10 Things in 5 Years

Monday, November 30 marks the official 5th year anniversary of the founding of Mission 2540.  At least it does in my head, because on November 30, 2004 we officially signed and submitted all the documents to incorporate the ministry as a non-profit entity.  We also held our very first banquet that night.  So it’s kind of the official launch date even though we had done several things in the few months leading up to that. 

I’ll be out of town on Monday, and we’re heading into the Thanksgiving weekend, so I think now is a good time to post what I discussed at the banquet: 10 Things I’ve Learned in 5 Years of Ministry.  They’re not the only 10 things, but I think they’re probably the biggest:

1.  Mission 2540 is not my ministry.  Jesus said to feed, clothe, and love the “least of these.”  It wasn’t my idea.  I’m just doing what I was called to do.  Plus, this whole thing would be impossible without the giving, help, and prayers of so many of you.

2. It’s still hard to describe what it is I do.  Most people answer “Teacher” or “Lawyer” or “Plumber” or something when they’re asked what they do.  Me?  I guess the best answer is “I run a little ministry where I play the role of pastorteacherfriendfatherfigurecounselorbillpayergrocery-shoppermagictrickguygame playerandwhateverelsemightbeneeded.” It’s probably easier to say I just share the love of Jesus with some hurting people.

3. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. I see some horrible, heartbreaking things every day.  It’s nice to know God sees it too and cares more than I do.  I’ve got to give what I see to him.

4.  We’ve got to learn to laugh. I see sad stuff, but kids are hilarious too.  I laugh daily.  Last week, Jose, who is 4, asked me to pray for him because his fish died.  So I began, “God comfort Jose because he’s upset about losing his fish.”  Jose interrupted and said, “I didn’t lose him.  He died!”  That’s funny.

5. The poverty we deal with is spiritual, not just physical.

6. Kids need a daddy. I don’t know many dads involved in the lives of the kids I minister to, but I sure know a ton of kids with broken hearts that long for their daddy.

7.  Getting kids out of their environment is vital.  Taking kids away to camps and retreats is necessary, and fun.

8.  Always be prepared for something new.  Kids in this environment are always moving out, and new kids are moving in.  I’ve learned how to say Good-bye and I’ve learned how to say Hello.  Hello’s are definitely more fun.  New opportunities are always presenting themselves.  I’ve got to be ready for them.

9.  He is our provider. The economy isn’t great right now, and neither is the giving to the ministry.  But God continues to provide for this ministry somehow.  And we’ll keep on going until He says stop.

10.  We can make a difference.  I may still not know quite what I’m doing, but I know that Mission 2540 has impacted lives forever.  Kids are seeing that there’s hope beyond what is their reality.  Girls know their destiny is not to get pregnant in high school and start raising babies.  Guys know that a man doesn’t get a girl pregnant and walk out on her.  Young men and women are thinking about college and what they’ll do for a living.  They know that it’s possible to earn a good living legally. Kids have learned to forgive those that have hurt them, to take care of the hurting, and that talking things out is more productive than fighting. 

And, most importantly, they know there is a God who loves them more than any daddy every will, and a Savior whose death provided a grace and forgiveness that’s so big it’s impossible to understand, but easy to accept.   And I’m thankful for that.

 

The Banquet

We celebrated our 5th anniversary Tuesday night with our annual dessert banquet, and it was an amazing evening.  I may say this every year, but we definitely had the best banquet we’ve ever had.

My awesome wife Sunny did a great job decorating and coordinating all the desserts.  Here she is in action (if you don’t know, she’s the one on the left.  Either she finally has the chance to eat or she’s setting down more dessert on the table):

 

We held our silent auction of the kids paintings (see here) and raised a lot of money (the kids will be pumped about that).

I shared the 10 things I’ve learned in 5 years – I’ll be posting that soon, but here’s what it looked like when I spoke:

I then had a couple of our high school seniors share a little bit about Mission 2540’s role.  Nick made everyone laugh and then moved us while sharing about our relationship:

 

Then NeNe shared her incredible testimony and I can’t really think about it with out still getting choked up. She has an amazing story, but I really didn’t think she would be open and trasparent about it in front of a room-full of strangers.   She shared about how her stepdad murdered her mom and how as a result she couldn’t trust men and how she learned to trust me, then God, and then how she began to heal. She actually cried quite a bit, which she really does not like to do, especially in front of people.  Powerful, gut-wrenching stuff. 

On the way to the banquet, she said, “Is everyone going to come up and hug me when I’m done.  Cuz I don’t want them to.”

Me: “Well, Brenda (Trafton) for sure will.”

NeNe: “That’s fine.  She always hugs me.  But I don’t want strangers hugging me.”

After the banquet was over, at least half the room came and hugged her.  And I think she liked it.  Here’s NeNe:

Then my buddy Jody Wilson closed it all out with an awesome song he wrote about ministering to broken kids (it was inspired by a night we spent together ministering to kids at Angel Tree Camp in August.  I don’t have a picture of Jody singing, but he was awesome. 

Here’s Nick, NeNe, and me after it was all over.  What a great night:

Christmas and Painting

Sign up for Christmas outreach is underway. We’re going to be providing gifts for nearly 175 kids if not more. Each child will receive two gifts valued at no more than 40 dollars. If you’d like to help us out by shopping for a child or two, comment below or email me at brooks@mission2540.org

Also, the kids are working hard on paintings that can be purchased at our 5th anniversary dessert banquet. If you haven’t RSVP’d yet, it’s not too late!

Here’s Dazaun getting ready to paint yesterday:

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!