UPDATE For May, 2011:

What have we been doing?

For the past 12 months, we have been supporting some friends that had the call from God to serve in Nigeria. I’m happy to report they have returned to the states safe and sound and no worse for the wear. They reported to the Board at our last meeting and it sounded like a very successful trip.

Tony and Donna just returned from the TECH conference.  HHM is a member of TECH, which stands for “Technical Exchange for Christian Healthcare”, if you’re interested their web site is www.techmd.org. They consist of about 130 members who mostly consist of ministries who help medically overseas. This includes all different parts from insurance to medicine to bio-med folks. We learned a lot at this conference as we always do.  The Tech conferences are held twice a year, once in the Fall in Louisville, KY, and once in the Spring, this year at the Blowing Rock Convention Center. It started Thursday night and finished on Saturday at noon with a tour of the Samaritan’s Purse facility, for all that were interested.

Our warehouse is full to overflowing.  We have a work day planned for Saturday, June 11^th beginning at 9 AM. We have pallets to build and secure and a mountain of clothing to sort, box and palletize.  Hope to see you there. Warehouse is located at 211 Trimble Plant Road in Southern Pines.

Helping Hands has also been working with some nurses to fill the needs of some folks in our area that are falling through the cracks, as it were.  We had a request for an electric Hospital bed for a lady that was shot in the back and now paralyzed. We also furnished some other items for her and will be giving a used Hoveround that was donated to us. We’ve supplied back braces, sugar checking devices, adult diapers, wheel chairs, crutches, walkers and canes.  Most of the folks we’re helping have no other help available.

The week before the conference, I received a phone call from a company that supplies prosthetic devices to us.  They had some items for me to pick up.  This usually includes several prosthetic legs among other things.  While at the conference, Donna and I met a lady doing work in Cameroon, West Africa. I was sharing about some of the unusual donations that we get and what God has done with them.  I told her a story about some legs that we were given (first time we had ever gotten legs) and that I had no idea what God would do with them. After I finished the story, she asked if I had any now, I told her maybe but we just got the phone call to come make a pickup. She told us they had someone working in the hospital that could fabricate legs if they just had some of the joint parts and wanted to know if I was interested in helping her.  Of course we were and a box full of legs and parts was shipped today with UPS, on the way to Baton Rouge, LA then Cameroon, West Africa.

One last testimony, if you have been following us for a while, you know that we use the Denton program to ship aid to other countries.  Donna and I have been working to get an inventory completed and loaded on a new Denton web site.  We finally completed typing it in and then I worked the following day to get the remainder of the paperwork together, scanned and then submitted.  To our surprise, two days later, I got a call and was asked if I could be ready to ship by June 10^th.  The fastest this has ever happened was last year and it took four months.  I will begin moving this shipment to the air base this week and on June the 10^th, it will be loaded on a C-17 and be flown to Honduras!  God really is good!  He just continues to amaze us!

It’s amazing what God will do if we just make ourselves available!  Can he use someone else, sure, but if He told you, it’s because He wants you to do it, not someone else.  I’m sure God could find legs someplace else. I could have said, NO, those are mine and if I give them away, then I will not have them in case someone needs them.  Like God would forget that He needed some in a different place, then set and wring his hands trying to figure out what to do. God is Great, God is Good and God has a Plan, He just needs us to follow it. Most of the time, following his plan is not easy; it’s hardly ever the path we would take. In fact, God’s way, most times, doesn’t even have a path.  He needs and wants us to be dependent on him, for everything!

We’ve seen God do some pretty miraculous stuff and I have a lot of those stories written down, but I know He’s not through, there’s more to come!

This time we are living in causes great fear for some. Earthquakes, Tornado’s, Tsunami’s, Fires, the uncertainty of finances, the economy, there is plenty to be concerned about.  We should be making preparations.  What kind, I don’t really know, whatever works for you.  There are plenty of people telling us what to do, what do you feel God is telling you?  He is the ultimate source!  And you know what, He knows what’s coming!

Donna and I have attended Bible studies and group meetings and talked about what God told us and some of the people around us looked at us like we are crazy.  “You mean God spoke to you”, “What does He sound like? “ Some even told us they did not want God talking to them, they were afraid of what he might tell them.  This is not the time to not be able to hear God.

God is guiding Helping Hands Ministry!  We are doing our best to follow his leading.  Come, join us, put your hands to the plow, let’s go wherever God is leading and do as much as we can. We need workers, prayer warriors, worshippers, Mary’s and Martha’s. There is much work to do and plenty of people to reach!

Donna and I look forward to hearing from you!

In the Lords work we remain,

Tony and Donna Haywood