Ministry Openings for Volunteers!
1.      We are looking for an intern interested in going into full time ministry and learning with on the job training. To start, this would be an unpaid position with free room and board, meals and transportation. If you know of someone that is interested in this type of ministry, please send them our way.
2.      We are in need of a volunteer that is gifted in administration. We need someone that can answer phone calls and emails and help us adhere to our schedule.
3.      We are looking for several volunteers that can commit to a regular schedule, whether it be 4 hours every week, or 40.
4.      We also need help with the food pantry in Norfolk as we have a huge need in that area. We need help separating the food when it comes in and packaging it for give away.
 
Banquet!
We have not found a location for the banquet. We are in need of a facility that can accommodate 200 people. Please help us out with this.
​Ministry Needs
We are experiencing growing pains. We have gotten to a place in the ministry where we realize that we cannot do everything ourselves. We desire to step into more of an administrator role as we bring in more people to do the one on one ministering. We are looking for people interested in coming in to lead Bible Studies, Fellowship Nights, Movie Nights, etc. We really need some committed people to come and just be examples of Victorious Christian Living. If you have a heart to see people come out of the darkness and into the light, I am sure we can find a perfect way for you to volunteer. Our men need help with all kinds of living skills. Maybe you could teach an etiquette class or school them in ironing a suit or tying a tie. We could do a cooking class or how to sew a button. There is a huge need for life skills that were not taught to them earlier in life. You may be gifted in conflict resolution or effective communication. These are huge needs for our residents. We want to give them the best chance of success when they leave the program. We are in a spot right now where we need help and we are asking that you prayerfully consider giving a block of time every week. It could be just 2 hours every week. We would also like to start a night of worship once a month at the Discipleship House in Norfolk. Please feel free to contact us about any of these things that may be stirring in your heart. Help us to better help them.
 
Prayer Needs
Please pray for our family as we are in need of refreshing. We know God called us to do this and we desire to be found faithful. We continue to persevere and strategize about how we can find balance in this busy lifestyle. We love what we are doing and are committed to using the remainder of our days to bring as many people into Christian Maturity as possible.
We could also use a reading tutor for our 10 year old son. We do not want our children to struggle because of our busy-ness. We need someone that is willing to make a connection with him and see it through. 

​Crime Prevention Award
Outreach for Christ is making waves in the Ballentine Place community. We were given a crime prevention award at the community’s banquet. They said we are doing an amazing job in the community and the award was in recognition of how we take people that used to be part of the problem into becoming part of the solution. We took 3 of the men from the Discipleship Program with us to the banquet. They looked great and interacted well with the community. We gently guided them in how to handle themselves at this public affair after it became obvious to us that maybe they had never attended a banquet before. This had been overlooked by us until then. We never want them to feel self conscious or inadequate in their surroundings. We believe these men are making tremendous steps towards their great futures. We are looking for ways to incorporate some home training into their wealth of knowledge. If anyone feels comfortable in sharing with them, we would welcome a quarterly etiquette class from miss manners. We want them to know which fork to use and which glass is theirs in a busy full table setting. We really need help with the small things as we find ourselves too busy to cover everything needed for their great success. Please contact us in how you will be willing to help. These men are truly delightful to be around. They are polite and compassionate, not at all scary or intimidating.

 
Together we can!
We are so grateful for each of you. We could never accomplish anything without you all in our corner. You make this journey even sweeter as we overcome many challenges.
     John and Tammy Savola
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A great Year!
We are blessed to report some of the many successes over the last year. On the books, we were able to see 101 salvations and 12 rededications to the Lord. We have given out over 200 blessing bags to the homeless. We fed 1237 individuals through our food pantry. We provided 75 holiday meals between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This Christmas, 151 families and 404 children were provided a very nice holiday that would not have been possible without you. In 2017 we have housed and discipled 10 men that were serious in growing in their faith. The Nursing Home Ministry has continued faithfully, bringing joy to those that cannot get out to a church service. About 5,000 inmates and family members were ministered to through our prayer letter. Our volunteers faithfully visit the jail and prison and love on the inmates and encourage them in their faith. Our Bible study is going strong at the Men’s discipleship program. People from the community are joining in as well. We were able to furnish over 30 households with our furniture ministry. We look forward to an even greater 2018. We want to continue the momentum. We are in awe of everything you made possible in 2017, but let’s keep going. It’s not over yet. 

Anne skinner Home for Women and Children
We told you we would be sharing our dreams and goals with you. When we think about the logistics of this, it seems practically impossible. So, what that means to us is we are prime candidates for a miracle from God. With the successful launch of the Men’s Discipleship Program we have  had a burden in our heart for women and children. We have turned away at least one woman every week since we have had the men’s program. Our hearts are broken for their situation. We have prayed about this and we feel that now is the time to start working toward this dream. There are a lot of programs for women, but no open beds. Space for women and children is even more rare. There is a waiting list for all of them. That means if a mom and her children become homeless today, it could take weeks or months for them to get in somewhere. Many are living in cars, that is if they have a car. Many of the women we are targeting do not even own a car. This also makes them a target for people with wrong motives to come along and take advantage of their desperation. Christians, read between the lines. This makes them targets for pimps, drug dealers, child molesters and more. We must do something! We cannot sit home in our cozy environment and pretend it is not happening. February is when we celebrate our loves. Let’s continue to love and care for the least of these!

Making the Women and Children Home a Reality!
We are asking for you to commit to pray for supernatural blessings to our finances. For us to do what we envision, it will take a miracle. We will need divine intervention.  We have cut every nickel and dime in our spending and we are committed to always being faithful with your donations. We have some money in the bank that would need to multiply for us to accomplish what we are desiring. We envision a facility that would be able to house many women and children. We have our eyes on a nursing home type facility. We are currently seeking grant money and donations to make this dream a reality. Our Civic League is backing us completely. They are even giving us an award at their next banquet. We have chosen the lady that will run the program and live onsite as we do for the mens program. We have found that this model of ministry is very effective. We are sure you will have many questions about the possibilities and we are excited to answer all questions in person at our upcoming banquet. We are putting the details together now for a banquet in April. We will lay out all the plans and details. We are asking for everyone to attend. This is an exciting time at Outreach and we are on the verge of taking back some territory from the enemy. Help us go into his camp and bring families back to a place of freedom!

Resident Spotlight!
Phillip Delain is our newest resident. He came to us on January 4. We picked him up in the middle of a blizzard. It took us 4 hours to make the trip that normally would have been 1 hour round trip. Phillip is a gifted musician. He plays the drums and is excited to get a band going here at the Discipleship House. He is adjusting to technological advances that were non-existent during his previous time in the free world. This is definitely not easy as we are a high tech ministry with all the latest gadgets  at our fingertips. We are very pleased with his ability to adapt to the flexibility of this ever changing ministry.

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New Year!
With the new year comes a time of reflection on what we will bring with us into the new year. We are reviewing every move of the last year and determining what works and what does not. We are prayerfully seeking God’s will for the next steps of the ministry. We are asking that you keep us in prayer as we make goals and plans for 2018. We are adding some programs for the men in the Discipleship Program and stretching them outside of their comfort zones. We have been diligently pouring into these guys for a while. We believe it is now time that they start pouring into others.
 
Mission!
We are motivated people on a mission here at Outreach. We will be incorporating more mission opportunities. We are excited to share those stories with you in some future newsletters. We will also be allowing the gentlemen in the Discipleship Program to share testimonies about their experiences at Outreach. We know that as you get to know them through these newsletters, you will become more committed in prayer for them. We will also work on posting our new schedule on our website. It is our prayer that more of you will join us in pouring into the lives of these amazing disciples.

Nursing Home!
We are still in need of items for our Nursing Home Ministry. We were unable to get them the items we wanted for Christmas. They need socks, blankets, polident, hair grease, unscented lotion, hair ties, slippers and big tooth combs. Help us bless them. There are approximately 82 residents and we want to be there for them.
Blessing Bag Items
One of our favorite ministries is our Blessing Bag Ministry. This is the most popular one as well. Everyone enjoys stuffing the bags with everything we could think of. We always need items for these bags. We put hygiene items, as well as a hat, gloves, scarves, and a blanket in addition to ready to eat food items and discipleship materials. We try to spend the least amount on these items as possible. We have managed to get the hats, gloves and scarves at Dollar Tree for $1. Sometimes we can get 2 pair of gloves for $1 there as well. We usually do 50-100 bags at a time and it really adds up. We are able to get the blankets for $4 a piece if we buy them in bulk. We have managed to fill the bags with all the items we could think of for about $12 a bag. Sometimes you can get 6 toothbrushes for a dollar and the combs come in bulk packages also. We always need these items. If you feel led to help us with any of these items, they will be put to good use. We love to pull up to an intersection where there is a homeless person and hand them a bag of items that really meet their needs.
Resident Spotlight!

David Lee has been a blessing to this ministry before we ever came along. We kind of inherited him. He has been such a help around the office. He is a skilled and knowledgeable, licensed electrician. He also has been a huge help with data entry and the writing and assembling of the prayer letter and newsletter. He is great on the phone. He is currently looking for gainful employment. He is very honest and very detail oriented. We actually believe it is physically impossible for him to tell a lie. He can be trusted with anything you ask him to do. He also has a clean driving record. He is licensed and insured and owns his own reliable vehicle.
Keep Moving Forward!
1 Peter 1:5-10 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. 
The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins. 
So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. 
Another version reads- Do these things and you will never stumble! 
Praise God! This is a guideline for our process that we must go through. Nowhere in this process does it say to get distracted by processing our feelings. Feelings do not even come into play. We are to keep moving forward in spite of hurt feelings. We can experience feelings without letting them trip us up or cause us to stumble. If you have been tripping over your feelings, you are exactly where the enemy wants you. He lays a trap and we can say I am not going to fall no matter how I feel. We can keep moving forward through the process from goodness to knowledge to self control to perseverance to godliness to mutual affection to love, and once we have them all down, we can start over and increase in each. God gave us a little road map to follow and we don't have to make it more difficult than this simple passage.         -My take on Oswald Chambers


Nothing is impossible!
We are forever grateful for the outpouring of love and generosity of everyone during the Christmas season. We were able to provide Christmas to 404 children in 151 families. We also helped provide food to 136 individuals in the month of December. None of these things would be possible without the valiant efforts of our amazing volunteers and donors. There were many times when there was room for doubt that we could succeed in helping this many people, but God was faithful!
     John and Tammy Savola
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Holiday Meals
We are so excited that you helped us exceed our goal of 50 Thanksgiving Meal baskets. We are excited to have the same goal for the Christmas meal baskets. We did run into a small snag with getting the $10 restricted gift cards from Walmart. Not all locations had them available. We apologize for any inconvenience. We found that Food Lion also offers the restricted gift cards and that is where we purchased most of them. We don’t mind if it is not Walmart, but we really want them to be the restricted gift card that only allows them to buy food and not alcohol or tobacco. We do not want to partner in anyone’s struggle. I know we can do amazing things when we work together. Please continue to help. None of these things would be possible without you!
 
Toys
We have been gathering toys and we have a huge need for toys for boys and girls over the age of 12 and for infant toys 0-12 months. Please help us. We are one of the only ministries that help children up to 18 years of age. It was Dr. Skinner’s heart to help every child in the house and we continue to honor his memory by providing for all the children in the household.


Thank You!
As we approach the end of the year, we truly want to thank you for entrusting us as the store house for helping so many people throughout the year. We look back over our calendar and see how many lives we have been able to touch in whatever small way and it really is awesome. It is very humbling for us to be able to assist so many special people in Hampton Roads. We are truly blessed to be in this situation and we are forever grateful for the life we get to live. We cried many tears with so many extraordinary people going through overwhelming circumstances. We are blessed every time we are able to help someone. Every person has a story and it means so much to us that we become part of their story of God’s faithfulness. The people coming in for assistance, get help, but our hearts are blessed way more than the small helps we are able to give. Again, we thank you for letting us do this!
      
Nursing Home!
We also need items for our Nursing Home Ministry. We are bringing gifts to 82 Residents. They need socks, blankets, polident, hair grease, unscented lotion, hair ties, slippers and big tooth combs. Help us bless them. 
Resident Spotlight!

We praise God for Antoniio Wade. He has been a true blessing to the ministry. He is  currently in our Men’s Discipleship Program. He is growing in the Lord every day. He offers assistance with our Furniture Ministry by lifting and loading the heavy items. He also helps around the house and volunteers in our office as well. He has many giftings and will be available for work outside the ministry as soon as the busy Christmas season has passed. He is able bodied and also able to work with computers in an office setting. He is well spoken and great with people. That is my sales pitch, but seriously, he would be a great asset to your company.
Sign me up!
There are many ways to help. Be proactive. Give us a call after reading this and let us know what you can do. The needs we have are huge and it will literally take an army of believers to conquer. Pick one or more ways you can help.
1.      If you are a business owner, you could put a box at your location with one of our flyers to collect toys for the Toy Ministry.
2.      We do utility assistance in the amount of $75. You could send in $75 for each family in need you would like to sponsor.
3.      You can use the insert of this newsletter and go shopping for toys for the Toy Ministry or fill one or more request for holiday meals, or you could just send a check for however many holiday meals you would like to sponsor at $25 each.
4.      You could donate your time in the distribution of holiday meals or toys.
5.      You can gather your Bible study team or a group of friends and do a toy drive to collect toys for the Christmas Toy Ministry.
6.      You can send a check designated to a specific purpose and we will make sure it gets spent on that specific purpose.
We are also saving for a box truck. If everyone does a little something, we as the Body of Christ can do so much!

Nothing is impossible!
With your help we were able to distribute 53 Thanksgiving Meal Baskets! We have a goal to do the same for Christmas!
     John and Tammy Savola
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Obituary
Obituary- Old Faithful 1987-2017 She had a servants heart and gave her all right up until the very end. She helped countless families receive furniture, she helped many families move. She donated her time to cart many items to and from yard sales and warehouses. She picked up countless donations and supported our food ministry well. She will be missed by our many volunteers over the years. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you send donations toward her replacement to Outreach for Christ at PO Box 4326 Virginia Beach, VA 23454. Write Box Truck fund in the memo. Every donation is tax deductible. She truly was the work horse of the ministry and we are at a standstill until she is replaced. We are looking for a newer model. Must have at least a 14 ft box or bigger with a lift gate. Must have air conditioning for our workers to be refreshed along the way in the hot summer months. Help us get back up and going  to help the multitudes in need in our local Hampton Roads region.

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Toys and Food
We have been gathering toys and we have a huge need for toys for boys and girls over the age of 9 and for infant toys 0-12 months. Please help us.

Men at work!