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" I want to live here for always"--- Chandy

It is a rare occasion when we have enough volunteers that I can spend the whole day in the office doing "work" kinda stuff. Most days are filled with so much organized chaos that none of the staff has a chance to do that. Today I got to spend the whole morning at Rock Island doing some things on my "to do" list. It was nice.

Now let me just tell you something. I hate Mondays. I know that most people say that.. but I really do. It's always super hard to wake up on those mornings and then when I finally get to work I can never find a parking spot because there are so many people (which isn't a bad thing). I am always exhausted on Mondays. Today was especially bad because I have the start of a cold so I woke up this morning and took some pretty heavy duty cold medicine. All day I felt like I was floating and moving in slow motion. Haha.. I know you all know what I'm talking about. So I say all this to say.. I wasn't the most positive person today unfortunately.

Back to my story... I was in Rock Island doing some work on the computer when there comes a knock at the door. I open it to see a 4 year old little girl standing all by herself with a big grin. Her name is Emily. She is a little girl from the neighborhood that I think I have a very special bond with. As soon as I open the door she walks right in and plops down on the couch. Her english is very bad so I was shocked to hear the next words out of her mouth..... "I want to live here for always". I thought she meant America but as I began to talk a little bit with her I realized she was talking about Rock Island. I asked her why she wanted to live in Rock Island and she said two things: "because you are nice" and "you have food". I felt this strong urge to pray for her at that minute and she held my hand while I prayed the Lord's protection over her sweet little life. It was a precious moment. As soon as I said amen she hopped right off the couch and bolted out the door. That little girl made my day with her sweet words. The Lord knew I needed the encouragement. I love when He sets up little appointments like that.

The sad thing is that even at the young age of 4, Emily already realizes that things are not right where she lives. She already has a desire to live in a place where the people are nice and she has access to food. Think of a 4 year old you know. Do you think the thought of wanting to live somewhere else or the desire for food even crosses their mind? I would think they would be thinking about how big they should build their lego tower or whether or not they might get to stay up past 8:00 on the weekends. Maybe that's just me.





One day children were brought to Jesus in the hope that he would lay hands on them and pray over them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus intervened: "Let the children alone, don't prevent them from coming to me. God's kingdom is made up of people like these." After laying hands on them, he left. - Matthew 19:13-15 The Message

Girls in the 'hood--- Chandy

Let me start this by saying. I have little experience with girl issues. Althought I am female, I grew up with almost all guy friends. Even to this day I would pick video games over shopping any day. So... at times I feel a little ill equipped with the Rock Island girls.

Last week we started back our Thursday night bible study. We have split once again into guys and girls (less distraction). The boys are studying the gospel of John and the girls have just started reading a book called "Daughters of Heaven".

When I talk about a girls bible study, don't get the wrong impression. It's not a bunch of princesses sitting around sipping tea. The girls study attenders range from suspected prostitutes to non-english speakers and pregnant girls to gang members. Let's put it this way.. the glares that are being passed across the room might make some people cower in fear. I know one thing, I strategically place my chair, so if anything does go down, it's going to have to go down with me in the middle. Needless to say, the girls aren't very chummy with each other. At Rock Island we have 7-8 girls on average and about 40 boys.

At last in our study we had a light bulb moment. I read a quote out of the book, "Just like no two snowflakes follow the same path to the ground, no two people follow the same path to heaven". I then explained that even though we are not all friends, we are all fighting for the same thing.. The girls just kind of looked around at each other and there was a very long ackward pause. That's when I think they realized that they are all different, but have the same goal in mind. They are all just trying to survive, want better lives and want to learn more about Jesus. They have found their common ground, the Lord.

After the study is over on Thursday nights we usually all cook dinner together and hang out at Rock Island til 8. On a normal night the girls scatter to their different territories in the builing the second we say amen. Last night they all sat in the living room and talked for a while. They even all expressed interest in helping throw the baby shower for one of our girls. I'm excited for the future of not playing referree. Who knows... they all might just become friends.

My thoughts on addiction-- Chandy

This past Sunday night was a reminder that alcoholism is a big deal here at Cross & Crown. During our worship time one of our precious men, William, was so drunk that he dropped to the floor and began seizing. He does that often. As some people in the crowd began to panic, we continued to worship. We are used to it. When Paul got up to share the message for the night, he explained the reason we didn't call 911 or freak out. He shared that William was in the best place to pass out because at least he would be warm and wouldn't have passed out in the cold and frozen to death. Scenarios like this seem all too normal to me and the rest of the staff.

We try to combat addiction with our weekly AA meetings, which are a huge help, but the only people that can be helped are the people who want it. We don't withhold our services until people are clean or go to rehab, anyone and everyone is welcome. I think that's what Jesus would do.

Many of the men and women are homeless because of their addiction. They didn't just one day run out of money and decide to live on the streets. For most of them it was a process of alienating their families, using their entire paychecks on booze or drugs, and getting in major debt. Their addiction became such a big deal that they could no longer function in a normal society. I'm going to make a generalization. I would say that of all the homeless people we know, 90% have some sort of addiction. And the reason they are homeless is because they got tired of letting people down. They decided that it was easier to live on their own in the street than continue to hurt the people around them. Many of the alcoholics we deal with have some sort of anxiety disorder about being around people.

Addiction is a prison. It makes me sad to see some of my street friends wither away. I believe without a doubt there is only one way to be free from that prison. Jesus. He's the only one that can offer true freedom. One of my friends, Roy, is a homeless alcoholic. His addiction is so bad that he rarely ever drinks actual liquor, but instead chugs listerine. Roy has an amazing heart and has given his life to the Lord. My favorite encouragement to Roy is that "Satan has his earthly body, but the Lord has his heavenly body and that's all that matters."

I know this blog was kind of all over the place, but I just wanted to vent about the sadness I've seen lately. Please pray for all our friends with addictions.. pray that the Lord would set them free from the bondage they live in.

"The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners." -Isaiah 61:1

We love babies-- Chandy

Sunday night was a very special time for us. We had a baby dedication. We prayed over and honored all the babies born in the past 6 months. We also prayed over our expectant mothers. It was so fun to see all the babies dressed up in their gorgeous outfits. Each family got a vase of red roses.

One of our Rock Island teen girls is expecting a little girl in the first week of April. I was so proud of her as she stood at the front with the other mothers and made a commitment to raise her baby to love the Lord. I am planning to throw a small baby shower for her at Rock Island sometime at the end of Feb. I will post the date on here. My goal is to take her to Walmart to register for some of the necessities and then invite women from local churches to join us. We are her church family and that's what we do, so put the word out at to your womens bible studies and maybe we can make sure she has everything she needs.

The Great Blog Combo of '08

After much thought... Luke, Ron and I have decided to consolidate all our blogs into one. Starting now you can read all of our blogs right here at www.undergroundokc.blogspot.com. That's right... no more clicking from blog to blog. We are hoping to each write one blog a week. I have a feeling I can meet that goal. We'll see about Luke and Ron. :) Hope you enjoy. Happy New Year and God Bless!

No spirit of fear.

It was a normal day at work.. ya know... average. Started with a standoff with 40 police and swat team at our neighbors house... ended with a different neighbor chasing a man down the street with a huge pipe. Ha.
It's funny how the longer I am at the mission, the more normal gunshots and drug busts seem. As Ron, Luke, Paul and I stood on the corner this morning and watched all the chaos go down, Ron made an interesting comment. He said, "5 years ago I would have been in the basement hiding from all this out here... now I'm right in the middle of it". We laughed because each of us realized how crazy it was that we were out in the middle of a standoff just chatting it up with the police. All the other neighbors were locked inside their homes, scared to come out.
This afternoon I looked out the window just in time to see one of our neighbors sprinting down the street shaking a big metal pipe in the air. I off-handedly mentioned to Luke and Ron.. "Oh look...someone is getting into it", then we went on about our business. We just barely glanced up when a huge red firetruck went flying down the street in the direction of the pipe-wielding man. Later on the police came by and asked me a few questions. As I was chatting with the officer I said, "To tell you the truth, I didn't think much of it. Seems kinda normal to me."
I share all that not to say I'm tough, because I'm a huge weenie, but to say how good the Lord is. It says in 2 Timothy chapter 1 that, " God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline." I believe that more with every passing day. He has called each of us at Cross & Crown to the front lines and we won't step back. Where is he calling you to the front lines?

Christmas Card Video

A certain angel had this video made around Christmas time for all the staff...we didn't have a clue. It's precious.There is some footage of Sunday night worship and some of the Christmas program that the kids did. Just a glimpse in to the lives of the people we are blessed to be around every day.