Last night

 Praise the LORD!!!

    Last night I decided to take the night off and just relax. Little did I know what the LORD had in store for me. Now for of those that have read my book, "Out of the LIGHT"(posted online and downloadable(free)), you'll know that I've been an alcoholic from an early age. The LORD though has made it where I can actually enjoy a couple of drinks, put it down and not touch it again for some time. Well, I'd decided to buy a six pack of beer and drink a few. For those that wonder, I only drank two all night, one with dinner and one after wards!

   I finished up with my reading and works on the computer, so I sat back and decided to watch a little on the tube. What I ended up tuning into was short lived. Not because of it's violence or pornographic content, but because it literally tore my heart in two!!! It was an ABC program, I don't even know which one, I couldn't watch it for more than five minutes. Their topic was one close to my heart and devastated me, the world's hungry and suffering. Please remember that I could only watch a couple of minutes of this, so the details will be incomplete. They showed two different areas of the world, one in South American and the other in Africa. Both of these showed living conditions so substandard that America's homeless could be considered 'wealthy' in comparison. Yes, their living conditions were that bad, at least what they showed of them. I'm sure there is much more to their stories then what was shown on camera.

   As most of you already know, I've been working on Vine of CHRIST Ministries' formation now for some time now. It was originally set up in June of  '99' in the basement of my first house after getting out of prison. The LORD had already loaded me down with all that the ministry would entail while I was in prison, so beginning the first stages were simple. Just start collecting the supplies needed and try to find those that had the needs. The first part of this went well, so well that I ended up having to donate much to other ministries in the area. I didn't have transportation or the resources to distribute that which was collected or  even find the people who needed it. Now don't take this as meaning nothing was done through the ministry, because this is far from true. Because there were many that benefited from that which I was blessed to gather. The LORD seemed to just bring them to my door.

   Now what does all this have to do with what I watched last night, much! Because the LORD has shown me that to properly execute a relief  operation, you just can't supply people's needs, but must improve their standards of living at the same time. This is why eventually V.C.M. will have a staff of doctors and nutritionist. To investigate the lifestyle and diets of those in need and then formulate what it will take to improve upon them. Something along these lines was shown last night in the U.N.'s nutritional supplement, but this is far from that which is needed to fix the problem. There is far more that has to be changed in order to remedy the problems and there needn't be the political ramifications attached as when dealing with groups such as them.

   I thought when I started this article that it was going somewhere farther then it has, but the LORD has me leaving it at this point. I'm asking you to pray and listen to that which the LORD leads you to and only that. As I see this, it's incomplete, but I do as led and that only, the rest is totally in the LORD's hands!!! (I'm not even going back and edit this:))) )

 May GOD bless you and lead you this day,
Rev. Marshall Barth
Vine of CHRIST Ministries