The first month’s meetings of Life after Laundry were pretty uneventful.  It was just the two of us (“T” and “E”).  We knew God wanted us to have a bible study for the community, but were unsure on the finer details (ie. which day, what time, how to get the word of the study out to the surrounding community). So we spent the first meeting sessions praying for God’s direction with this study.

On May 9th’s session, we hung up posters on the bulletin boards that the owner of the laundromat installed for us to use for advertising for our ministry and bible study.  However, instead of advertising for our ministry (since we have no problem getting word out by mouth) along with our bible study poster, we installed the LLP Verse of the Month:

We prayed that those in the community who don’t know Jesus would at least see this poster for a glimpse of His Word and get hope or encouragement, and maybe plant that seed of seeking God through our study.

We then made our regular visit to see “V” and “T”.  ”V” was struggling with finding work and with her lease ending at the end of the month, she decided that it was time to move out of state and back to Florida where her daughter lives.  We asked about her son “T”, but she didn’t know his whereabouts and we could sense that there was concern for his well-being.  We told “V” that we would stop by next week and drop off some boxes for her belongings.

Upon arrival back to the laundromat, “T” wanted to take pictures of our newly hung posters, since he initially forgot to do so as soon as we had hung it up.  This is where God stepped in for this study:  While “T” was taking pictures, “E” stumbled upon one of our regular patrons “A” doing laundry and folding clothes – a month’s worth of clothes.  So we ended the night helping “A” fold clothes and getting to know her more.  We also had the opportunity to inform her of our study and invite her to join us next week.  She was open to that and told us she would be there with friends!

Well, on May 16th’s session we walked in the laundromat, and we noticed the posters were missing from the bulletin boards.  We initially thought they were removed due to complaints from the patrons of the laundromat.  Also we didn’t see “A” at the laundromat either.  We were trying not to be discouraged.

But the manager came to us and told us that the posters had just fallen down – supposedly the thumbtacks doesn’t grasp to the board well.  What a relief!  So we got a ladder and started re-hanging the posters.  Once we hung the last poster up, there was “A”, her sister “J” and 4 of their children standing there looking at us – fashionably late, but we were happy to see them!

We immediately started eating dinner together and kicked off our first official lesson.  We spent about 30 minutes in discussion and prayer!  We pray to see them again this coming Wednesday.

After our study, we headed over the “V” and “T” place again and this time we got to see both of them.  We dropped off some boxes for “V”‘s move and held hands and prayed for both of them – “V” for her move and “T” for his personal issues that he is going through.  We reminded them of the study we are having and “T” is going to make a concerted effort to be there this time around.  We have “V” cell phone # so we will make sure to remind them this time.

So far May has been a great month for Life After Laundry.  There is still lots of work and prayer to go in building this sub-ministry, but with God leading the way, anything is possible.