Workout Videos...

Over the last several weeks the exercise/workout facility has been put to great use. We have girls and boys from the ages of 82-12 years old putting their bodies to work. On any given day 10-16 youth will exercise following a long days work at school. Most of them are eager to sweat, while several others were originally hesitant to look vulnerable in front of their peers. Over the last couple weeks the youth have been doing a variety of exercises to up their heart rate, burn some calories and learn some discipline through working out. It has been fun to see which kids would really take advantage of the opportunity to workout and apply themselves. Here are a few videos of what has been happening.
FYI, the last video is not a workout we have the kids doing, it was an obstacle course we made at the end of the workout to have a little fun. Anyone that can beat 3 seconds gets a years supply of bread from Cross and Crown.

Sunday nights

Sunday nights are special at the mission. We meet each Sunday night at 6 pm for a meal and worship service September through April. On our last Sunday night, (April 27) before our summer break, we watched this little slideshow to remind us of some awesome moments from the last year.

My Protector-- Chandy

This is a short little story... but I just couldn't pass up sharing it.

Last night we had our normal Sunday night worship experience at Cross & Crown. After worship I decided to have dinner with my parents. Instead of meeting them at the restaurant I just loaded up in the car with them and left my car at the mission. I didn't think much about it.

For some reason my phone was on silent during dinner, so I didn't notice that one of the Rock Island teens was repeatedly calling me. As I was riding back from dinner with my parents I happened to glance down at my phone and notice all the missed calls. Our dinner turned into quite long conversation and I didn't make it back to my car until a little after 9.

Once I got in my car and was pulling out of the neighborhood I returned the call. The teen was wondering where I was and why I had left my car at the mission. He informed me that I should never leave my car unattended at night in that neighborhood. And then the kicker..... he was worried about something happening to my car so he stayed and guarded it until his dad made him go home at 9.

In our neighborhood all the doors are chained at dark. The only people that go outside are up to no good and most likely heavily armed. But this 15 year old boy sat in the dark for over an hour just to make sure no one did anything to my car.

I know this story seems so insignificant and simple, but to me it spoke volumes. I'm not sure if I've ever had such a powerful gesture done for me.

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

Family being family!-- Chandy

I remember Saturdays growing up. They were always my favorite day of the week because it was game day. Whether teeball, soccer or basketball.. I was there. I played every sport that the city and local YMCA offered. I have so many great memories from those times. Our kids deserve those kinds of memories too. My dream for the kids at Rock Island is that they will reach a point where they can look back and think of happy times and exciting things they got to experience. I don't want them to look back on their lives and think of abuse, poverty or gangs. They need typical childhood memories just like a middle class white kid. So we're attempting to do that... one of those ways is our soccer team.

Picture this.. every Saturday morning Luke parks the Cross & Crown van on the corner of NW 9th and Mckinley. Teenage boys from all over the neighborhood flock from the streets and pile in. Then he loads them up and takes them to a local soccer field where they play other teams from all over the city. Our kids have the best uniforms in the league and it makes them very proud. They feel like somebody special, which they are. When they step on the field they are different kids than the beat up, depressed ones we often see in the neighborhood. They have confidence and that confidence helps them win games. They have been dominating the other teams in the league. Before every game they huddle up and Luke says a prayer over them. I always watch as fans and other teams stare in disbelief at this group of boys standing in the middle of the field praying. They are shocked. Our boys don't know it.. but that small act is very bold. They are standing up for their belief in God.

Some of the real ministry happens on the sidelines as the families from the neighborhood set out their lawn chairs and share snacks with each other. It's just family being family. I feel like a soccer mom as I jog up and down the sidelines taking pictures and yelling. I like this atmosphere. It's not charity work or community service. It's family being family... the way inner city ministry should be. I love Saturdays, I look forward to them again just like when I was a child. I hope the kids in our neighborhood feel the same way.

Here are some pics from last Saturday.

We've crossed into enemy territory!-- Chandy

This story all starts with a house. A drug house to be exact. It is located about 100 yards from Rock Island and is the main source for almost every dealer, addict and teenager in the neighborhood. I have spent several times just sitting outside staring at the house and praying for it, all the while watching literally dozens of people file in and out. It's always busy, whether it's 3:00 in the morning or noon. There are always people coming out of that house. And it makes me sick.. what originally made me sad has now turned into a little bit of anger. I have seen the owners of this house use kids as young as 8 years old to run drugs for them. I'm just fed up. As we were talking about that house this week, Luke said that he has actually prayed many times that the house would burn to the ground. Finally... after years of being untouched by the Oklahoma City Police, they busted the house a few weeks ago. We watched out the windows as drug task forces carried dozens of styrofoam ice chests as evidence. I felt like we finally had our peace. But we were wrong. Only a week later the drug running picked up again and it's like the bust never happened. I know that God has a detailed plan of what is going to happen with that house, but I just wish I knew what it was. I will wait... because I know his timing is perfect.

The people who live in that house have never come over to Cross and Crown. Apparently they have been doing well enough financially that they haven't needed any of our services. But God's plan was put into motion when the house was busted. They lost ALOT of money! That is why on Wednesday, two of the inhabitants actually came over and signed the list to get supplies from our food pantry. The second I looked out the window and saw them walking up, I knew something good was going to happen. The two that came over were a mother and daughter pair. The mother is the boss and you can tell by looking at her that she has it all together. She is clean and well kept, it's obvious she only deals and doesn't abuse. But then there is her daughter, who has obviously been using everything that comes through the house. Her teeth are all rotted out, her body is covered in soars and she doesn't even have the strength to hold her own head up. She can barely walk and sort of shuffles her feet, she is on the verge of death. I'm not sure how old she is... she looks to be about 50, but most likely she is close to my age of 24.

They signed our food list at 9:00 am and when it was time to open the doors at 11:00, only the daughter showed back up. Again, all part of God's plan. Just a side note about our food pantry, every one that comes for our services must first go through the "prayer room" where they meet with a prayer counselor to pray about their needs. We'll call the daughter "Pam". When it was Pam's turn to go into the prayer room she sat down with one of our very special counselors, Don (and his sidekick Jacob). I have a feeling that had she not sat down with Don, none of this would have ever happened. I don't know many details about their conversation, but I do know that about 20 minutes after that, I was helping Jacob get the baptistry filled up. "Pam" had decided to accept Christ and wanted to be baptized. I can't really explain the sight of seeing her crawl into the baptistry, except that she basically had to be lifted and set in. Once she was sitting in the water, she actually had to lay her head on the side so that she didn't tip over. Don said a few words and asked her to tell everyone why she wanted to accept Jesus and be baptized and her specific slurred words were, "I want Satan to leave me alone".

One person made the comment, "she is so out of it, do you think she even knows what she is doing?" She knew... the way I looked at it is that on Wednesday she could have laid in that house in her drugged up state and never left, but she chose to cross the street and accept Christ. We are going to take advantage of that.

"Pam" may not ever get clean or stop dealing drugs but I do know one thing, she is covered in the Holy Spirit and when she walked back into that demon-filled house on Wednesday, all the evil shuddered in fear, because the spirt of Jesus Christ is there now. God has done something that we didn't even think to pray for, he has implanted himself in the middle of that house. I can't wait to sit and watch and pray for that house now, because I know that the Lord is at work in there and is shaking things up. To him be all the glory!

I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.-- Chandy

This week was a blast with the kids.. it started out with some regular hang out days at Rock Island and ended with a beautiful day at the zoo and competitive game of bowling today.

The zoo was amazing yesterday. It was perfect weather and the elementary kids were so excited. We took exactly 30 kids and about 25 of them had never been to the zoo before. It was so fun to witness each of them get so excited to see elephants, tigers and giraffes for the first time. The highlight of the day were the gorillas. They have so much personality and put on quite the show for us. One of the little 4 year old boys in my group said he wanted to take one home to be his friend.

Today was bowling.. we loaded up 20 middle school/high school kids and headed for a Mcdonalds lunch before hitting the lanes. And then the highlight of my day happened...

In the midst of the hustle and bustle at McDonalds with 20 kids ordering value meals, we some how got away with an extra Big Mac. I was about to throw it away when one of the boys, "Damien", chimed up, "I'll take it". I assumed he was really hungry and didn't think anything of it. After eating we all loaded up to head to the bowling alley. Luke was driving the van and I was driving my car. Damien was riding with me. As we were driving along to the bowling alley he yelled from the back seat, "Pull Over". I asked him why and he said that he had to do something. So I found a side street and pulled over. He hopped out with another one of the boys, "Jose" (who is very hard core and hard to reach), and went sprinting in the other direction. At this point I'm kind of panicked about what is going on. But as I glance in my rearview mirrow I realize that Damien has the Big Mac in his hand and Jose is holding an unopened Pepsi that he found in my back seat. Then I look at the target they are running for... a homeless man crouched in the bushes. I watch as they crouch down to his level, exchange a few words and hand him the hamburger and drink. Then I see a big grin and they shake his hand and come joggin back to the car. As soon as they got back in the car they said, "we made sure and said God bless you!". I was so proud of them. If you saw these two boys walking down the street you might assume they were running drugs or headed to hang out with their gang friends... but these two boys were headed down the side of the road to give something to eat to someone hungry.

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." - Matthew 25:35-36

train a child - Luke

This past Monday at our elementary, after-school program I had a small glimpse of what our future may hold.

Ron, Chandy and I have had several discussions about how awesome it would be to have a worship time with our youth. We dream of starting our Thursday night Bible study with a 20-30 minute worship time. But, we have to deal with the reality that these kids have no idea what worship looks like. There are so many elements to worship that we know and have learned over the years that these kids haven't been exposed to. Alot of us take for granted our church-going upbringing. Regardless of what congregation, denomination or location we have attended in the past, we have learned, on one level or another, what "happens" during worship. Even with the upbringing that I was given there were certain modes of expression, action and qualities to worship that I wasn't exposed to until my post high-school/post college career. These kids have NO idea. (On top of all this, they don't know any songs, which is changing.)

What these kids know is they have to uphold their hard appearance, their cool reputation and at all costs retain all levels of respect from the other kids. As most of us know, with worship, there is a level of vulnerability. You have to put yourself aside. A primary action during worship is humbling oneself or making ourselves less so that we can give God praise as the #1 that He is. So, I say all of this just to show why we have struggled in the past with implementing a time of worship with our youth.

This past Christmas our elementary kids, under the guidance of Chandy, preformed a Christmas program. They dressed in costumes, ranging from a wise man to baby Jesus, sang 2-3 songs, read the birth of Jesus and two of the girls from the neighborhood put on a singing/dancing performance of a lifetime. This Easter the kids will be doing something similar. Over the last 3-4 weeks during the elementary, after-school time the kids have been practicing. Following a grueling 30 minute homework period and a small snack the kids gather around in a circle and practice for their upcoming performance by singing. The kids will be singing the chorus of "Savior, He Can Move the Mountains", with a worship group on Easter Sunday. Chandy started off by singing the first couple lines of the song to the kids and they would repeat her. After several weeks of practice the kids have the song down to a T.

This past Monday, after the kids proved they could sing the song in its' entirety, Chandy played a cd for the kids to listen and sing along with. The song was lead by a worship group performing the song they had been practicing. It was chilling. It was so cool to be able to sit there and imagine 5-10 years down the road when these kids are 11-17 years old and we are having a time of worship with them. There we were in the middle of Rock Island with 25 children singing a worship song. I tried to imagine our older kids doing the exact same thing and it was just really hard to imagine. Not to say that I am writing the older kids off for ever having a time of worship (let me add that some of our youth did experience a time of worship at a camp we attended last summer), but that it is so much more difficult to teach and train the kids once they pass a certain age or maturity level (revolutionary thought by me, huh?) What an incredible insight God had and gave us before we even existed...

Proverbs 22:6 -
"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

It is going to be an awesome experience the day we are able to have a time of worship lead by our youth.

Everyone needs compassion
Love that’s never failing
Let mercy fall on me
Everyone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a Savior
The hope of nations

Chorus: Kids part
Savior, He can move the mountains
My God is mighty to save
He is mighty to save
Forever, Author of Salvation
He rose and conquered the grave
Jesus conquered the grave

So take as You find me
All my fears and failures
Fill my life again
I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in
Now I surrender

Bridge:
Shine your light
And let the whole world see
We’re singing
For the glory of the risen King, Jesus