WOW

Everything has changed so drastically in the past few weeks that I hope I can portray all of it.
We have been picking up from a grocery store bread on and off since July. They called us at other times for other things that they had for us but it was never consistent. We started to have a better relationship with one of the managers of the grocery store. Totally loves us. Totally liked who we are, what we were doing, and how we handled our stores that give to us. With his love for us he started to pester, bug, push the store owner to give more to us like produce and other food items they were throwing away on a weekly or even daily basis. But because of fear of legal matters the owner pushed it aside. Then the manager started to push us to bring in paperwork to prove we are trustworthy and have no intentions of any kind of legal matters.

One day while we were picking up bread the manager was asking me questions about our organization and the pay joel and I get. I told him JOel and I don't get paid and we put in our bylaws of Supplying Needs that we would not get paid. He then started asking the usual question like where do you get money from, how do you pay your bills (rent, utility etc) I just said straight out "God takes care of us" Oh he had a hissy fit. He even stopped talking to me for about 5 minutes which seemed like eternity. I freaked out in my mind but again had to give it to God. I prayed Lord you are in control of this contact if we lose it then I have nothing to be ashamed about but I will not give way to fear and I pray for this manager that you would speak to him." Yeah I felt it was that drastic that we could lose this contact. But after the 5 minutes he started to talk to me again and ripped on me hard core about my faith.

But that night we got a call from him saying the owner wanted to have a meeting with us the next day inregards to picking up from them 6 days a week and seeing how we handle donated food.

We had the meeting the next day and it was awesome. Had a great time talking to the manager and owner. By the end they agreed to let us pick up from them 6 days a week. They even stated that they loved all of our tactics and things we did to help them out. Glory to God is all I can say.

Then things just went crazy after that. We got an email from a wholesaler saying we had 2 truck loads of assorted canned and dry goods and pet food and bottled water and other non-edible products. Then another day we got a call from another store saying they had 1/2 a pallet of yogurt.

And by the end of the week we got another email from another wholesaler saying they want to donate 15 pallets of pizza. Which we are still waiting to see what the best time is to pick it up.

Well my computer is about to die. I am sitting in front of the library in the car writing this. By I do want to leave you with one last praise report. In 2010 Supplying Needs has received over 80,000 dollars worth of food, clothes, and furniture that has been distributed free of charge to indivuals as well as 16 groups that we give to. Look at God. He continues to supply us. And can I say on a tiny tiny tiny unbelievable budget. I love my God that can do the impossible.

Love all ya'll. Thank you Jesus for your provision I love you!

The Butlers

6th Year Anniversary 2010

It has been oh-so-fabulous. We have a tradition that odd years I plan our anniversary, even years Joel plans the anniversary. As you can probably guess it was Joel's year. And thus far I have had a blast. We drove about an hour and half to San Jose where we went out to eat and Joel rented a hotel room. Then tomorrow we go cruising on the 101 to look at the wonderful view of the coast in hopes to stop at a wonderful beach. It has been fabulous!!! Then the lady we are staying with said to me this week "Dess would you let me bless you with an Anniversary gift." I said sure. "I want to pay to get your hair cut." Oh no I am trying to grow it long but I was going to ask Morgan (Toni's youngest daughter) if she would curl it for me. "HOw about I pay for you to get your hair curled?" SO she called Lisa the lady that cuts my hair and set up an appointment for me to get it curled. I love it. I have never got my hair professionally done like this not on prom and not even my wedding day. I always did my hair. Man this is so fabulous.

I have enjoyed myself so much. So why am I on the internet on our anniversary. Well it is free with the hotel, I couldn't help put on pics we have thus far, and we are just chillin and I have watched all the mythbusters (there seems to be a mythbusters marathon) that I can take right now. So I thought "Hey let's put some pics on the net."

So here they are, ENJOY!!!

Dinner at Macaroni Grill!!! YUM!!

My Curly Hair-Do

In the Car

In the hotel Lobby (taken by the receptionist)

Did you ever just wonder??

Did you ever wonder when a certain season in your life would be over. I am wondering that more and more. Like why I am still where I am at. What is it going to take to get out of this place? What is God doing? I know He is good and everything He does is good BUT THIS SURE DOESN'T FEEL GOOD!!!

SO here are questions that are constantly on my mind:

When do we get to move out of Toni's place?
When do we get a warehouse?
When will food come in constantly?
Why are we still here waiting?
What do I have to learn form all of this?
What do I have to do to move on to the next season?

So Toni's place is absolutely wonderful! I love her family, her kids, our relationship.
BUT I desire with everything with in me to have Joel's and my own place. Whether it is in a warehouse, a 5th wheeler (aka mobile home), apartment, or house? BUt every time I bring this subject up with God he gives me the same anwer I" need you at Toni's. I have a reason why you are there." So pretty much if you are still there there is a reason. Kind of like if you are still breathing God has a purpose for you. At the same time He won't tell me the reason we are there. Maybe because I would speed up the process to do what he wants me to do so we can get out of there. At one point I was thinking maybe he knows we aren't ready to have our own place. You know how parents don't give their child something because they can't handle it. So I came to that conclusion in my own mind. BUt then God corrected me and said "Dess remember how you tell me "What ever you want God I will do, Where ever you want me to go, I will go. This is the result of your prayer. This is where I want you, this is where I want you to go. SO again I, Dess Butler, ask When will this season be over?

Next THE WAREHOUSE. When God when? WHy God Why? He promised a warehouse/building for our ministry. Now it is just the patient game.

THEN THERE IS FOOD? IT comes so randomly. Some weeks we get nothing other weeks we are buys. I just don't get it. AGain what is GOd doing?

The waiting game drives me crazy. Maybe that is what i have to learn. MOre patience, more waiting, more more more endurance.

So I am here stuck in God's will. Did you ever feel like that too. YOu don't really like where you are at but you didn't want to leave God's will for your life either. So I am here recieting to myself. I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans of Good and not of harm to make you prosper to give you a hope for the future. Thank you God!!!

So that is it. Please pray for us as we wait on God.

Love,
Dess

Part of My Grandfathers Ponds he Built

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