton. And they are so encouraging and loving. I just love it.

Well that is about it. Thanks for joining us on this ride we are on. Stay tuned to a JOel and Dess near you. Cause I just love that Thing that you Do God!!! He suprises me all that time.

Love,
Dess

Joel, Me, and Dean

Joel and Christopher

Mom and I

My Sister and I.

At the open house: Mom, Barb, Onum, Joel and Dad

God's Goodness!!!

So God has blown our mind once again. There is a wholesaler we are now picking up from once a month that give us a variety of dry goods, canned goods, bottled water, and pet food. This week was the second time we picked up from them. When I talked with my contact he said that he had two loads for us if we could take both of them. We said "OH YEAH". (Note: the first time we picked up it was only one load) So we call one of our friends that runs a food ministry that we give to and asked if they could take the whole first load. She started flipping out on the phone (in a good way).

"Dess you don't even know yesterday we were just praying that God would bless you and Joel with a pick up and that you would have more than one load."
I was freaking out. God is so good to answer prayers.

Then when we got to the warehouse we were talking to my contact about life and he said so who do you know in our company. Joel and I just shrug cause we really don't know any one. Then he went into the story of how they used to donate to 80 other groups but just recently he personally had to call all 80 groups and tell them they could not give to them ANY MORE. And now they only give to 3 groups and we were one of the 3.

This blew our minds. Can you just freak out for me. Because I was like trying to run this God idea through my little head. "So God they stopped giving to 80 groups because of the economy and they just didn't have anything for them any more. Then our Associate pastor of our church says that he has a contact in the this specific grocery chain and to call him we do and we get the hook up. Are you for real. God we are no buddy BUT you are somebody. Thank you God."

So that is our awesomely crazy God story. We feel so blessed and priveldge that God considers us worthy to be his hands and feet.

And passing out the food to the churches and individuals we are hearing testimony after testimony of God moving.

There was one man we give to that God has put on our hearts to give to directly. Well in our big load of items we picked up we got dog food. Both Joel and I knew he had dogs and thought of giving to him but forgot. So today we called him and said we had dog food for him. Comes to find out that he had just given his lost dollar (for pet food) to his daughter who really needed gas money. AFter he had agreed to give his only pet food money away we called 15 minutes later and said we had dog food for him. Can you believe our God He is just too awesome.

So that is what God is doing here in Stockton California. We feel blessed he called us here to be His hands and feet and Love.

God's Love,
The Butlers

Hi There!

We got a donation yesterday from a grocery store that does the occasional donation. That was awesome because it was like meats, eggs, cheese, yogurt and other stuff. It was about a small pallet. We grabbed some for us and were able to give the rest out to a couple of groups. Then at 5pm we had another pick up of 6 pallets of bread!!

Some interesting stuff happened that day. 1st we were looking up directions to the grocery store and our laptop screen was extremely dark (like we couldn't see anything except if it was white) but i could tilt it into the sun and kinda make things out. Well, we were freaked out because we depend on our laptop a lot, but there wasn't anything we could do about it then.

2nd, later on after we had dropped off all the donations and were heading home in the bus, it suddenly stalled on us. I was able to put it in neutral and it fired up again and that was fine. But as i thought about it my mind started racing because i kept thinking... "This is a diesel, diesel's don't just stall... What's going WRONG?? Is it the fuel pump? I can't afford to fix the fuel pump!" etc. etc. etc. Well we got on the freeway and were cruising along and it did it again. So i shifted to neutral and it started back up again. Okay wierd! When i shift back into drive it runs a little then dies again. I'm checking the guages, etc. The battery needle is jumping everywhere! So i think maybe it's the battery terminals are somehow loose and losing connection. But that doesn't really make sense either. So i'm coasting now along the freeway getting slower and slower. When it suddenly starts working fine again and i'm able to drive along just fine. Great! I suggest getting off the freeway to see what's up but Dess says "well if it can just get us home!!" We were about 5 miles from home. So i kept going. As we're going over a big bridge we hit some bad freeway and the bus jostles and the engine cuts out again! AAAAHHHHH! Well this time the light comes on... literally. For some reason this time i notice a little red light over my head come on which is an indicator that the back door isn't closed. I know the door is closed, but this is a safety switch which was installed when it was a bus which won't let the driver get the vehicle going if the door is open. It's a little unnerving when you are driving 55 MPH+ down the freeway and the engine just cuts out, but hey safety first right! Well, at least we knew about this switch because it first acted up back when the bus was being donated to us, but i thought that Josh and i had disconnected it. So i tell Dess (as we're coasting down the other side of the bridge) to go to the back of the bus and work the handle to make the switch go off. Dess is so good, she went back there and started toggling that handle up and down, up and down, up and down until it fell right off in her hands while the door was in the open position!! Talk about fun times! Well, i decide it's time to pull over even if we are still on the freeway. (Just so you aren't worried about Dess falling out the back, we've got a hasp lock on the back door on the outside of the bus which was locked, so the door would only open a crack when she was working the handle!) So i get out and work the handle from the outside until the light goes off again. I get back in and start to drive off. But it dies on my AGAIN!! I'm getting frustrated, scared, etc. I get out and start putting my fingers up there where the switch is. Well, i came to find out that we had disconnected the switch, but somehow the loose wire was grounding out and giving a false signal that the door was open!! So i tied the wire up so it couldn't touch anything and we drove off, everything was fine.

Now back to the laptop, that night when we were home i decided i'd prayerfully open it up and see if it would work or not and see if there was anything that i could visually see would be wrong with it. Well, when i fired it up, the display was back to working fine again! What a blessing.

So today we started the day with a truck full of bread (6 pallets). We had a few churches lined up to accept donations from us, but we weren't sure how much we'd be able to give away. By about 1pm we had given it away to a total of 7 different groups. We even took some by the local Salvation Army Corps, much to their delight because they are having a spaghetti dinner this weekend and the bread was going to be a huge blessing to them. Look at God go! While we were donating to another group, they traded us back some chips and 6 large hams. We looked at the tag on the hams and they were valued at approximately $40 each! What a huge blessing!

Ministry stuff sure has picked up for us lately and we are excited to be able to be God's hands and feet. We sure love serving the local churches and ministry by bringing awesome donations directly to their doors. We are thankful for all the prayers and support which are making this happen. We know it's not us that is making this work. We serve an awesome God and are related to a lot of amazing saints who keep us in their prayers.

P.S. I'd like to make a note about something Dess posted a little while ago... I feel she misrepresented me and my toilet paper preferences :) What happened is that i was having a conversation with someone about how the "cheap" stuff isn't really all that cheap when you think about how much you have to use to clean up after yourself and that i felt that we could buy the toilet paper which is a higher quality and not use as much. That's all i was saying, i don't even think the fact that it's "softer" ever came up!! Just clearing the record.

Rollin Rollin Rollin God is really Rollin

Things are rollin right along here. We are so excited what God is doing!!! Yesterday we picked up 6 pallets of ham hocks. WOW, YEAH, CHA!!! Thank you God.

Then we have a church that has a food ministry that we give to. They take a lot I mean a lot not just from us but from other wholesalers only problem at this moment they don't have a truck to pick it up in. So supplying needs (that's us) has offered to help them pick up the food if they would share with us the items we pick up so we can give to other groups. They agreed. So after we gave all the ham hocks away we picked up 12 pallets of chips for them. They wanted to give us a few pallets but we could only take one because we need the truck empty for today. Yeah that is right we are picking up over 3,000 loaves of bread today. Soon in an hour and 1/2. We are so excited what God is doing.

My mind keeps going in circles with God. "Okay God we really need a warehouse now, well I guess that isn't true because you would have already provided one if we REALLY needed it. But God we are getting all this food, oh God you already know we are getting all this food cause you are the one giving it to us. So could you give us a warehouse then, wait you would have given us a warehouse already if we truly needed it." Yeah I know that is the circle my mind is going in. For real!!!

One last story before I close this blog. When we were dropping of some ham hocks to a church they mention that a local soda wholesaler gives to them. But the wholesaler always wants to give them more then they can handle. So they asked us if we could pick up for them instead and give to them what they want and then take the rest to other churches. How awesome and exciting is that.

Any way God is really awesome and we are excited about what He is doing. I mean he was awesome before all this . . . any way.

Love you Guys,
the Butlers

Wholesalers and a Donation

We had a friend Comment that we should blog more often. So I am encouraged and inspired to write.

I have been on a high for the past few days because we got a few or couple of yes's from wholesalers. One being a meat wholesaler. Yeah I am excited. And we got a 6 pallet donation of assorted food, drinks, and supplies. The donation was mostly water but man, who can't use bottled water. Well I don't know if my parents could. They always discouraged us kids from buying bottle water because it was a waste of money. hehehe Love you Mom and Dad Wendle.

Any way so that was exciting. It was an adventure on the day we picked up the donation. When we rolled up we had a pallet from the last donation in the truck and I was thinking what on earth are we going to do with the pallet it will just take up space that we need for the donation. Joel suggested we ask the people at the warehouse if they could use it. So we just took it out of the truck and set it aside as we waited to load up our truck with the donation.

Also We had bought a pallet jack a few months ago for an occasions such as this. But when Joel went to pick up the first pallet with the pallet jack our jack broke right then and there. Oh the embaressment. But the Lord has been teaching me about having a good attitude or not showing everything I am feeling on the inside when there is a "crisis" So I put on a smile and just got to work. Do you know you can feel better just by smiling. Who knew?

That is when our pallet came in handy Joel and I quickly went to work by putting our pallet down and unloading the donations from their pallet to our pallet. We did this for 3 pallets until they came with a pallet jack that we could use to load our truck. Then things went a bit more smoothly. The workers at the warehouse commented about how hard Joel and I work which felt good because it helped me feel a little less embaressed. I mean come on it was our first time picking up from this company and our pallet jack broke, when does that happen? They were gracious and we went on our way.

Since God has not given Supplying Needs a building or a warehouse yet we parked in an empty parking lot of a vacant warehouse and went through all the banana boxes full of assorted food, water, and supplies. It was awesome and it didn't take all that long to go through each box and organize according to food, animal food, water, and supplies. We then took what we needed and for a family and then gave the rest away to 4 churches who are helping their surrounding community.

God is just so good. And we found that God had provided toliet paper (the soft kind that I won't buy but that Joel always wants. I am just too cheap) and dawn dish soap that I won't buy unless it is on sale because again I am just too cheap. But God is not and takes care of us. We also picked up food for a family which was cool because when we gave it to them they said How did you know we needed sugar, did we tell you? I said no I had no clue. God just rocks.

So that was our big adventure. We are excited they want to give to us once a month. What a blessing.

Then on Friday I was calling wholesalers about their non-sellable products and we had a few yes's. I was so pumped . . . . . still am. They are going to call us when they have something for us.

So that is about it from us. Oh wait we did get our pallet jack fixed . . . . for free. A couple that have adopted Joel and I that live in Stockton has us over to their house for dinner and holidays. Well the husband Kim wields and says if we ever need help he would love to. So when Joel brought it up that our pallet jack broke and ask if he could help, Kim was more than willing. It was such a relief to Joel because we dont' have the equipment (yet) and the supplies (yet) and the pallet jack may not have been fixed or been expensive to fix. Praise God for that kind of provision eh!?!

Okay really that is it. We love all ya'll very much. We are excited what God is doing. Thank you for all your prayers they have helped us so much.

Love Love Love,
The Butlers

Belize you Me!!!

Belize was awesome. I could have stayed there the rest of my life. I loved the people I worked with. I loved the fast pace. I loved the work. Everything about it I loved.

SO the ministry I went to work with is called LOL ministries. (aka Laugh out Loud) Ministries. They are building an orphanage in Belize by the town or city of Punta Gorda. The couple that is running and started the ministry is Jervis and Melissa. Man Melissa and I became quick and close friends. I wish we could live together and work along side each other she is just so awesome. They have 2 kids who are adopted one is an orphan and the other two they had together.

Melissa and I in our last moments together (tear tear)

They have groups come down once or twice a month to help them out and the groups go and evangelize in the local tribes. My job was to help serve the group. My main job was breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There was 42 in the group of Grade 12 (Seniors) who were on there mission trip. It was required for them to go on it to graduate. They were so awesome. I totally fell in love with them. They are such great kids. They always said thank you and please. They were really great with the locals especially the kids from Belize. Man I just loved them. They stole my heart.

So I was located in the jungle or in the woods near Punta Gorda. I was able to go in to a village or tribe near where I was staying at. I was taken to a home of a lady named Margarita. She has 9 kids. In Belize it cost 1,000 dollars Belizean money (500 U.S. Dollars) to send your kid to High school. That is not including fund raising and other odds and ends needed for your child to go to High school. So Margarita makes purses and necklaces and sells them to send her kids to school. Her husband works for LOL ministries. Margarita was so nice letting us come into her home. Most of the buildings I saw in the villages were one room. Melissa told me that is to have wind flow because it gets so hot in Belize. So Margarita lived in a one room hut with her 9 kids and husband. She and her husband slept in one hammock while her kids slept on a floor or what we would consider a table with no matteress and I didn’t see any blackest.

Margarita with her youngest Kelly. Ms. Irma is sitting on one of their beds.

Their Stove they cook on.

I also worked with 3 ladies: Ms. Irma (Her husband paid for my trip to Belize) Ms. Carol, and Ms. Bonnie. Man I loves those ladies. They are all on fire for the Lord. I learned a lot from them. And listened to them as much as possible to try and learn as much as I could. So wise, so on fire: I just love it!!!

I also got sick in Belize. The bug or virus was going around the kids (I guess one was already sick before they came and spread it around.) I got it from them. Yuck. So the last two full days I was there I wasn’t feeling so hot. My stomach was killing me. But I really wanted to work. I just can’t sit still. So the first day I got sick the kids were on their way to a village to minister and bring hot dogs. The bus broke down just before they got there. So Melissa asked if I was felling well enough to help take 3 vehicles to help them out. Oh man was I. I loved that trip. Deep in the jungle on dirt roads. On our way there a bridge was being worked on. Now our bridges and their bridges are completely different. There bridges are wood planks. Nailed down. Very narrow. Very narrow with no railing on a lot of them. I wish I could have gotten a picture. SO any way the people working on the “bridge” decided that they would let us go without finishing the bridge. Now there was a bus, a van (that I was driving) and a pick-up truck. The bus was in the lead so I had thought if the bus can make it so can I. The 4x4 planks of wood was not nailed down yet. And as the bus drove on it you could see the planks move. But it made it through and then I went and then the truck . . . NO PROBLEM . . . “Thank you Jesus” is the moral of this story!!!

We got the vehicles there and Melissa and I turned right back around in the van. What a wonderful adventure.

Also the animals in belize are so skin and bones it is so sad to me. But I kept reminding myself if the animals are this bad you know the people are not well fed either.

Okay so the things I learned. I learned about the Heart of the Leader. How important it is to know why they do what they do. There was a lot of miscommunication at times and the Lord really blessed me with knowing the heart of both sides of the story. And I found when you know the Heart of the person it is easier to do what they want or it is easier to see why they do what they do. So communicating the heart. That was the biggest thing I learned. Oh Don’t get me wrong I learned other things about leadership like why for some people it is easier to accept every one than it is for others. And when a person who is under leadership is healthy it is easier for them to do what you ask them to do. I am not going into details but I learned a lot about leadership and why it is so important to find out where people are truly at.

So that is the gist of my trip. I had the most wonderful time. I hope soon God will send me back or at least let Joel go and maybe even together.

Thanks for all your prayers and asking about it. I love all ya’ll.

Love love love,

Dess

Ms. Bonnie, Ms. Irma, and Ms Carol: I love these Girls!!!

Typical House in the Villages

Supplying Needs and Belize

So life is pretty crazy right now. Things have slowed down in regards to passing out food. On March 1st we gave out the last of our huge food donation to a church that gives to 10,000 households. Wow I was blown away by that number. I wanted to ask if I had miss heard them but when I saw they had three 40 foot long containers full of food I thought better of my question. A few days later another Christian group called and said they heard that we were giving away food. I told them we were out but they kept insisting they wanted to trade with us and asked to be put on our list of people we give to. Then they offered us food they had cantaloupe, pears, potatoes, and egg plant. We ended up going and giving them office and household supplies as well as picking up cases of the food they had for us.

SO we were able to give all the food that the grocery store with the fire had given us to about 11 groups. Pretty amazing what God can do in a blink of an eye. Each group has their own testimony of what Jesus is doing.

Right now our main focus is PAPERWORK. Our ministry has a fiscal year end which ends in February. We are now doing paperwork that we have to do at the end of EVERY year. Joel and I have been spending hours and days trying to understand and complete the long tedious work. But it is worth it if we want to stay up and running.

It has also shown me the provision GOd has done in less than a year in regards to starting our ministry. In a matter of 11 months we have received 43,013 dollars worth of product and fincial support. This includes our refrigerated box truck, the 23,000 dollars worth of food from the grocery store that had the fire, a mini bus and much much more. It is mind blowing what GOd can do with two people who do not have income coming in (aka no paying job) and with other people to help out that believe in the vision as much as we do!!! Thank you Jesus!!! And thank you every one that has supported through this. We could not be doing what we are doing with out you.

Last I am heading to Belize tomorrow. The man that gave us the refrigerated box truck asked if i would accompany his wife to Belize. She goes down 2 or 3 times a year to do mission work with a group called LOL Ministries. www.lolministry.com. I will be gone for 12 days. I am pretty excited. Sad to be gone from Joel but all the same adventure is an adventure. I don't know exactly what I will be doing but this is what God wants me to do so I am excited for what He has in mind.

WEll that is it from us. Thank you again for all your love and support. GOd has used you in a mighty way to help further his Kingdom.

To God Be the Glory

Love love love,
The Butlers