The Lighthouse Outreach Center

It is with sadness that I write this blog as on September 30th we closed a part of our lives that has been with us since 1999 when we started a Homeless Ministry that turned into a soup kitchen in Charlotte County.

We started out on the beach feeding homeless people but also longed to feed families as well. The first night we fed the homeless, we also wanted to worship with them but a storm came up just as we finished feeding them. I prayed," just as You stilled that storm 2000 years ago You can still this storm, as well". God did just that, the storm clouds rolled away, and the sun came out, and shown down just on our little pavilion, everywhere else it was totally black. We were able to worship with them and use the illustration of the storm that Jesus just stilled and compare it to the storms in each of their lives.

It was 8 long months before our building would become a reality to feed families as well.

We continued to pray and after 8 long months God gave us a building on Gardner and 41. This gave us more reasons to rely on God as now that we had a building we now fell under the umbrella of the Board of Health and could no long make meals in our homes as we were no longer under the umbrella of our church. We had to get restaurants on board instead. God worked miracle after miracle on behalf of His children. You can read about the miracles in the book "God....The Lighthouse.....& the People" Free this Saturday at Young Life in the mall next to Fletcher's Music between 1 pm and 4:30pm commemorating all our years in operation.

Time went on we were donated a Lighthouse which the community painted. The lights actually worked in it. You could hear the guys say " Meet you at the Lighthouse". That lighthouse stood until Hurricane Charlie took it away. Time has a way of passing and energy as well. Eventually the Homeless Coalition took over the finances of the soup kitchen and it became their program.

During the course of time we could see our board was going more towards meeting the needs of the single moms as over and over again we began reaching out to them. helping them to get housing through Habitat for Humanity. it was a pleasure to work the hours and help two of our single moms get their own homes. As a church Compass Communities we helped them earn their hours.

Then I broke my leg and could no longer work at Habitat for Humanity anymore to help single moms with housing, so we looked at other ways to help single moms, while still working at the Homeless Coalition once my leg healed, until Covid 19 hit, and all volunteers were asked to leave for a long while. Most of us found other places to volunteer our time.

We started a single moms group and tried to provide for their needs through both the Lighthouse Outreach Center and Compass Communities Church

As we began to age, our whole board, we realized that we could no longer go after grants anymore for the Lighthouse Outreach Center, so we began looking for other younger people to take over the Lighthouse Outreach Center but at last no one stepped up to the plate. All those on the Lighthouse Board were also on the Compass Communities Church Board and had been heavily invested in it's operation over the years. It sadden our hearts to close our 501C3 however God was faithful all those years to us and to His people. He grew us spiritually through the Lighthouse Outreach Center and the faith we needed to keep it running. The stories I could tell ! Wait a minute I did. Come and check them out.

As we close this chapter in our lives we know God has other adventures for us. We were meant to start the soup kitchen. It wasn't our job to finish it. We helped to bring awareness to the Homeless problem in our community. It took Hurricane Charlie to give us a shelter and a certified kitchen. We are still meant to help single moms which we do through Compass Communities. The most important thing is to walk in love with everyone we meet so we can introduce them to Jesus, our best friend. Looking forward to the next adventure. Hope you guys are in it.