Actually it's more like 8 1/2 years later, mean't to write this in September but as usual I got distracted. But with some of the recent events thought now would be a good time to see how far we've come to keep things in perspective.
If you've seen my recent profile pic on facebook, you know that I got my pretty face busted up last night during church. Here's a brief description of what happened. On Wednesday nights we open the gym early and kids from the community come play basketball and hang out until time for Bible class. At class time some stay and go to class and some leave. I was going over to see how that transition time was going. Saw a group of kids in the parking lot beside the gym and realized that there was a fight. Fights do happen on rare occasions and are usually easy to break up. I went to break it up, fight did not want break up and the crowd did not want it to stop. When I realized I was not going to be able to stop it myself, I made a tactical error and pulled my phone out to call for help before removing myself from the middle of the crowd ( a lesson learned). Someone took exception to this and blindsided me from the crowd. Interesting enough it did have the effect of breaking up the fight just not in a way I would have liked.
Fear is a powerful tool of Satan. And fear for safety is an easy fear to prey on especially when it occurs someplace that you expect to be safe like a church. It is a battle that we've had to fight from the beginning of this outreach. I'm afraid that I've inadvertently fed into that fear by posting my pic from the event last night. I just thought it was a good pic and would get some interesting comments. While there are some safety issues that need to addressed my fervent prayer and hope is that there won't be an overreaction to this incident. There are too many opportunities and live's being touched for that to happen.
In addition to the fight last night we've had a number of recent break-ins at the food pantry. We joke about someone breaking in and stealing stuff that we give away for free and will bag it, carry it to your car or even give you a ride if needed but it is disappointing, disheartening and discouraging when things like this happen.
On September 1st, 2004 we started our first class of 8 kids with Brianna, Brittany & Brandi Holmes, Kayla, Shareka & Ashley Hart, Keonna Holmes and Ashley Turner. Marco & Michael Pope and friends soon followed and the rollercoaster ride began. To get a very biased account of our history you can start here.
Jump to January 2013. Here's a look at where we've come from that first class of 8 kids.
As part of our Community Outreach we hold 3 major events each year:
Community Day - A day each spring where we invite the community to come spend an afternoon with us. This past spring was our 4th one I believe. We had around 500 attend. We've moved from a day of food,fun & games for the kids to day of service to those in our neigborhood's while still providing the food, fun & games for the kids. We added a grocery drive this year and provided groceries to over 100 families.
School Supply Night - The first year we did this we gave school supplies to 155 kids. This past fall on our third School Supply Night we gave back packs and supplies to 408. We also fed over 500 people.
Christmas with Santa - This has always been our small easy event until this year when in conjunction with the Food Pantry we added a Coats & Warm Clothing drive. There were 200 pics taken with Santa, 300 + people attended and were fed. Gave coats & warm clothing to over 60 families.
Wednesday Nights
Gym Time - As I wrote above on Wednesday night's the gym is opened early to let kids come play basketball and hang out. We probably average between 40-60 kids from the area each Wednesday. The number that stay for class varies from week to week. A number of these kids have gone on to become involved with the youth group. On most Wednesday nights a crew from Silver City Church come play basketball and attend class. They have been a huge positive influence.
Kingdom Express - Kingdom Express is not officially a Community Outreach program, it's our elementary age bible classes. From very early in the Community Outreach ministry we realized that our current Wednesday night classes were not adequately serving this new influx of kids from the community or the kids that were already here. A number of folks involved in the education ministry and community outreach ministry worked together to develop a new program that would benefit all our kids. I believe this has been a tremendous success.
New Stuff
Mentoring Program - One of the ideas that Jessie Stacy brought with him from his work at Silver City Church was a framework and passion for a mentoring program. Each Monday night a group of about 20 kids meet with a mentor for help with homework, bible study, fun and just a chance to get to know each other.
Food Pantry - This past June, Levy got back into the food pantry ministry. Developed and run by Emily Taylor and Latisha Young (proud to say my youngest daughter). This food pantry is setup more like a grocery store and is open every two weeks and is by appointment only. Each family gets to shop and get food based on their family size. This allows for a lot more interaction and a chance to get to know them better. Over 120 families have been served so far.
Looking back at where we came from and where we are now, I think what GOD has blessed us with is worth the occasional busted up face.
Final Thoughts -
A few years ago we had Bill Ehlig come do a seminar on what Every Church Member Should Know About Poverty. During our discussions we asked how other churches in similar situations had been successful, He told us he didn't know of any that had been, that the ones he knew had given up by the time they'd reached the point we were at. Told us we should write a book when we figured it out. Don't believe we're ready to write a book yet but here are some good basic principles to follow:
1. Pray
2. Never Give Up, Never Give Up, Never Give Up
3. Embrace 1 Corinthians 13 4-7
4. Repeat Steps 1 - 3
5. Expect failure, frustration, disappointment and despair. But that's alright, GOD can work with those.
6. Rejoice in the successes. To often all we see is number 5 and we forget the good.
7. Expect to lose members, volunteers and kids. It's going to happen some members will be unable to move out of their comfort zones and will leave. Volunteers will burnout especially if you can't do number 9. Kids will move in and out of your lives. It will break your heart.
8. Don't be afraid to make changes. Not every thing you try will work, move on.
9. Involve as many people as possible. To succeed and be sustainable it must move outside the core group of volunteers otherwise burnout is inevitable.
10. Pray some more.
Mark Deal
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Friday, August 13, 2010
Been Awhile
It's been some time since we last posted anything, almost a year. My goal is to post something a little more frequently than that. But I can't promise anything, I'm a lazy blogger. I get ideas that I want to write about but don't like sitting down and actually getting them done. Maybe some of the others that have access to this blog will write occasionally too.
So let's take a brief look at what's happened in this past year.
Our numbers have held pretty steady 60 -80 depending on time of year, weather, etc. Wednesday night classes have settled into a pretty calm routine for the most part. There's always a little chaos involved and the occasional very irritating pulling of a fire alarm.
We held our second Community Day in March. We learned a lot from our first one, scaled back on some things, expanded on others and eliminated some entirely. Everything ran smoothly, had good weather again and got to interact with more families from the communities. Don't remember any of the actual numbers but we had quite a few more visitors than the year before.
We sent kids to Green Valley Bible Camp again during D.A and Laura Frost's week. This year 2 of our repeat campers (Dominique & Shaniqua) were baptized. If you're a facebook friend of Laura's be sure and check out the video's.
We also started a Community Garden this year. It has not gotten off to great start, a combination of getting a late start, a horribly hot summer, rabbit problems and me being the organizer. But I'm not ready to give up on it yet, hopefully I can keep it going until a real gardener with some organizational skills sees the potential good that can come from this steps in (this is what I do, keep an idea alive long enough til someone with the right skills to do it better comes along).
This past Wednesday we had our first Back to School Supply Night. It was a great success. We provided school supplies to 155 kids from 39 different schools. It was also a good time to visit with some of their parents. A big thank you to all involved.
Starting in September the 1st thru 5th grades will hop on The Kingdom Express,the education departments revamped Wednesday night bible class experience. Should provide a great learning environment for all our children at Levy.
That's a quick overview of what's been happening.
I do have an idea for something new that I'll try to post about soon.
Later. Mark
So let's take a brief look at what's happened in this past year.
Our numbers have held pretty steady 60 -80 depending on time of year, weather, etc. Wednesday night classes have settled into a pretty calm routine for the most part. There's always a little chaos involved and the occasional very irritating pulling of a fire alarm.
We held our second Community Day in March. We learned a lot from our first one, scaled back on some things, expanded on others and eliminated some entirely. Everything ran smoothly, had good weather again and got to interact with more families from the communities. Don't remember any of the actual numbers but we had quite a few more visitors than the year before.
We sent kids to Green Valley Bible Camp again during D.A and Laura Frost's week. This year 2 of our repeat campers (Dominique & Shaniqua) were baptized. If you're a facebook friend of Laura's be sure and check out the video's.
We also started a Community Garden this year. It has not gotten off to great start, a combination of getting a late start, a horribly hot summer, rabbit problems and me being the organizer. But I'm not ready to give up on it yet, hopefully I can keep it going until a real gardener with some organizational skills sees the potential good that can come from this steps in (this is what I do, keep an idea alive long enough til someone with the right skills to do it better comes along).
This past Wednesday we had our first Back to School Supply Night. It was a great success. We provided school supplies to 155 kids from 39 different schools. It was also a good time to visit with some of their parents. A big thank you to all involved.
Starting in September the 1st thru 5th grades will hop on The Kingdom Express,the education departments revamped Wednesday night bible class experience. Should provide a great learning environment for all our children at Levy.
That's a quick overview of what's been happening.
I do have an idea for something new that I'll try to post about soon.
Later. Mark
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Random Thoughts
Just a few random thoughts.
With school having started back we've seen a small increase in kids on Wednesday night. We expect the numbers to continue to grow slightly (our guess is up to about 60 but who knows). I would also expect that the next few weeks will be a little rowdier as everyone adjusts to school and those that we missed over the summer get back into the flow of things. We've been spoiled by the relative calm of the summer and we'll need to remember that this is natural and not a step backwards.
I don't really know how to respond when kids keep asking when the meals are going to start again.
I still hate the term "Community Kids". I've hated it from the first time we used it and I hate it more each day. It just emphasizes the Us/Them mindset that we have. When do they get to cross that invisible magic barrier and become just Levy Kids, our kids? Is there a secret panel they need to be interviewed by or a Bible test they need to pass?
Everyone involved in working on and presenting the ideas for a new curriculum did a great job Sunday.
Ironically with all the progress that we've seemed to make, I don't think I've felt more discouraged or pessimistic. Now, I'm not really looking for words of encouragement or a pat on the back right now, as nice as they are to get, they won't really change anything and I'm not going to stop doing what I do anyway.
As always I had more to say but self-editing and a need for sleep brings me an end now.
Mark
With school having started back we've seen a small increase in kids on Wednesday night. We expect the numbers to continue to grow slightly (our guess is up to about 60 but who knows). I would also expect that the next few weeks will be a little rowdier as everyone adjusts to school and those that we missed over the summer get back into the flow of things. We've been spoiled by the relative calm of the summer and we'll need to remember that this is natural and not a step backwards.
I don't really know how to respond when kids keep asking when the meals are going to start again.
I still hate the term "Community Kids". I've hated it from the first time we used it and I hate it more each day. It just emphasizes the Us/Them mindset that we have. When do they get to cross that invisible magic barrier and become just Levy Kids, our kids? Is there a secret panel they need to be interviewed by or a Bible test they need to pass?
Everyone involved in working on and presenting the ideas for a new curriculum did a great job Sunday.
Ironically with all the progress that we've seemed to make, I don't think I've felt more discouraged or pessimistic. Now, I'm not really looking for words of encouragement or a pat on the back right now, as nice as they are to get, they won't really change anything and I'm not going to stop doing what I do anyway.
As always I had more to say but self-editing and a need for sleep brings me an end now.
Mark
Monday, August 3, 2009
Where Do We Go From Here? Part 2.
With the end of summer and a new school year fast approaching I thought it would be a good time to take another look at where we are and where were headed.
Not long after my last post, we met with the folks involved in the Youth Ministry (Casey, Doug, elders, deacons, etc) to discuss ideas, misconceptions, concerns, disagreements and defuse some growing tensions. A special thanks goes to Dr. Alan Pogue for an excellent job facilitating the meeting. We probably still don't see eye to eye on everything but we did clear some things up and came away with a better understanding of each other's thinking. A tangible result of this meeting was we were able to move ahead with sending a number of kids from the girl's class that Allison was teaching and guys from Justin's class to Casey's Wednesday night class. Allison and Justin have also joined this class to provide familiar faces to help in the transition. From our perspective this move has been fairly successful.
D.A. and Laura Frost took 6 of our kids with them to church camp. Aside from a little homesickness, a small incident of resistance to authority, and two disintegrating van tires on the way home (what church trip would be complete without some sort of transportation breakdown), everyone had a good time. Hopefully we can send more next year.
As expected during the summer months and without the Wednesday meal the number of kids coming dropped. We fell from averaging over a 100 to around 40 each week. While I'm sad that we've missed out on a summer of opportunities with these kids, I'm extremely proud and grateful for the ones that have continued to come. I've got more to say about this but I'm going to save that for a separate post.
Some of the plans that we had for the fall we've had to put on hold for awhile. The eldership has decided to suspend the Wednesday night meals this fall to give all the associated ministries a little "breather". This time off will be a chance to step back and review the entire Wednesday night program from meals, to Community Outreach, to the Mother's class, to kid's classes, overall logistics, etc.
Over the next few weeks we will be planning for the fall and deciding what changes we need to make as we go forward. That's it for now, we'll try to keep everyone informed as we proceed and as always if anyone has suggestions, ideas or even complaints please let us know.
Mark
p.s. some of the above was stolen verbatim from an email from Ted, I wouldn't want to be accused of plagerism.
Not long after my last post, we met with the folks involved in the Youth Ministry (Casey, Doug, elders, deacons, etc) to discuss ideas, misconceptions, concerns, disagreements and defuse some growing tensions. A special thanks goes to Dr. Alan Pogue for an excellent job facilitating the meeting. We probably still don't see eye to eye on everything but we did clear some things up and came away with a better understanding of each other's thinking. A tangible result of this meeting was we were able to move ahead with sending a number of kids from the girl's class that Allison was teaching and guys from Justin's class to Casey's Wednesday night class. Allison and Justin have also joined this class to provide familiar faces to help in the transition. From our perspective this move has been fairly successful.
D.A. and Laura Frost took 6 of our kids with them to church camp. Aside from a little homesickness, a small incident of resistance to authority, and two disintegrating van tires on the way home (what church trip would be complete without some sort of transportation breakdown), everyone had a good time. Hopefully we can send more next year.
As expected during the summer months and without the Wednesday meal the number of kids coming dropped. We fell from averaging over a 100 to around 40 each week. While I'm sad that we've missed out on a summer of opportunities with these kids, I'm extremely proud and grateful for the ones that have continued to come. I've got more to say about this but I'm going to save that for a separate post.
Some of the plans that we had for the fall we've had to put on hold for awhile. The eldership has decided to suspend the Wednesday night meals this fall to give all the associated ministries a little "breather". This time off will be a chance to step back and review the entire Wednesday night program from meals, to Community Outreach, to the Mother's class, to kid's classes, overall logistics, etc.
Over the next few weeks we will be planning for the fall and deciding what changes we need to make as we go forward. That's it for now, we'll try to keep everyone informed as we proceed and as always if anyone has suggestions, ideas or even complaints please let us know.
Mark
p.s. some of the above was stolen verbatim from an email from Ted, I wouldn't want to be accused of plagerism.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Where Do We Go From Here?
My intentions with this post are not to offend or hurt anyone's feeling but I make no apologies for what I'm about to write.I've been told by my oldest daughter that I tend to over edit and water down my thoughts when I blog. Not today, today you get pure unadulterated unfiltered me, rational, irrational, gut emotions, whatever, it is what it is.
Amazing what can happen in a year, over the last few weeks we've averaged over 100kids from the community on Wednesday nights.To see how far we've come you should read these two post if you haven't already. Church and Community - A History from my Perspective and A Year in Review.
We recently met with the elders to let them know what's been going on andpresent some of our ideas for the upcoming summer.Here's some of that:
320 Total Names on the Registration List
215 of those have been at least once since February
We have been averaging 90 since the beginning of March (that avg is going up, we've had over 100 that last few weeks)
We have 8 Levy families that are involved in bringing children on Wednesday nights and/or Sunday mornings
We have had several families come on Wednesday nights but also several have come on Sunday morning
Events over the past 4 months:
Here are some of the plans for summer:
We've come to another crossroads.
Levy is an upper middle class church. All of our members are not upper middle class, but the way we think as a church, the way we operate, the way we plan, the way we evangelize, just about everything we do is from a middle to upper middle class viewpoint.
We are a very good at what I like to call big event Christianity or what a friend of mine calls sight-seeing Christianity. We are a giving church, a good percentage of our weekly contribution goes toward mission work, you set a goal of 80,000 for our special Harvest Sunday and we'll give you 150,000, you ask for 10,000 for extra Mexico Medical Mission trip funds we'll give you 20,000. Disaster relief work we're there. Short term mission trips toMexico , Romania , Cuba , Dominican Republic
But back home we're in the middle of a struggle. We are a suburban church in an urban setting. As I said above everything we do is from a middle class viewpoint, our teaching styles, curriculum, worship style, youth group are geared to people who look like us, think like us, act like us and for the most part have a similar religious background.
So the question is Why Are We Here? Why didn't we move? We knew then that we didn't look much like the community anymore. We could've moved and continued to do great things the same way we'd been doing them for years. The answer you'll get from anybody involved in the decision is that we're needed in the community, that we can stay here and be an influence for Christ. The trouble is we want to do it on our terms, we want to continue to be a suburban church just with a community outreach ministry. This cannot work in the long run. If we want to continue to be a viable influence for Christ in this community then we must transform ourselves from a suburban church (with some urban members) to an urban church (with some suburban members).
It will be a hard journey and there are some dangers. People don't like change, some don't like the changes that have already occurred. People will leave, people have already left.
I think the 6th grade and below are already slowly headed in the right direction. A number of teachers have already started changing their style of teaching to fit the needs of all the kids (coincidently or not a lot of what they are doing mirrors recommendations found in Ruby Payne and Bill Ehligs book "What every church member should know about poverty). Add in Phillips manual and new teacher training and I think we're on the right path. Things aren't perfect but they are improving. We still have parents that have stopped bringing their kids on Wednesday nights or have even left Levy. They've missed a great opportunity for their kids to learn discipleship and see Jesus love in action. But this leads us to one of the hard truths of this transformation. Some people will find that Levy is no longer a good fit for them, and I'm sorry for that but if that's the case then they should leave. There are a number of good churches around that can meet their needs.
But I think the most crucial and difficult change will be incorporating our kids into the youth group. We have a great youth group, good kids, good leaders, good volunteers. It's exactly what the church wants from a youth group. But it is a totally suburban kid oriented group. I understand the reluctance to change what is working so well, but without their buyin to this transformation we cannot succeed. We cannot continue to have two youth groups.
Ok, I'm quitting for now. I had more to say about comparisons to the Old Joy Bus Ministry and whatSilver City Church
Love
Mark
Amazing what can happen in a year, over the last few weeks we've averaged over 100kids from the community on Wednesday nights.To see how far we've come you should read these two post if you haven't already. Church and Community - A History from my Perspective and A Year in Review.
We recently met with the elders to let them know what's been going on andpresent some of our ideas for the upcoming summer.Here's some of that:
320 Total Names on the Registration List
215 of those have been at least once since February
We have been averaging 90 since the beginning of March (that avg is going up, we've had over 100 that last few weeks)
We have 8 Levy families that are involved in bringing children on Wednesday nights and/or Sunday mornings
We have had several families come on Wednesday nights but also several have come on Sunday morning
Events over the past 4 months:
- Community Day-over 180 in attendance
- Ladies Retreat in Memphis-6 girls with 4 chaperones
- Harding Basketball Game and Tour-10 kids and 4 chaperones
- Suzanne’s Ladies Class-3-5 ladies attending
- Summer Camp with the Frost’s-5 kids planning on attending
- Summer Softball-2 guys playing and 2 girls playing
- Started a Community Outreach Blog-117 visitors in the last month
- We always have kids come to various church events: had 8 at Men’s Wild Night Out; had 8-10 at the KFC potluck
Here are some of the plans for summer:
- No Summer Meals (not an idea that I really like but understand why we made this decision)
- Last summer we kept the meals going in order to keep the kids involved
- We do not believe that this is necessary this year
- We also do not have the staff to keep them going
- Some questions about the families that are coming and how to keep them involved
- Free Time:
- Have the gym open from 6:30-7:00 on Wednesday Nights
- We will man this time; good time to have informal contact with the kids
- We recently started an alternative class - for when kids for whatever reason just can't make it the regular class that night. Normally have 2 - 5 Kids each Wednesday.
- Phillip with collaboration from a number of teachers has developed a Teacher Survival Manual to help teachers with ideas, class room management, etc. I think a workshop for teachers is also planned in thenear future.
- We presented our ideas for this area also. We are having another meeting with all the involved parties to work out a plan and discuss our different
We've come to another crossroads.
Levy is an upper middle class church. All of our members are not upper middle class, but the way we think as a church, the way we operate, the way we plan, the way we evangelize, just about everything we do is from a middle to upper middle class viewpoint.
We are a very good at what I like to call big event Christianity or what a friend of mine calls sight-seeing Christianity. We are a giving church, a good percentage of our weekly contribution goes toward mission work, you set a goal of 80,000 for our special Harvest Sunday and we'll give you 150,000, you ask for 10,000 for extra Mexico Medical Mission trip funds we'll give you 20,000. Disaster relief work we're there. Short term mission trips to
But back home we're in the middle of a struggle. We are a suburban church in an urban setting. As I said above everything we do is from a middle class viewpoint, our teaching styles, curriculum, worship style, youth group are geared to people who look like us, think like us, act like us and for the most part have a similar religious background.
So the question is Why Are We Here? Why didn't we move? We knew then that we didn't look much like the community anymore. We could've moved and continued to do great things the same way we'd been doing them for years. The answer you'll get from anybody involved in the decision is that we're needed in the community, that we can stay here and be an influence for Christ. The trouble is we want to do it on our terms, we want to continue to be a suburban church just with a community outreach ministry. This cannot work in the long run. If we want to continue to be a viable influence for Christ in this community then we must transform ourselves from a suburban church (with some urban members) to an urban church (with some suburban members).
It will be a hard journey and there are some dangers. People don't like change, some don't like the changes that have already occurred. People will leave, people have already left.
I think the 6th grade and below are already slowly headed in the right direction. A number of teachers have already started changing their style of teaching to fit the needs of all the kids (coincidently or not a lot of what they are doing mirrors recommendations found in Ruby Payne and Bill Ehligs book "What every church member should know about poverty). Add in Phillips manual and new teacher training and I think we're on the right path. Things aren't perfect but they are improving. We still have parents that have stopped bringing their kids on Wednesday nights or have even left Levy. They've missed a great opportunity for their kids to learn discipleship and see Jesus love in action. But this leads us to one of the hard truths of this transformation. Some people will find that Levy is no longer a good fit for them, and I'm sorry for that but if that's the case then they should leave. There are a number of good churches around that can meet their needs.
But I think the most crucial and difficult change will be incorporating our kids into the youth group. We have a great youth group, good kids, good leaders, good volunteers. It's exactly what the church wants from a youth group. But it is a totally suburban kid oriented group. I understand the reluctance to change what is working so well, but without their buyin to this transformation we cannot succeed. We cannot continue to have two youth groups.
Ok, I'm quitting for now. I had more to say about comparisons to the Old Joy Bus Ministry and what
Love
Mark
Monday, April 20, 2009
New Ladies Class Success from Suzanne
(This has been slightly edited to remove names): Oh, brothers, what a glorious night we had in our new class for the Community Kids' mothers last night. It was a dream come true after all the work, sweat, tears and prayer that have gone into this ministry for so long. Last night, all the patience and longsuffering, produced what I know all involved have prayed for...parents on the road to becoming Christians for these beautiful children that we love, warts and all.
We had 4 ladies in class. These women soaked up all the love and care we gave them. We included them in the planning and goal setting for their class. We asked what they were looking for in this class. Here are their goals: "Learn how to not let everything get to me." "Learn how to treat people better." "Learn how to put Jesus in all my life because I know that's the only way my life will get better." "Learn how to live my daily life better." (Robyn) We teachers, added this: "Learn how to love myself like God wants me to" and "Learn how to take care of my body like God wants me to."
Aretha led this week with the intro in "Getting to Know You." She told them that we will get into more and more scripture as the weeks go by, but that we were first going to spend valuable time getting to know each other. She talked about God's wisdom in creating the church as people who loved God, each other and others. She talked about how we care for one another like God wants us to. She did an excellent job of drawing the students into her discussion. They soaked it up like dry sponges. When we asked them what about their life now made them happy. This were their answers: One said, "I'm happy I'm alive. She recently had a life threatening ashma attack. Another said, "When all my family gets together." Another said, "Being with my family makes me happy. We laugh and play and eat together and,' she said, 'sometimes we cry together." Another was the sad one, she said, "Don't nothing make me happy in my life but my two kids, nothing else is happy." She is expecting another baby in October. We got all of their birthdays down, their favorite colors, hobbies, etc. It was good, it was very good!
Next week, I will lead with "How I learned to Love Myself through God's Eyes." Our teaching will involve lots of interaction from each of them, not lecture type stuff. We told them we want to come to really know them as we help them learn about God's love for them and how to live their lives like Jesus.
I could keep writing and I am glad to share any of this with you all and our plans for the future for this class. Aretha, Beverly and I are three instruments God has placed in these women's paths after all the work you all have done. We see this as the gateway to many areas for the women, which can only better the lives for their children and their hope for eternal life.
Thanks be to God and to all of you who work so diligently in bringing these prescious souls to come to know Christ. May God wrap His loving arms around each of you individually and all of you as a great big group hug from HIM!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
A Year in Review
After reading Mark's history of working with the community kids (which was VERY good, by the way), I offered to write up what's happened in the last year, at least from my perspective. That should be easy enough, right? I mean it's only been a year. Basically we've added lots of kids, tried to turn chaos into organized chaos, and tweaked a few things here and there. No big deal. Before long I crashed back to reality and realized just how much as gone on since this time last year. I don't know that I'll be able to capture all of it (or even the most important pieces) in this entry, but I'll give it a shot. The rest of you can fill in the gaps I leave.
For me, this last year has taken me from the ever-popular position of complaining about something to finding myself deeply entrenched in a ministry I love that I wouldn't be able to willingly give up (not that the thought has never crossed my mind). Unlike others in this ministry who have spent years dedicating their time to these kids, I'm relatively new to the game.
So let's rewind - About this time last year, Ted and I watched from our very comfortable seats around the table of the Wednesday night meals as the number of "community kids" at those meals rose. We shook our heads when they left their tables a mess, watched in frustration as they ran wildly throughout the gym and thought to ourselves "OUR kids will never act like that." Then we moved on to our bible class and listened to other members lament about those children that ran through the hallways unsupervised. After we got home that evening, we'd discuss what needed to happen to show these kids how they needed to act when they came to "church". And then we'd start over again the next week.
Finally, the chaos at the meals and classes became more than our "fix-it" personalities could take and little by little we found ourselves becoming more involved. I started helping in a 3rd grade class that was full of some rowdy kiddos and became the unofficial elevator guard ("Your legs work just fine. Take the stairs!!"). Ted joined the clean up crew after the meals and ended up more often than not helping out in the youth group class. Suddenly our "suggestions" of what needed to happen got a little more personal and made their way on to a list that was sent out to some people in an email. It was at this point that we found out that many of our genius ideas had already been tried or at least suggested by those who had been working in the ministry for years. However, the elders gave Ted the go-ahead to start organizing a committee and we were off...
I'm going to attempt to highlight some of the events that followed.
1) We had a meeting to figure out what the next steps were going to be. It was decided that our first goal was survival and to do that, we first needed to get to know the kids we were working with. So, a registration system was implemented and we started giving out name tags as their "tickets" to the meal. To help alleviate the dead time between the meal and classes, activities (games, coloring pages, jump ropes, etc) were organized. Last but definitely not least, help was recruited for the Wednesday night classes. And with those changes, we did make it through the remainder of the school year and into the summer where we came face to face with a very important decision...
2) The Wednesday night meals were the reason most of the kids were coming to Levy. Typically, the meals cease during the summer and start up again in early September. The problem with that is that we lose the kids during those 3-4 months. So, the committee had to decide whether to be responsible for continuing the meals or risk losing the kids and the progress we'd seen in the past few months. It was decided that we would continue the meals thanks to some dedicated people who volunteered to be in charge of one meal a month. The focus of the summer meals was to get to know the community kids, but all of the Levy members were invited to come as well (and many of them did). And so the meals continued.
3) But unfortunately, the meals weren't the only issue of the summer. We also had a large group of 7th-12th graders coming who weren't making an easy transition into the youth group class. The reasons why could probably be debated for centuries, but the fact remained that we had many young people coming in with little or no Bible knowledge who did not understand or adapt well to a setting that was mostly singing, prayer, and "devo-style" lessons with limited discussion and interaction. So, the decision was made to offer two classes to all of the youth group. One was the "devo" class and the other was a more "interactive" class. In other words, the kids played youth group games for the majority of class and then discussed the point or lesson at the end. Not surprising, the kids coming from the community preferred the games and short lessons and naturally drifted to that class. And so the summer came and went...
4) As the school year started up again, a few other changes were made. The first was that we again had to address the dead time between the kids finishing their meals (around 6:30 at the latest) and the start of bible classes (7:00). After a lot of thought and consideration, it was decided that we should start letting the kids eat at 6:30 instead of 6:00. Obviously, that was not something the kids were super excited about or overly willing to comply with. So, we set up "fun rooms" in the upstairs portion of the gym with movies, crafts, games and coloring. The kids came in the building and went upstairs to get their name tags. They then stayed there until the mass release at 6:30. Even though this new set-up was not without problems and has constantly needed tweaks, it has helped tremendously in cutting down the chaos at the meals and specifically the problems that were occurring between the meals and classes.
5) At this time we also decided on some rules/expectations and the consequences that we were going to hold these kids to and started to hold "orientations" to go over these rules. After a kid went through orientation, they signed a contract saying that they knew the rules and consequences if they chose not to follow the rules. That allowed us all to get on the same page and also take care of the "but I didn't know" excuse that we were running into a lot.
6) We also took the start of the school year to reevaluate the youth group classes. While the interactive class was great for the summer, we wanted to transition the community kids into Bible classes more similar to the youth group class. However, there were approximately 40 7th-12th graders coming from the community and the option of pushing them into the youth group class seemed to be a recipe for disaster. So, we took the only option we could come up with at the time and offered a girls' class and a guys' class. The Levy youth group class continued to meet and have the devo-style class and all of the community kids were given the option of going into that class or into the split classes down the hall. The guys' class went through a series on God, steps to salvation, and Jesus' life, death and resurrection. The girls' class studied the fruits of the Spirit, women in the Bible, and steps to salvation. For the most part, the community kids have remained in the split classes, but occasionally a few have chosen to be part of the youth group class. Our goal still remains to integrate these classes into one, but we've yet to come up with a painless way to that. We welcome any and all suggestions. :)
7)Some other fun events worth mentioning...
In January, some members took the high school community kids to Harding University for a tour and basketball game. It was a huge success.
Also in January, some of the ladies took six 6th-12th grade girls to Memphis for a Girls' Retreat. Also a great success.
In February, Bill Ehlig came to Levy and presented a Poverty Seminar for all of the Levy members who were interested in attending. Bill Ehlig has worked extensively with Ruby Payne in her work with poverty in the schools and adapted that to the church setting. He had some great insights to offer as far as the hidden rules of poverty and working with the families in our community.
8) A few weeks ago, Levy had it's first annual Community Day. It was huge and really needs to be a post of it's own. I'll get Ted working on that asap :) But the results have been outstanding - 20 baptisms, countless connections and bible studies, and a renewed interest from Levy members in evangelism to those in our community.
Whew...I'm tired. And I know I've left some things out. To the other "authors" of this blog - feel free to fill in whatever I didn't cover.
Our goals for the immediate future - 1)reorganize the 1st-6th grade classes for Wednesday nights to best meet the needs of ALL of the kids in those classes, 2) reach out to more of these kids' parents, and 3)recruit even more help from Levy members. If you're one of those people out there reading this, don't sit and complain before getting involved. Trust me, it's a waste of time :). Just give us a call and we'll put you to work.
I know I've written a lot and if you've hung in there through it all, good job! I'll just end by saying that I believe with all my heart that God has a plan for these kids and even when I'm at my wit's end, I'm grateful that He's included me in just a small piece of the plan. I'm also grateful for those that God has given us to work with in this ministry. May the next year be even more fruitful than the last!
Allison
For me, this last year has taken me from the ever-popular position of complaining about something to finding myself deeply entrenched in a ministry I love that I wouldn't be able to willingly give up (not that the thought has never crossed my mind). Unlike others in this ministry who have spent years dedicating their time to these kids, I'm relatively new to the game.
So let's rewind - About this time last year, Ted and I watched from our very comfortable seats around the table of the Wednesday night meals as the number of "community kids" at those meals rose. We shook our heads when they left their tables a mess, watched in frustration as they ran wildly throughout the gym and thought to ourselves "OUR kids will never act like that." Then we moved on to our bible class and listened to other members lament about those children that ran through the hallways unsupervised. After we got home that evening, we'd discuss what needed to happen to show these kids how they needed to act when they came to "church". And then we'd start over again the next week.
Finally, the chaos at the meals and classes became more than our "fix-it" personalities could take and little by little we found ourselves becoming more involved. I started helping in a 3rd grade class that was full of some rowdy kiddos and became the unofficial elevator guard ("Your legs work just fine. Take the stairs!!"). Ted joined the clean up crew after the meals and ended up more often than not helping out in the youth group class. Suddenly our "suggestions" of what needed to happen got a little more personal and made their way on to a list that was sent out to some people in an email. It was at this point that we found out that many of our genius ideas had already been tried or at least suggested by those who had been working in the ministry for years. However, the elders gave Ted the go-ahead to start organizing a committee and we were off...
I'm going to attempt to highlight some of the events that followed.
1) We had a meeting to figure out what the next steps were going to be. It was decided that our first goal was survival and to do that, we first needed to get to know the kids we were working with. So, a registration system was implemented and we started giving out name tags as their "tickets" to the meal. To help alleviate the dead time between the meal and classes, activities (games, coloring pages, jump ropes, etc) were organized. Last but definitely not least, help was recruited for the Wednesday night classes. And with those changes, we did make it through the remainder of the school year and into the summer where we came face to face with a very important decision...
2) The Wednesday night meals were the reason most of the kids were coming to Levy. Typically, the meals cease during the summer and start up again in early September. The problem with that is that we lose the kids during those 3-4 months. So, the committee had to decide whether to be responsible for continuing the meals or risk losing the kids and the progress we'd seen in the past few months. It was decided that we would continue the meals thanks to some dedicated people who volunteered to be in charge of one meal a month. The focus of the summer meals was to get to know the community kids, but all of the Levy members were invited to come as well (and many of them did). And so the meals continued.
3) But unfortunately, the meals weren't the only issue of the summer. We also had a large group of 7th-12th graders coming who weren't making an easy transition into the youth group class. The reasons why could probably be debated for centuries, but the fact remained that we had many young people coming in with little or no Bible knowledge who did not understand or adapt well to a setting that was mostly singing, prayer, and "devo-style" lessons with limited discussion and interaction. So, the decision was made to offer two classes to all of the youth group. One was the "devo" class and the other was a more "interactive" class. In other words, the kids played youth group games for the majority of class and then discussed the point or lesson at the end. Not surprising, the kids coming from the community preferred the games and short lessons and naturally drifted to that class. And so the summer came and went...
4) As the school year started up again, a few other changes were made. The first was that we again had to address the dead time between the kids finishing their meals (around 6:30 at the latest) and the start of bible classes (7:00). After a lot of thought and consideration, it was decided that we should start letting the kids eat at 6:30 instead of 6:00. Obviously, that was not something the kids were super excited about or overly willing to comply with. So, we set up "fun rooms" in the upstairs portion of the gym with movies, crafts, games and coloring. The kids came in the building and went upstairs to get their name tags. They then stayed there until the mass release at 6:30. Even though this new set-up was not without problems and has constantly needed tweaks, it has helped tremendously in cutting down the chaos at the meals and specifically the problems that were occurring between the meals and classes.
5) At this time we also decided on some rules/expectations and the consequences that we were going to hold these kids to and started to hold "orientations" to go over these rules. After a kid went through orientation, they signed a contract saying that they knew the rules and consequences if they chose not to follow the rules. That allowed us all to get on the same page and also take care of the "but I didn't know" excuse that we were running into a lot.
6) We also took the start of the school year to reevaluate the youth group classes. While the interactive class was great for the summer, we wanted to transition the community kids into Bible classes more similar to the youth group class. However, there were approximately 40 7th-12th graders coming from the community and the option of pushing them into the youth group class seemed to be a recipe for disaster. So, we took the only option we could come up with at the time and offered a girls' class and a guys' class. The Levy youth group class continued to meet and have the devo-style class and all of the community kids were given the option of going into that class or into the split classes down the hall. The guys' class went through a series on God, steps to salvation, and Jesus' life, death and resurrection. The girls' class studied the fruits of the Spirit, women in the Bible, and steps to salvation. For the most part, the community kids have remained in the split classes, but occasionally a few have chosen to be part of the youth group class. Our goal still remains to integrate these classes into one, but we've yet to come up with a painless way to that. We welcome any and all suggestions. :)
7)Some other fun events worth mentioning...
In January, some members took the high school community kids to Harding University for a tour and basketball game. It was a huge success.
Also in January, some of the ladies took six 6th-12th grade girls to Memphis for a Girls' Retreat. Also a great success.
In February, Bill Ehlig came to Levy and presented a Poverty Seminar for all of the Levy members who were interested in attending. Bill Ehlig has worked extensively with Ruby Payne in her work with poverty in the schools and adapted that to the church setting. He had some great insights to offer as far as the hidden rules of poverty and working with the families in our community.
8) A few weeks ago, Levy had it's first annual Community Day. It was huge and really needs to be a post of it's own. I'll get Ted working on that asap :) But the results have been outstanding - 20 baptisms, countless connections and bible studies, and a renewed interest from Levy members in evangelism to those in our community.
Whew...I'm tired. And I know I've left some things out. To the other "authors" of this blog - feel free to fill in whatever I didn't cover.
Our goals for the immediate future - 1)reorganize the 1st-6th grade classes for Wednesday nights to best meet the needs of ALL of the kids in those classes, 2) reach out to more of these kids' parents, and 3)recruit even more help from Levy members. If you're one of those people out there reading this, don't sit and complain before getting involved. Trust me, it's a waste of time :). Just give us a call and we'll put you to work.
I know I've written a lot and if you've hung in there through it all, good job! I'll just end by saying that I believe with all my heart that God has a plan for these kids and even when I'm at my wit's end, I'm grateful that He's included me in just a small piece of the plan. I'm also grateful for those that God has given us to work with in this ministry. May the next year be even more fruitful than the last!
Allison
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