In just a matter of one week so much has happened. Even just today there is so much to share. I just left a Community Outreach Event at Harrigate Park (about 6 blocks from my area of ministry). Early in the week, the S.A. (Salvation Army) got a flier about this event called "For the Sake of the Call"... it was an outreach event inviting any church to come out and set up an information booth to let locals know what is available to them. The event had live musicians (genres ranging from rap to R&B to a general praise and worship band), interpretive movements, skits, and all kinds of activities for kids (face painting, water games, bible stories, etc.), and good food and drinks! As a representative of the S.A. I provided brochures about the church, along with gospel tracks and pocket bibles (I had 200 pocket bibles donated by Gideonites from my Bowling Green church--First Baptist; I'd say about 100 are gone now :)). This park is along Kensington (I have mentioned that this is an area of extreme poverty) so it was a great outreach for prostitutes, drug addicts, alcoholics, etc... The guy who organizes it, Ed Bouldac, has been clean from drugs for 12 years and 5 months and leads a 12 step recovery program at a church nearby--throughout the day he held a meeting for addicts every other hour where "clean people" shared testimonies and prayed for each other and offered where addicts could get help. I got to hear stories of people who have been clean for as early as 32 days to as long as 31 years! God really moved today--I'll have some pictures uploaded in the next post.
Ok, so in the last post I mentioned how I met a guy who's cousin was a pastor of a church nearby and that he'd be willing to help with anything... well I met him (Joey) this past Monday, and he has been a big help. The next day his mom and dad drove over to the S.A. with Five 32-packs of water and five 28-packs of gatorade for my "Gatorade Missions." His dad also has a friend who will look at the scoreboard in our gym to see if we can get it working again. They will also be helping with the basketball league we have starting up by providing a team and hopefully some volunteer work on game nights. The league is becoming more and more of a reality and these kids from the streets are excited. We currently have 8 teams... I will be coaching/playing with my "focus group" (I call them my focus group because they are to me what Jesus's 12 disciples were to him I guess you could say)... their team name is P.U.C. Da Movement (stands for Problems Under Control). Another way Joey is helping is with jerseys for the teams. He told me that God has blessed them with equipment used for screen printing to make shirts (equipment that was just given to them out of the blue)... so as long as I get the shirts, they can make them free of charge! Games start this Thursday, so it's exciting... pray that it all comes together. I need to get jerseys together and get the scoreboard working; those are my primary needs. Also pray for Joey's church--2 weeks ago was their 2 year anniversary and they meet in his parent's home. It has grown to the point where people are squeezing for room upstairs! They have been praying for a building to move into and it looks like God may have answered their prayer. An Adult Video store has closed down, and they may be taking it over. THAT'S WHAT WE WANT TO SEE! An Adult store being turned into a church--that's progress :).
I have also been shifting my area of ministry from the outdoor courts to open gym at the church. I continue to have people tell me to "be careful," "don't get shot," "watch that your stuff doesn't get stolen," etc... but brothas and sistas, I have news... when you become an incarnational ministry and you connect, build relationships, and GO, you'd be surprised how God protects you and how much respect you get from others and the kinds of relationship that is built. I have a tremendous amount of respect from the guys in this area... I've had random people stop in and tell me they remember when they used to play in this gym years ago when it was a dollar to get in on Thursday nights. Now I have it open every weeknight for free and the guys love it! Word has spread and I now average up to 15-20 a night (last week it was around 10). Basically, with this open gym and bball league, I'm giving some of these guys the best summer of their life and I'm giving them somthing to do to stay off the streets at night.
Now... how am I connecting all this to ministry? Well, I build relationships with them, talk to them, and invite them to bible study. This past Tuesday was my first one (before I was getting 20 a night) and I had 3 guys come. Then when it was over, I had a few guys come (one that I had met from my first trip a year ago and hadn't seen since my trip 2 months ago) who said they heard I was doing a bible study and open gym and they want to come by. I also had some of my other guys say they wanted to start coming. This is the bible study I explained in my last post about "Who is Jesus?" My experience in ministry has been great because I feel like I'm doing the ministry Jesus did. He had his 12 disciples he taught in depth (I have my Jasper St. gang) and he ministered to the masses (I have been able to do some of that to the K&A area as a whole).
But God is good to me also. I had asked my older brother to pray for me that I would have some believers welcome me into their home and feed me every once in a while and just give me a change of scenes. Well, thanks to Barb Ellis and her contacts, my prayer was answered the next day. She had called a friend, Chuck Malloy, in order to help me with my ministry and the bball league. Well he called me and in the midst of our convo, asked if I would come over to his house for dinner somtime! AMEN! God is good!
I have learned today the difference between my ministry and other ministeries happening here. What I've encountered, between the S.A., the outreach event today, and what I've heard about other ministeries around, I discover that those ministeries target a truly hurting community, a community full of prostitutes, homeless people, addicts, etc. Today at the outreach event I saw people admitting that they're in pain and they need to change, etc. But my ministry has been with youth who won't admit they're in need of a spiritual healing. They believe they're okay on their own. Remember their team name? "Problems Under Control." Thus, my ministry is tough... pray that God uses me to get them to realize that they don't have control until God has control; that they DO need Christ in their life.
Well, that's all I can think of... oh, by the way, I have finally made it to a Phillies game. All the pastors of S.A. in the Eastern Penn/Del district got together for cheesesteaks, phillies game, and ice cream. What's neat, is the three wealthiest SA pay for everything (one for the lunch, one for the game, one for the ice cream)... As our pastor told me "In other words, we never have to" :) Phillies played the Reds... and though I wore a Phillies jersey, I still found myself rooting for the Reds!
Look for another update next week! God bless!
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