Touched By Service

Segue Ministries in Public Schools

2011-04-14T07:30:00.001-04:00

Do you have children in the local public schools, or have friends with children in the local public schools? Do you have a heart for youth and teens, a heart that yearns to see these adults of tomorrow come into a relationship with Christ?

If you fit any of these three descriptors, you could be an advocate and supporter of Segue Ministries, a Christian ministry serving students of several public middle and high schools in Duluth, Johns Creek and Norcross.

Through relationships established with school administrators, Segue Ministries is on schools campuses conducting outreach to students, loving them, serving them and introducing them to the Gospel. Visit their website for details about the important programs this ministry offers:

http://www.segueministries.org/index.html

With this message you are invited to attend Segue’s first Wine, Cheese and Chat, a friend raising event on April 19th, 7:00-8:30 (address below). During this time we will enjoy fellowship, fine wine and cheese selections, and hear a brief presentation about Segue Ministries from its Executive Director, Rip Pruitt.

Yes, Segue will appreciate your financial support should you be moved to give to the ministry, but equally we need your prayers and encouragement. Please plan to spend this time with us for the benefit of students and the Kingdom!

Please forward this to those you believe would be interested in learning more about Segue Ministries.

RSVP by the 17th to gregoryelang@gmail.com or 404.863.2275.
3927 St. George Ct., Duluth, 30096 (Sweet Bottom Plantation)

Living as Servants

2010-10-12T08:37:00.001-04:00

Back to School Drive a Huge Success

As people left Perimeter Church, they were handed an empty backpack. They were encouraged to return it in a few days, filled with school supplies. “I had no idea how this would turn out,” Debra Potter said. “We’d never done it this way before.”
Within days, backpacks filled with school supplies began showing up at the church.

Before it was over, 1892 backpacks loaded with pens, papers, markers and more, were returned and sat ready to be delivered to needy children in the community.

“We also encouraged families without the time to shop to simply donate $25 so that we could shop for them,” Jackie Deiter explained. “We usually raise $500 in that way, but this year we raised $7000!”

The backpacks were donated to children through Perimeter’s relationships with nearby schools and outreach ministries. Additionally, 150 bags for teachers were created from the excess school supplies and given into the classrooms.

While it is wonderful to recognize and celebrate the big picture, it is often the little picture, the impact of a single backpack, or three, that best illustrates the glory found in giving.

Jean Van Evenhoven took a few backpacks to work hoping to encourage her co-workers to help her fill them. Quickly they embraced the giving opportunity and began collecting money to purchase school supplies. And then it was discovered that a fellow co-worker had fallen on lean times and himself needed the backpacks for his children. “When we gave him the backpacks,” Jean said, “he was so moved and told me no one had ever done anything like that for him before. I told him we were simply responding to the opportunity God had given us to bless him.”

“I had only a few dollars in my pocket,” the man said, “and had no idea how I was going to provide my children with school supplies.”

“The experience taught me to keep me eyes open for opportunities to bless people,” Jean said. “When I received the thank you card his children had written, I realized what a blessing it is to me to be able to help others.”

Goldrush Food Drive Fills Garage

When Chelsea Sabo asked the young students participating in Godrush to bring in food for donation to the Salvation Army, she had no idea their response would be so overwhelming.

“At first I was stacking bags of groceries along the garage wall, out of the way so I could still get my car in and out easily. But the stack kept growing; every day more and more bags of groceries were brought in by the kids at Goldrush. Quickly it was obvious to me there was no space left for me to park in my own garage! I had no idea we would collect nearly a hundred bags of groceries during this drive.”

According to Deborah Wengrow, Social Services Director of the Salvation Army, the shelves of their food pantry were empty the morning the groceries were delivered from Chelsea’s garage. “It was an answer to prayer,” she said.

Kindergarten Shields Police in Prayer

Some kids carry Pokemon or baseball cards around with them. Others, like those in kindergarten at Perimeter School, carry cards depicting police officers.

The Shield-A-Badge with Prayer program asks people to commit to pray for an officer every day for one year, and to carry that officer’s photo and prayer request. “So often law enforcement officers don’t know if anyone appreciates what they do,” Kimberly Hicks, classroom volunteer, explained. “This program is a way to assure the officers that what they do is indeed appreciated.”

But the youth at Perimeter School wanted to take the program a step further. Each officer in the Johns Creek force received a small wooden cross engraved with Joshua 1:9. That verse reads - Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

“One officer teared up when a little girl told him she was praying for him,” Kimberly said.

“The children were very excited to visit the station to deliver the crosses,” Kimberly added. Since then, they have returned to the station to take cookies and cards and letters of encouragement. “They kids really enjoyed meeting the officers they were praying for, and having the chance to look through the one-way mirror in the interview room.”

Mom Makes Dresses for Children in Haiti

Katy Mulford, a stay at home mom with an infant in arms, has a degree in fashion design and a heart for orphans, but hadn’t figured out how to combine the two interests. She also hadn’t figured out how she could serve and care for her son at the same time.

“And then I read in the Pulse about ways we could respond to the crisis in Haiti, and saw the idea about pillowcase dresses. I knew immediately that was something I could do during my son’s naptime.”

Within a week Katy had sewn a dozen dresses from pillowcases of brightly colored flowers and polka dots. Before delivering them to the church, she prayed over the dresses, asking God to stir the little girls to realize the dresses were an expression of His love for them. “I was so impacted by making these dresses, I plan to recruit other stay at home moms I know to join me in helping those little girls who lost everything. I’m so glad God showed me something I could do to help.”

Stephen Ministry

2010-04-14T06:55:00.000-04:00

Last night I had the pleasure and priviledge to help commission ten new Stephen Ministers, Christian lay-counselors, into our Perimeter Church fold. It was a wonderful experience, and reminded me of my own commissioning last year. I'm posting here today what I wrote on my own blog in April '09:

So now I’m a Stephen Minister; the commissioning ceremony was last night. Twelve others and I met with the other ministers and officially accepted into the ministry. It really was a powerful evening.

First of all, I went alone because Linley had come down with tonsillitis that day and was feeling pretty bad, so she and Jill stayed home but they did send me off with hugs and smiles of pride. I know I have their support.

We began with a brief social so that new and old ministers could get to know one another, and then went into the prayer room. Perimeter has a prayer team that meets at the church several times a week to pray for the church, congregation, community and more. Before this group we took our oath, answering “Yes, with the help of God,” to each question. It was a reminder to us that we are not healers, only messengers. God is the healer. Then we received our Stephen Ministry certificates.

After the formal commissioning, each new minister was lead away by two members of the prayer team who asked what weighed heavily on us, and then prayed for us individually. It was overwhelming to hear two people pray so earnestly and personally for me and my family. I am rich with blessings already, but if God finds favor in me as these two people asked him to, I’m going to be hard pressed to describe my gratitude. I tell you, it makes me want to serve Him even more.

Next we gathered in a circle and were asked to hold our hands out palms up. An Elder went around to each of us and anointed us, making the sign of the cross in each palm with francenscence oil. As he did so another Elder read to us the story of Stephen from the book of Acts. After each of us was anointed, we were asked to hold hands. As we did the prayer team gathered around us, laid hands on our shoulders, and took turns praying out loud for us.

I kid you not, warmth filled my hands, and I felt warm vibrations radiating from their hands on my shoulders into and throughout my body. Their words lifted my heart. The ceremony was as powerful as when I became baptized.
When it was over we all congratulated each other, Carla, my prayer partner during the training, and I hugged and made plans to meet with our spouses for a glass of wine next week, and then everyone went their separate ways.

As I got into the car I found two notes sitting on the passenger seat. Jill and Linley had driven to the church to deliver them, wanting me to know they were there for me even though they couldn’t attend the ceremony.

What a night. I’m proud to be a Stephen Minister.

An Encounter with God

2010-02-15T10:41:00.002-05:00

On December 30th, 2009 John woke up with a plan to spend a portion of his day serving God. He was to visit several extended stay hotels to help distribute one hundred sack lunches to the children who live there, children who call the hotel rooms “home.”

He and his wife Kathy had participated in a few community outreach service projects in the past, but neither claimed to be immersed in missional living. Yet, on this day, the parents of three wanted to serve not only to help others but to give their children an opportunity to bless others with their good deeds.

The family of five piled into the car and headed for their first stop not knowing what God had in store for them.

Shalihia sat at the little table tucked in the corner of her hotel room, her head heavy in her hands, wondering what she was going to do. She and her two young sons had been living at the hotel for nearly three months and the cramped quarters were wearing her nerves thin. Christmas had passed without gifts for her children, and with their father in prison she hadn’t had anyone to share the season with. She and her mother hadn’t spoken to each other since October.

Back then, facing her mother’s ultimatum to either be baptized as a Jehovah’s Witness or leave home, Shalihia stepped outside into the cold taking with her only the clothing she and her sons were wearing. The twenty-four year old mother and her sons spent their first night homeless in the frightening surroundings of a shelter. They eventually made their way to the Norcross Cooperative Ministry where she received help to secure a room at the hotel where she now lived.

John and Kathy reached the first stop, an extended stay hotel in Norcross. They had heard of the growing numbers of families moving into the hotels after an eviction or foreclosure followed shortly behind the loss of a job. The children living with their parents in the hotels often received their only nutritious meal at school. For them, when the schools are closed, there are no such meals. For some of them, the sack lunches the church people brought would be all they would eat that day.

The couple stepped into the hotel lobby to deliver a box full of the sack lunches. They were greeted at the front desk and the attendant began to call the residents to announce that lunch had arrived.

Shalihia looked around her room. Her hopes had been high a few days before when all was on track for her to move into a nearby apartment complex, only to come crashing down when she discovered her identity had been stolen and her credit ruined. Now the required deposit was beyond her ability to pay. Making matters worse, her employer, having troubles of his own, was days late handing out paychecks. She had only a few dollars in her pocket.

Shalihia stared out the window and thought of the woman down the hall who watched her children while she worked, and remembered the woman’s words: Don’t worry, have faith and something will come through.

At that moment Shalihia’s telephone rang.

John and Kathy watched as a few timid parents walked across the parking lot through the cold to receive lunches for their children. When it seemed they had served everyone they began to pack the remaining bags to go to the second stop. John looked up and saw a young woman approaching.

“How many children do you have?” he asked.

“Two,” she said, giving an appreciative smile as she took the lunches. She turned back to return to her room.

Kathy, thinking the young mother might be hungry too, tossed her husband a third lunch. “Go after that woman and give this to her,” she told him.

Nearing her room, Shalihia heard a voice over her shoulder. It was John. “I forgot to give you a lunch,” he said, and handed another to her. She smiled a second time and thanked him again before turning around once more to go inside.

“In what was probably only seconds,” John recalled later, “I felt God prompting me to ask her if she needed anything else, and at the very same time I was nervously asking myself if I was prepared for what might come if I asked her.” He drew a breath.

“I was headed in the door when I hear his voice again,” Shalihia laughed when describing her encounter with John. “That man asked me, ‘Is there anything else that you need?’ I couldn’t believe it because I could tell in his eyes he really wanted to know. All of a sudden words just started to spill out of my mouth.”

John learned everything about Shalihia’s circumstances: her mother’s rejection, her delinquent paycheck, her credit in ruins, and her despair about her children having to live in a hotel. “I was stunned,” John said. “I felt so burdened by her situation that I knew we had to do something to help her, I just wasn’t sure what. I promised Shalihia she would hear from me again, and for the rest of the day I was preoccupied with her, wondering what God wanted us to do.”

John and Kathy decided to help Shalihia with the deposit she needed for the apartment, only to realize she had nothing to move into it. “We couldn’t let them sleep on the floor,” Kathy said. The couple began to spread word of Shalihia’s story to their discipleship groups, friends and neighbors. As other’s learned that the single mom and her sons had nothing but a few clothes, donations of gift cards, furniture and household items began to pour in. Dozens of people, some complete strangers to John and Kathy, mobilized to help Shalihia furnish the apartment.

“A few days after I got those lunches,” Shalihia explained, “the front desk of the hotel called and it was John on the phone. He told me to pack my bags; he said I was getting out of there! When I told my four year old son we were moving into an apartment, he said “Mommy, God is good!”

John helped Shalihia move into the apartment just four days after meeting her.

Kathy invited Shalihia to Perimeter, first to meet Kathy’s cohorts in Community Outreach, and later to attend a WOW meeting where Shalihia told her story. “I knew that God was at work in my life because I could think of no other explanation why people I didn’t even know would be showing me so much compassion and generosity.”

On Kathy’s invitation Shalihia began to receive guests to help her with Bible study group. She also attended A Taste of Perimeter and began to grow attached to the people she met. “I could feel the Holy Spirit as I listened to how others were living to love and serve people just as Jesus had done. Amazed at how God has blessed me already this year, I realized I wanted to commit myself to Him.” Shalihia has since accepted Christ as her Savior and is planning to attend the upcoming Inquirers Seminar.

“Before I met John, I remember thinking maybe I would go to my mother’s church and get baptized just so I could move my children back into a home, but now I’m so glad I didn’t. Now I know God because he showed himself to me through other people’s love, not their coercion. I wake up every morning now and instead of being filled with worry I think about how much God has blessed me. I know that he is real. God is real.”

John and Kathy, already faithful believers, grew closer to God through their experience helping Shalihia.

“I learned that I really could depend on God,” John explained. “When I sat down to write that first email to my friends asking for their help I didn’t know what to say or ask. But somehow Shalihia’s story unfolded and that email spread around like wildfire. Almost immediately responses began coming in with offers to help. That’s when I realized that I wasn’t doing anything in this scenario. God was doing all the work but letting me go along to watch. He was letting me enjoy his plan for Shalihia.”

“Yes, we came to trust in God’s provision,” Kathy added. “People we didn’t know were sending money or asking what Shalilia needed. It was amazing to see God at work, and amazing to see the joy in Shalihia’s face as she, through this encounter with all the people who reached out to her, came to know and love God.”

Sleep Well Tonight

2009-12-10T10:42:00.002-05:00

Twice now I’ve seen groups of people sitting on the floor or around conference tables hunched over large sheets of flannel. They were tying two pieces of flannel together to make blankets, blankets with knotted tassels along all four sides. Blankets that would be donated to provide warmth to someone sleeping in a cold drafty home, or worse, outside in the stark weather.

I wanted to know the story behind the blankets, and I learned they were the products of a ministry aptly called Sleep Well Tonight. I had the pleasure of talking with John Duke, co-founder and Ministry Director, about the origins and work of Sleep Well Tonight.

Greg: Tell me how your ministry began.

John: My wife Joanne and I frequent downtown Atlanta, and the more often we went downtown the more often we witnessed people sleeping in the cold on benches or the stone steps of city buildings. It bothered my wife so much she began tossing old blankets in the car whenever we made a trip into town. When we spotted someone who obviously needed it, we gave them the blanket. This went on a few times until the police actually discouraged us from doing it! That bothered Joanne even more, so we began to pray about the situation, asking God to reveal to us how we could help these people.

A short time later, in June of ’08, we attended an event sponsored by Community Outreach which targeted helping the homeless of Atlanta. As I was cooking and serving burgers and hotdogs, a fellow came up to me and asked if I would pray for he and his family. Joanne and I followed him to his home, a ramshackle place with broken windows. I asked him if he could use a few blankets and pillows, and he said, “If you could help us like that, we would sleep well tonight.”

On our way home Joanne and I talked about that experience and decided we were going to get blankets to the homeless somehow, and we were going to call our ministry Sleep Well Tonight. Ultimately we decided to collect blankets, sleeping bags and pillows and offer them to existing organizations which would then distribute them into the communities they served.

Greg: How did the knotted blankets and volunteers come into play?

John: As we were asking churches to donate blankets to our ministry, Joanne discovered how to make knotted blankets. It occurred to us this would be a great project for Goldrush (a week-long summer event for youth), and all of a sudden there were four hundred kids making knotted blankets for us. That gave us the idea of encouraging other churches to engage their youth groups in making knotted blankets, and it went viral from there. In short order we collected more than 4,000 blankets!

As these blankets began to stack up in my garage, we decided to make sure the recipients knew that these were not just free blankets, but was also God at work. We began asking people to include cards of encouragement with each blanket, and we began including Bibles with them. We met with some opposition from a few of our secular distributors about that, but when a homeless guy came up to me and asked for more Bibles, I knew we were doing the right thing. The Bible is an integral part of what we do, and now we only work with distributors who understand and support that.

Greg: Wow, this has really grown from a rather simple idea.

John: I haven’t been able to park a car in my garage for nearly a year! But as it is turning cold I’m growing fearful my garage will become empty, that we will give all the blankets away. If not for the generosity of the churches and small groups that support us that could happen. We have eight distributors and a number of times we could not fulfill their requests for more blankets, but we gave them what we had.

Greg: So you no longer give blankets directly to the homeless, but instead you use distributors?

John: The co-ops, Salvation Army and several shelters distribute for us. They are able to reach more needy people that we can, so I now concentrate on collecting the blankets and delivering them to the distributors, and telling organizations about the ministry and helping them organize drives to make or collect more knotted blankets.

Greg: In addition to offering blankets, how might someone support your ministry?

John: Joanne and I are using our own funds to purchase the packaging and Bibles. We could use cash donations to help with those expenses, and of course we would love to receive donated Bibles. This winter we expect to give away more than the 4,000 blankets we gave away last winter; in order for the ministry to grow with the demand for blankets we will need financial resources beyond what Joanne and I can manage ourselves.

Greg: Your ministry has grown so large and so rapidly it has outpaced your ability to fund it.

John: Exactly. It has grown so large we also need space to store the blankets, Bibles and supplies. Joanne and I are praying about that too.

Greg: How large is the homeless population in our area?

John: It is so hard to say because it is next to impossible to obtain an accurate count of people who by the very nature of their circumstances don’t stay in place. And don’t forget that it isn’t only the homeless we serve. There are people who have a home but that home isn’t heated. The best I can tell you is that even though we gave away 4,000 blankets last year, we had requests for 12,000.

I left the meeting with John grateful for my home and the means to heat it and adequately clothe myself and my family. It is 35 degrees outside as I write this post, but the wind makes it feel like 26. It will actually drop to 25 degrees tonight, and we don’t know yet how cruel the wind will be. Along with John, I too pray for his ministry.

The needs of this ministry are clear: operating funds, blankets and storage space. If you have a heart for assisting Sleep Well Tonight, contact John or Joanne at john@sleepwelltonight.org and joanne@sleepwelltonight.org

Prison Outreach

2009-11-24T11:09:00.003-05:00

This is the continuation of a post written in June about Jim Cook and his Prison Ministry. You can find the original story in the archive (lower right margin of this page) under June. One result of that interview was the press on my heart to help launch the pen-pal ministry. I'm happy to say that there are now a dozen volunteers ready to work with me in writing letters of encouragement and fellowship to the inmates of Gwinnett County Detention Center. We plan to begin wiht sending Christmas cards to about 60 inmates. In the event this ministry may interest you, the details are posted here for you to consider:

Prison Pen-Pal Ministry

Thank you for volunteering to write letters of encouragement and discipleship to a Gwinnett County inmate. Few people are willing to share their time with these men and women, and as a result loneliness is one of the greatest challenges they face. Inmates who have concerned and supportive contacts in the outside world have a much lower recidivism rate than those who do not. Your act of writing a letter is indeed an act of faith - faith that you can make a positive difference in another person's life.

Here’s how the Prison Pen-Pal Ministry works:

1. An inmate will request a pen-pal by completing a response card and mailing it to the Perimeter Church pen-pal address.

2. An email will be sent to interested parties asking if you would volunteer to write to that inmate.

3. Volunteers will be matched to the inmate of his/her choosing based on his/her personal criteria and level of comfort. Once matched, you will mail the first letter from your home or business to:

Inmate Name (Required)
Inmate ID Number (Required)
Housing Unit (Optional)
Gwinnett County Detention Center
2900 University Pkwy. NE
Lawrenceville, GA 30043

You must always use the following return address:

Perimeter Church
c/o Prison Outreach
9500 Medlock Bridge Road
Duluth, GA 30097

4. Remember to put the return address on the upper left hand corner of the envelope and include it again in the body of the letter in case something happens to the envelope. The prison won't accept letters without return addresses.

5. When the inmate writes back, your mail will be forwarded to you from Perimeter Church.

6. You would then write again to your pen-pal as long and as often as you feel comfortable doing so.

Before writing your first letter, it is important to familiarize yourself with the guidelines used by our ministry:

1. Focus your letters on words of encouragement and discipleship. Your uplifting words can make their prison sentence more bearable. Encourage them toward getting an education while in prison, learning a trade, becoming more spiritual, etc.

2. Feel free to ask questions, but let your questions be about the person and not the reason why he/she is in jail. However, if the inmate volunteers information about his/her crime, it is then okay to discuss it.

3. Be careful that your questions do not lead to unrealistic expectations. For example, “Where will you live when you get out?” may be construed to mean “I want you to live with me when you get out.”

4. Write a little about yourself - your interests and hobbies, your faith journey - but avoid sharing too much personal information. Most volunteers use only their first names in all correspondence with their pen-pal. Do not reveal any information that could result in you being identified and located (full name, personal or business address, phone numbers, date of birth, etc.).

5. Indicate how often you are willing to write; twice a month is a good standard. If you are only able to write once a month, let that person know so that he or she doesn't expect your letter sooner and then become discouraged.

6. You may choose to write only inmates of your own gender, or you may write an inmate of any gender. However, if you are writing an inmate of the opposite gender, please exercise extra caution to avoid giving the appearance that you are interested in a romantic relationship.

7. If you feel strongly that you do not want to write an inmate who has committed a particular crime, you must conduct that research yourself by reviewing the inmate’s crime data at http://www.gwinnettcountysheriff.com/ (click on the badge, then “Docket Book” on the right margin, then by the first letter of the last name). While we do not object to volunteers screening the inmates, our position is one of neutrality.

8. Do NOT include stamps, money, gifts or photographs in your letters. Be aware that all inmate mail is opened and inspected at the prison before it is given to an inmate.

9. Don't write to more than one inmate at a time; it can create a rivalry between inmates.

10. You may be tempted to visit you pen-pal while he/she is in prison. This is a personal decision but one that cannot be made lightly. To visit an inmate you must give your full name and address to the prison officials, and you will be required to wear a name tag bearing that information while you are in the prison. One should be extremely cautious about creating unintended expectations; inmates may mistake your kind visit as a commitment or opportunity to exploit.

11. If you should become offended by or incompatible with your pen-pal, simply write a letter explaining your reason for choosing not to write again in the future. But please remember, all inmates are not the same. You will find every denomination, race, educational background and class inside prison walls. If you discover you don't relate well with one inmate, don't let that stop you from writing to another. As with any new person you meet, each inmate has his or her own unique qualities which may or may not be appealing to you.

Please direct all questions regarding pen-pal procedures and issues to Greg Lang at 404.863.2275 or gregoryelang@gmail.com.

Write, bless and be blessed!

WOW

2009-11-16T06:55:00.001-05:00

I walked into the Fellowship Hall late one Wednesday morning in October to find some thirty women busy at work, sitting around tables or in a far corner hovering over an assortment of bags. The room was filled with cheerful chatter yet everyone worked with a determined purpose.

Those sitting at the tables were busy making knotted blankets. Some women, scissors in hand, cut into the hem of the blankets to make tassels while others tied two blankets together with those same tassels, creating an extra thick offering of warmth for someone who would need it this winter. The finished blankets would be wrapped around Bibles before the morning was over.

The women in the corner were sorting toiletries. The sparkly toothpaste, colorful toothbrushes, baby shampoo and assorted items decorated with cartoon characters went to one table, the more “mature” versions of the same personal care items went to another table. On both tables these toiletries were wrapped in gift paper and ribbons, each capped off with a small slip of paper on which were found one of two Bible verses: I can do all things through God who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13) and Nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37).

These were the volunteers of Women on Wednesday (WOW), a division of Perimeter’s Women’s Ministry which meets weekly but also teams up with Community Outreach six times a year to serve a different ministry in our surrounding community. What I watched that day was their service project to benefit the poor and homeless who turn to the Norcross Cooperative Ministry for help.

I asked Tracy Baird to help me understand the WOW ministry.

Tracy: The role of WOW is to provide a place at Perimeter for women to connect, serve, and grow. Women can drop in at WOW any week or attend all year. Through our service projects, women have opportunities to serve without having to make a long-term commitment to a ministry. It is a great place for newcomers to Perimeter to meet other women and for women interested in volunteering to learn about a number of ministries while searching for the one that is a good match for her gifts and interests. We like to say “if you don’t know what you want to do, come to us.” We’ll help women find a ministry if they want to move on to a long term commitment, or, under our umbrella, give her opportunities to serve whenever she can.

Greg: Which ministries do you serve and in what way do you serve them?

Tracy: WOW provides women with opportunities to serve in the morning, and has served or is scheduled to serve the Norcross Coop, Light of Messiah Ministries, Wellspring Living, Victoria’s Friends, Children’s Restoration Network, and A Beacon of Hope. In addition, there are evening opportunities for women to serve and those projects include the Salvation Army Gwinnett, Open Arms House, Bethany Christian Services, and still others. We serve these ministries in many ways. Today we are making the blankets and basic necessity bags; we’ve made gift baskets of different varieties depending on who is the recipient of that particular ministry, and we’ve held food drives.

Greg: How do you choose a service project?

Tracy: In our relationship with Community Outreach we identify which ministries have needs that we believe we can meet with our pool of volunteers. We have the hands and the will, we just need a small but impactful project that we can complete in a single day.

Greg: This seems to be a great ministry for moms at home with young children.

Tracy: It is. We provide childcare for children up to age five so that moms of preschoolers can serve the community and be near their children at the same time.

Greg: Is WOW open only to Perimeter members or can any interested women attend?

Tracy: We are open to all women who want to come. We think many women have a heart for service and we encourage our regular attendees to invite their service-minded friends to participate. We have a Facebook group to help get our name and purpose out there, as well as a separate “women serving” webpage on the Perimeter website, and we welcome anyone who wants to come whether that is to serve or participate in our regular program.

Greg: And what is the regular program?

Tracy: Our typical program includes an inspirational speaker and great music over snacks and coffee, while also occasionally providing information on ministries where our attendees may want to serve or be served. There are movie clips, ballet performances, and other special offerings, as well as opportunities to just visit and connect with other women. We are also hosting a Women’s Ministry Newcomer Brunch three times this year, and showing two movies. WOW offers fellowship for women of all ages in addition to our community service projects.

And what is WOW doing in December? Visit the Fellowship Hall on Dec. 2nd, 9:30-11:30 to help prepare Hanukkah baskets for Jewish families in Atlanta, in service to the Light of Messiah Ministries.

Since 1992, Light of Messiah ministries has been proclaiming the message of Jesus to the Jewish community of Atlanta. They are committed to helping Jewish people learn more about the truth of the Messiahship of Jesus and helping Christians learn more about the Jewish roots of our faith as believers in Jesus.

From the WOW website:

WOW is a place where women of all ages and stages can attend anytime during the year and feel comfortable and welcome. Join us for a single session or attend all year. Our purpose is to share God's truth that sets us free, encourages our hearts, heals our wounds and offers hope for the future.

WOW is for you if you are seeking to understand God's plan for your life, wanting to be refreshed and encouraged, needing a friend, wanting to invite a friend, and/or wanting to connect within Perimeter.

For more information about other upcoming events, visit www.perimeter.org/women

Mary Hall Freedom House/Kingdom Investments

2009-11-08T09:25:00.002-05:00

When you enter the lobby of the Mary Hall Freedom House the first thing you notice is a sign on the wall: Love is Spoken Here. Soon you notice many of the staff wear t-shirts which promise “We will love you until you learn to love yourself.” As you eyes rove about the room, you see three open Bibles placed in conspicuous places. Unexpectedly, your ears detect children’s laughter coming from another room.

Founded in 1996, the Mary Hall Freedom House (MHFH) serves homeless women struggling with addiction. Its many programs are geared toward promoting recovery and self-sufficiency; it has seen over 2,500 women graduate into sober living, competitive employment and stable housing.

A distinctively Christian program, the staff begins every Monday morning in prayer. Every meeting is called to order with prayer. One year ago, all at MHFH prayed passionately for God’s provision; Georgia’s Department of Human Resources, caught in a budget crisis, had cut their funding by $1.5 million.

The budget shortfall meant MHFH had to reduce staff and services, but they refused to reduce the number of women they served. This decision meant the new satellite campus in Gwinnett known as Open Arms (twenty-seven apartment units) would operate as an unsupervised program. There simply weren’t enough resources to place a staff member on the premises.

Enter Kingdom Investments. Its grant made possible the hiring of a full-time case manager, an on-site professional to teach essential life skills to the women who would live at Open Arms. Women like Myrna.

A victim of domestic violence and living in her car, Myrna moved from temporary job to temporary job hoping one would become a permanent position, but no such opportunity materialized. She was the first client to turn to MHFH/Open Arms for help, and was soon placed in an apartment. With the help of the on-site case manager, she learned the lifestyle management and budgeting skills that made it possible for her to make ends meet when she finally found stable employment. Today, Myrna, the first graduate of the Open Arms program, works in a law office and the apartment lease has been transferred to her name.

But Myrna has accomplished more than becoming self-sufficient. She has also discovered her worth and her gifts. Today she serves as an example to the other women at Open Arms in her capacity as a volunteer. She is both the evidence the program works and the beneficiary of answered prayers.

To learn how you can help Mary Hall Freedom House as a volunteer, call 770.642.5500.

Breaking the Cycles

2009-11-02T06:58:00.000-05:00

When I walked into the Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church to attend the Rainbow Village graduation ceremony, I spotted a banner some ten feet long stretched along a wall. Walking over to it, I read hand-penned messages of love and good luck wishes written to the five women who would be honored that night. Encircling the entire banner were the outlined hands of the other residents and staff of Rainbow Village, each signed by its owner.

Moving toward the sanctuary, I passed family members hugging and congratulating each other. They were waiting their turn to be photographed in the lobby before taking seats to watch the ceremony. Topiaries and an arbor decorated in shades of pink and cream marked where the graduates would be presented.

The Reverend Nancy Yancey, CEO, opened the ceremony and told us Rainbow Village was “a place of transformation where God’s love, mercy and grace abound.” Lynnette Ward, Adult Program Director, followed and told us of her own tenure as a resident of Rainbow Village before taking her first position with the organization. Recalling the woman who served as her mentor before her own graduation, Lynnette had asked her, “What can I do to repay you for your kindness?”

“You can do for another,” the mentor had answered back then. Lynnette turned to the anxious graduates. “And that’s what I urge you ladies to do,” she said, “to do for others. Because what we go through is not for us, but for someone else.”

Each graduate in her turn stood before the crowd and told her story. Stories of domestic violence, eventual homelessness and poverty, moving children from hotel to hotel, fighting back hunger and the temptation to return to an abusive spouse just to have a roof overhead. Stories that all wove their way to a confession of helplessness and hopelessness, until they found Rainbow Village. And while at Rainbow Village, they found hope, self-respect, new skills, and most importantly, the power of God. One graduate ended her story telling us that while at Rainbow Village she finally learned to “love who God has made me to be.”

A young man, probably a high school senior, was given a chance to speak. He told of a time when he lived in his mother’s car or dingy hotels. In the sixth grade at the time he and his mother moved into Rainbow Village, he said he had never finished a school term in the same school where he had begun that year. Being homeless meant constantly moving from temporary shelter to temporary shelter. It also meant having no permanent friends.

He paused for a moment and looked to his mother who was sitting in the audience. “I came to Rainbow Village when I was twelve years old,” he said. “And for the first time in my life I attended the same school all year long. I made friends, I had stability. And I watched my mother change, and I became so proud of her.”

When he finished he took a seat behind his mom, Sondra Blue, a graduate of Rainbow Village and now its Children and Youth Program Director. She looked over her shoulder at her son, smiled broadly, and then reached to gently cup his face in her hand.

I looked down at my program to hide my tears, and my eyes came to rest on a phrase describing Rainbow Village’s mission: Breaking the Cycles of Homelessness, Poverty and Domestic Violence.

After what I saw that evening, I had no doubt that Rainbow Village is excelling at doing God’s work.

About Rainbow Village:

Each family that comes to Rainbow Village enters into a covenant based on accountability, initiative, and the achievement of mutually agreed upon goals.

Opportunities are offered for each family to become self-sufficient. By becoming a part of a supportive community families not only stay together but find hope and promise for the future. By forming new habits and lifestyles, acquiring better job skills, and learning to live as healthy members of our community, all are served.

Once admitted, families reside in completely furnished homes. Families can remain in the home for a period of up to two years as long as they are in compliance with the program agreement outlining the self-sufficiency plan. To ensure financial accountability, each family follows a monthly budget which includes a debt repayment and savings plan. They also must meet with a Rainbow Village case manager who assists each family in setting and achieving realistic goals.

For more information about the program and to learn of volunteer opportunities, visit the website at www.rainbowvillage.org/

A Day of Service (CIA)

2009-10-25T17:11:00.001-04:00

7:30 Rolled out of bed, wished I were sleeping late. Slipped on yesterday’s jeans and new Compassion in Action tee shirt. Grabbed a cup of coffee on the way to pick up Cameron.

8:05 Picked up Cameron and tossed him a CIA tee shirt. He was still sleepy too. Made sure he hugged his mom before we left. Explained what CIA is all about.

8:20 Discussed our stops today as we ate breakfast. Saw a few friends at Chick-fil-a and introduced Cameron. Talked about high school football.

9:00 Arrived at Wellspring Living house. Pulled weeds, fought back kudzu and spread mulch. Introduced Cameron to some friends and got a hug or two.

9:50 Headed to Perimeter. Explained Wellspring Living’s ministry to Cameron.

10:00 Helped fill the basic necessity bags for the Norcross Cooperative Ministry. Sorted shoes for the homeless, admired the backpacks for the foster children, and loaded the truck with groceries. Cameron liked pushing the cart. Chatted with a guy in my discipleship group and introduced him to Cameron.

11:15 Unloaded the groceries at the Norcross Co-op. Cameron helped shelve food. Talked and then prayed with other volunteers. Lost Cameron. Found him in the basement helping a senior stack boxes. Explained how Co-ops work.

12:20 Had subs for lunch. Talked about how good it feels to help others. Discussed his grades and urged him to envision his future. Discussed options for what to do during our time together next weekend. Probably paintball.

12:45 Stopped by Rainbow Village. Laughed watching a boy beg the face painter to decorate his arms too. Tempted by a juicy hamburger but resisted. Cameron played with a few kids for a while and made a new friend.

1:35 Went to help clear the nature trail at an apartment complex but others had already finished the job. Cameron said he was tired, took him home. Talked about girls along the way.

2:10 Back home. Walked inside dirty but with a smile on my face.

Small Packages

2009-10-19T07:05:00.000-04:00

Sometimes great things come in small packages. Such as a diamond engagement ring in a little velvet box, a favorite family photograph captured in just a few bytes of digital memory, a song that describes a lifetime sung in less than three minutes.

Or a baby born in a manger who would become the Savior for all mankind.

Emily Stone and Caroline Mock are small packages, both not yet in their teen years, but both already doing great things.

Tagging along with an older sister to a Gold Rush event, the two friends happened to visit the Huntington Creek Apartment complex in Doraville, home of some fifty low income families living just off the runway of the Peachtree DeKalb Airport. While there Emily and Caroline began to play with the smaller children who lived in the complex, darting around on the pine bark covered playground adjacent to the parking lot, ducking under and around an old and battered swing set.

It didn’t take Emily and Caroline long to realize that the swing set was really an accident waiting to happen. Rickety and made of wood, it was older than most of the children. Dry rotted and splintered with nail heads protruding and rungs missing from the ladder, the set would best be repurposed for firewood. Only one of the original four swing seats still hung above the ground, and its chains were rusted and groaned whenever someone took a seat. Kids stood in line waiting their turn, and now and then disagreements broke out as those waiting grew impatient with the one who rode a little too long on the sole swing.

Emily and Caroline talked about their new friends on their way home and wondered out loud if they could do anything to make the playground safer and more fun for them.

They also talked about the upcoming Compassion in Action weekend and somewhere in that conversation an idea was born: the girls would organize a carwash and lemonade sale in their neighborhood to raise money for the purchase of new playground equipment. The young entrepreneurs went door to door explaining their fundraiser, and did indeed wash a few cars and sell a few cups of lemonade.

Yet in the end Emily and Caroline were only able to raise $100, far from enough to purchase the $1800 gift they had in mind for the youngsters living at the Huntington Creek Apartments.
But word of the girls’ ambitious CIA project began to spread, and before long enough money was donated to the cause to cover the cost of the new playground equipment.

On the Saturday of the CIA weekend the girls, their dads and other volunteers gathered at the apartment complex to assemble the structure. Soon the parts, wood beams and platforms, green rubber swing seats, a fireman’s pole, a climbing rope and sliding board lay on the ground, and the excited young residents danced around wanting to know when they could use the new swings.

A few of the older boys offered to help and soon were holding pieces in place while volunteers tightened bolts and screws. The younger children, too small to help and too impatient to wait, did their best to play with the pieces that were not yet ready to be assembled. One boy held the sliding board above his head with his hands while the smallest of his neighbors climbed up his back and then slid down the slide.

Emily and Caroline did their best to keep the children away from the power tools, and eventually additional and welcomed help arrived. Other volunteers came with snacks and crafts and quickly a small group formed on the perimeter of the playground. Children laughed as they colored pictures of Jesus performing miracles and pasted together symbols of faith to use as decorations in their homes. Hot dogs, sodas and chips were served, and no one seemed to care when a light rain began to drizzle on their heads.

No one cared because just a few yards away the playground set was slowly taking shape, rising above the pine bark, strong, safe, large enough for everyone, and promising loads of fun for years to come.

It took six hours and many hands to assemble the new playground equipment, serve the food and supervise the craft activities, but it only took the hearts and imaginations of two young girls – Emily and Caroline – to inspire others to join them in demonstrating the love of Christ and bringing Glory to God.

Sometimes great things come in small packages. Your seemingly small gesture of service or charity may be a priceless treasure to its recipient. What are you willing to give? What dreams could you help come true?

Wellspring Living

2009-10-12T06:24:00.000-04:00

She was only three months old when it first happened to her. It would not be the last time. Eventually removed from her home and placed in foster care, M won’t say how many times she has been sexually abused by people who were supposed to take care of her.

M also won’t say how old she was when she was first lured into prostitution, but she admits to living enslaved for years in soiled hotel rooms and dark apartments. She was underfeed to keep her skinny, dressed in provocative clothing to make her seem less innocent, and forced to work every day in order to earn money for the boyfriend who claimed to love her.

To work meant to be raped as many as a dozen times a day by men of all ages, races and social strata.

When M arrived at Wellspring for Girls she was seventeen years old. She refused to be embraced by those who wanted nothing more than to love her and help her. In M’s mind, affection was not a gesture of love; aggression kept her a safe distance from those she didn’t know. She trusted no one.

M is not alone in her experience. One in four girls suffers sexual abuse before reaching adulthood, most often before her eighth birthday. Those who become exploited as child prostitutes spend as many as three years of their lives being raped.

It is estimated three hundred girls suffer M’s experience each month in Georgia.

To date twelve girls, including M, have been through the Wellspring for Girls program. There they learn to trust again, to love and forgive themselves, and to restore the kind of normal life any young girl wants and deserves to have.

While at Wellspring for Girls, M participated in their academic program and graduated with an academic diploma. At the end of the graduation ceremony she turned to the staff who were there to share the pivotal moment with her.

A smile on her face, M reached out and hugged them, each and every one.

Wellspring Living needs volunteers to serve as academic mentors, to teach the residents independent living skills (budgeting, interviewing, social skills, computer skills, etc.) and work in its gently used stores located in Duluth and Tyrone, GA. To learn more about volunteering, call Wellspring Living at 770-631-8888.

Home Sweet Home

2009-10-04T15:20:00.000-04:00

Eighteen year old B sat down one evening in the privacy of her own bedroom to write a note. With her pen posed above a notebook of ruled paper, she thought back over the last two years. During that time much had happened.

B’s mom had moved her, her younger sister and her grandmother from their home in New York to Georgia. Mom thought she had found her dream job, but it quickly became obvious that things weren’t going as well as she had been hoped. Mom lost that job and couldn’t find another one.

That was when more bad things began to happen. First the car was reposed, and then the family of four was told they had to leave their apartment. They moved from one extended stay hotel to another until mom was finally able to find work and save enough money for the deposit required to rent another apartment, only to lose that job too, though through no fault of her own.

The cycle of being jobless and homeless repeated itself over and over again, and with each move the family found themselves in poorer living conditions, with fewer and fewer personal possessions, and further behind in every bill they owed.

B became increasingly embarrassed to tell anyone where she lived. It had become too difficult to remember an address that was sure to change soon anyway. When she filled out forms she simply skipped over the space for an address and left it blank. She never invited friends from school to visit her, and she made no friends while living at the hotels.

To make matters worse, B’s grandmother suddenly died, and the already weighty burden on her mom’s shoulders only grew heavier. At her wits end, mom turned to Gwinnett County’s social services for help, which soon resulted in a referral to the Salvation Army’s program for the homeless, Home Sweet Home.

B looked about her bedroom, smiled, and began to write.

“It feels so good to be a normal teenager, to be able to talk on the phone, have my privacy, and sleep alone on my own bed. Now I can put a real address on my school paperwork. Thank you, Salvation Army, for helping my mom and keeping my sister and me from being homeless.”

With her letter finished, B turned out the light and climbed into bed, knowing just where she would wake up tomorrow - in the place she now called home.

The Salvation Army uses a “scattered network” model for Home Sweet Home. In other words, it rents apartments in numerous locations throughout the county in anticipation of placing a homeless family in an apartment within their own community. This model permits children to continue enrollment in the school of their home district and parents to retain access to existing support networks, such as the church and neighborhood friends.

Home Sweet Home needs volunteers willing to help set up new apartments or who will come alongside Home Sweet Home residents to teach financial, job interview and life management skills, as well as donated gentle used furniture and small appliances to furnish the apartments. Persons interested in helping Home Sweet Home should contact Debbie Wengrow at Deborah_Wengrow@uss.salvationarmy.org

Norcross Cooperative Ministry Part 2

2009-09-28T07:33:00.002-04:00

This is the conclusion to the story I posted last week about NCM:

I stood back and observed as men pulled groceries from shelves and filled bags with what the waiting women would turn into meals to feed their families. In what might have been a somber setting, I was struck by all the good cheer.

The men horsed around like teenage boys in a locker room. They teased each other and burst out in belly laughter as one or the other suffered the brunt of an inside joke.

The cheer was infectious. The women, those who had come into the Norcross Cooperative Ministry (NCM) with their heads hung low, now couldn’t help but to crack a smile. Not only were they happy to receive the much needed groceries, their spirits were lifted by the sounds of jovial fellowship that filled the food pantry.

I asked the men why they volunteer. Each had an interesting and inspiring story.

One gentleman readily admitted he first came to NCM as the result of court ordered community service. “When I was drinking I thought it was all about me,” he said. “But then I came here and saw that my selfishness was nothing but foolishness. When you witness someone brought to tears when you give them a few cans of beans and a loaf of bread, it changes your perspective. How could alcohol mean so much to me when these people were going hungry?”

This man now volunteers twelve hours a week on his own accord. Sober, saved and grateful, he turned away from me and insisted on helping a woman carry her bags of groceries to her car.

Another volunteer told me he once came to NCM as a client in need of food. “I was down on my luck and just couldn’t make ends meet,” he said. “But everyone here was so good to me I just felt I needed to give back.”

That was three years ago; today he hands food to others in need with a special compassion in his heart. He knows what they are going through, and he gives them hope that things will get better. “God is good all the time,” he said as he winked at me and then opened a case of canned goods. He began to restock the shelves and in spite of his disability, he worked swiftly.

A third man joined the conversation. “God has blessed us all,” he said, “and we want to help others just like Jesus did. I first came here a year ago because of Compassion in Action, but I got hooked on it.” He now volunteers one day a week. “I’m retired now,” he added, “and want to use my time in meaningful ways. Working here has made me passionate about helping people.” He then pointed to a fourth man. “You should talk to him,” he suggested, “he’s been here longer than any of us.”

I approached this gentleman; he is a little older than the others and he looked tired. For good reason, I learned. Today is his first day back after taking a break for cancer treatment. I also learned that his wife, his customary companion when he works at NCM, is receiving treatment for the same disease. She is not yet strong enough to return to volunteering.

“She wanted me to come back as soon as I could,” he told me, speaking of his wife. “We come to share the good news, to demonstrate the love of Christ. I’m here for both of us until she gets stronger.”

Many of the women who turn to NCM for food do not speak English, but they understand laughter, smiles, gentle nods of reassurance, and the love that is extended to them by the men who show up to serve them. The men I met that morning; men of different walks of life, but men who were now all walking along the same straight path.

Gentlemen, there are ministries throughout metro Atlanta in need of volunteers. No matter what your qualifications or limitations may be, if you are willing to give your time, even if for just an hour or so here and there, God will put your talents to use.

Won’t you find a ministry near you and become a volunteer?

Preparing for the Storm

2009-09-21T09:23:00.003-04:00

A man in a battered van piled high with ladders and covered in paint spatter pulls into the parking lot and lets his wife, baby in arms, out at the curb. They chat only briefly; he is headed to work. Work he may not get if he doesn’t secure a good spot on the right corner in time.

In the corner of the lot sits an old sedan, its windows fogged with condensation from the breaths of the mother and two children asleep inside. For a few days passersby think the car arrives early to get a choice spot in line, but the truth is the family lives in the car. They’ve chosen the parking lot as their home because they feel safe at night under the security lights.

A man steps out of the woods, damp with morning dew, his clothes soiled from sleeping directly on the ground. Someone has stolen his sleeping bag - again. He hopes another one has been dropped off for someone like him to make new use of.

These are the common sights as dawn breaks over the Norcross Cooperative Ministry (NCM) on Mitchell Road. Even though the doors don’t open until 10 AM, people begin arriving as early as 6:00 to assure their place in line. Sixty to sixty-five people can be served per day, and word has spread that those coveted places in line are claimed earlier and earlier now as more and more people find themselves in need of charitable assistance.

On this day approximately seventy people stood in line. Only a dozen or so, those who had already been in line for hours, were dry under the canopy over the front door. The others stood solemnly in the rain, pressed against the wall hoping to keep an arm, a shoulder, or a baby, dry. The doors open a half-hour early to bring the soaked people in from the storm.

Within minutes the lobby is full of anxious, even embarrassed, people of every race and nearly every age. Most are single moms, many with small children in tow, but a few men are there too. They are the quiet ones. They are the new profile that has been arriving recently – men who have been unemployed for months and are now asking for help for the first time in their lives.

Last month three hundred new families turned to NCM for help.

Today was going to be a busy day; several volunteers were unable to serve this particular morning. The staff hopes the shortage of hands and feet will not cause them to turn away more than the usual twenty or so late arrivals. It takes as many as twenty volunteers a day to keep things running smoothly; the demand is so great and growing.

Last month over 3,600 people in need walked through the front door.

The first client on this morning takes her seat with a volunteer counselor. She needs food and clothing for her family of four. She also needs diapers, and her eyes turn downward in disappointment when she is told there are none in her child’s size. Diapers, like many other things, are in short supply. Donations of all kinds are down. Hard times have hit everyone.

NCM is spending up to $5,000 a month to restock its food pantry, and still nearly a third of its shelves are empty. Last month NCM distributed over 3,300 bags of groceries, but received donations of only 290 bags to replenish its food inventory.

Another mom sits down and places her infant son in his carrier at her feet. She too needs diapers, and also hopes for a car seat. She too is told neither is available, but she is happy when she hears she’s able to select new clothes for her children from those sorted by gender and size and hanging in a separate room.

A third mom sits down, this one with an eighteen month old chatterbox in pigtails on her knee. It turns out three generations live in the same household and little Brittany is the youngest. Too young to understand that her grandmother’s health is failing and her mom’s back injury is the real reason she stays home all day.

Brittany also doesn’t understand the discussion about how much rent assistance her mom will receive, how NCM will help negotiate the balance due on their past due utility bills, or why the man in the corner is struggling to hold back tears as he shares his story.

It is his first visit to NCM. Self-employed for years, his business dried up during the last twelve months. The money his wife earns is enough to buy food and pay the utility bills, or pay the rent, but not both. His landlord has already told him an eviction notice is in the mail. His voice trembles as he tells of the changes he has required his three children to adapt to. Adapting to homelessness is something he just couldn’t believe he might have to require of them. He wrings his hands together and swallows hard.

Brittany smiles, waves and shouts goodbye to this man as her mom carries her past, and her cherub face evokes a brief grin on his otherwise strained face. Brief. It fades fast when he resumes telling of how difficult it is to find a job right now, especially when you are his age.

Not quite two hours after the doors were opened early about half of those who would be served today have met with a counselor and were now deep in the heart of NCM. They pick through the donated clothing trying to find what would adequately clothe their children and themselves during this change of seasons. They search the used toys and books hoping to find a gift to take home. One womem selects a child’s Bible and clutches it against her chest. Another fills her plastic shopping bag with bread, and a child points in disbelief as a volunteer brings a cart of canned goods to his mom. “Look, food!” he shouts.

The mom quiets her son and then does her best in her broken English to thank the volunteer. She takes the grocery bags loaded mostly with canned and dry goods and exits the building, her son close behind.

The son stands on the sidewalk beside his mom waiting with her for their ride and admiring his new treasure, a donated and worn action figure, but his treasure. His mom looks down at him and then into the sky. It has stopped raining and the sun is trying to break through the clouds.

For the moment the storm has passed. For the moment. But another one will come.

Help Norcross Cooperative Ministry prepared for the coming storms. NCM is in need of clothing, diapers (all sizes), personal care products and food donations. The ministry also needs additional volunteers, and cash contributions are welcomed. Interested parties can find Volunteer and Donation information on the website www.norcrossco-op.org.

NCM is a faith-based, non-profit, ecumenical ministry dedicated to providing emergency assistance to families in Norcross and surrounding areas of Gwinnett County. NCM is supported by twenty three local churches and numerous businesses, civic and social organizations, foundations, and individuals.

Tune in next week to read the personal stories of a few volunteers who give their time and love to the clients of NCM.

Mentoring Update

2009-09-14T09:07:00.002-04:00

Cameron, the young boy I mentor, and I were standing in the aisle of a toy and craft store the other day. The Youth Mentoring Ministry had given us a model car recently and we were now ready to begin assembling it. He has never put together a model car. I've built nearly a hundred of them, albeit long ago.

We were discussing paint choices for our little Honda Civic rice rocket when he looked around and saw a wall stacked high with model cars, ships, tanks, airplanes, spacecraft and the like. "Wow," he reacted. "Look at those!"

I turned around; It was like looking back through a time machine. There were the same old WWII battleships, fighter planes and army jeeps I had built, the very same street rods with flaming stripe decals and fat rear tires, and a large replica of the Saturn rocket, too. I pointed to a P-51 Mustang, the very plane I once dreamed to fly. "I had one of those hanging above my bed," I recalled.

"Who taught you to do models?" Cameron asked.

"My dad," I said.

Soon we were in my office over the garage, sitting at a table covered in newsprint and sorting out all the parts of our model. I explained how to read the assembly diagrams and then we finalized our color scheme. In the backyard I taught him how to paint with a spray can and not get bubbles or runs on the doors and hood. Back in my office I coached him not to squeeze the tube of glue so hard, and to always point an X-Acto blade away from his face. He smiled large as we completed another step and when he sat the bucket seats aside for later.

An hour passed and our car engine was neatly assembled, the two-door body was painted red and we had glue smears on our fingers. We snapped chrome wheels into rubber tires, and examining the underbody, I explained how shock absorbers worked and what the transmission and driveshaft are for. Cameron absorbed it all. We were having fun.

"Now I'm understanding what I need to do when I have kids," he said out of the blue.

It took me a while to clear the lump from my throat, but when I did, right after I dropped Cameron off at his home with a promise that we would finish the model in a few days, I reached for my phone.

I called my dad.

Yes, God has indeed blessed me as I’ve worked as a mentor. I’m hard pressed to discern who’s getting more out of the experience, Cameron or me. Come to think of it, my dad is getting a little out of it too.

Consider mentoring. There’s a young boy or girl out there waiting for you. To inquire, contact Hal Clark at hclark5060@aol.com. You may also visit the ministry’s new website at http://www.mentoringtothefatherlessandmotherless.org/

Promise686

2009-09-09T11:47:00.004-04:00

Today's post is excerpted from a letter written by Jeanne Sheahan, member of Perimeter Church and volunteer with the ministry Promise686.

"I became involved in mentoring through our Community Outreach ministry and answered a call for mentors at a group home for teen girls in Cumming. I was assigned a fourteen year old named Raquel. We clicked instantly. Raquel sparkled, had a sarcastic sense of humor and loved doing just about anything we did. I learned that after being separated from her brothers for a year, she ran away from a group home and joined them in their gang, doing what she now calls “everything wrong.”

As I was getting to know Raquel, I began looking to God to answer my questions. Why did He let a child be taken from her family? Was He protecting her? Will He watch over her if she runs away again?

And then she was gone. Three years passed and I had no idea what happened to her, no contact whatsoever. This could not be good, I thought. God please let her be alive, I prayed. Don’t let her be sold in sex slavery or caught up in gangs, I asked. It was you who placed her in a messed up family, I blamed.

“Dependency and trust, that’s what I want,” was the answer I heard in return.

As this same time my heart was drawn stronger and stronger to God’s call to care for orphans. I eventually received a call from the group home in Cumming asking me to mentor one last child. “She never talks and I know you can talk to a tree,” the counselor begged me. How could I resist?

Within the year we were fostering that girl and her younger sister too! Two teenage girls added to a three bedroom house already full with two teenage. Was I Nuts?! Yes, if I answered my question according to my own comforts. No, if I remembered His promise that I could do anything through Christ.

Soon it was prom season and the girls were excited. I attended the event with them thinking I was only going to enjoy their evening watching from the sidelines. But instead the real reason for my attending the prom suddenly walked through the door.

It was Raquel! Oh thank you God! We both screamed. I was so happy to finally know that she was ok. Sort of ok; she was living in a group home for teen moms; Raquel was struggling to raise her own two year old son. How could you be watching over her if she is a teen mother? I asked God. How is she going to rise above poverty in this condition? I demanded to know.

But He was looking over Raquel and His plan is always good; He sees beyond the scope of our little world. Raquel became a mom at fifteen. She was learning English and had been working part-time while in staying in high school. Now eighteen, she was about to graduate high school. I was so proud of what she was accomplishing.

God’s plan became more clear as I listened to Raquel tell me about all that had happened during the three years since I’d last seen her. God’s plan was her baby, Izzy. He, through her baby, gave Raquel a reason to turn her life around and stay away from the people that kept her in trouble. He kept her in school, at work and thinking about a career.

What a joy it was to have Raquel over to our house again, to be able to play with Izzy, and to meet her new husband. All this confirmed to me that Raquel had trusted in God’s plan, as messy and tiring as it was, to receive the blessings He had been waiting to pour on her. And then there was God’s blessing to us – the opportunity for our own teen foster girls to see a success story, a girl who came out of foster care happy and strong.

Raquel admits she could not have done so well without all the people who cared for her during her foster care: volunteer tutors, mentors, transporters, lawyers, the various foster parents who took she and Izzy in, the communities who raised money to buy her Christmas gifts, school supplies … it took a kingdom to raise this child … it took God’s kingdom.

We can all serve. We have been given different gifts to bring together to care for His children. We are all in this kingdom to help children like Raquel, to restore them and break their chains of destruction."

Promise686, named after Psalm 68:6 and God’s promise to set the lonely into families, seeks to expand God's kingdom by mobilizing and supporting families to serve the needs of orphans here and abroad through community outreach, education and financial assistance. We believe that every child deserves a loving home and our ministry serves to raise up covenant families for these children.

Within ten miles of Perimeter Church there are 500 foster children and only a 100 homes open to them. We want to support parents who are called to expand their families through adoption and foster care and to engage volunteers in a community of care for these families.

Promise686 is hosting two meetings at Perimeter Church on September 27th to introduce its goals, needs and serving opportunities to our congregation. For more information, contact Tim Rider at timrider@earthlink.net

A Beacon of Hope

2009-09-01T18:40:00.008-04:00

Sussan Ponton admits from the get-go that when she discovered she was pregnant, she felt like a child herself. In her naïve youth, she never considered the possibility that she could get pregnant. In fact, to the contrary, she thought she would never become pregnant at her young age.

She also admits that believing she could never experience an unplanned pregnancy was simply an act of lying to herself.

Any girl, regardless of age, who is post-puberty can get pregnant, it turns out.

Sussan’s story plays poignantly in black and white in a video clip featured on the website of A Beacon of Hope, a Pregnancy Resource Center in Alpharetta.

Unnerving statistics about sexual activity among teens, teen pregnancy and the frequency of abortion in Georgia weave in between frames of Sussan’s words and pensive expression. Those statistics pale in comparison to what Sussan says next, however.

“Overwhelmed, terrified and alone, I decided to get an abortion, but when I began to call the clinics, I found that they were all booked full. I couldn’t get an appointment.”

According to the A Beacon of Hope website, over 30,000 abortions are performed annually in Georgia; 75% of those are in Fulton and DeKalb.

It was then, during those dark, seemingly hopeless moments when she felt trapped by her circumstances, that Sussan became aware of A Beacon of Hope. “It was like a light of hope being shined into my life; I discovered I had other choices available to me,” she says.

Over a dozen years ago an individual walked into Mount Pisgah Church with an idea for launching a pregnancy resource center. She wanted to give women with unplanned or crisis pregnancies an alternative to abortion. Beginning humbly in an unassuming little brick house, A Beacon of Hope served sixty-four women within its first year of existence. The first baby born under its care was eventually adopted. This year there will be twelve candles on his birthday cake.

A Beacon of Hope has grown steadily since that first adoption. Now over 3,500 individuals are served annually, without regard to age, race, income, nationality, religious affiliation, disability or other arbitrary circumstances.

“We are very grounded in our spiritual beginnings and want very much to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ,” explains Talli Moellering, Executive Director, “but we do not achieve that by forcing morals on our mothers. Our method is to come alongside them, love them and provide the information and resources they need, hoping to let them see who Jesus Christ is in the midst of their situation.”

Yet, while pregnancy prevention and intervention are the center’s primary objectives, evangelism is equally important, Moellering added. “In fact, we begin every morning with our staff in a devotional gathering.”

Beacon’s website affirms Moellering’s assertion. “God has invited us to become a part of building a culture of love and life for the men and women we serve, ultimately providing them with comprehensive care that empowers them to choose life,” it says.

And that is what A Beacon of Hope is really all about, encouraging and helping expectant parents to choose life when they may be considering the alternative. To that end Beacon offers its target audience of women ages 15-26 a comfortable, confidential and caring environment where they can receive pregnancy testing, limited ultrasound, counseling, adoption referrals, and pre-natal and post-natal educational programs, all free of charge and delivered in a loving, life affirming manner by Christian staff.

Of its wide range of service offerings, one of the most impressive and touching aspects of Beacon is its Hope Store. Expectant mothers who choose life and participate in the Beacon programs earn points that can be redeemed for new and gently used baby goods and supplies. A look inside reveals a store filled with clothing, diapers, food, toys, and many other new mom necessities.

In 2008, Beacon served 286 women, 206 of whom were determined to be pregnant. Of those, more than a third chose life.

In other words, through the efforts of A Beacon of Hope, last year over seventy babies were born who may not otherwise have seen the light of day.

Beacon relies entirely on donations to operate, and its current capital need is $10,000. That money, once obtained, will be used to upgrade Beacon’s DeKalb site, The College Women’s Center, to a fully equipped medical site. As a medical site it will be able to provide limited ultrasound services, a very important factor in Beacon’s mission. “We’ve found that approximately seventy-percent of the women who see their child in an ultrasound will chose life instead of an abortion,” Moellering explained. But obtaining the ultrasound equipment is just one step toward upgrading the College Women’s Center. It also needs volunteer counselors, nurses, and a radiologist in order to complete its offerings.

So whatever became of Sussan Ponton? Near the end of her video a shy young girl appears in her lap. Sussan smiles as her face presses against her child’s and their arms interlock. Sussan’s voice lifts when she tells us she’s learned from the people at A Beacon of Hope that when things get tough, “God is there holding my hand.”

A Beacon of Hope has two websites; one for pregnant women, the other for volunteers and donors:

For pregnant women: www.abeaconofhope.com
For volunteers and donors: www.friendsofbeacon.com

If you have a heart for defending those who cannot defend themselves, consider how you can contribute to A Beacon of Hope. Consider how you too can choose Life, and make it easier for someone else to reach the same decision.

Norcross Co-operative Ministry

2009-08-24T08:03:00.002-04:00

This week I've chosen to tell the story of a family which has been touched by service. This is the true story (names changed) of a family when in need last year was served well, and touched abundantly, by the Norcross Co-operative Ministry:

Christmas was just around the corner, but not all were joyful.

While most families were busy writing letters to Santa, wrapping presents to place under a twinkling tree, and decorating homes with evergreen wreaths, candy canes and festive bows, Thomas and Shirley Brown were wondering where their four children would lie down to sleep on Christmas Eve.

The year had been a devastating one. He lost his job first and then she did. Every job search ended with the same polite rejection: Thanks but no thanks. The family savings account was soon depleted and all other resources became exhausted quickly thereafter. And then one day the couple’s worst fears were realized – news came that they had lost their home. They had only a short while left to vacate the house where they had hoped to share one more Christmas morning.

In a short span of only a few months, the Browns went from two gainfully employed parents of four to jobless, homeless, and practically hopeless.

The parents had already explained to their children, ages three to twelve years old, that Christmas morning was going to be very different this time around. All were prepared to find fewer gifts under the tree, if any. If there was even to be a tree. That couldn’t be decided until the family knew where they would wake up December 25th.

That question was faithfully answered one day when Thomas made his way to a Christian ministry seeking help for his family. Entering the Norcross Cooperative Ministry, he sat down and shared their story, he and his wife’s fears, and his tears.

The staff at the Ministry listened, and quickly, through them, the heart of Christ poured out onto the Brown family. They were provided with temporary housing, food, a means to purchase the basic necessities, and an abundance of love and support. That evening the Browns were overcome with relief and agreed that their prayers had been answered. Yet little did they know that more love was about to come their way.

As it turned out, the Ministry had been thinking about the children’s Christmas morning too. They set about finding others to sponsor the Brown family for Christmas, making sure the hardship the parents had endured until then would not crush the joy of Christmas for the children.

Soon people began to respond to the Ministry’s request, bringing gifts wrapped and labeled with the Brown’s children’s names. Some people brought one gift, others brought several. Some gifts were just what the children needed. Other gifts were just what most children their ages dreamed of owning.

Shirley had to make two trips in order to take home all the Christmas gifts that had been donated for her children.

As she hid the gifts from view, she thought not of the abundance of presents her children would eagerly tear open in a few days, but of the abundance of love and compassion that had been shown to them by the Ministry and the people who support it. When the last box had been put away, she thanked God for His blessings, and then thought of something she knew she must do Christmas morning. There was something she needed to tell her children.

On Christmas morning the children sprung out of bed and, wide-eyed with surprise when they saw what was beneath their tree, ripped through wrapping paper to find new clothing, books, toys and games. “A bike!” the youngest shrieked, “A new coat!” the only daughter marveled. Quickly the room was filled with the sounds of a train set, video games and cheerful words of disbelief about how wonderful Christmas had turned out after all.

That was when Shirley pulled her children near and told them of the generosity that others had bestowed upon them. She pointed to their gifts and explained that the spirit of Christmas isn’t about receiving, but about giving. She explained that giving at Christmas is a symbol of the love that Jesus Christ first extended to all of us through his work on the cross.

This year as the season approaches again the Brown family knows where they will wake up Christmas morning. And the children are already thinking about what gifts they will donate to others through the Norcross Cooperative Ministry.

In the Brown family, the Spirit of Christmas is alive and well.

Let us begin to look ahead, plan and set aside what we can in anticipation of giving abundantantly during the coming holiday seasons, Thanksgiving and Christmas. They will be here before you know it.

Servant Ryan

2009-08-17T08:59:00.002-04:00

In a recent lesson Matt Ballard said that God allows unpleasant things to happen to us in order to remind us of our need for Him. I think his lesson recognized our tendency, when unpleasant and painful events occur in our lives, to divide into two groups: those who move further away from the Lord, if even for a little while, and those who move closer to the Lord knowing that He will deliver them from their circumstances.

Certainly Ryan Stringfield is a member of that second group.

On first glance he looks like someone who has spent time sipping fire brewed coffee with leather clad bikers or singing his heart out as the front man of a Southern Rock band. Except today he’d be singing Gospel Southern Rock.

Ryan has the bitter life experiences, street cred and evangelical passion that uniquely, and perfectly, positions him for his role as founder and leader of Pathways, a ministry for troubled youth.

I share the following with you with Ryan’s permission. This post is based on his candid interview.
“Please tell me about Pathways,” I asked.

“I have to begin with my testimony. God, in His redeeming love, has taken my experiences and used my brokenness to help His Kingdom to come,” he says. “I was raised in a Christian home, in the church all the time and singing at the podium alongside my mother. But at an early age I became principally motivated by performance and approval, which soon led to lying, cheating and other bad behaviors designed to enhance my performance and win approval.

Over time I began to associate with people who praised me for acting wild and crazy, and inevitably I turned away from the Lord and began experimenting with drugs and alcohol. I was less interested in performing for God than I was for the people I had surrounded myself with.

Between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five I suffered numerous legal consequences for my conduct, yet I continued to do the things I was doing. My sin caught up with me in 2001 when I was sent to prison for five years. It was in prison that I met a fellow who was bringing the Gospel to the inmates. He looked at me and said ‘It is not an accident that you are here. God has been pursuing you, he disciplines those he loves.” I realized then God had been pursuing me all along and that only He could fill my emptiness. That prison ministry and a prison chaplain poured their love and discipleship into me, and when I was paroled two years after entering prison I eagerly returned to the church.”

A grin crossed Ryan’s face as he flexed. “You could say I went from rebellion to religion.”

But the pull of rebellion against God’s will can be strong, and within a year Ryan reacquainted himself with old friends and relapsed.

“I found myself doing everything I had vowed to God that I would never do again. But my small group and Celebrate Recovery helped me through that time and helped me to finally understand that I didn’t need to be burdened by the motives of performance and approval, that God’s love, mercy and grace were what would save me. It was then, with their help, that I began to free myself from all my secrets and shame.

My mother and other supporters urged me to find an opportunity to serve so I began volunteering for The Bricks. There I began to tell my story, and at every turn I was met with acceptance and affirmation. God began to call on me to use my experiences in positive ways. He had healed me and was then asking me to come alongside others who were broken to tell them about His redeeming love. I quit my job and came to work in an internship with The Bricks and eventually the Jr. High ministry.

Three years later, after much prayer and encouragement, I decided to form my own ministry. I wanted to share the Gospel with kids who were headed down the same destructive path I had traveled not once but twice.”

Ryan began to share with leadership at Perimeter his vision of a ministry targeting troubled and at risk youth. It took him only three months to raise enough funds to establish and operate Pathways for an entire year.

Ryan describes Pathways as a support group ministry for kids in crisis. The teens who turn to him and others at Pathways for acceptance and understanding include those engaged in a wide variety of self-destructive behaviors and/or who are tormented by the emotional challenges they face at that juncture in their lives.

“Our goal is to help them discover their relationship with God and then their unique purpose and calling,” he said.

I once enjoyed a healthcare career that lasted over twenty years, much of that spent in the fields of mental health and rehabilitation. Teens were my favorite population to work with. I was their favorite therapist – when I was young, gritty and believable when I said “I’ve been there too.”

That was back when I looked a lot like Ryan.

Alas, I became less favored as the years passed, when in a teen’s eyes I began to look more like a fossil than an understanding soul.

It is from that perspective that I repeat myself now: Ryan is perfect in his role at Pathways.

Just as God had foreseen all along.

How can you take your experiences, good and bad, and use them in God’s service? Ask, and He will show you the way.

The Garden Project

2009-07-13T09:02:00.003-04:00

Looking for something substantive to do with C., the young boy I mentor, I spied the Willis House Garden Project in the bulletin one Sunday. Reasoning all boys like playing in the dirt, I made arrangements to meet Claire Dees at the garden one recent afternoon. C. and I were to help weed the garden and hopefully harvest a few ripe tomatoes.

It turns out C. was excited about my plans for us and even asked if he could bring along a friend. The three of us made our way to the Willis House, a group home operated by Hi-Hope, an organization providing employment and residential services to adults with developmental disabilities. Pulling onto the driveway of the home off Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road, we immediately saw the garden in a far corner of the backyard. The tomato bushes bore so much fruit they nearly doubled over to the ground.

We were climbing out of the car at the same time a minivan was unloading; two moms and six young children gathered in the parking lot and were greeted by David, a resident of the Willis House. After hugging each of the children he made his way over to us and quickly offered to show us the garden. “I don’t know what everything is, but it sure is growing,” he said.

Moments later Dave, the two young men with me, and I stood on the edge of the garden admiring the tomatoes, squash and cucumber plants. About then Claire, Perimeter’s liaison to the Disabilities Outreach Ministry, appeared and put us to work. The younger children, who had been to the garden before, quickly dropped to their knees and began pulling weeds from the soil. C. and I pulled weeds, tied tomato plants back, and drove a few stakes in the ground to help support the taller plants.

Eventually five residents were outside mingling among the volunteers and talking about current events, music, gardening, and asking questions in an effort to get to know C. and his friend. It turns out David, the gentlemen who initially greeted us, owns a Wii, and C., intrigued, asked to see it. It was then that I had the chance to talk with Claire and learn more about the Garden Project.

“It began as a Compassion In Action project five years ago,” she explained her history with the Willis House. “What was meant to be a one-time landscaping project turned into two annual landscaping projects, then several seasonal projects, to this,” she pointed to the garden. “And now we are here once a week most of the summer.” As she spoke the small children weaved between and around us, carrying handfuls of weeds to toss away. “The garden was my husband’s idea, and it has been a great way to get the little ones involved and teach them about serving others.”

I then remembered an email I received from Nicole, one of the moms working in the garden that day. She wrote:

“Little did I know when my children and I planted seeds in little pots this spring that we would end up being blessed beyond just harvesting vegetables. Our intentions had been to put our seeds in pots on our back patio and have a small garden of our own this summer. When we heard about the creation of a garden at the Willis House, we decided that would be where we could donate our plants, help the residents and still enjoy a garden experience.

I have been amazed at how much this experience has blessed our family. Our kids look forward to going each week and leave telling me how much fun they’ve had. They have grown out of their shells as they have begun to get to know each of the residents by name. We have had many discussions on the way home that centered on God's love for us and for others, how He has uniquely created each individual for His purposes, and why we are called to serve others. These discussions are what I have treasured most. Not only are they seeing the value of a garden, they are taking to heart the value of serving others for the cause of Christ.”

Unexpectedly, a storm suddenly blew in. Thunder and lightning loomed over us; we cut our gardening chores short and went inside the Willis House to continue our conversation. There Claire’s husband, Mark, stood over the sink washing a cucumber. In short order he peeled and sliced it, and passed it around on a plate. “Our first harvest,” he said. I had a bite and remembered that the food you grow with your own hands always tastes so much better than that you can buy in a store.

“He comes over all the time,” Claire pointed to her husband, “just to spend time with the guys. They love company.” As we talked further I learned that Claire and Mark have virtually adopted the Willis House residents, introducing not only landscaping and gardening, but movie nights and dinners out in the community, as well as a small team of other volunteers who bring their own interests and talents into the Willis House. The Dees have indeed brought a meaningful social life to these men where before they interacted mostly with their caregivers and an occasional visiting family member.

To my delight, C. wandered up and listened to my conversation with Claire. He even asked a few of his own questions about the residents and Claire and Mark’s work. Claire smiled at him and told him everything he wanted to know, as well as shared with him why she has chosen the Disabilities Outreach Ministry as her venue for serving Christ. She concluded with inviting us back whenever we wanted to visit, and especially if we wanted to help in the garden.

C., his friend and I washed the earth from our hands and soon made our departure. The young men shamelessly begged for pizza before going home, and I’m a sucker at heart so we found a place to eat, ran through the rain and piled into a booth. As we were waiting for our pizza to come to the table, C.’s friend remarked that he felt bad for the Willis House residents. He thought that their lives were so limited in contrast to others.

That was when C. elbowed him and told him to shut up.

Before I could scold C., he admonished his friend further. “Don’t you see,” he said, “their lives are filled with so much love. In a lot of ways they are luckier than a lot of people.”

The tomatoes were too green for picking that day so we left the Willis House empty-handed. But not really. C., I think, had an abundant harvest. Like Nicole, I, too, was blessed to see the young boy in my life leave the garden with an understanding not only of why we serve others, but also of the joy from doing so.

Note: The Disability Outreach Ministry needs additional volunteers to serve the residents of the Willis House. Volunteers may elect to work in the garden or do landscaping, play games or host a movie night, take the guys to dinner or a baseball game, or simply sit and visit for a while. Additionally, donations are needed to fund the many activities that Claire plans for the Willis House. To volunteer or inquire about making a donation, contact Claire Dees at claidee@aol.com.

Home Repair Ministry

2009-07-07T15:27:00.004-04:00

Joseph was a carpenter; on this fact there is no dispute. We are less certain if Jesus was also a carpenter, but one can image that when in his youth he might have worked alongside his father helping to build a table or two.

I’ve always liked woodworking. I’m not skilled at the craft by any means, but I like to be around people who are. There is nothing quite like the smell of fresh cedar shavings just fallen from the planer or the way mahogany reacts to a good hand-rubbing of furniture wax.

My grandfather was a carpenter, and when I was a child he was also my hero. He could build anything from a stack of wood. He framed houses, built kitchen cabinets and created the finest heart of pine dining tables you’ve ever seen. The one in my home is over forty years old and I still give it a good coating of orange oil every now and then, just like he told me to. I count one of his hammers and handsaws among my most valued possessions.

Perhaps it is because of my love for my grandfather that I have so much respect for carpenters. It was with my grandfather in mind that I approached Harvey Anderson to ask him about the Home Repair Ministry.

Greg: Please tell me about the history of the Home Repair Ministry.

Harvey: It goes back to a time when I was working with a group that found homes which had been condemned by public construction projects and then moved them to new foundations and made them available to low-income urban families. Out of that effort grew the awareness of the need for repair work on existing homes in inner city. A home repairs team was founded to meet those and similar home repair needs. The Home Repair Ministry (HRM) began in 2002 at Perimeter and since then we have networked with dozens of churches and assisted quite a few others to start their own home repair teams within churches in the northern arc of Atlanta.

Greg: So HRM doesn’t provide the labor to complete the repairs, but identifies the need, coordinates local church teams to meet those needs, and directly coordinates the more complicated repair projects?

Harvey: Yes. A good example is a home in Roswell that was significantly damaged by a tornado. A number of trees had fallen on it and one went through the floor, smashng the first floor into the basement. It was owned by a Palestinian Muslim widow from Jerusalem, and she was uninsured. Four church teams converged on her property and three months later we had completely rebuilt her home. In less complicated situations we simply point the nearest available church team in the HRM network toward the project we have identified.

Greg: That must have been an interesting dynamic, a Muslim woman being taken care of by a group of Christian volunteers. How did she respond?

Harvey: She was overwhelmed by what we were willing to do for her. In spite of our cultural and religious differences, we had many meaningful exchanges. We were able to help her see why we minister, and that is being driven by the Gospel. It was a good exercise for us too because the last thing we want to do is to minister only to Christians. We prayed for her and her family and were able to take the conversation to surprising depth. We exposed her and her son to the concept of grace-based salvation and someone else paying the debt of sin.

Greg: How many projects do you have in the works at the same time?

Harvey: Four or five, which sounds like a lot but actually I have to turn down about eight requests a week because the homes are in an area where we do not have church teams. That breaks my heart, to have to say "No" to a family that is inviting Christians to come to their homes. That’s why I spend so much time networking with the ministry leaders of other churches; we want to expand our reach into Atlanta proper.

Greg: And who exactly are you serving?

Harvey: For the most part we work with the poor, elderly and disabled, but if we get a referral from another agency we don’t ask any questions. For instance, when Meals on Wheels calls and tells us about a home in disrepair, that’s all we need to hear. Having said that, though, we do exercise some discretion. We want to focus on serving the truly needy.

Greg: Must one be a skilled craftsman to become a HRM volunteer?

Harvey: There is enough to do on most projects that we can keep unskilled people very busy. It also gives our skilled volunteers a chance to teach someone the trade and they enjoy doing that. We do, however, always have a need for volunteer electrical, heating and air, and plumbing professionals.

Greg: What about materials?

Harvey: We need both relationships with vendors who will give us the necessary materials and donors who will bless us with the money to acquire what hasn’t been donated. We have a small warehouse space so we don’t keep much inventory; we have to get materials as we need them. What we need the most right now is shingles as roofs are very expensive. We are hoping someone will volunteer to contact all the shingle manufacturers to ask if we can have their damaged bundles.

Greg: Tell me about one of the more memorable projects you’ve worked on.

Harvey: There was a family in north Georgia that fostered special needs children. For eighteen years they cared for a girl who was bedridden and dependent on a respirator. When she turned eighteen the state planned to institutionalize her but this family wouldn’t hear of it. However, the state imposed a list of requirements to keep the girl, including a fire escape. We became aware of the situation and were able to get several church teams and vendors together to build a second story deck, exit door and ramp so that the girl could be wheeled out, with her respirator, if necessary. The state relented and she still lives with the only family she has ever known.

Greg: I’m sure working for HRM is a moving and rewarding experience for your volunteers.

Harvey: We have devotions before beginning projects because we want our volunteers to realize it’s not about getting God’s favor, it’s about responding to God’s favor. We are exposing people to need. So often we think there is no need in our nearby communities but when your eyes are opened to it, you want to help where you can. Finally, HRM is a great ministry for people who want to serve with their hands.

Greg: Do you have any prayer requests for HRM?

Harvey: We really want a volunteer in Atlanta to come forward and help us expand HRM into the urban churches. Also, we plan to help build eight houses in Griffin beginning in October in conjunction with the Compassion in Action Weekend, and we need approximately $15,000 to purchase the lumber for each one. As you can image, this is a difficult time to be raising money. We are asking for God’s favor as we gear up for that large project.

At the end of our conversation and with the recorder turned off, I told Harvey about my grandfather and the dining table I’m so proud of. He smiled and then produced a photograph. It was of a baby bed. “My daughter sent me a picture of this piece and asked whether I could make it,” he explained. “I've just shipped it to California for the birth of our eighth grandchild.” I looked and saw a beautiful piece of handcrafted furniture, made with love by a skilled craftsman.

There’s one thing I think I can say about all carpenters: when they work with their hands, they are doing something they love and feel the smile of God. And in the case of HRM volunteers, they are also sharing the love of Jesus Christ, one home at a time.

Rainbow Village, Part 1

2009-06-30T13:11:00.001-04:00

The morning came when I was to volunteer for Rainbow Village. They were moving their offices from the original location in Norcross to a new address in Duluth, and I had offered to help with the move. As I prepared to leave home I was pleasantly surprised by my wife’s offer to go along with me.

I was excited to have my wife accompany me. I wanted Jill to experience the same joy I feel when working with any one of the ministries I’ve come to know through Community Outreach. As we drove away from our home I imagined how she, a middle school teacher, would enjoy spending time talking with the children who call Rainbow Village home.

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed upon our arrival. There were no families in sight, no children eager to have an adult read to them or play a board game with them. The children arrive in the afternoon, we learned. Nevertheless Jill willingly worked alongside me, lugging out and stuffing large packed boxes with unknown contents into our SUV. We were to take them to the temporary storage unit a few miles away.

As we worked we repeatedly walked past empty classrooms and children’s art that decorated the walls, reminders of what I thought we were missing that day. I watched my wife smile as she began to sweat in the mounting heat and I was grateful she was there with me, even if she wouldn’t receive the same payoff I do when someone I’ve helped smiles at me and says “Thank you.” Another time, I thought, and grabbed another bulky box.

It was on our second trip to the storage unit when something unexpected happened. As we were unloading the boxes from the SUV and stacking them onto the rolling cart, we noticed for the first time what was within the boxes. “Gifts for Boys,” “Gifts for Girls,” “Board Games,” and the like, read the labels on the boxes. Suddenly we weren’t just shuttling office supplies from Point A to Point B; we were moving items intended for the children I had hoped we would encounter in the first place.

That was when the teacher and the mother in Jill took charge of the situation. The boxes I had heretofore placed on the storage shelves in random fashion were turned, labels facing outward, and grouped together according to their contents. In the case of boxes on which the labels had been placed on the top, Jill found a marker and relabeled those boxes, the contents clearly marked on the sides. She wouldn’t let us leave until she was satisfied that the boxes were shelved as neatly and orderly as possible.

We drove home a few hours later, a little dirty and a lot sweaty, and glad to have helped Rainbow Village – especially Jill.

I learned an important lesson that morning. So often the reason we make our choices about how and where to serve others is because we hope to gain something from the experience, be it recognition, personal satisfaction, warm smiles or warm cookies. And so less frequently, I suspect, do we serve where our efforts are unsung, when there is no one to hug you when you’re through, and no witness to your good deed.

That morning Jill worked tirelessly and with determination beneath the dim glow of an overhead bulb in an otherwise dark storage unit with only me to cheer her on. And the truth is I was rolling my eyes about how long she was taking to get the job done.

When she finally finished, she stood back, smiled, and admired her work. “Now they will know where to find what they’re looking for,” she said proudly.

It was then that my wife taught me that sometimes you serve simply because something needs to be done. It was then that my wife taught me that serving is never about being rewarded, but instead it’s about giving, even if the receiver isn’t within arm’s reach, or may never know what you’ve done.

About Rainbow Village:

Formed in 1991, Rainbow Village, Inc. serves families which have become homeless after facing a domestic or economic crisis. Rainbow Village provides the necessary assistance and resources for families to stay together in transitional housing while they work to become self-sufficient.

Note: More about Rainbow Village after we visit the families at the new location later this month.

Project Kids Eat

2009-06-24T14:15:00.009-04:00

I remember the summer days of years past spent in Vacation Bible School where I listened to such great stories as Jonah and the whale and Jesus healing the sick. These miracles made sense to my young mind; my mom could heal anything it seemed and I had watched Popeye survive an entire episode in the belly of a whale.

But there was one miracle I could never figure out – Jesus feeding thousands of hungry people with only a few fish and loaves of bread. That one was impossible, I concluded.

It was many years later when I came to understand that the purpose of miracles was to give evidence of God’s great love and power, and to inspire non-believers to become in awe of Him and then desire to follow Him. Of course, then, it finally made sense how Jesus could feed the multitude from almost nothing and still have leftovers. It was an act of love, but also an example of what God can do in your life when you turn to Him.

I was recently reminded of the miracle of Jesus dividing the fish and bread. It was the day I spent a few hours working with Davida Baker and her volunteers at Project Kids Eat.

When I walked into the school cafeteria I found a half-dozen men and women packing food. One group filled one gallon zip-lock bags with fruit, milk, cereal and Jell-o while the others packed small containers of spaghetti and wrapped bread sticks in tinfoil. I noticed a small boy helping his mom and dad fill the zip-lock bags. Altogether the labor was for today’s lunch, dinner and tomorrow’s breakfast for one hundred-fifty homeless school-aged children temporarily living in extended stay hotels.

Davida gave me a tour of the operation. I saw boxes and boxes of prepared breakfast biscuits and lunch sandwiches, countless boxes of cereal and cases of Jell-o, fruit, milk and juice. This inventory would be the three meals per day Project Kids Eat would offer the children Monday – Friday for the eight weeks of summer vacation.

But the food isn’t all that Project Kids Eat is about. Davida also showed me boxes of books, crafts, tee-shirts and toiletries which have been donated and are in turn given to the same children the group feeds. “These are things they need but which can’t be bought with food stamps,” she explained.

It seems that eight years ago Davida meet a homeless women with three hungry sons to feed. Davida began giving the woman food, and just as the fish and loaves of bread multiplied, so too did the number of people who needed food and the number of people who were willing to volunteer to prepare, package and deliver the meals, all under Davida’s guidance.

“We are going to three hotels today,” Davida told me, and then instructed me to begin helping to fill the cars that would make the deliveries. As we rolled carts piled high with bags of food from the cafeteria to the parking lot I asked the mom of the young boy why she had brought him along.

“I want him to have a heart for service,” she said. “I want him to learn to care for others from a very early age.” The boy’s name is Garrett; he is pictured here holding the sign. He is four years old. I deduced from the nearly constant smile on his face that he is taking this lesson and his parents’ example to heart.

I rode with Davida. Shortly we pulled into the parking lot of an extended stay hotel where I saw dozens of children ranging in age from toddlers to teens sitting on the curb. We were expected. When we stopped, opened the back door of the van and the smell of spaghetti wafted out, the children began to form an orderly line. They knew the routine. Hug Davida first and then take a bag of food, one for each child. After the food was distributed, several children returned to the van and looked through the boxes for a book or two. All the children were appreciative and polite, and more than a few shouted “See you tomorrow” as we drove away.

“Yes, we are feeding hungry children,” Davida remarked, “but we are also hugging them, loving them, reassuring and affirming them. That’s the part that means the most to me,” she said. “I just hope that little bit of kindness goes a long way.”

A few bags of food remained in the van. Before I could ask her what would become of it, Davida pulled into a trailer park. “There are a few elderly people living here,” she explained, “as well as a few families that can barely make ends meet.” We made three stops before heading back to the cafeteria empty-handed.

Again I was reminded of Jesus feeding the masses. No, Davida and her team of volunteers are not performing miracles, but one can’t argue the fact that they are demonstrating God’s love through their daily acts of kindness and service.

Yes, Davida, I believe it goes a long, long way. It certainly did for me.

Project Kids Eat needs donations to help purchase additional food (other hotels are filling with children as this is posted), and needs books, crafts and personal care items to give to homeless children. Volunteers are also needed to prepare, package and/or deliver the food. Interested volunteers should contact Kathy at lynnrose17@aol.com to schedule, and donations should be coordinated through Davida. She can be reached at dlbakers@comcast.net.

Prison Ministry

2009-06-17T16:22:00.002-04:00

It began with a simple letter.

Jim Cook explained to me how he had been involved with his former church’s youth group, led college and career planning classes, and dabbled in a few other ministries while trying to discover what his spiritual gifts were.

Then one day a gentleman leading an Ohio prison ministry asked Jim to consider writing letters to inmates who had expressed a desire to be shepherded. Leary at first, Jim began writing inmates and soon discovered he had a heart for forging Christian fellowship with men who were in such bleak circumstances as prison.

Somewhat contrary to his expectations, Jim also discovered there were many Christians and seekers behind bars. One man in particular was a passionate Believer, he recalled. “Before it was over with, he was shepherding me.”

A few months after he began writing this inmate, Jim was given an opportunity to go visit the man. “After meeting him and being there worshiping with the other inmates I knew I was hooked,” he said. Wanting to become even more involved with the ministry, he moved from letter writing to become an active member of the prison worship team. Traveling to all the prisons throughout Ohio, sometimes departing at 4:30 in the morning and traveling five hours each way, he participated in worship services for the inmates, singing, preaching and praying for men behind bars.

When he moved to Atlanta fourteen years ago, one of the first things on Jim’s mind was where to get plugged into a prison ministry. After searching a number of years and finding none, he finally ventured into a Christian bookstore and asked the clerk if the store happened to be sending Bibles to any area jails or prisons. “Sometimes,” she answered, but couldn’t provide any other information. Jim left his phone number anyway and hoped something would become of it.

A few days later, Doyle King, a man in his eighties, called. “I hear you’re interested in the prison ministry,” Mr. King said. “I’d love to have you join me at the Gwinnett County Jail.” With that phone call Jim found his way back to the prison ministry, and returned to his passion with good company. Mr. King had been single-handedly ministering to prisoners in jails around Atlanta for nearly fifty years.

Nine years later, Mr. King has slowed down but Jim still visits the Gwinnett County Jail every Thursday evening. Beginning with one unit housing seventy-five men, Jim, with the help of two other gentlemen, Bob Fortin and Dan Fitzpatrick, now serves four units and three hundred men at the Gwinnett County Jail.

When Jim and his team arrive, fifteen or so prisoners in each unit will join one of the volunteers for ninety minutes of Bible study. “With only three of us in the ministry,” Jim explained, “we can’t get to all four units each Thursday. We have to rotate through the units, skipping one each week. Right now the jail administration is unwilling to let us bring in a fourth ministry volunteer, but we are praying God will change their hearts on that matter so that we can provide all the men with an opportunity for Bible study each week. I believe if we pray often enough and petition the Lord, the doors will open and we will be able to add one more volunteer. We need to take the Word to these men. So many of them are in the middle of very dark spiritual battles; they constantly ask me to pray for them.”

I asked Jim what keeps him motivated when those he shepherds could so easily be angry and hopeless, maybe even place him at risk.

“I’ve been there preaching or conducting a Bible study when all of a sudden one of the men will stand up, hold his hands in the air and tell me he wants to be saved. Other inmates who are Christians and I will lay hands on that one man and pray over him; we’ve even baptized men in there. I get to see God move among us.”

Acknowledging that his passion for the ministry is obvious, I asked Jim why he loves it so much.

“All these years later, even though we went there to serve the prisoners, when we are leaving the prison one or more of us will say ‘it feels like it was me who was blessed tonight.’ We agree that is the reward for exercising the gifts God gave us,” he explained.

Although he, Bob and Dan have a heart for the prison ministry, Jim acknowledges it isn’t for everyone. The prisoners’ offenses range from DUI to murder. They range in age from the early twenties to seventy, and are serving terms that span decades to life.

“It can be a scary place at times. That’s why we want to start a letter writing ministry, so that anyone with the time to write a single letter can offer a little compassion to someone who basically has none in their life.” Jim turned and looked out a window at the blue sky, green grass and people walking past. “Imagine being in jail twenty or more years, your scenery and routine never changing, and then imagine how powerful it could be to receive an occasional letter that offers friendship and the love of Christ.”

Yes, imagine how powerful it could be to receive a simple letter that offers the love and mercy of Jesus Christ. And then imagine how much more powerful it would be if all the men in the four units on the fourth floor of the Gwinnett County Jail could count on the opportunity to sit down once a week with a loving Christian willing to lead him to Christ.

Let us support Jim, Bob and Dan by praying for their ministry. Let’s ask God to soften the hearts of those who currently withhold permission to add a fourth ministry volunteer. And as a congregation, let’s prayerfully consider beginning a letter writing ministry for these prisoners.

For as we’ve seen by now, there is much a simple letter can do.

To learn more about this ministry, or to volunteer to write letters, contact Jim Cook at jcooking@gmail.com

Kingdom Investments

2009-06-11T16:07:00.001-04:00

Perimeter Church is committed to making and deploying mature and equipped followers of Christ deployed for the sake of family, community and global transformation.

Deployment involves serving people in need and partnering with other organizations dedicated to ministries of mercy and justice.

Today, the Perimeter family is serving people in need with both word and deed through twenty-five local ministry partnerships, as well as with indigenous churches and partners in twelve regions of the world.

Kingdom Investments, a ministry of Perimeter, was created to help strengthen and grow these relationships. It receives donations from the Perimeter family through the Pressing Onward Campaign and turns them into grants which are then awarded to the respective ministry partners. It simplifies your giving experience and multiplies the impact of your gift.

I sat down recently with Jon Cleveland, Director of Development of Kingdom Investments, to learn more about how the organization works.

Greg: Please tell me about the history of Kingdom Investments.

Jon: When Perimeter Church launched Next Generation Now on 2002 to add the hand of the mercy and justice ministries, we created a new division called Extension Ministries. That includes outreach and ministries of mercy and justice. Our goal was to add a focus of the church’s energies outwardly and into the community. Our research led us to conclude that the most effective means of reaching people in need was to build strategic bridges with other faith-based non-profit organizations. These resulting “partnerships” remain critical to Perimeter’s mission of deploying our people for the sake of family, community and global transformation.

I was asked to take the ministry role of Director of Development to help raise support for these ministries and ministry partners. This led to the creation of Kingdom Investments our mutual fund-like entity that on the one hand receives donations, and on the other hand, makes grants to our ministry partners in the community to help fund their work.

Greg: How does the grant process work?

Jon: A six-person lay ministry team meets at least once a month to review and act upon the grant applications we receive; our internal ministries bring applications to us on behalf of their respective ministry partners. One of the great things about Kingdom Investments is we have the flexibility to look at new initiatives that align with the vision of the church, and provide start up capital to those new initiatives. Our grants carry an expectation if not a directive, that the amount of the grant be matched at least dollar for dollar. In other words, the ministry partner would raise from other donors funds to match the grant given by Kingdom Investments. In just the last ten months we have made close to $900,000 in grants. Considering the matching gifts, that’s 1.8 million dollars that have been put to use in God’s Kingdom.

There are three key aspects about Kingdom Investments that are important for the Perimeter family to know. One, Kingdom Investments is like a mutual fund that helps donors SIMPLIFY charitable giving to our mercy and justice ministries and partners. Donors can designate their gifts any one of three ways: to a specific ministry or, to a geographical area of ministry or, you can allow the ministry team decide where to grant the money.

Two, matching grants MULTIPLY donor gifts often several fold. Third, TRUST is a major consideration in our giving decisions. Kingdom Investment grant recipients are select ministries and partners that are critical to Perimeter’s mission. Donations to Kingdom Investments and the full grant process of awarding and funding grants are under the full authority of Perimeter Church. There are no fees or costs deducted from dollars donated to Kingdom Investment.

Greg: Please give a few examples of ministries to which you have awarded grants.

Jon: Our first grant was to Street GRACE, the organization combating the sexual exploitation of children, and we made a grant to a church in Cairo, Egypt that wanted to host a Christian festival. Most recently, we made a grant to enable the startup of a PCA Student Ministry at the Atlanta University Center. Our vision is to help start, fuel and sustain ministries that are critical to Perimeter’s ministry.

Greg: Any success stories yet?

Jon: The $20,000 to our indigenous church partner in Cairo allowed our Global Outreach team to raise an additional $120,000 in matching funds from churches throughout the U.S. The festival was held; 14,000 people attended and the event was televised in over a half-million homes in Egypt. Because of that one event, thousands of people have learned about the Christian faith. There were over 1,400 professions of faith in Christ! That’s a huge Kingdom impact!

Also, God blessed a grant we made to the Salvation Army of Gwinnett County that provided for homeless shelters where once there were none. We have helped plant churches in greater Atlanta, Boston, and Miami. We gave a grant to a halfway house in Poland that had no heat; now they do. God has blessed us in that he has brought many others to match our initial grants and therefore rapidly and significantly multiply the money we’ve given away. We are very excited about how He is using us.

Greg: It must be so rewarding to your donors to see how their money is being used in such profound ways.

Jon: It is, especially for the highly successful but extremely busy donor. We have a number of donors who have a heart for ministry but do not have the time to do some of the investigation and research work themselves. For those people, their gift is the ability to give. To give is itself an act of service. We enable busy, successful people to make a difference in a way that is comfortable and convenient for them, and where necessary, confidential, too.

Greg: I’m thinking of the great stories in the Bible about serving and helping others in the way that Jesus did, but I can’t think of a single story about giving money. Can you?

Jon: I love 2 Corinthians 8 where Paul is talking about giving and the generosity of the Macedonians who gave well beyond their ability. Paul suggested that perhaps they shouldn’t give so much, that they should keep something for their own support. And the Macedonians responded, “Don’t rob us of our blessing.”

Greg: We really can find joy in giving, can’t we?

Jon: The true joy of generosity is knowing that you are blessing somebody, often in ways that you can’t even imagine. When you make sacrifices for someone else and you do it with the right heart, not for recognition or praise, you begin to understand how God blesses us so that we may bless others. When you share the fruit, you bring glory to God. The apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthian 9:11, “Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God.”

World Relief, Part 2

2009-06-03T16:56:00.003-04:00

This is the continuation of the story about World Relief and a conversation with its Volunteer Coordinator, Joshua Sieweke. Part 1 was posted on June 2nd. Please read it first.

(cont.)

Greg: What is it like for a non-Christian to come to America and be delivered into the care of a Christian volunteer?

Joshua: That is one thing that really excites me about refugee resettlement and the particular role of World Relief. A lot of our refugees are Muslims, and most Muslims have very poor characterizations of Christians. When we help them, we are able to challenge those perceptions and give them new ideas about the Christian faith and what kind of people Christians really are. It is very exciting to be a part of that process.

Greg: Have you witnessed or do you know of any conversions of faith?

Joshua: While there are a number of Muslims who are expressing interest in Christianity, I am more familiar with conversions among the Bhutanese people who are typically either Hindu or Buddhist. Today Michael could tell you stories about Baptisms he has done for the people of Bhutan now living here in Atlanta.

Greg: How do you decide which volunteer to match with a refugee?

Joshua: Our desire is to facilitate the God given passions and gifts of our volunteers. We will base matches on that and the volunteer’s worldly experiences. Many volunteers have a particular language skill or vocational talent that makes them a perfect match for certain refugee families.

Greg: That’s a good lead to my next question. What is the reward for a volunteer who elects to work with a refugee family?

Joshua: I’m sure the greatest reward for a volunteer is the opportunity to tangibly experience God’s love through the care they are providing the refugees. I think all volunteers begin their interaction with the refugees believing they are giving something to the refugee families, and they are. But after a while, as the volunteers get to know the families and understand their unique story, the volunteers begin to realize they are a part of God’s provision for the refugees. It becomes a testimony of God’s desire and ability to provide for all of us. It is wonderful to realize we serve a God who does that. Although most of us will never experience the conditions the refugees have experienced, it is reassuring to us that should we face such adversity, God will be there for us too.

Joshua then wanted to show me a video of the Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal. It was brief, but powerful. I learned that Christians and people believed not to be of Bhutanese descent were forced to leave the country during the early 1980’s. In the next ten years over 100,000 people became refugees, fleeing to camps in Nepal and India.

In the video I saw where members of Michael’s family had once lived. Members of three generations crowded into a hut made of bamboo and held together with mud and rope. It had a thatch roof and a dirt floor. There was no running water, a hole in the ground served as a toilet, and meals were cooked over a small fire or on the single gas burner of a camp stove. Meals consisted largely of rice. Nearby the school house and church shared the same hut. It, too, was made in the same way as the living quarters. There were no desks or pews, only mats on the dirt floor.

These are the conditions Michael and his family lived in for sixteen years. They were forced to leave Bhutan because they had converted to Christianity.

The time had come for me to meet Michael. Joshua took me to an apartment complex in Clarkston that provides affordable housing to the refugees resettled by World Relief. Michael’s wife greeted us at the door and offered a traditional Bhutanese meal for our lunch.

Dining on a wonderful chicken dish, rice and lentils, spicy bitter greens and sliced cucumber, I listened as Michael told his story. I did not want to make him uncomfortable by using my recorder, so I can only tell you what I remember of what he told me. Rest assured, I was mesmerized.

Born a Hindu, Michael had never heard of Christianity until he was in his twenties, and only then after he caught a glimpse of a picture hanging in a tucked away place on a friend’s wall. It was a graphic image depicting Hell, he learned after asking his friend what the picture meant. His friend then offered to tell him about Heaven, promising Michael that if he came to believe in God, he would never see Hell.

For the next two years Michael and his friend met in remote places, hidden in tall grass or thickets of brush in the forest to evade being caught by the Elders of the community. There they talked about God and Jesus Christ. The Lord’s message spoke profoundly to Michael, and although he feared for his life, he eventually accepted Jesus Christ as his savior and was baptized by his friend. Thereafter, he went to work converting his family, then later a few close friends, and became so in love with the Lord that he overcame his fear and began to evangelize in his community.

Openly living as a Christian and passionately preaching the Word to Hindus and Buddhists, Michael came to the attention of the government officials who had begun the ethnic cleansing of Bhutan. He was given only a few days to leave the country or face imprisonment. He knew prison would mean his death, so he and his extended family left Bhutan for a refugee camp in Nepal.

Sixteen years later, a church in Georgia sponsored Michael and helped him obtain a religious worker’s visa. After entering the US with this visa, he applied for asylum and received permanent resident status as an asylee. World Relief was then able to assist him through its Match Grant Program which serves both refugees and asylees. Michael’s family relocated to Atlanta where he became a pastor and now leads a small church attended mostly by other refugees from Bhutan. He wanted to introduce me to a member of his congregation who lives in a nearby apartment.

In that apartment, surrounded by others from Bhutan who had also come to hear the stories of conversion and flight retold, I listened as another man told me of his experiences as a refugee. His were not unlike Michael’s. And like Michael, he spoke of his love for the Lord, even though he had to leave everything behind in order to live in the open as a Christian.

At the end of our visit I asked this gentleman if there was anything he wanted me to convey in this story. He nodded and pointed to his father who sat silently in a dark corner. He did not speak or comprehend English, but nevertheless smiled at Joshua and me each time our eyes met.

“He is lonely for his country because he has no friends here. If he had friends, someone who reassured him that everything will be all right in this country, he will finally rest, and sleep.”

Before I left I asked Michael to pray for me as I wrote this story. I asked him to ask God to use this story to bring new volunteers to World Relief.

Michael smiled, bowed his head, and honored my request.

And now the rest is up to you.

World Relief: Part 1

2009-06-02T20:15:00.001-04:00

Often when reading the Bible, especially the stories of the Old Testament, I’m struck by how much persecution, even murder, there was over disparate belief systems. People of one faith in battle with people of a different faith, people of one faith being driven from their homelands by people of still another faith; these stories abound.

If ever I wonder if such violent religious persecution exists today, I need only to switch to the news to hear of the latest gunfight in the streets or bombing of a café somewhere in the Middle East to know that, yes, it still exists.

Even still, I sometimes catch myself thinking “that was back then,” or “that is over there,” and here in Duluth, safe in my home, I need not worry too much about religious persecution.

My eyes were opened recently one afternoon while I dined on a home cooked meal in the small living room of Michael’s apartment. Now a Christian pastor, he was born a Buddhist in Bhutan. He fled his country in order to save his life and those of his family. As a Christian evangelist, he was no longer welcome in his homeland.

I’ll tell you more about Michael later. First, let me tell you how I came to know of him.

Joshua Sieweke, Volunteer Coordinator of the Atlanta office of World Relief, had invited me to learn more about the organization. We sat down to talk at a conference table in a small office park in Stone Mountain.

Greg: So tell me about World Relief.

Joshua: World Relief serves as a humanitarian assistance organization on behalf of churches, primarily through its association with the National Association of Evangelicals. This office represents our primary work in the U.S., which is refugee resettlement. We work through a cooperative agreement with the State Department to receive refugees who are assigned to us, and then help each of those families or individuals to become self-sufficient. We are given ninety days and only $425 per person in a household to do that.

Because of who we are, we desire to work with local churches to accomplish our task. Our mission is to empower the local churches to serve the most vulnerable, thus we do not necessarily meet the needs of the refugees ourselves, but instead we facilitate the local churches ability to meet that need. If we were not here it would be quite difficult for churches to receive refugees.

Greg: And what makes one a refugee?

Joshua: A refugee is a person who has had to flee persecution; they’ve had to leave their country to find safety. We are working with people who generally would much rather be where they came from, but if they stayed there would find their lives in great peril. Many of our families have experienced torture and abuse and witnessed loved ones be murdered. We are dealing with people who intimately know what it means to be afraid.

We are also dealing with people who have probably lived in poverty for long periods of time. When they flee, they take nothing with them. They find themselves in refugee camps, living in poor conditions, sometimes waiting years to find a home in another country.

Greg: And this is all because of political persecution?

Joshua: Because of political and religious persecution, and the result of ethnic cleansing.

Greg: Where do most refugees come from?

Joshua: Right now we receive most of our families from Bhutan, Burma and Iraq. Today I’m going to introduce you to a family who had to flee Bhutan. They lived in a refugee camp in Nepal for many years before making their way to the U.S.

Greg: How many families do you have at the moment?

Joshua: We have over one hundred-fifty families at this time.

Greg: Tell me what resettlement entails.

Joshua: It entails anything and everything that is necessary for arriving safely to our country and living in America. We secure and prepare apartments for arriving refugees, we greet them at the airport, and from that moment on for the next ninety days we are teaching them whatever they don’t know about modern conveniences such as stoves, refrigerators, showers and thermostats, how to use a bus, where to buy groceries, how to find a job, registering children for school, teaching adults basic English, and much more.

Greg: It seems that it would be nearly impossible to accomplish all that in only ninety days. What happens after that period has elapsed?

Joshua: Hopefully the family is off and running on their own and don’t need us any longer, but very often that is not the case. We continue to assist them, without government financial support, for as long as they need us.

Greg: Is that where the local churches come in?

Joshua: Yes. Every refugee family has a World Relief Case Manager, and that Case Manager is responsible for seeing that the family is successfully resettled. It is our goal to partner every family with at least one Christian volunteer who can work alongside us to do whatever is needed to assure that refugee family’s success. In addition to that, we want the volunteer to provide friendship, Christian friendship. Unfortunately, we almost never have enough volunteers to serve every refugee family.

Greg: How many volunteers do you have right now?

Joshua: Less than fifty. We need a lot of volunteers.

Greg: In addition to providing a pool of volunteers, what else can a church do to assist you?

Joshua: We need prayer, donations of furniture to help us prepare the apartments, money to help us support the family until the adult has secured a job, and where possible, help finding jobs. The job market being what it is, many families are unable to assume responsibility for paying their rent at the end of ninety days. Finding jobs is our most important concern right now. These men want to work and provide for their families, they want to become productive members of their community again. We actually have a number of men carpooling two hours each way to work at a chicken processing plant in Perry, GA, but as you can imagine, that is logistically very difficult.

Greg: What is it like for a non-Christian to come to America and be delivered into the care of a Christian volunteer?

Check back in a few days for the continuation of my conversation with Joshua Sieweke, and to learn more about Michael.

Street GRACE

2009-05-20T07:51:00.002-04:00

A few months ago I began to hear people talking about an organization called Street GRACE. Curious about Street GRACE, I began to dig around to find out what the organization does. It didn’t take long to realize just what an important mission the organization has undertaken – to eradicate the commercial sexual exploitation of children (referred to as CSEC) in Atlanta. GRACE is an acronym that means Galvanizing Resources Against Child Exploitation.

I asked myself if there really was such a problem in our capital city. Sadly, I discovered, there is.

In 2000, Fulton County Chief Juvenile Court Judge Nina Hickson was appalled as she presided over the 1,000th case of child prostitution that had come before her. Later, the issue of child prostitution was brought to the attention of Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin. In 2005, the mayor commissioned a report now known as "Hidden in Plain View" which revealed to a broader audience the pervasiveness of commercial sexual exploitation in Atlanta.

It is estimated between two hundred and three hundred young girls are exploited in Georgia each month with the majority of those atrocities occurring here in Atlanta. When I read that statistic I remembered hearing on the news a few years ago about a young girl who was forced into prostitution on the streets just a few blocks from where I was working at the time. I was deeply disturbed by that situation, but apparently not deeply enough for I soon forgot about that young girl as I became distracted again by the trappings and events of my charmed life.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I, father of a beloved daughter, was not outraged enough to do something about the terrible problem of CSEC. I became even more embarrassed about my apathy when I learned that the Executive Director of Street GRACE, Cheryl DeLuca-Johnson, a woman outraged enough to do something about CSEC, was a close friend of mine during my college years. I had to admit to her that I’d been made aware of the problem but had chosen to do nothing about it.

I sat down with Cheryl recently to learn more about Street GRACE.

Greg: Tell me what Street GRACE does and how someone can help to achieve its goals?

Cheryl: Street GRACE is a non-denominational alliance of churches dedicated to eradicating the commercial sexual exploitation of children in Atlanta. That’s the long way of saying we are combating the rape of children for profit. Atlanta consistently lands on the Top 10 list of places where child prostitution is a significant problem. What we don’t know is how big the problem really is; we aren’t yet including boy victims in our data. Street GRACE was formed to bring an end to this problem before it grows to even larger proportions.

Greg: And how are you hoping to accomplish that?

Cheryl: We are focused on a number of strategic areas. The first is awareness. We are trying to form a Speakers Bureau of people from different walks of life, businessmen, mothers, students, health professionals, who we will train to become advocates speaking out about our cause. So many people don’t know about the problem of CSEC. We need people who are willing to help us expand our reach so that more people will become stirred to tackle CSEC.

Secondly, we are working to establish a prayer network throughout the city. We need people praying for the children as well as the predator, for they are lost, too. We want to blanket the city in prayer twenty-four seven to ask God to protect these children. We need help establishing this network.

Third, we are working to mobilize churches. If you are a member of a church which is interested in our mission but not yet involved with Street GRACE, we want to come alongside you to help get your church involved. We hope to have one hundred churches as members of Street GRACE by the end of 2010. Corporately, we will bring hands and feet to the issue and demand the attention of the powers that are most capable of ending CSEC in Atlanta.

Fourth, we need volunteers who are willing to work with at risk children and in risk neighborhoods, and others who will mentor children through after school programs and one-on-one youth mentoring. Of course we want to rescue child victims, but we also want to intervene and prevent victimization by introducing caring adults into the lives of children at risk. If all we do is rescue young girls off the street, we only create a void that other girls will be forced to fill.

Greg: What does it mean to mobilize churches?

Cheryl: Church mobilization means to bring awareness of CSEC to Believers so that they might take up the fight for justice for these children. We encourage church members to write letters and sign the petition in support of Senate Bill 91, an important piece of legislation which will create a five dollar surcharge paid by patrons of adult entertainment facilities, money that will go directly toward the support of rescued children. We hope to have at least 100,000 people to sign the petition; we want to make it uncomfortable for anyone to ignore our cause (visit www.weurgeyou.com to sign the petition).

Greg: Some people think they must have personal experience in order to be an effective advocate for a cause. Would you address that concern?

Cheryl: One doesn’t need to first have experienced an injustice in order to recognize where an injustice exists and then rise up in outcry against it. If you have a heart for children you can be an effective advocate for our cause. We will coach you on how to use your gifts to combat CSEC; all you have to do is let us know you want to help.

Greg: So you can use people of all different skill sets, not just those willing to walk the halls of the capital or work one-on-one with a child.

Cheryl: If you have a heart for children, we will find a meaningful way to use your time and talents. Street GRACE was formed just over a year ago. We started out small and unknown and are now growing in size and credibility, yet we have a lot of work to do before the next legislative session (January). We need all the volunteers we can get to help us fulfill our mission.

When our meeting ended Cheryl went on to another one and I drove home, taking with me a list of things I had agreed to do for Street GRACE. Even if she weren’t an old friend, I simply couldn’t sit across the table from Cheryl DeLuca-Johnson and remain apathetic about CSEC. Because since that day when I first heard about CSEC, I have also heard Jesus’ call for justice and mercy for the least and oppressed.

I just couldn’t say No. Can you?

Youth Mentoring

2009-05-11T12:03:00.001-04:00

On a few Sunday mornings while reading the program as I’ve waited for the service to begin, I have seen requests for adult men and women to consider becoming mentors for fatherless or motherless youth in our church. Although I have my hands full attending to the needs and wishes of two daughters, something about the youth mentoring ministry kept tugging at my heart.

I don’t have a son and wasn’t sure if I, experienced as I am with dollhouses, Easy Bake ovens and seemingly endless shopping excursions, as well as being quite knowledgeable about matching colors to every imaginable shade of pink and rotating shoes for each coming season, am adequately equipped to mentor a young boy. It has been over thirty-five years since I could accurately be called a young boy, and so many of the things I did for fun back then are no longer in vogue. People just don’t play Tiddlywinks anymore.

Yet one afternoon I found myself in a room talking with Hal Clark of Perimeter’s Youth Mentoring Ministry about becoming a mentor. Ten days later, Hal introduced me to an eleven year old boy, and within the hour I became his mentor.

Only a month has passed since I met this young boy, and in spite of my advanced age, inexperience with boys, and BORING personality (or so assert the girls in my home), he and I are getting along wonderfully.

His twelfth birthday was just this past Saturday and I had promised to spend half a day with him. We began our morning with conversation and breakfast at Chick-fil-A, then went to the Bricks to play basketball, pool, ping-pong, and air hockey, then ran off to Monkey Joe’s for some monkey business, and finally to lunch for his favorite cuisine, Chinese food. This was the first time we had planned to be so active so I let my protégé bring a friend along with us in case I became too winded to play (I didn’t, but I did sweat a lot trying to keep up with them).

During lunch this friend turned to the birthday boy and said something to the effect of “your counselor sure is nice.” To my delight, my protégé corrected him right away. “He’s not my counselor, he’s my friend,” he said.

I couldn’t help but grin; I may not be so boring after all.

I’ve committed to mentoring my protégé for one year, but I’m hopeful our relationship will last much longer than that. There is much we want to do together: see the Gwinnett Braves play, go fishing, go-cart racing, hike in the woods, fix his bike, learn to play the guitar, putt-putt, and more. Maybe you can tell – I think I’m getting as much out of this relationship as he is.

I believe that is just what God had in mind for both of us.

Youth mentoring is focused on children who do not have an active second parent in his or her life. The second parent may have died, is in jail, or has abandoned the family. Youth mentoring is a proven way to lift the spirit of a child and assist in developing them to their fullest potential by becoming emotionally and spiritually healthy for the glory of God.

Simply stated, mentoring is when a mature, caring adult spends time, usually 2-3 hours per week, with an eager individual who has similar interests. All mentoring relationships are one-on-one, adult to youth. Mentors must be 20 years of age or older, and the children must be between the ages of 9-14. All relationships are matched with the same gender (male-to-male, female-to-female).

Are you concerned about fatherless and motherless children? You have the opportunity to make your impact by serving as a mentor for a young child. If you are interested, please contact Hal Clark at 678.858.6019 for more information.

Movers and Shakers

2009-04-28T11:34:00.001-04:00

Are you living in comfortable surroundings, enjoying nice things, lacking none of life’s necessities? If so, walk in someone else’s shoes for a moment…

Imagine coming home to find there is no table on which to share dinner with your family, no sofa to relax on, and no bed to sleep in. Instead you eat sitting on the floor with your plate resting on a cardboard box, you relax in a plastic lawn chair trying to read in the fading light coming though a window, stalling going to bed because sleeping on the floor is so uncomfortable. Your clothes rest in a neat pile in the corner because you haven’t a dresser, and your children do their homework in their laps because there isn’t a desk in sight.

For many people not far from our own doorsteps, this scenario is a stark reality. I know, and so do others who give up a Saturday morning now and then to work as volunteers for The Movers and Shakers, a furniture ministry. We’ve seen people living in such circumstances, sometimes stopping at as many as eight households in a single day just like the one described here.

The Movers & Shakers Furniture Ministry collects and, through its partner ministries, distributes donated furniture to those in need throughout the north metro Atlanta area. Two Saturdays per month throughout the year, volunteers begin the day at 8AM, loading the trucks and making deliveries in Gwinnett and North Fulton counties. As furniture pickups and delivers are completed, the team members also extend a hand of friendship and offer prayer for the donors and recipients, showing the heart and will of God to those we come in contact with.

I’ll never forget the first time I volunteered to be a Mover and Shaker. Our first stop was at a small two bedroom apartment, home to a single mom and three children. They shared one queen size mattress and took turns getting to sleep alone on the tattered love seat in the living room. We had come to deliver three beds for the children. It was just a few days before Christmas.

As the team of four volunteers made our way down the hall with the beds, we couldn’t help but notice the children. They were jumping with excitement. Their eyes danced and they playfully fought over who would get which bed. The beds didn’t match but the siblings didn’t give a care. They were finally going to have a restful night of sleep, alone in their own bed.

Their mom cried as we all held hands and prayed before we volunteers left to go on to our next stop. It took all I had not to cry too, and I wasn’t the only man so moved.

I’ve given three Saturday’s to the Movers and Shakers Ministry since that first delivery, and I look forward to serving still other days. Not only do I get to witness moving scenes, I get to meet other men of all ages from Perimeter and other participating churches. I’ve worked with men as young as sixteen and as old as Randy Pope, all men who were willing to break a sweat in the course of finding non-believers. As we work we tell each other about ourselves, our families, our churches, and our own journeys to Christ.

After six hours of carrying furniture, the day comes to an end and the volunteers part and go their separate ways. I go home tired, once with a blister and another time, a huge bruise on my leg. But I go home happy, rewarded, and thankful for the opportunity to serve. I go home knowing that I, along with the other volunteers I worked with that day, heard and heeded God’s call to demonstrate our faith through our works.

After volunteering only twice, you are awarded an official Movers and Shakers tee shirt. Without thinking I grabbed mine one day on my way out to run errands. Someone recognized the logo and said, “That’s a great ministry!”

Indeed it is.

To learn more about the Movers and Shakers Ministry and how to become a volunteer, visit http://www.atlmoversnshakers.org/

Why do you serve?

2009-04-21T10:19:00.001-04:00

Convoy of Hope mobilizes, resources, and trains churches and other groups to conduct community outreaches, respond to disasters, and direct other compassion initiatives in the United States and around the world. The mission of Convoy of Hope is to transform entire communities with compassion, one life at a time.

Hal Donaldson, president of Convoy of Hope, is a life that was transformed by compassion. In 1969, his parents, Harold and Betty Donaldson, were hit head-on by a drunk driver. Harold was killed; Betty survived but was immobile for some time, unable to work or cook. Their four children experienced first hand what it is like to go without many of life’s basic necessities, much like many families in the world today.

The Donaldsons were more fortunate than others, however. People from local churches and the community provided them with food and shelter and gave them a sense of hope. Out of that experience, Convoy of Hope was formed in 1994. What began by networking with churches within communities became citywide outreach events that would give away groceries, help people find jobs, and present the Gospel.

Convoy of Hope plans over 50 outreaches each year in communities across the US. An outreach is a one-day special community event designed to meet both human and spiritual needs of impoverished families. One such event was held in Roswell, GA on Saturday, April 18th, 2009.

I attended the event and witnessed countless examples of God’s people doing His work. There were parents and teens staffing the children’s playground area, spinning cotton candy, painting faces and making sure each child got a turn in the fun. I saw fathers standing over hot grills while moms and still other teens handed out sack lunches of hotdogs and chicken sandwiches. Photographers took over 400 free family portraits while barbers and stylists clipped their way through over 550 free haircuts. Doctors and nurses performed free health screenings, countless bags of groceries were donated to thankful people, Believers held hands with strangers and prayed with them, men and women sat down with the jobless and helped them to write resumes, and many community service organizations and ministries gave away resources, including over 1000 backpacks stuffed full of school supplies.

All in all, nearly 2500 people came to receive help, food and fun at the Roswell Convoy of Hope on that Saturday. But I didn’t attend the event myself to learn more about them. I was interested in the 1508 volunteers, many who had been at the event since 7:30AM, who gave themselves away for a day in the name of God. I had only one question in mind as I stole a few minutes from many of the volunteers. “Why do you serve?”

The first person I asked was serving in the children’s’ play area. “I know that times are difficult for many right now,” he said, “and those are the times when God is loudest in His call to me to serve. I simply couldn’t ignore what he was asking me to do.”

Next I walked up to a young women dressed as Snow White; she was surrounded by adoring children. When I could finally get near her, I asked my question. “I wanted to show people love in the same way God has shown me His love,” she said. “In the same way Christ cared for strangers, we are to care for strangers. It is Christ-like love when you give to and serve someone you don’t even know,” she explained.

Others told me that serving was simply to do what God had created man to do, that reaching out to others was to demonstrate God’s grace, and that to step outside of one’s comfort zone to be among those with less is to honor what God has blessed you with. Many said that by serving they were planting seeds of hope, hope that God can and will deliver us from our trials. One man said that to serve is to be obedient, and he said so with a joyful smile on his face, and his friend chimed in with “… and to show the fruit of the Spirit!” And then they returned to their labor, unloading bags of ice to cool the bottled water being handed out.

Another volunteer I spoke with shared an interesting observation: many times people don’t trust free services; they think there is a catch involved. “To be here and give away lunch, school supplies, bags of groceries, and haircuts, all for free, is to prove that the love of God is free, that salvation is free to all of us!”

While I was scribbling down notes and quotes one gentleman walked up to me and asked if I was a reporter. “I have something to say,” he insisted. “I think a mistake churches have made is to be so vocal about the things they are against, instead of being vocal about the things they are for. To be here today serving others is to prove that churches can also be for something, something that everyone can see is good.”

The last volunteer I spoke with after interviewing many during two hours was a pastor. “We are helping people to believe that all good things come from God.” He paused and surveyed the hundreds of people surrounding us where we stood – children with full backpacks, moms holding smiling children with painted faces and sticky fingers, dads with fresh haircuts carrying bags of groceries to the car. When he looked back at me his eyes were moist. “We should do this all the time,” he concluded.

I learned later that 195 adults and children accepted Jesus that day. Yes, indeed, we should do this, serve, ALL the time.

The Stephen Ministry

2009-04-06T14:52:00.001-04:00

In 1975 Rev. Kenneth C. Haugk, Ph.D., a pastor and clinical psychologist, saw that people's needs for care in his congregation and community far exceeded what he alone could provide. He developed materials to train nine of his congregation members to provide quality, one-to-one Christian care to individuals experiencing a life crisis. Upon completion of their training, he commissioned them as "Stephen Ministers" and linked them with people with a variety of needs for care.

"Stephen Ministry" was so successful in his church that other congregations wanted to become involved. Dr. Haugk then founded the Stephen Ministries organization and developed the Stephen Series, which now has been implemented in more than 10,000 congregations representing more than 150 Christian denominations. More than 500,000 laypersons have been trained as Stephen Ministers, who in turn have ministered to more than a million care receivers.

The name Stephen comes from St. Stephen, who was the first lay person commissioned by the apostles to provide caring ministry to those in need (as recorded in Acts 6).

In Stephen Ministry congregations, lay caregivers (called Stephen Ministers) provide one-to-one Christian care to the bereaved, hospitalized, terminally ill, separated, divorced, unemployed, relocated, and others facing a crisis or life challenge.

I, along with twelve other members of Perimeter Church, recently completed training to become a Stephen Minister. I sat down with Jenny Boren, Leader of the Perimeter Stephen Ministry, to learn more about how this ministry serves our church and community.

Greg: How did the Stephen Ministry come to exist at Perimeter?

Jenny: It has been at Perimeter Church for over twenty years, begun by someone who saw a need in our congregation and stepped up to meet that need. Stephen Ministers are so often people who have experienced trying times in their lives, and after conquering their struggles, find that they have a heart for compassion and mercy. The Ministry is a way for people to share that compassion and mercy with others in a Christian context.

Greg: How long have you been a Stephen Minister?

Jenny: I have been a Stephen Minister over ten years and became a Leader eight years ago. I work with three other women in leadership roles, each of us taking on different responsibilities depending on what our gifts are.

Greg: What led you to become a Stephen Minister?

Jenny: God called me to this ministry because of struggles I’ve had in my life. I had a very troubled childhood; my mother died when I was fifteen, my father was an alcoholic and I was the oldest of three siblings. Because I was a Christian I had a foundation to help me through that situation, and now as an adult I have compassion for anyone having to deal with anything as challenging as what I went through. I can help them because I’ve stood where they are now standing. All you need to be a Stephen Minister is a heart for caring for someone, and to complete the training.

Greg: So one doesn’t need to be professionally qualified to become a Stephen Minister.

Jenny: Exactly. We are qualified by our life experiences and the willingness to give Christ-like love to someone in need.

Greg: Why do you continue to serve after ten years?

Jenny: It is such a reward to serve. If God will use me, even if only in the smallest of ways, it makes me so happy. It makes me aware of His presence.

Greg: How many ministers are there at Perimeter?

Jenny: Over the last twenty years hundreds have been trained, but you are asked to commit to serve for only two years so everyone is not active at this time. Right now we have twenty ministers and are adding the thirteen new ministers that were in your training class.

Greg: Has the need for this ministry increased recently?

Jenny: Yes, we have seen an increase in requests to see a minister. We have witnessed this in the past; during times when job loss and financial pressures increase so too does the demand for Stephen Ministers. The requests from men to see a Stephen Minister is on the rise in particular. The burdens on men right now are so great; they are reaching out more for support.

Greg: And how long can someone receive care once connected with a Stephen Minister?

Jenny: Although there is no limit to how long someone might see a Stephen Minister, most are in the caregiver/care-receiver relationship three to six months, usually seeing one another face-to-face once a week during that time. And of course this is a confidential ministry; no one else in the church knows who is receiving care except the person who made the referral and the Stephen Minister him/herself.

Greg: How does one get to a Stephen Minister?

Jenny: We’ve made all the Pastors, Elders and Deacons aware of the ministry and they make referrals to us. Also, any adult in the congregation or the surrounding community can ask to see a Stephen Minister simply by calling the Hotline. That number is 678.405.2492, and all calls are confidential.

Greg: And how does one become a Stephen Minister?

Jenny: We offer the training every Monday night for twelve weeks beginning in January and then commission the new ministers in April.

Greg: What are the needs of the ministry right now?

Jenny: Our Leaders have been at it now for years. We would greatly benefit from someone else coming forward with a desire to become a Leader.

As I wrapped up my conversation with Jenny, she offered me a brochure about the ministry. In it was the verse that I believe best explains the commission of the Stephen Ministry, Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

Adults interested in receiving care from a Stephen Minster may call the Hotline, 678.405.2492. Adults interested in becoming Stephen Ministers or assuming a leadership role with the ministry should contact Jenny Boren at 770.447.9642.

Listen

2009-04-02T13:03:00.000-04:00

I worked at Good Samaritan Health Center yesterday, the medical clinic serving the poor in our county. It opens for business at 8:30AM and on the first day of the month it conducts its open enrollment. Fifty new patients are accepted for treatment on that day. I was told to expect both a busy and a heartbreaking day.

When I arrived at 8:15 the parking lot was jammed full and there were already 109 people standing in line in the rain with still more hopefuls arriving. I stood at the entrance to the parking lot turning away cars, explaining there were already more people in line than we could accommodate, yet many parked elsewhere, walked to the clinic and got in line anyway, hoping someone ahead of them would not qualify for services. A few looked at the line, quickly did the math, and then I watched their hearts sink as they backed out of the parking lot and drive off. One woman began to cry when I explained there wouldn’t be another new patient enrollment until May 1st.

Later in the day I learned one man had arrived at 3:00AM to claim a choice spot at the front of the line, and he waited more than five hours shivering beneath an umbrella before his wife arrived with their sick toddler. She took his place in line just as the doors were opened. They were able to get an appointment.

The small lobby of the clinic was packed with anxious, rain-soaked people of all ages and ethnicities, each hoping and praying for one of the coveted slots that were available this month. When fifty people qualified and were enrolled, those who had remained in line groaned with disappointment and slowly turned around to go home. Person number 51 nearly fainted, her disappointment so great, yet we could not accommodate her. There is only one physician at Good Samaritan and he can take care of only so many people at a time. Once you are enrolled, you continue to receive care until you are well. Dr. Varghese has seen over 3,000 patient visits already this year.

God has called us to serve. What I saw yesterday at Good Samaritan Health Center is being replayed in its own version in a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, safe house for exploited children, after-school program for refugees, elder care center or some other ministry near you. All these ministries are getting by with too little to serve the needs of so many, and the needs to be met are increasing all the time.

Do you hear God’s call for you to use your gifts to care for and serve those in lesser circumstances than you? If you are truly listening, you will hear Him.

Lunch with Dave Routly

2009-03-30T13:39:00.001-04:00

The Stephen Ministry, a one-to-one lay ministry offered by Perimeter Church, utilizes well-trained men and women to provide individuals in our congregation and community with confidential, distinctively Christian care and support to help them deal with any number of life's difficult circumstances.

In order for anyone to become well trained, that person must first be a student of a well qualified trainer. David “Dave” Routly, Licensed Professional Counselor and a member of Perimeter Church, volunteers as a trainer for the Stephen Ministry.

I had lunch with Dave recently to discuss his passion for teaching, counseling, and the ministry. Here’s a recap of our conversation:

Greg: Let’s begin with an introduction. Tell me about yourself and what led you to your career.

Dave: I grew up as a pastor’s kid in the Salvation Army, a denomination that is very much concerned about serving other people. Serving has always been a major part of my family culture. When I was sixteen I began working at summer camps for inner city kids and continued to do that until I graduated from college with a psychology degree. By that time I was pretty certain I wanted to become a counselor, so I enrolled in graduate school to pursue that goal. I’ve always been interested in what makes people tick, and in the course of my life I have seen a lot of hurting people. I wanted to try to connect with them and make a difference for them.

Greg: I’ve never heard the Salvation Army be referred to as a denomination. I think of it as a Christian service and rescue organization. Please tell me about that.

Dave: If you’ve ever seen pictures of London in the 1800s you’d know it was a real mess. At that time the church was excluding the poor, the prostitutes, the alcoholics and others like them, and the Salvation Army was founded as a para-church organization to serve them since no one else would.

Greg: I’m sure that mentality was a strong influence in your life.

Dave: I grew up believing I was saved for no other purpose than to serve other people.

Greg: How did you become a teacher for the Stephen Ministry?

Dave: Hershel Hatcher lives in my neighborhood and one day he mentioned the ministry. He knew I am a counselor and asked if I would be interested in teaching classes to new Stephen Ministers. I am a teacher at heart. I love to teach and communicate to others the things I’ve learned, and I really believe in serving, so of course I said I would.

Greg: Is it difficult for you to shift from a secular counseling paradigm in the workplace to a Christian counseling paradigm as a Stephen Ministry trainer?

Dave: You have to remember that people come into counseling with many different kinds of needs, and you have to pay attention to what they are asking you for. I’ve found that many people, if given the chance, want to talk about their faith, so I have faith conversations in my role as a professional as well as with Stephen Ministry trainees. I do not work for a Christian entity, but if someone coming to me for counseling opens that door, I will walk through it with them. If you believe that the Spirit fills you, you can ask the Spirit to affect what you are doing, and He will.

Greg: Do you volunteer elsewhere?

Dave: I also volunteer as a counselor at the Good Samaritan Health Center. I’d love to do that more but I have to save time for my growing family.

Greg: That’s right, you have four boys.

Dave: And my wife and I are about to adopt two more!

Greg: Good gosh; what possessed you to want six boys?!

Dave: David McNeely reminded us during a sermon he gave back in September that we are saved to help other people. Afterward, my wife and I realized that even though we both are in service fields, she is a nurse, we were conducting our lives in a way that was more about serving our own comfort than serving other people. After much conversation and soul-searching, we decided to adopt. The whole experience has refocused my wife and me, and has helped us to focus our young sons on what life is really about, and that is to serve others.

Greg: What a great lesson to teach your children.

Dave: You know, we are selfish people. We don’t naturally incline ourselves to give ourselves away to other people. Even though I grew up in a serving culture, I still find myself interested in my own comfort more than anything else. We all need to be reminded now and then to give ourselves away.

Greg: Do you intend to continue teaching classes for the Stephen Ministry?

Dave: Absolutely. I would teach more if I could.

Greg: Any last thoughts you’d like to share?

Dave: A lot of people think of volunteering as rewarding in the sense that it makes you appreciate more what you have and it takes your mind off your own personal stuff. That’s true, but for me the reward of volunteering is the pure joy of using the gifts God has given to me. I am aware of the benefit Stephen Ministers derive from my teaching, and I really believe others down the line benefit when they work with someone I’ve trained, but it really is the joy of giving myself, of doing good deeds for God, that rewards me the most. God gives us the gifts and the opportunity to use them, and we have a responsibility to use our gifts for His purpose. When we do, we find joy.

Greg: You’ve helped me by giving me this interview. What can I do to help you?

Dave: Something can always go wrong with an international adoption. Please keep my family and the two boys we are adopting in your prayers.

P.S. I promised Dave I would, and I hope you will too.

The Good Samaritan

2009-03-24T14:44:00.002-04:00

If the name itself doesn’t tip you off that The Good Samaritan Health Center of Gwinnett isn’t your typical medical office, a look around inside surely will. On the bulletin board is a poster of the Ten Commandments. Alongside it is a Bible verse, Galatians 5:22-23, “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” The examination rooms are decorated with hand-painted murals of scenes from the great stories of the Bible, and of course there’s a painting of the Good Samaritan kneeling down to help the wounded man in the road. It hangs prominently in the waiting room.

I sat down with Dr. Jake Varghese one morning to learn more about Good Samaritan. He explained that the idea of the health center was born in 2003 after a group of physicians volunteered to staff booths at a health fair during the Unite Compassion in Action weekend. Set up on a tennis court, it didn’t take long for lines to form at the temporary clinics, making it clear to all there was a great need in the community for healthcare for the poor and uninsured. “Everyone turned to each other and said, ‘Doing this once a year isn’t enough, these services need to be available every day’,” Dr. Varghese said. Soon a planning committee was formed to determine how to accomplish just that.

“I’ve always had a heart for missions,” he added. “I had plans to finish medical school, go into private practice for a while, and then travel to other countries to serve after I’d paid off my student loans. I strongly believed God had given me the gift of medicine and I should be looking for ways to serve Him with my skills.”

But, as we all know, God doesn’t operate on our time lines; He called the young doctor to His Purpose a number of years sooner than anyone expected.

“An Elder of Perimeter approached me and asked if I would be interested in working with the soon to open Good Samaritan Health Center. My wife and I prayed about it and realized we couldn’t wait for me to do missions work at a later time, the needs were evident in our community right then.”

I asked how difficult it has been for him and his family to forgo the lucrative rewards of private practice even though he was burdened with medical school debt. Dr. Varghese’s answer was swift. “There are days when it is hard, but I know I am where I am supposed to be,” he said. “I promised myself I would never work in a job if I didn’t wake up in the morning looking forward to going to work. I look forward to going to work at Good Samaritan. Here we open the doors and pray with our patients. Here we can bring them to Christ, which is my reward.”

Opening its doors in 2005, Good Samaritan’s mission is to demonstrate the love of Christ in word and deed by providing affordable, quality primary healthcare to those in need. Its clients are the indigent, homeless, and working poor, many of whom are single parents with no insurance and are unable to qualify for government assistance. For many who might otherwise go without basic medical care, Good Samaritan offers primary care services for clients from birth to the end of life. It is the aim of Good Samaritan Gwinnett to not only meet physical needs but to also address the spiritual needs of its patients through prayer and biblical counseling.

“All of our staff and volunteers are Believers and are encouraged to share their testimony with clients and to pray with them during their visits. We are active in the commission we believe God has asked us to do.” Today the health center serves over 5,000 patients.

In addition to being a distinctively Christian medical practice, Good Samaritan operates like a traditional medical practice, not a walk-in clinic. Establishing relationships with their clients, Dr. Varghese and his staff continues to treat them on an on-going basis. Uninsured patients have a “medical home” where they receive quality care in times of health and sickness. Patients diagnosed with a chronic disease benefit greatly from the continuity of care and an established physician-patient relationship.

New patient registration is held on the first day of every month, and typically a line forms at the front door even before the health center is open. “In the last few months,” Dr. Varghese said, “the need has grown so significantly we now have a line wrapped around the building on registration day. And for the first time we are seeing not only the poor and indigent, but also families who have recently lost jobs and insurance.” Fifty to sixty new patients are enrolled each month, and still demand is on the rise.

With the increased demand for services, additional volunteers are needed, as well as additional donations to supplement a dip in patient revenues as, during these trying financial times, patients find it more and more difficult to pay their already reduced fees.

Given the population Good Samaritan serves, over eighty-percent of its budget comes from church, private and corporate donations, and grant monies. Only six of its staff are employees; the remaining forty people serving the health center do so as volunteers. We are grateful to Perimeter church,” Dr. Varghese added. “It has been a huge supporter of Good Samaritan, and a number of its members are physicians who help us as they can.”

Yet even more help is needed, Dr. Varghese points out.

“A real need we have is to find specialists in the community who understand our mission and will accept an occasional referral from us. Now and then we see patients who need to see a cardiologist, gastroenterologist, or a neurologist, but recognizing their circumstances, we want to send them to other doctors who will shepherd them as we do.”

I left Good Samaritan just as Dr. Varghese began to gather his staff for a morning devotional before opening the doors to begin their day of service. On my way out I saw that a line had already begun to form. A grandmother with a small child in arms smiled as I exited the building. I drove home thinking about what I might do to support Dr. Varghese and his efforts.

I’ve always loved the parable about the Good Samaritan, Jesus’ lesson to us illustrating that kindness and mercy must be available to everyone. "Go and do likewise," Jesus said.

I hope that you too will think about how you can support Dr. Varghese and the Good Samaritan Health Center.

Good Samaritan is seeking Christian professional volunteers from the medical, dental, optometry and counseling fields, as well as interpreters, qualified medical office staff and technical support. For more information about volunteer positions, contact Monica Piggott, 678.280.6630, ext. 104, or monica@goodsamhc.org.

Learn more about Good Samaritan Health Center by visiting its website: http://www.goodsamgwinnett.org/

Special Forces

2009-03-17T16:28:00.000-04:00

A few days ago I had an opportunity to see a side of Atlanta that many people like me - educated, well-fed, financially blessed, and confident about my future – probably never see. My afternoon began with Rev. Tim Cummins, Executive Director of Whirlwind Missions, asking me if I’d ever eaten roasted goat. I happen to be fond of goat but have never had it served in an Ethiopian restaurant. As we headed to Clarkston to have lunch and talk, I began to realize what an adventurous day was in store for me.

When we arrived at the restaurant Tim advised me we would likely be the only Christians there, the usual patrons were Somali Muslims. Talk about being thrown to the lions! Yet he walked in with a smile on his face, spoke to everyone nearby, and then proceeded to tell me about the work of Whirlwind Missions as we ate.

Located near the International Village in Doraville, Whirlwind Missions serves immigrants and refuges coming to Atlanta from over 145 different countries. Most arrive to this country unable to speak the language or adequately care for their families. The children have a particularly difficult time in school because their parents cannot help them with homework. Many men find themselves taken advantage of by unscrupulous people who prey on their language barrier. The International Village (not so much a defined village as a densely populated region 5 miles in radius) is home to many apartment complexes catering to the housing needs of these immigrants and refuges.

Calling himself a field operative in God’s Special Forces, Tim goes into such apartment complexes, secures a unit, and establishes an after school program. There he, with the help of his two young adult children and a staff of volunteers, provide after school mentoring for children and English as Second Language classes for adults. These services also provide a bridge to building trust and an opportunity to lead the residents into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Whirlwind currently operates these onsite missions in thirty-five apartment communities.

After finishing our lunch we headed toward the Clarkston Community Center where I was introduced to another ministry, one supported in part by Whirlwind, The Refuge Sewing Center. Here refugee women of Sudan, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, Bhutan, Burma and other countries, come to learn how to sew and make their own clothing. In the context of arts and crafts, the women also find Christian fellowship and a nonthreatening environment in which to hear the Gospel. We were there to make sure the ministry leaders were scheduled to learn how to use the new sewing machines Tim had purchased for them. “We are hoping to help the women earn money through the sale of their handmade garments,” he explained. “Sort of a micro-economy but right here in Atlanta where ethnic clothing for many people is not readily available.”

In route to our next stop Tim explained how he was also helping men to acquire lawn equipment to begin their own small scale lawn services. “If we can help them get contracts with the apartment complexes where they live, where we have a mission, it becomes a win-win for everyone,” he said. “Not only are we teaching them the language and leading them to Christ, we are helping them to realize their own American dream.”

Moments later we pulled into the parking lot of the International Bible Church where we were to deliver Bibles that had been translated in Somali, Arabic, Nepalese, Swahili and Kinrwanda. “You aren’t going to get most of these people into a traditional white or black church,” Tim explained. “You have to reach them in an environment where they are comfortable, where they can understand what’s going on. That’s why we supply Bibles in all these languages. That’s what serving others in the name of Christ means to me.”

Our last stop was at one of the apartment missions. We pulled into an old and run down complex, one you might think you wouldn’t want to walk past in the dark. People looked at us from behind drawn blinds or off balconies on the second floor. But when Tim got out of the car something amazing happened – children came running up to him. He greeted them all by name and began asking them about their day at school.

We stepped into the Whirlwind apartment that had been converted into classrooms. A poster quoting John 3:16 hung on one wall and a few tables were outfitted with computers for the children to use when working on their homework. Before long Tim was summoned by the mom of a crying middle school child. I, a stranger, wasn’t welcome to enter their apartment, but Tim, a familiar face, went inside to see what the matter was. I checked my watch and saw that three hours had passed and I needed to run along.

The next morning I checked Tim’s blog to see how the rest of his afternoon went. It turns out the middle schooler left her binder, filled with important paperwork, at school. She was afraid of both loosing the binder and getting into trouble for not returning the papers. Tim drove the mom and daughter to the school and retraced their steps until they found her binder!

Tim’s motto is “Take the Church to the People.” I know he is making that motto a reality. I’ve seen him doing it. He and Whirlwind Missions are truly reaching the world for Christ one person at a time.

As I write this I remember his answer to my question during lunch: “What is your greatest need?”

His answer was certain. “More volunteers who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty,” he said. I offered myself up; now what about you?

To learn more about volunteer opportunities with this incredible taking it to the streets ministry, contact Rev. Tim Cummins at whirlwindtim@gmail.com.

P.S. More than one thousand people have accepted the Lord since the Whirlwind Missions ministry began in 2001.

God in Schools

2009-03-17T16:27:00.001-04:00

I remember saying the Lord's Prayer or Psalm 23 each morning when I was in elementary school. That was years ago, before God was removed from the classroom of our public schools. I've often wondered where we would be today if that had never happened, if God were still in our classrooms and children heard the Word each morning, even if only a little of it.

Last Friday morning I had an opportunity to discuss God over a cup of coffee and a muffin. Not with my usual companions, men and women my age, but with a number of students from Norcross High School. I arrived early at the popular breakfast spot to chat with Lee Jones, Director of the Norcross Christian Learning Center.

The Norcross Christian Learning Center provides an off-campus, Christian-based elective class to Norcross High School. The class is taken for credit and is based on the concept of Released Time education, which permits students to be released from campus for approved instruction. The courses offered are “Comparative Religions” in the fall and “The Life and Teachings of Jesus” in the spring. The classes provide students with a safe and engaging environment to explore the claims of Christ and the Christian worldview. The program began at Norcross High School in 2004, and depending on student demand, offers a class as many as three times a day.

Lee, who holds a seminary degree, had only recently arrived to metro Atlanta when he heard about the newly formed Norcross Christian Learning Center. Searching for a ministry home and believing that teaching was one of his gifts, he joined the Learning Center even though he had never imagined himself working in a high school.

“It has turned out to be an amazing experience,” he explained. “It’s taught me to trust that God is always at work. There are challenges in every class, ranging from the logistics, funding, the students themselves, but every time God delivers; I’ve seen Him at work in theses kids’ lives. If not for our classes, many of our students, some of whom come from very unfavorable environments, would have never heard the Gospel.”

And as it turns out, many of the students probably would not have crossed paths if not for their enrollment in the class. Coming from different socioeconomic, cultural and religious backgrounds, they previously had little to no reason to speak with each other. “In addition to bringing the Gospel to them, one of the most rewarding things about this ministry,” Lee said, “is watching the students connect with one another. In our classroom, they become friends where before they probably wouldn’t have.”

While the school makes the class offering possible for its students, it, due to restrictions enforced by federal law, does little else to support the Learning Center. “We use a bus loaned to us by one church to transport the students to another church which allows us to use space for a classroom,” Lee explained. “Although the logistics can be challenging, it gives us the freedom to teach Christianity in an unencumbered way. And it bears fruit. One student in particular came into our class a non-believer, but after learning about Christ she accepted Him as her savior. Today she is in college, has a heart for discipleship and mentoring of young girls, and is now herself telling others about the Gospel. She is the best example of why this program exists.”

I looked up and saw a church bus pull into the parking lot, and moments later a half-dozen laughing teenagers spilled into the café. They were accompanied by Leroy, a teacher with the Norcross Christian Learning Center, and Cory, a former student and graduate of the high school who remains involved in the program as a volunteer.

Cory told me of how, through the classes, he learned about Islam, Judaism, Atheism and Christianity, and the contrast and comparison discussions led by Lee and Leroy reinforced his own beliefs to the point that he decided to attend seminary school after he graduated. Today he studies Apologetics and is passionate about defending his beliefs. More fruit.

When I could coax him away from the students who were vying for his attention, Leroy described the same challenges and rewards I had heard earlier from Lee, but added his own faith is strengthened by his relationships in the classroom. “Watching theses kids evolve in their faith, or motivating one to even consider a relationship with God, is very inspiring to me,” he said.

Many students, like Cory, stay in touch with Leroy after they’ve taken the classes and graduated, calling on him for Christian guidance and support. “I know that we are helping them to stay on straight paths,” he added before responding to calls that he return to the table.

Shortly all had consumed their breakfast and it was time to return to the school. Just before they boarded the bus I snapped a photograph. Looking through the lens I saw an unlikely group of friends, yet at the same time, an affectionate cohort of Believers. The credit goes to the Norcross Christian Learning Center.

As the bus drove away I remembered something Lee had said: “High school can be a difficult and dark place for many students, and sometimes we may not see the results of what we’ve done there. But I believe if all we’ve accomplished in the short term is to introduce a few students to God then its all worth it. Nothing we do in God’s name is in vain.”

Amen.

United We Stand

2009-03-17T16:25:00.000-04:00

I recently came know to Chip Sweney and the Unite! organization after volunteering to do an editorial review of the Unite! website. As I read through the site I became introduced to the Unite! mission: to bring about transformation and the hope of Christ throughout the city of Atlanta through the unified acts of kindness, service, compassion, and love. Unified acts refers to the joint efforts of community churches which have partnered together in the belief that two churches working together can have greater impact in a community than one church working alone.

Cool idea, I thought. I’d never heard of such a partnership and, honestly, thought it something that sounded easy enough to do but was probably difficult to execute, and was eager to see how well it played in reality.

I was blown away when I got my first chance to see Unite! in the flesh rather than on the Internet.

In the past year, several Duluth churches of Unite! interviewed residents and civic, education, media and business leaders in the community to discover the needs and opportunities for the churches to serve Duluth. The findings of this study, called Churches Study Duluth, were presented Thursday evening, February 26th. The presentation was hosted by Street Smarts in downtown Duluth. I had the pleasure of attending.

The findings of the study are available elsewhere; the focus of this post is on Unite! As I moved about the room I witnessed what I quickly realized was a group of friends, a multi-ethnic, multi-denominational gathering of Believers. As the presentation unfolded, I heard a cooperative body of men and women earnestly discussing how the partnership of churches could address the identified problems, not individual churches telling of either their own plans to address or decision not to address a problem.

Soon it was agreed that many of the issues Duluth faces are rooted in matters of cultural integration, and before the church can take the lead in improving cultural integration, the issues of congregational integration needed to be addressed.

That is when, in my opinion, the true character of the Unite! organization came alive. A lively discussion followed about welcomed changes in the complexion of many of the churches in Duluth, and soon individuals were giving testimony about their own positive experiences and observations about race relations.

Wow, I thought. Here is an organization seeking to serve others no matter their origin or station, intending to deliver that service in partnership with other churches no matter their denomination or race, worshiping together to honor God while leaving behind stylistic preferences about worship that once may have hindered that fellowship.

Here, I realized, is an organization that can execute its mission, and do it oh so well.

The evening ended with a black man and white man in embrace during a parting prayer. In that prayer God was asked to bless us with the wisdom and grace to love one another as He loves us.

To be able to love one another as He loves us is a blessing. To actually experience it is a great blessing indeed.

I hope you will learn more about Unite! and how we as the Perimeter Church family can work together with our partner Duluth churches to serve the needs of our surrounding neighbors, each and every one of them.