Marathon Ministry News for February 2007 (archived)

February 22

- PRAYER MINISTRY IN ACTION – On February 14, we received this note from our friend Glenn Mathews of Revival Crusade: “Dear Friends, A few days ago, Spencer, from your ministry called and spoke with my wife, Fleta. His call was expressly to pray for us and our ministry. It is the first time in 54 years of ministry that we have received such a call. There was no request for support or no pressure of any kind to give anything or to be a part of anything. What a refreshing experience!” You can find out more about Rev. Mathews’ ministry, Revival Crusade, at www.revivalcrusade.net (there is a link to Revival Crusade on our Links page).

- LADY ACCEPTS CHRIST – On February 17, our regular third Saturday distribution day, one lady who signed up to receive food from us for the very first time accepted Christ as her Lord and Savior after hearing the Word of God preached at the distribution service. Praise God that we are called not only to meet physical needs, but more importantly, spiritual needs as well.

- GOD PROVIDED THE TRUCK – On February 10, we picked up our brand-new-to-us truck at Ryder Used Vehicle Sales in Indianapolis, IN. It’s an 18-foot diesel box truck with a lift gate and only had 100,000 miles at time of purchase. The truck is in excellent condition and clean all over, inside and out. With this truck, we can haul eight pallets of food or other items into poor coalfield towns. The truck was $19,452. When we left Friday night to pick up the truck the next day, we had half the money raised in our truck account to purchase the truck, trusting God to provide the other half by the end of the month. As of today, we only need $102 to close out the truck account. Praise God for his provision and for blessing us with such a wonderful truck. Pictures of the truck will be posted soon.

- SCHOOL DISTRIBUTIONS – We have held two distributions at elementary schools in coalfield towns since January. On January 26, we went to Cleveland Elementary and distributed items in Christ’s name to approximately 150 students. Each student received the following: blanket, notebook binder, pack of cookies, toothbrush, toothpaste, children’s literature, and a lot of love. On February 9, we went to Clinchco Elementary and distributed items in Christ’s name to approximately 165 students. Each student received the following: blanket, notebook binder, pack of cookies, Pringles chips, toothbrush, toothpaste, children’s literature, and of course, a lot of love. Pictures of these distributions will be posted soon.

- UPDATES COMING – Look forward to a new look on some of the website’s pages in the near future. The Multimedia page will be reworked to include new pictures of our recent events, as well as Audio clips of the Gospel messages delivered to our clients at each of our distributions. The Gift Store will feature a couple new items, such as 3-Vial Sets from Israel and the Man of Sorrows print. Also, the News page will be updated more regularly, hopefully once a week, to keep you better informed of what God is doing in Marathon Ministry.

- JANUARY DISTRIBUTION NUMBERS – In January, we served 119 families consisting of 234 adults and 103 children with food, blankets, and most importantly – the Word of God. Please pray that God continues to send us those in physical and spiritual need and that we will continually be able to meet those needs.