Dear Friends and Intercessors,

As many of you know, CedarWood International encompasses several outreaches that sows into the lives of those in the Seattle area.

Each Saturday, our team goes out to the highways and byways to provide meals, shoes, jackets, socks, sleeping bags, tarps, hand warmers, and so on to the homeless in the Seattle area. These individuals are precious souls, who unfortunately, in their time of need, have been forgotten and even ignored by society. When our team first began this outreach, we served 40-60 people each weekend and it seemed to plateau.

As time moved on that number slowly climbed upward. However, in 2020 and beginning in 2021, the number spiked dramatically as tough economic times left people without work, or unable to pay their escalating housing prices. Today, we rarely serve less than 165.

Since beginning this outreach, we’ve prayed for volunteers to join us, especially men as that helps provide added security. This year, we saw an answer to our prayer! The beauty of this answer is that two of them work security at local churches, so they are not only keeping our ladies safe, but they also know where to find those who are in need! In addition, we had two couples join our team who have a passion for evangelism! With this extra support, in addition to providing food and clothes, we can spend time ministering to those we encounter!

Serving the homeless is very difficult work that takes tremendous grace to walk out. We experience great victories, praying people into housing, restoring relationships and so on. However, we’ve also come upon drug abuse so severe; the people are passed out or so zoned out they cannot really communicate with us. There’s been times our team prayed, and God supernaturally sobered people up and our team immediately shared the Gospel message-that was a Divine appointment. We’ve encountered drug overdoses and had to call 911, and then recently, the young woman who accidently overdosed and did not survive. Our team refuses to develop a thick skin, instead, they press into God and He gives them the grace to reach into their lives even more so we can help pull them up and out of the enemy’s grip.

Each weekend, we have one or two who accept the Lord, and we thank Him for every person who chooses Christ over a life of sin.

This weekend, however, was a record for us. We served 209 people, and 7 people gave their lives to Christ, including a drug dealer! SEVEN! We celebrated knowing the enemy lost his grip over these precious souls. Our prayer, our deepest desire, is for one day, to have property to bring the women, the elderly, and families in and help them get back on their feet. We want to help everyone get back on their feet and would need a separate facility for men. But, these are some of our long-term goals.

Please pray with us that God will make a way!

Just as the homeless outreach is expanding, so is our CedarWood Pantry. We rarely have a Monday wherein we serve less than 100 families. This represents 350-400 people depending on the family size. Throughout Covid our team never stopped serving but instead, developed a drive-through method to expedite service and minimize contact. Due to the high demands, we’ve continued the outreach through the drive-through method allowing us to serve more people each Monday. Our team is always ready to pray with people and interact with them while they wait their turn.

Our CedarWood Coats & Closet is also open so people can park and come in to find coats, shoes, work clothes, school clothes and so on for their families during Pantry hours.

As the holidays approach, we will prepare and provide Thanksgiving and Christmas Meal kits. We know the cost of everything has gone up, supplies are low, but God is still asking us to provide these meals so we will.

In addition, we will provide Christmas/Chanukah gifts for each of the children from our Pantry families. We often receive wonderful gifts for the younger children, but many of our children are teenagers. This is a harder group to buy for, but we’ve had some wonderfully creative donations over the years. Please pray with us that God will inspire people as they give to this area of need.

Today I was in prayer, and the Lord reminded me of a vision I had several years ago. In that vision, I saw a vat of oil and a bin of grain, the last of what we had. We reached in to scoop up the last morsel of grain, handed it out and put the bin to the side. We tipped the vat of oil and poured the last of it out into a container and set it aside. When we reached over to pull the bin back, it had been refilled, as was the vat of oil.

When we began the Pantry, we sowed into CedarWood by purchasing everything from coats to meats. We had very little resources at the time, and even fewer donations coming in from stores for this outreach. Many of our staff sowed into this tiny arm of CedarWood out of both need and obedience to the Lord.

The Lord told me: “since you sowed into the needs of others in the midst of your time of famine, I will provide when the nation is in famine.” It is a privilege to give out of our lack, it provides us the opportunity to stand and see the salvation—and provision—of the Lord’s mighty hand!

That is how God operates. When we sow from our lack, He will bless us and make a way where there seems to be no way.

Consider the widow’s mite Mark 12:41-44. “And He sat down opposite the treasury and saw how the crowd was casting money into the treasury. Many rich [people] were throwing in large sums. And a widow who was poverty-stricken came and put in two copper mites [the smallest of coins], which together make half of a cent. And He called His disciples [to Him] and said to them, Truly and surely I tell you, this widow, [she who is] poverty-stricken, has put in more than all those contributing to the treasury. For they all threw in out of their abundance; but she, out of her deep poverty, has put in everything that she had—[even] all she had on which to live.”

As a widow in Jesus’ time, she would have been living off the generosity of landowners who followed the law. (Duet 24:19-21) Two mites could have provided enough food for her for the day. Instead, she gave it to the Lord, trusting Him to meet her needs. She sowed into the Kingdom during her own famine demonstrating her faith and utter dependance upon the Lord to meet her needs.

So, why was what she gave seen as so valuable? Because she gave from her lack. When we give from our lack, faith is linked to our gift. Faith is unbelievably powerful! Faith can move mountains, heal the sick, feed the 5000, open blind eyes and on and on! Faith is powerful! So, faith, coupled with the gift, causes the gift to spread further and have greater impact in the earth. This, in turn, paves the way for God to provide for the giver! He is so faithful!

I know times are difficult, but those who’ve sown during their time of famine, will surely be provided for by our Lord.

Pray with us that God will continue to make a way for us to provide for those in the Seattle community. He’s been so faithful, and for those of you who have contributed to this, or any arm of our ministry, we know He will bless you for your sacrifice!

We pray the Lord’s blessings upon you each and every day. May He continue to provide for you and your families, restoring that which was lost, and bringing in the harvest for that which has been sown.

Blessings & love,

Ricci Johnson-Wilson

This week, we are not having the Wednesday evening call, but we will have our Wednesday morning prayer call at 10:20 AM PT.

On Thursday and Friday, we will have our regularly scheduled teaching with Nita and Ricci followed by intercession. These times of teaching are intended to develop and prepare the child of God for the days ahead. I pray you are growing deeper in your relationship with the Lord through these times of teaching. We post these on our website by Tuesday of the following week so you can listen and relisten.

717-908-1834

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667-770-1488

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667-770-1476

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Blessings & love to each of you!

Ricci Johnson-Wilson