ONE BLAZING SUMMER — Furnishing Families of Texas

We’re “BLAZING” trails in this HOT Texas Season

Hello Friends!

We chose to keep this newsletter on the heat theme of summer, because WOW IS IT TRUE IN TEXAS! In the midst of this season, our team has been going the extra mile and maneuvering through our non-climate controlled warehouses, loading and unloading the back of our metal box truck, and delivering to families at peak sun hours. They are simply amazing.

The families we serve are challenged by the climate as well. We hear horror stories of broken air conditioning units unaddressed by apartment management and eviction notices threatening others to face the heat of the concrete street.

In the midst of this season, trails have been BLAZED by Furnishing Families that directly impacts our neighbors nearby, across the US, and beyond. We also have an update and invitation for local friends to get involved in our next August Outreach! Come and see…

Coming to a state near you!!!

Over the last few years, we have received inquiries on how to get started doing work similar to Furnishing Families in their region. To answer this question seemed counter-intuitive, because all this began organically, and seemingly by accident from a water leak disaster in our home. The room became repurposed as an office after renovation, and the bedroom furniture was connected with a local organization that helps single moms get on their feet. In hindsight, we can see what God was doing through it all, but it can be hard to tell others “The Steps” for how they should begin their ministry.

This summer, we decided to share in-person what we’ve learned with the hope that it would help provide a roadmap—not a formula—for others who share a similar vision of serving local families with furniture, beds, and housewares. We invited some of these folks to our headquarters in Fort Worth to see the day to day operation at our warehouse, meet and pray with our team, and help with deliveries.

Sherry and Steve Stoeppler (pictured to the right of Karen) have started the process of accumulating inventory and are now preparing to serve their region in Tennessee. Bonnie Stephenson (far right), from the email “Hanging Out With Partners,” is also developing her organization Furnishing Families of Louisiana! Thank you all for making the trip to us and getting in on the Love-In-Action.

This type of work is becoming a calling for many. We have friends who have started their own organization in Oklahoma city and others in California who have already completed deliveries! (Watch for their stories in a future newsletter.) Annabelle and Lance were in Colorado Springs with The Fire and Glory Tour and several ladies there decided they want to start a Furnishing Families type ministry in their garage!

Here's how the Lord works! A few weeks ago, one of my friends who lives in the Denver area named Renee asked me if I would like to receive some furniture she had in her storage unit. I wasn't quite sure how to drive it all the way to Texas from Colorado so I kept it on the back burner in my mind. Renee drove into Colorado Springs for the Fire and Glory meetings. While we were at this conference, one of the ladies serving us in the dining room named Vanessa told us that she is about to start a Healing House. I introduced Vanessa and Renee to each other at lunch. A third person named Kim was sitting with us, and she offered to receive the furniture from nearly 1.5 hrs away and store it in her garage until Vanessa closes on her Healing House purchase! Wow! -Annabelle

Almost everybody has something they're storing that they could donate to someone else.

It's not necessary to jump hook, line, and sinker into this type of work. You can start by sharing a table and chairs or buying somebody a bed. Once you get started and see the impact you have on a family, especially from the child's perspective, you’ll feel the shift of functionality that happens in their home and begin to get addicted to making it happen over and over again.

If you are considering the possibility of a similar outreach organization, my encouragement will always be to do it the way God is leading you. As followers of Jesus, we are all representatives of the kingdom of God and, ultimately, that’s the most important affiliation/network we need. We would love to hear your stories and serve as a support along the way! We look forward to keeping you all posted on how God uses these outreaches in their areas.

Furnishing Families International

You may not know this, but Furnishing Families of Texas is technically a subgroup of Furnishing Families International! Our eyes are set on impacting the world, even though we are starting with our own backyard. In the past, we have partnered with outreaches in England, and we are making friends all over the world. It is a joy for us to introduce you to a new relationship that has provided a special opportunity for global impact. This ministry in Zambia, Africa helps orphans and young people at risk, a mission very close to our heart.

We met Dr. Mayaba S. Choongo through our friends and regional partners, Stepping Stones. Dr. Mayaba shared about the needs for her organization Dream Kidz Zambia, which provides education, social work, discipleship, and community outreach to the youth in the region, primarily in Malala Village and a nearby region.

Everything started when Dr. Mayaba and her husband Dr. Hamoonga H. Choongo opened their home and lives to young people in 2003. They hosted prayer meetings, led many local children to Jesus and walked them through spiritual deliverance, especially from the grip of witchcraft. They provided mentorship and financial support where they could. One of their first triumphs was a young girl. “We supported her from high school to college,” Dr. Mayaba said. “Now she holds a good job and is reaching out to support others too!” This type of empowerment, along with Christian discipleship, propelled them to begin Dream Kidz Zambia.

In Malala Village, they create relationships with the local 300+ children, many who are orphaned or at risk, through community outreach programs, donating school supplies, and more. In 2018, they created their own school a few hours away which has a day school for both boys and girls, but also has a girls' boarding program, as well. Some from the Malala village now attend this school. There are orphans who commute from the local orphanage to attend their school, as well.

The new boarding program for girls meets a dire need. Some of these youth leave abusive situations at home or come directly from an orphanage. Dr. Choongo has witnessed firsthand the vulnerability of school age girls in Zambia, with issues of abuse, bondage and child marriage being prevalent in the country. Dr. Choongo told us, “Many of the children had never slept on their own bed or experienced electricity and running water!” She added, “They are now at our boarding school learning about Jesus and aiming high in school.”

The Choongo’s have seen the results of faithfully investing in the next generation, spanning back to the early days of mentoring from their home. As she recounts the relationships over the years, she can name more than 20 young people who have now graduated college.

Furnishing Families was able to provide resources that Dr. Mayaba personally packed and brought with her on a trip to Zambia from her local base in Texas. The Care package included multiple sets of school supplies, 94 Bibles, 39 bags/backpacks, multiple pairs of rain boots and 20 bedding sets (10 for boys and 10 for girls).

We also provided 300 jerseys for a soccer program that they began for the community and the school. This has also become an outreach tool to identify children in the community near their school who can be paired with a sponsor to attend the program. There are about 100 children who live near their school. Soccer can be a vehicle to pull children away from crime and create opportunities for mentorship. This program also helps to identify and develop local talent, potentially becoming a career path and a road out of poverty for some. Last fall, Dr. Mayaba coordinated a soccer tournament and after the event, held an evangelistic crusade to preach the gospel.

We love the heart behind the Dream Kidz Zambia mission and want to feature Dr. Mayaba’s work to our network. There exist multiple needs for the school: sponsorship for more girls’ attendance in the boarding program, a dormitory, beds, lockers, and the completed construction of a dining hall. The boarding school has a capacity for 100, but currently has 27 boys and girls attending, 20 commuting and 7 girls in the boarding housing. Per local government disease control regulations, the dining hall must be completed before the full capacity of the boarding school can be opened. Once constructed, Dr. Mayaba expects sponsorships and attendance to soon follow. She shares, “We will serve the community with food.” They will also use the space for worship and outreach. “Praying for revival.”

When making a donation through our site, place the name “Dream Kidz” or “Dr. Mayaba” in the portion of “Who is this donation in honor of?” and we will make sure they receive the funds. You can CLICK HERE to give. You can also mail a check directly to: He Touched Me Ministries, 736 Pheasant Rd, Saginaw TX 76131. To learn more about the program, visit: http://www.dreamkidz.org. You can also learn more about Dr. Choongo, her ministry, and teaching resources at www.mayabachoongo.com.

FURNISHING FAMILIES INTERNATIONAL looks forward to more ways we can serve the global partners that God highlights, as well as continuing to serve the domestic communities in our backyard. Thank you for your involvement with us. We are excited to see what more God brings in 2023 for both Dallas/Fort Worth and Zambia!

GIVE HERE

Come join our next outreach

Join us August 26th, Volunteers are welcome!

Do you live in the DFW area? Join us! Please submit your Volunteer form by following the button above and select “Outreach” as a way you’d like to serve. If you are currently a FFOT volunteer, be on the look out for a text coming soon!

THe CPS Office Transformation

Furnishing Families of Texas and Gateway Church joined forces for Gateway's Serve Week through the North Fort Worth campus.

We transformed multiple rooms in our local Texas Department of Family and Protective Services building.

Children at risk and their families now have a beautiful and safe space to connect and heal.

Click on the Reel to the right to see a Behind The Scenes look with Annabelle and Karen!

Learning More ABout our Neighbors: Poverty

In an effort to be informed and know more than one side of a story, I picked up this book recommended by a friend. It was written by Matthew Desmond, a social scientist and urban ethnographer. He is a professor of Sociology and Director of the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. He is also a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for his book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. This all sounds very erudite and as you can imagine was fairly left-leaning, but I find there is value in knowing an issue from a 360 degree view before proposing or criticizing a solution.

The book was an overload of information and not a quick, easy read. There were stories from people he knew personally intermixed with a mountain of statistics pointed in a specific direction. Mainly, the failure of the government to allocate and supervise the distribution of funds to the correct places for reducing poverty. I will have to say, reversing this as a solution surely sounds easier said than done.

I am a white, middle class woman and do not pretend to understand the difficulties involved in racial inequality.

However, I was enrolled in the WIC program (free staple items like milk, cheese etc) when my husband’s teaching salary was our only source of income and I have volunteered at a local food bank to be allowed to bring groceries home to my family. Even so, we did not have difficulty qualifying for a mortgage with a down-payment from my parents. I was saddened by the section in the book that outlined the difficulty people of color have obtaining home loans, even while those same people are paying rent higher than a house payment every month.

Desmond asks some very valid questions. Why does the US, the richest country on earth, have more poverty than any other advanced democracy? I have visited many countries, from South Korea to Finland and there is homelessness and poverty in every country. I have also lived in several countries with social democracies who have outstanding programs for mental health, homelessness, career assistance and the like. Those countries also have a nearly 50% tax rate and the ultra wealthy live where they don’t have to pay it. Much like the ultra wealthy in the US have tax shelters, etc. This was also addressed in the book—if everyone paid their fair share of taxes there would be no poverty. I don’t intend to touch that issue.

The book is well-written, which is to be expected from a Pulitzer Prize Winner. I appreciated hearing a side of poverty that I have never known. I read it with an open mind and never found myself thinking, ‘well of course more government is your solution’. However, the book did make me think about Jesus’ words:

For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always. (Mark 14:7 NKJV)

Laurinda Dunn

Writing Contributor, Editor, Marketing Team

Furnishing Families of Texas

THank You To Our Partners

Here’s a special message from Furnishing Families to show our gratitude to those who have contributed to this mission!

Give Today

We’re In This Together!

It’s encouraging to see the effect Furnishing Families of Texas is having in the community but also the stirring that’s happening in the hearts of friends, partners, and givers. Everyone can do their own version of this work or contribute to an existing ministry. From the simple beginnings of a garage or living room to warehouses full of furniture, the Lord can make a way.

Ultimately, every form of a Christian’s generosity has a heavenly reward. What can seem small to us, can be big in God’s eyes. In Matthew 10:42, Jesus says:

“And whoever gives one of these little ones just a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”

We look forward to keeping you in the loop on all the ways that Furnishing Families is touching the world. We are excited to close out this summer strong!

Warm (Very Warm) Regards,

Annabelle and Lance