Good morning!
I’m Kortni, coming to you from Master Provisions with this month’s Good News.
This month, we welcomed a few new food partners. It’s always exciting to get the opportunity to meet more needs in our community, and we are thrilled to welcome them to the Master Provisions network!
We also got a chance to be on site with a few great church partners this month. The Link Church, which is a Lakeside Christian Church plant out in Hebron, hosted us and gave us the opportunity to share our mission with their congregation. We are thrilled to have them working alongside us to serve God by making a difference right here in NKY. We also got to be part of Fairfield Church of Christ’s missions fair. They have been great partners for a very long time, and we are so grateful for their continued support! Thank you for hosting us!
For those of you with an interest in missions, ICOM or the International Conference on Missions is being held in Lexington this year. If you’ll be there, stop by and say hi to us at our booth! We would love to see you during the event November 14th-16th.
Tons of schools and student groups have sent volunteers this month. Thomas More University spent their Saints Serve Day with us packing and sorting clothing. They sent two shifts worth of students in to volunteer, and they were such a fun group. Thank you for choosing to serve with us!
If you attended our 11th annual MPower Lunch, you know that was a great day full of networking, delicious food, and encouragement. Thank you so much to all of you who were a part of that event. We were able to raise over $100,000 that day to continue connecting resources to needs in our community and around the world. We couldn’t do it without you all – thank you!
Make sure to put on your calendars that Giving Tuesday is December 2nd. You can double your impact thanks to a generous supporter matching the first $10,000 in gifts!
As we head into the end of the year, this is a time when many people plan to give time and resources to causes they care most about. What you may not know is that a lot of employers are doing the same! Many employers match charitable gifts made by their employees to multiply the impact. But most gifts go unmatched because people don’t know to apply! To make this WAY easier on you, check out the new Matching Gifts page of our website. You can type in your company name to see if they have a matching program. If they do, you can click the form and fill it out online in just a few minutes! Definitely check it out if you’ve donated to MP anytime this year!
Before you go, let me share Psalm 1:1-3 and some thoughts from one of MP’s staff devotions this month:
“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers.” Psalm 1:1-3
The question posed to us with this scripture was, “Does God want us to be happy?” And the answer is YES, but not at the expense of our obedience to Him and His will. As our loving father, of COURSE God wants us to be happy. After all, he wired our brains to seek out boosts from chemicals like oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin. And how do we get those chemicals to be released? Building habits like serving others gives us a feeling of significance and releases serotonin. Build and prioritize godly relationships – our friends and family are the best source of oxytocin. And meditating on positive thoughts and creating space for God’s word in our brains releases dopamine. So really, we are happier when we string together a continuous stream of tiny decisions that lead to a lifetime of happiness.
If you’re looking for a place to build this kind of positive and encouraging community and want to take steps toward incorporating service into your life, we would love to see you around Master Provisions this holiday season. This is a beautiful time to volunteer together as a family, make a financial sacrifice that makes a difference to someone in need, and join a community of servant-hearted believers. We hope to see you around the food center soon!