Compared to other families I knew growing up, my family was not your typical family. My mother Esmeralda is from a family of twelve and my dad Shawn is from a family of ten, so big families were normal for us. I came from a family of eight, which includes my dad, mom, Darryl, 24, Maria, 23, me, 19, Payton, 16, Milik, 14, and DeVonte, 11. My parents have been married for 25 years. My parents were foster parents and have always had a heart for family. My older brother, sister and myself are biological children from my parents. My younger three brothers were adopted. Despite the diversity in my family, we had an average life growing up. Like my father, Darryl, Maria, and myself were sent to catholic school and attended church service weekly as a family, all except my father. My dad always worked hard to provide for his family and would do whatever it took to put food on the table. We would have dinner together every night. As we got older and our schedules got busy, we made sure to at least have Sunday night dinner.

In 2003, we had moved to the South Hill area of Spokane, we were members of a Catholic Church. Though we appreciate the things we learned at the Church our lives did not match the Scriptures. I went just to please my mother. Our lives were not in line with the Bible. The older we got the more vocal we got about things. Read more: God Saves My Family

Just over a year ago our family wanted to find a way to serve our brothers and sisters in the Spokane Christian Church while also raising money for Special Missions Contribution. Being a family who loves to cook, we thought that our talents could best be put to use by providing meals for our church family at a time, place and cost that was convenient for everyone.

Our family has been so encouraged by the people who have taken part in these special meal times and are constantly seeing Acts 2:42 in action! We feel so blessed to play a small part in this 1st century practice, and are further encouraged by the thousands of dollars that have been raised thus far, to God’s glory and honor! It feels amazing to be actively contributing to the future of our church both here in Spokane, and beyond. A sincere thank you to every single person who has shared a table, a conversation, and broken bread with us…together we are funding the future of the many plans that have been laid before our Lord in prayer!

By Jen Quaschnick

God moved hearts in our small group to help out with a single mom in need. He began by inspiring us with a weekly Bible study on a Francis Chan book led by Kent and Robin, who are a zealous couple recently baptized. The idea evolved that we could fill the garage with donated items and have a yard sale to buy a used vehicle. News spread and generous donations poured in till overflowing! At every step, we had great volunteer help that arrived just as we were running out of energy and time. It was totally faith-building to see the entire church and even neighbors get involved in our family group's project.

When the day arrived, being stretched to our limit, we settled on doing the event only for a single Saturday. The day prior, neighbors shared how their sale had been sluggish. But as soon as ours opened, the Lord just kept sending and sending AND sending a steady stream of people until we took down the signs! It was a total success! We had less than a fifth of the total goods left over.

Along with generous angel-giver donations and some higher value items being sold separately, our single mom did get a great condition van! Not only that, there were even some funds remaining to help another mom in need of repairs. God is faithful!

We, of course, have still more needs in our group and in the church; but this great success in one particular need showed us how much God desires such things to happen and how much He is ready to provide as we unite to serve one another.

Betsey and Jessica share how excited they are to witness how much God has transformed Margarita's life through Bible Study and prayer and then baptize her into Jesus after she made her great confession that Jesus is Lord!