God's Masterpiece

The theme was "You are God's Masterpiece" at "H Street today". 

"H Street" is a ministry arm of Modesto Neighbor-hood Church. Years ago the church purchased and renovated this building located in an area of town where the needy and homeless are close by. 

When I drove up to the building this morning two homeless people were sleeping on the cement sidewalk under our overhanging roof to get out 
of the rain and cold.  Yes, there are two bodies under that pile. (above)

Tony Giannosa, a man with a great heart, (shown here serving up mini-empanadas to the kids) supervises the ministry here.  They give away free groceries and free hot meals every week to around 100 individuals or families. Every contact is given the message of Jesus' great love for them and a chance for a new beginning. 

Some of those needy ones who before stood in line are now part of the team of workers.  Praise God!

On the first Saturday of each month a team meets to do something meaningful with the children. Josh Kazas, a high school teacher and a member of the H Street team, invited me and my friend, Dan Middleton to join the fun today. 

Following the theme of "God's Master-piece", Dan dreamed up the idea of having each kid lay on the floor and be traced with pencil on a sheet of butcher paper, then each would color their silhouette and cut it out. I added, "Why not take a picture of each child, enlarge it, print their faces on plain paper and paste it on the head. So as the kids came in I took a portrait of each one, then enlarged and printed them and someone cut them out. 

After songs and prayer we embarked on the project. 

Soon loose heads were laying everywhere. 

The 7th and 8th grade girls did some special art on theirs. 

Kids worked on the floor or tables using crayons to color clothing onto their silhouettes.  

After coloring they cut out their silhouette.

Each child seemed delighted when they pasted their own portrait onto the cut-out of their bodies.

The idea of the message was "You are unique. God has created you for a purpose. You are beautiful! You are God's masterpiece."  

So the final step was to paste the memory verse on each cut-out. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  Eph 2:10

After a delicious snack, the kids enjoyed a visit with Perfume and Felipe. 




And I prayed for these precious masterpieces of God's workmanship. May they each keep Jesus Christ foremost in their future!

Finally we called them all to bring their paper cut-outs up front for a picture. Behold! Now there was two of each of us!  And what am I doing in the picture? I was holding the camera!

Ralph