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The Kids From "The Gate" Find Peace at "The Refuge"
Saturday, March 21 is a day that 44 youth from the inner-city streets of Kinston will not soon forget. The Gate is an inner-city ministry in the heart of Kinston that reaches out to many youth that are at a high risk of being involved in gang activity, selling drugs, violence, or other criminal behavior. On this day however, these young folks were able to explore the beauty of God's creation at The Refuge. They hiked the Creation Trail, saw animal tracks and found turtle shells. They went canoeing, most of them for the first time, and also were able to try there luck at fishing in Little Contentnea Creek.
Although no fish were caught, and most of the youth canoeing spent more time spinning in circles than actually going forward, we heard the sounds of laughter, and watched as 44 youth were at peace as they felt the comfort and safety of being with God at The Refuge. During Lunch we sang praise songs and learned that God created each of us with a purpose and that we are beautifully and wonderfully made. It was truly a great day!
With grant money received, "The Gate" donated two brand new soccer goals to The Refuge that were assemble on the morning of their arrival and ready for them to play on after lunch. I'm not sure it was what you would call an official soccer game and I'm pretty sure that there were too many people on each team, but I don't think any of them cared and they all had a marvelous time just being in a place where they could be kids. We thank The Gate for there generous donation that will be enjoyed by many others for years to come!
After Much Prayer God Has Provided A Tractor! Praise God!
After one year of trying to keep up with the grounds at The Refuge we decided that another year with out a tractor to mow grass and help with work teams would be too much to bear. This has been on our prayer list for over a year now and God has blessed us tremendously with a brand new John Deere tractor. With a very generous gift from the Harvey/Mcnairy Foundation we have been able to purchase a new tractor with a mowing deck, front loader, and a box blade to help maintain our roads.
This is even more amazing when you consider the following... If we had received a tractor anytime before now we would not have had a place to store it. Our maintenance building was full of lumber that had been given by Home Builders in Greenville. But recently we had a gentleman (Ron Cappell) come and build us a wood shed on the back of our maintenance building to store all of the lumber. This shelter was finished last week and all of the lumber is now safely inside our new wood shed. When we finally put all of the lumber out in our new shed, it was then that God provided the tractor that we can now safely keep locked in our maintenance building. Once again I am amazed at the timing of God. He continues to direct our path and provide exactly what we need when we need it.
