Outreach in S.E. Roanoke

Good morning all. I just wanted to send a quick update on our first Tuesday afternoon outreach in S.E. Roanoke.

It went much better than any of us expected. We started with myself, Alex (my son), Jeff Cass, Joe R. and Bernardo joined us later. Initially the four of us ran into a minor road block, the area of the intersection that I had thought was public property, was not. The owners wouldn’t let us set up there until we emailed detailed info on what we were doing and they had time other than review and discuss it. Previously, Alex had suggested the large sidewalk area beside Dollar General but I didn’t think that would be an option. Jeff went and asked anyway and It turns out that I was wrong , I was a very good option. So we quickly moved to the other side of the intersection.

Before we finished setting up we already had a group of people coming to see what we were all about. Between around 1:15pm and 3:15pm, we talked to somewhere between 15 and 20 people. Some were homeless and some lived in the area. Some said that they would come back next week and some even said that they would bring friends next week. We were able to give the Gospel and pray with several of them. We gave out 3.75 large pizzas from Emilio’s, just right up the street, bottles of water and Sunny D ( the Sunny D went quick, if anyone would like to donate some more), snacks, hand wipes and Bibles. We will have some tracts for next week.

All in all, God blessed the time for us.

God willing, we will be out there every Tuesday afternoon and we are praying that it continues to grow.

If you fell led to donate, we could use the following items:

-Bibles, preferably pocket size and an easier to read translation (not KJV)

-prepackaged snacks

-bottles of water, other drinks (again, they seemed to really like Sunny D)

-prepackaged travel size soaps and bottles of shampoo

-toothbrushes and toothpaste

-feminine hygiene products

-packages of hand wipes

-money to buy pizza, burgers, tacos, etc..

I think that covers the supplies. If you have any suggestions, feel free to let us know.

We could also use a few Jesus loving ladies. About half of the people we talked to were women and I believe at least some of them would have been more open to talking to another woman. Melissa, my beautiful bride will be there as often as she can but sometimes work gets in the way.

We are also, hoping to find someone to play and sing worship music.

Anyone who is interested in joining us, please contact us directly.

Thank you and may God Bless you

Derek, Melissa and Alex

Buchanans in the Wild