Outreach Center Network News Letter
November 2018
In this issue:
Comfort from God - A Devotion
Ask My Buddy Personal Alert
Soup at an Outreach Gathering
17 Jokes So terrible they’re Actually Funny
Final Thoughts
Each article will begin with ###. You may move to the next article by searching for this.
### Comfort from God - A Devotion
Psalms 32:10 many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord's unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him.
When young, both of my children carried around and depended on blankets and a stuffed animal for security and comfort. When they got hurt, when they had a bad day, when they had a night mare with monsters, they clung to that blanket and stuffed animal. Yes Mommy and Daddy were helpful and needed but that blanky was just as important.
What surprised me is they often would set down the blanket to play, toss the stuffed animal into a corner when having fun, and would forget where they dropped them. So when the time of desperation comes they couldn’t find them.
Well I think we can learn a lot from kids. Too often we as adults forget that we also need something to bring us comfort and security. When those bad days come we also need something. Some turn to alcohol. Some turn to drugs. Others turn to physical pleasures of food or sex.
God’s love however can and does surround us. It can be our comfort and security. Yet even when we know this we often toss it aside and forget where to find it.
And that's why it’s good to be connected with other people who believe and hold to God's security blanket -- His unfailing love which surrounds the person who trusts in him. Like a parent who hands back the blanket to the sad child, so our friends in the community hand us God's unfailing love.
The verse in Psalms 32:10 noted that "Many are the woes of the wicked." Well we who know Jesus face just as many woes and wickedness. The difference is we have a God who can work good from bad, who surrounds us with people who can help, who promises a future that will be different.
Personally I do not have a blanky anymore but I do still have a stuffed animal. It is a one foot tall teddy bear. Freddy sits on my bed. I often hold him and I find comfort and security. I remember the friend who gave him to me. I remember the friend for who he is named. I remember that God holds me and keeps me safe.
Pastor Dave
### Ask My Buddy
Personal Alert...
Josh from Texas sent me this article as he thought people might be help by it.
All of us are alone sometimes and we can't
always reach our phones or press a button to get assistance. This is why everyone
needs Ask My Buddy because you can't predict when you'll need help. If
you have fallen, or need help, Ask My Buddy lets you immediately alert someone
in your Personal Alert Network that you need them to check on
you. You may alert just 1 contact or all of your friends or family with just
one command. Simply say, 'Alexa, Ask My Buddy to alert Your Contact' or 'Alexa,
Ask My Buddy to alert everyone', and Ask My Buddy will
immediately send an alert, notifying them to check on you right away. Alerts
will be sent by text
message / SMS, an email, and even a voice telephone call.
Ask My Buddy is not a substitute for 911,
but rather an additional tool offering the
security of knowing help is just a shout away.
If you need any help setting it up, please send an email to [email protected] (please be sure to check your email spam folder).
For hands on demonstrations and how-to videos, visit us at https://www.youtube.com/AskMyBuddy
### Soup at an Outreach Gathering
A pastor contacted me and asked if soup was a good or bad thing to serve at the gathering.
Here’s how I responded:
Soup is o.k. but …
First when you serve it acknowledge that everybody, sighted and blind spill and drip. That’s o.k.
Second, ask volunteers to NOT, I repeat, NOT go out of their way to clean up drips. This makes people self-conscious.
I would suggest that you do a general announcement at the beginning, noting the meal is soup; that drips will come. If anyone is concerned or wants help with drips, to let a volunteer know. If people do not ask for help, then don’t give it. I’m thinking those who want help will be quick to ask. They are probably going somewhere later or want to look clean.
Last you could also suggest in the announcement that you have extra napkins that can be opened and put in the top of the shirt to cover the shirt, like a man’s tie.
### 17 Jokes So Terrible They Are Actually Funny.
1. Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love and got married. The Ceremony wasn't much, but the reception was excellent.
2. A jumper cable walks into a bar. The bartender says, "I'll serve you, but don't start anything."
3. A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."
4. A dyslexic man walks into a bra.
5. A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says: "A beer please, and one for the road."
6. Two cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other: "Does this taste funny to you?"
7. "Doc, I can't stop singing 'The Green, Green Grass of Home.'"
"That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome."
"Is it common?"
Well, "It's Not Unusual."
8. An invisible man marries an invisible woman. The kids were nothing to look at either.
9. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't find any.
10. A man woke up in a hospital after a serious accident. He shouted, doctor, doctor, I can't feel my legs!" The doctor replied, "I know you can't, I've cut off your arms!"
11. I went to a seafood disco last week... and pulled a mussel.
12. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh.
13. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
14. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why," they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said, "I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."
15. Two peanuts walk into a bar, and one was a salted.
16. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him.
( A super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.
17. And finally, there was the person who sent twenty different puns to his friends, with the hope that at least ten of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in tendid!!!!!!!!
### Final Thoughts
In upcoming issues we can and will look at many of the same topics as well as others. If you have questions, thoughts or suggestions, please send them to me or post them on the blind ministry email list.
Pastor Dave