5th Anniversary Bash

Okay, so maybe it’s not really a bash.  It’s more of a dessert banquet.  But bash sounds more fun, doesn’t it?  Anyway, we’re celebrating our 5th Anniversary two weeks from tonight – Tuesday, November 17, at 7pm in the Messiah’s House Capstone Youth Building.  That’s on the corner of 8th and Jackson downtown.  If you didn’t receive an invitation, consider this your official invite.  We’ll eat desserts, hear some stories about what God has done over the last 5 years, some testimonies from a few of the high school kids we’ve ministred to,  and find out how you can help Mission 2540 keep going another 5 years.  Email me at brooks@mission2540.org if you can make it.  Childcare is available as well.

The Mission 2540 kids are also going to be helping us raise some money at the banquet.  They’re painting some really cool and creative “Jesus-themed” pictures that we’re going to sell in a silent auction the night of the banquet.  They are so excited about helping us raise some money.  (Hearing that the money would help pay for the candy they get for learning Bible verses was great motivation). 

Even if you don’t bid on a picture, you’ll have a chance to vote for your favorite.  We’ll turn the favorite picture in to Christmas cards, which will be available for purchase.  More details on that will come, but I’m excited about it.  Hear are some pictures of the Rose Plaza kids hard at work yesterday.  The NGV kids will start their pictures on Thursday.

 

 

Mrs. Andrea’s last day

Andrea and Nellie, who I met when I spoke to their Sunday School class at St. Stephen United Methodist a few years back, have been coming out and teaching at Rose Plaza for over 3 years.  Due to growth in her family’s business, Andrea is unable to get away from work to come out to Rose Plaza.  Last Monday was her “official” last day, though we know she’ll still come out to visit on occasion.  It was a sad day for her, me, and the kids.

Thanks Andrea!

What has Jesus meant to your life?

We’ve been studying the book of Acts this year at our kids Bible studies.  Yesterday at Rose Plaza, we talked about Paul sharing his testimony in Jerusalem after his arrest.  We discussed how knowing Jesus changes us.  I asked the kids to draw pictures showing what having a relationship with Jesus has meant to their lives.  It’s a lot easier for most kids to simply draw something than to write out a testimony.  Here are a few of their pictures.  I thought they were kind of neat:

Ty, age 10.  He said that yellow thing is Jesus coming out of the sky.

Cecillia, age 7.  Her cousin Jose spilled his water on her picture.  She was mad, but I told her it still looked great.

EV, age 12.  The pink words say “in my life,” “in my heart,” and “in my world.”

Brandi, age 12.  Her picture is about heaven, which is why it’s in yellow marker to represent gold.  It makes it hard to read, but I like it.

Travis Middle School and Ray the Mobile Barber

Okay, besides the fact that I’m writing about them both today, Travis Middle School and Ray the mobile barber have nothing to do with each other.  But I like that title.

If you recall, last May I began, at the request of the Travis Administration, a lunchtime session called “Get Rea.” Basically I met with groups of 6th, 7th and 8th graders during their respective lunches to talk about life and relationships and getting along. 

They’ve asked me to do it again this year, and today was our first meeting.  We’ll do it pretty much every Wednesday until school lets out.  It was lot of fun.  I’ll meet with 10-20 kids from each age group.  Today I did a cool magic trick so that they’ll like me, and then each of us shared about our goals for the year.  The kids’ goals ranged from conquering a video game to being a good friend to passing the TAKS test.  I shared that my goal for “Get Real” is for the kids to realize who they really are and begin to look at each other in a different and positive light.  Travis is full of kids from every possible race and background.  That creates a lot of tension and mistrust among the students.  I hope to maybe have a small impact in the lives of some of these students and help reverse some of that trend.

RAY

I met Ray the Mobile Barber at the North Grand Villas back in August.  He sets up shop once or twice a week under the gazebo at the apartments and cuts hair for several of the men who live there (hence “the Mobile Barber”)  We’ve slowly been developing our relationship from “Hey Ray” or “Brooks my man, you need me to give you a shave!” to more serious conversations about church and about God, as I’ve talked to him about why I come out to the apartments.  I have a sense that this relationship will be going deeper and I’ll be able to share more of the love of Christ with him.  It’s exciting and reminds me that I never know who God’s going to put in my path in this ministry.

So pray for the Get Real Club.  And pray for Ray.  So I guess that’s what they have in common.  They both need your prayers.  Thanks!

Kickin’ it Old School

Every once in a while, we sing and do motions to the classic song “Lean on Me.”  The song and motions have been around 20 plus years, but that doesn’t stop the kids from enjoying them.  Below are pics of us doing the song at Rose Plaza last week:

Oh, and since Suzanne had her camera that day and took pictures I guess I’ll post this picture of me doing some card tricks, since it’s been a while since I posted pics on this here blog.

The kids look either bored or confused.  Maybe I should involve live animals in my act to liven things up.

That’s it.  Blogging will pick up this week.  I promise.  Or hope.

Fun new game

We’ve been playing a new game out at NGV the past couple of weeks.  Technically it’s not a NEW game, but it’s new to the kids.  It’s a variation of Balloon Volleyball.  I put a strip of tape down the middle of the floor.  One team is on each side, and we hit the balloon back and forth trying to make it land on the ground on the other team’s side.  Oh, and we have to remain on our knees the whole time.  For some reason, this game is really fun and involves kids screaming a lot out of excitement.  And, for the grown-up volunteers, it involves screaming a lot out of pain because running around on your knees for an extended period of time is kind of painful.

Here are some pics:

This and that

Boy, I hadn’t realized it’s been so long since I last posted something.  I guess I’m still recovering from the Summer and things have slowed down a bit.  Here are a few items of note, however:

1.  I begin my Wednesday lunchtime “Get Real” program at Travis Middle School on October 7.  We started it last May, and I think it was really successful.  I’ll be meeting with around 20 or so “at-risk” kids from each grade at Travis and talking about their lives and being who they were made to be. 

2. Interesting story.  I picked up Tazz, a 5th grader, to take him to the NGV Boys Bible study last week (he used to live at NGV, but Mission 2540 continues to be a part of his family’s life).  He got in my car and said, “Brooks I just got in a fight after getting off the bus.  But the kid I beat up deserved it.”  Apparently, the boy he fought is from Africa, and was picking on a little white girl and talking bad about Hispanic kids and white kids.  Tazz, who is black, said, “Man, I have Mexican friends and white friends.  I hate when people are racists, and he shouldn’t have picked on that girl, so I fought him.”   I told Tazz (yet again) that fighting is wrong and there are much better ways to handle things.  But I guess at least in this case his cause was a noble one instead of a fight over a seat on the bus or something.  So I guess maybe Tazz is making a little progress

3.  We’ve had a ton of new kids coming to our Bible Studies at both Rose Plaza and the North Grand Villas.  I love how every September when school starts new families move into the complexes and we’re able to reach out and ministry to some new kids.

4.  Please be in prayer for the Luster family.  They’ve lived at NGV as long as we’ve been going there.  Late last month, Otha – the mom, her 15 year old son Tim, her daughter Brandi and Brandi’s two small children were in a very bad car accident.  It could have been much, much worse – their vechicle rolled over, but Otha and Tim did receive some pretty serious injuries.  Tim broke his nose badly and fractured his cheekbone as well.  He’s finally been released to go back to school next week.  Otha suffered a lacerated spleen and is still dealing with some internal bleeding. 

I think that’s all for now.  I’ll post some pictures next week.  I promise!

Mission 2540 T-shirts are here!

We’ve got some really great Mission 2540 T-shirts for sale.  All proceeds go to the ministry.  The shirts say Feed Clothe Love and also have a passage from Matthew 25 on them.  My brother designed them, and I have to say that I think they’re really cool.

If you like one, they cost just $16.  Comment below or email me at boyett@suddenlink.net and I’ll make arrangements to get you a shirt.

Mission 2540 Golf Scramble

On Friday, August 21, we held our second annual Mission 2540 Golf Scramble.  20 teams and 82 playes gathered for 18 holes of fun at Comanche Trail Golf Course followed by a catered meal and a little presentation on some of the stuff we do at Mission 2540.  It was a great success and something we hope to do every summer.  Special thanks to all our team captains, sponsors, and players.  Following are a few pics.

Getting registered.  Board member Kristie Tooley did a fantastic job manning the registration desk.

Loading up to go play.

My team – Rick, me, Tommy, and Justin – getting ready to tee off, have fun, and play poorly.

Eating dinner after the round. I’m in the white shirt, talking to Nick, who spoke at the dinner.  He called me “the white dad he never had.”  Sentimental yet very funny line.  Typical of Nick.

I look forward to next year, but think I might actually try to get in a few rounds of golf between now and then.

Rose Plaza Back-To-School Party

I’m finallly getting around to posting pictures from last week’s Rose Plaza party.  We picked up the kids and went to Forrest Hill Park.  Several families from the apartments joined us as well, so we probably had 30 or so people playing and eating hotdogs.  Just like at our party last year, we handed out the supplies in a big rainstorm, but at least the heavy rain didn’t come until the very end so we could at least run around and have a little fun at the park. 

Here’s Terrance, Tamera’s dad, cooking our hotdogs with help from Suzanne.  There’s an umbrella up, but it really wasn’t raining much at the time.  I guess they just wanted to keep the dogs dry.

Here’s me and the kids enjoying a game of Jackpot, which involves a football and getting points for catching it.

Here’s the kids lining up for hotdogs. Special thanks goes to my mom, Andrea, Nellie, and Pat for helping Suzanne and I out with everything.  They’re great food servers.

Enjoying hotdogs before the rain really started to come down.

Enjoying the food once the rain started falling a bit more.

And here’s everyone waiting on me to bring the rest of the backpacks so I could hand them out.  We’d have some pictures of everyone with their backpacks, but that’s when the huge downpour began and we all had to load everything and everyone up without getting too wet.  We succeeded in getting everything loaded, but weren’t successful in staying dry.  However, it was lots of fun.

Between that party and the NGV party and a few other stops along the way, we gave away over 150 backpacks filled with supplies.  It was lots of fun, but I’m sure glad we’re done with it!