Where the trail met the couches.

We were thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with a Trail Life group once again this year and provide an incredible experience for this group of kids. They spent an entire weekend with us and what a weekend it was!

On Friday, they showed up with their bags packed and ready to serve. We gave them a quick orientation that evening, they had some dinner and the picked out their spots to sleep over in the warehouse (say hello to couches!). It was quite a late night with all the excitement.

On Saturday, they woke up bright and early, had their breakfast and got ready to head out on the trucks for deliveries and pickups. These 15 kids and 4 adults went out and changed the lives of 2 families, providing them with fully furnished apartments. They followed up those deliveries with 15 pick ups from donor families. But they didn’t stop there…

They came back to the warehouse, unloaded those items, and then jumped into helping us organize and clean up items in the warehouse. Starting off the year with a well-organized warehouse and open space for items is key for us and these boys made it happen!

They spent another night sleeping on the couches, but it was an early night and you could hear the crickets chirping this time around. They had really worn themselves out with all the work they did on Saturday.

We kept the weekend rolling with an early morning on Sunday, heading out to a church these kids don’t normally go to — Victory Church, one of our partners. It was a great experience for them to be around a different style of Sunday service, as well as a variety of cultures that attend this church.

We can’t say enough of how these kinds of unique experiences impact these children, as well as our own ministry. These boys even shared with us great new ideas of how our ministry can serve! We are so thankful to have the opportunity of serving alongside Trail Life and we applaud all that they are doing for building up young boys to be humble servant leaders!

Serving from the heart.

Do you know this man, Nathan King? If you don’t then you should! But as he comes in and serves from the heart throughout the week, you’ll have to seek him out. He moves quickly through the warehouse, getting orders from John, then heading out with a couple of “his guys” to deliver and/or pick up furnishings. There’s a lot more to it though, so read on to hear the full story of Nathan and his time with Fully Furnished Ministries.

Nathan got started with FFM in a very usual way—he showed up one Saturday morning to serve after hearing about it through his men’s discipleship group at Victory Church. At that time, he was mentoring young men, especially young men growing up with single moms and no fathers in their lives, through the ministry he started called For God's Purpose Ministry (FGPM). So he decided to bring those guys along and have them serve alongside him.

Nathan’s ministry, FGPM, continued to grow and expand as he sought to help men and youth in a variety of ways. (We encourage you to read about all that they do on their website: https://www.forgodspurposeministry.com/. ) These men come from all walks of life and are all ages, from young 20s to 60 years old! Nathan shares, “it doesn’t matter the age, if they’re older or younger. They come with the same problem of never having a father in their life.”

As his personal ministry expanded, his involvement with FFM expanded as well. He started bringing these guys out with him regularly on Saturdays and this grew into a day or two during the week. Now, this year, he’s coming out with 2-3 other guys on 4-5 mornings during the week! This has allowed our ministry to expand greatly to be able to go outside of our service area when absolutely necessary.

Nathan is one of our “backbone” volunteers—his selfless service to us and men in our communities is incredible and we are so thankful for him and the ministry he is doing.

I asked Nathan how we can be praying for him and the ministry he’s doing and he shared with me: “We used to have a house for these men that have nowhere to go—coming out of prison or homeless from other situations. We no longer have it but we are looking and praying for God to provide one for us.” Let’s join together and pray for Nathan and this ministry. May God use him greatly as he serves others and serves through Fully Furnished Ministries!

Catch a quick video of Nathan speaking with us here on our Facebook page.

Recovering & Serving Simultaneously [impact with every interaction]

Meet Jeremy Mitchell (left) and TJ Burras (right). They work with His Way, a Christ-centered recovery program for men based in Huntsville, Alabama. As they expanded to Atlanta over the summer, we connected with them to see how we could partner together. And it turned out to be an incredible opportunity for impact at every interaction.

Our first step was bringing them items to furnish their recovery rooms. During their 6-month program, their duplexes house men for the first 30 days, where they have a daily regimen of recovery classes, Bible classes, counseling sessions, and afternoon work/serving. As we delivered beds, dressers and bedside tables to their new housing, we discovered another way to partner together. Their men needed a place to serve in the community as part of their recovery program.

These men now come to our warehouse twice a week to volunteer. Led by James West, they show up each time with great attitudes and a willingness to serve. The incredible part of this is, not only are they helping us and giving us free labor, we are watching them experience God’s healing in their lives as they serve the community in this way — doing something unselfish, and understanding their role in a connected community.

It’s also been a joy to watch James connecting with these men week after week. They look forward to the time they get to spend with him and they relish the minutes they sit together at the end of their shifts, as James pours into their hearts and lives. This is a rippling life impact as they recover and heal and reconnect with their wives and children, moms and dads, and others — building their lives back in a healthy way and God truly restoring their families and futures.

Join with us in praying for His Way ministry, the men in the program, their families, and that every hour they spend with FFM will help them in their journey of healing and wholeness in Christ.

If you know of an organization or church that may want to partner with us in giving, serving or bringing us families in need, please contact us here.

Keeping families safe & together [The Drake House: Partner Highlight]

“More than 10,000 people in the Atlanta area experience homelessness on an given night. Over 40% of Atlanta’s homeless population are women and children.”

In order to help combat this, Fully Furnished Ministries works closely with The Drake House, a non-profit in Roswell, GA that provides a lifeline of supportive housing and enrichment programs for single mothers and their children experiencing homelessness in north metro Atlanta.

Fully Furnished Ministries has been in partnership with The Drake House since 2010. To date, we have provided furnishings to more than 100 families through them! In fact, in September, we had the opportunity to help one woman and her children in The Drake House by providing a sofa, love seat, coffee table, two end tables, a dining table with four chairs, two computer desks w/chairs and a dresser.

Dianne Berry from The Drake House shares with us, "We involve members of our community in the effort to keep single mothers and their children united under one roof as they work toward self-sufficiency. We are the only agency in the region offering a private crisis-housing program. Every year, our private housing serves two apartment buildings with 50 families and 100 children, and whenever we have a need for furnishings for these women and children, FFM is there and ready to help!"

Dianne Berry

Operations Manager, The Drake House

Find out more about The Drake House and the amazing programs they have and ways you can help here on their website: https://thedrakehouse.org/.

Two families whose lives changed on a Saturday.

5 beds, 9 night stands, 5 dressers, 8 lamps, a sofa, loveseat, 2 side chairs, a coffee table, 2 end tables, a dining table with chairs, a rug and lamps.

It was a full truck that everyone stood amazed at. How did those guys fit all that in there? But the really amazing part was where those pieces of furniture would be at the end of the day, and how those two families’ lives would completely change.

The Brookover Family. This single mom with 6 kids under her roof was facing incredible hardship after flooding and mold forced her family out of their home.

The Chen Family. This mom and dad with 3 kids faced an unbelievable turn of events one night in their apartment complex. After a man under the influence of drugs set his apartment on fire and left (which quickly spread to the other units), he then returned with his car and hit this woman and her daughter who were waiting on the sidewalk to escape the fire. After recovering, they were left with nothing. Read the story here on WSBTV.

Through our partnership with Unite - Norcross/Peachtree Corners, we found out about these two families and were thrilled to be able to help them and provide the furniture that they so desperately needed.

Whether you gave one of these pieces of furniture, gave money donations for the truck, restored one of these pieces, or used your hands to move them around to get to these families — you made this happen! It’s takes the pieces working together as a whole to make it happen. THANK YOU!

Pray for these two families as they settle into their homes and continue to heal physically and emotionally.