Jacksonville Brothers!!!!

Sorry its been so long since our last blog. Ten days to be precise. It sure is wonderful to be getting closer to the birthday of our Savior Jesus. We are so blessed that we have a Savior that loves us so much. The reason we exist and is to love people like Jesus did.

Today me Tim and Jesse met with two brothers from Jacksonville, Fl. Paul Bowman and his partner Ira. These men feel called to connect Church's with missions. I was happy that we had the opportunity to get to know them and establish a partnership as well. Paul is familiar with a family that lives in Villa Nueva. It turns our the we have been helping their kids with home work. I was able to learn a few things about the complex that I didn't know.
We took them to one of our favorite Thai restaurants just down the street from V.N. We all had a really good time!
While we were in the area we visited a grocery store geared to accommodate Muslims. It is always a real eye opener to go into places like this. Much more for people that visit here to see the community.
We also took them over to the Hindu Temple to see the largest of its kind in the southeast. This is one impressive structures inside and out.
All the detail work inside and out was done by hand in India and shipped to the US.
The custodian of the complex told us that it took seven years to do all the intricacy and detailed work the surrounds the entire temple.

It was a fun day!

Just to update you...our home work help program continues to grow. We have also been able to share Jesus with several kids. We are so grateful that God is opening door to families there.

Please pray for us this week as we continue to reach out to lost and gang influenced kids.

We Love You All!!!

Christmas Party!!! WooHoo!!!

Today we had a Christmas Party for the kids at Villa Nueva. It was sponsored by our good friends and partners Mark and Ginger Whitley's Sunday school class from Mountain Park FBC.We are so excited that they came in full force bearing gifts, games and food for our kids. They brought so much stuff that we were able to lavish the kids with all sorts of goodies and still have stuff left over that we can use in the future. For some of the kids we work with this may be the biggest part of their Christmas.
Ginger shared a story with the kids.

The kids were also treated to a craft center where they made Christmas cards for their families and also had the opportunity to get their faces paint pictures on there cheeks.

They had several games to share with the kids including the highly popular bean-bag toss.Isaid was good at it.

All the kids ended up leaving with gifts, candy and a piece of happy birthday Jesus cake. They had a great time.

This is me with my longtime friend Mark Whitley. Thanks Mark and team for all you guys did to share Jesus with the kids at this mission. We really enjoyed having you and your class as our partners. See more photos at www.thetablemissions.org.

We Love YOU All!

20+ kids...Homework Help!!!!

Our homework help program is really beginning to take off. We had 20 kids today come to seek help with their homework. It looks like the word is out with the parents. More and more kids are coming in for help. Praise the Lord! We decided to not only offer homework help but to also let the kids come for board games and art.. the catch is that homework must be finished before art and games can begin. We are thinking about the possibility of increasing our homework help from two days to 4 days each week. We have prayed a long time for this to happen and the Lord is finally blessing our work and helping us to move forward.This is Genesis pictured above. She is one of our regular friends. She saw our chain decoration around the and decided to create her own chain for her bedroom. She is a good girl.The best part of having the kids come for homework help is that we get to share the Gospel. This is my partner Meghan pictured below sharing a word from the Bible with the kids. They really listened to the study closely. This Saturday we will be having a Christmas Party for the kids. We really got out and played it up today. Mark Whitley's Sunday school class from Mountain Park FBC will be hosting the party. We are really excited and blessed that they are coming and the kids can hardly wait. We are so blessed to be able to work with such beautiful and eager children.

We hope those of you who read this blog will get a sense of just how diverse God's family really is, and how His love abounds for all his people. I often wonder what language we will be speaking in heaven.

Please pray for our party this Saturday that we will be a reflection of Christ in the lives of all who come.

We Love You All!

Public School Ministry

This week I had the opportunity to work two full days as a sub-teacher at one of the local public schools. Many of the teachers are astounded that the kids, I have worked with, have liked me so quickly. As a matter of fact they care for me so much that it is a little disruptive sometimes. But I do really try to be kind as possible so as to reflect Jesus to them. Even though we are not supposed to directly witness unless asked, the model of Christ can be reflected in our personal lifestyles. My consistent theme is always "be good" and "do your absolute best."

Cornelia works daily in a local church preschool as a teacher and as mentioned in an earlier post she also works at a daycare center in the after school program working for Hindi speaking Indian nationals. She has likewise developed her own little ministry. Basically doing the same thing that I do in public school. She also really tries to reflect Jesus to the different cultures she encounters everyday.

Our after school homework help continues to do well and we also have a Christmas Party planned for December 6th at Villa Nueva. Please pray for these two ministries as we continue to share the Love of our Lord and if you feel led maybe even donate resources.

We are thankful for you all!!!

The End of The Bridge!!!

Yesterday was a sad day for our family. It was the last day for "The Bridge Ministry." We were one of the original core group families that stepped out of the traditional service three years ago to help start this service, so you might say that it was close to our hearts.

The service was designed to reach out to people that were disgruntled with church, had been hurt in church, or just simply wanted to have a low impact come as you are place to attend. It's hard,humanly, to understand why it had to go.

To be in the service yesterday and hear testimonies of the lives that were changed by this ministry was deeply touching. Many of these people were wounded at some point in the lives and were renewed by the overwhelming acceptance for all people who came to "The Bridge." Some one said yesterday that over 50 people had joined the church through this ministry in just under three years. Missionary types like us have a hard time seeing program cuts to mission based programs. We generally base success on one life led to Christ at a time.

Thanks to Bob and Rachel Bochat for all their hard work and weekly dedication. It took a lot of hours and sacrifice to pull this service off each week and with out a doubt you were called to this place just for that specific purpose. Also thanks to all of you who volunteered every week with the Lord's purpose in mind. We love you guys very much!

Parkview Chistian Church @ Villa Nueva

We had a great time today working with Parkview Christian Church! They were a lot of fun. We love to have groups come to the mission to help share Jesus with the kids.God sends many people to work with us from various denominations and Parkview has been a long term partner with Whirlwind Missions. They had originally thought of doing a block party, but due to the blustery weather conditions they decided to do a backyard bible club instead.

We were expecting a few kids and ended up with over 40. Praise the Lord! You wouldn't think kids would come out this time of year...but like all kids you just can't keep them pent-up in the house for long.Tim lead out today with the story of Daniel and the Lions Den. He told them how even though Daniel was thrown in with the Lions to be eaten, God saved him and would not allow the Lions to harm Daniel. In the same way when we are in danger God will protect us if we know him.

We had snacks and then Tim lined the kids up for a candy throw. This prevents mass chaos...if you know what I mean.

Thanks to Dan Boots and the P.C.C. mission team for a job well done.

We Love You All !!!

The Need is Great...The Workers are Few!!!

It's good to be alive in the Lord.

How many of you are keeping up with the News Media Buzz regarding the economy? Well if you are like me you might choose to just cut the TV off rather that listen to all the negative hype. Even when we think we are poor, for most of us who live in the U.S. when it all boils down to it we are still rich far above the worlds standards. A friend of mine said if you own more that one computer then you are rich.

Recently I mentioned that I had started sub-teaching at Lilburn Elementary School. This school is greater than 90% immigrants. Working there has turned out to be a vastly greater mission field than I could have ever imagined. Its so strange to think that directly north of the Rail Road tracks in our town of Lilburn one can go from one of the most effluent neighborhoods in the county to one of day to day living and struggling just to survive. Before God called Cornelia and I to missions, I found it easy to turn my head and look the other way. But now after seven months working with families from all over the world we can tell you that our hearts have been changed. When we used to see intruders...now we see people that merely want the same things for their children that we take for granite as a birth-right.

At school each day we have morning announcements. Just after announcements we say the pledge of allegiance to the flag and then sing a patriotic song followed by a moment of silence. Yesterday my heart was moved listening to the kids with brown and tan faces say the "pledge" with more gusto than any native born kid. Then the kids then sang God Bless the USA with all their hearts. WOW! one of the kids exclaimed. I love my new country.

Just to let you know...since I have been sub teaching I have been able to minister to dozens of kids and faculty. It's amazing to see God at work. What I looked at as a part-time job, God intended for it to be a misson field for sharing His Word with many people from everywhere in the world. So when you start thinking that you are poor, remember the opportunity God has placed in our path to minister to people from all over the world.

Please pray for our us and our public school ministry as we deal with dire situations of families. In many cases all we can do is pray! Also think about how you can help us in partnership.

We Love You All!!!