Matthew 18:12-14

What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about the one sheep than about the ninety-nine who did not wander off. In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.

I have so many Brians in my life! There's my husband Brian, my son Brian, our friend Brian Wheeler, and this guy!

For those of you who were with us at Grace Point Community Church, you most likely remember Brian Nelson, or NELSON! as he was usually called. Way back in 2005, Nelson was one of the first to venture under the Burnside Bridge with us, serving with Bridgetown Ministries in the Friday Nightstrike. He was always one of the first to arrive and last to leave. He participated in several mission trips to Honduras with the Micah Project. He's been to India with Brad Butcher and Passion for People and had to hide his Bible and say he was traveling there for the food (not to tell people about Jesus). He's been to Indonesia with Northwest Medical Teams to help set up a hospital in the jungle. He's been known to buy 100 cheeseburgers on a random Friday night and pass them out to the homeless and pray for them.

This guy has been around.

If you've ever met him, you know he has a huge heart for Jesus and for people.

Life was going well for him, and then a few years back, things began to unravel. His girlfriend of 4 years broke up with him. He spiraled into depression, picked up alcohol again, was laid off from his job at Intel in April, and ended up in the ER in August with a hemoglobin level so low he shouldn't have been conscious.

But God went after that one sheep.

I saw his post on Facebook, found out which hospital he was in, and Brian (my husband) and I met him right where he was. We prayed over him, brought him back to church, brought him back into the community, and have been privileged to see him reach 4 months sober and have his relationship with his Father restored.

I am reaching out to the rest of The Church to rally around this restored brother. He is actively looking for work, but like so many, jobs are hard to find now. Unemployment has run out, and he is in danger of losing his apartment. He is reaching out to the agencies that provide rental assistance, but funds are low at the end of the year.

Would you join us in helping Brian as he continues to put his life back together? We'd love to raise enough money to pay his rent for several months so he can continue to look for work, improve his health, work on his sobriety, and deepen his relationship with Christ.

Thank you for stepping up to help our brother.