The active, living God

Two weeks ago, following the conclusion of the school store, I witnessed a fulfilled dream...

It wasn't my dream. I was just blessed to be one of the people in the dream.

One of Cross and Crown's regular volunteers pulled me aside a few weeks ago and informed me that he had experienced a dream the night before that involved myself, Ron and a couple of the youth from Rock Island. In his dream he explained that he knew how many of the young people from the neighborhood came to Rock Island, the youth center, with the mindset of receiving something. In other words, to get something we had to offer. Whether they came for food, games, entertainment or something else, he understood that, like most other youth centers/youth groups, the kids came to receive something we had to offer them. As a side note, this isn't a bad thing. Kids that come to play games, eat our food or be entertained are really just falling into our trap! We really want them to find out about Jesus, but don't tell anyone.

Next, he talked about how he understood that Ron and I did a fair amount of pouring into the kids and how that can be draining, which I gave a strong, "Amen", to. He told us that there would be two of the youth that wouldn't just come to get, get, get....but that would bless both Ron and I and be a blessing to us. Two that would bless us. He went on to name one of the boys from our group, specifically, who was in the dream and was to play a key role. He also informed us that there was another young man in the dream who was also to play a prominent role. He said he was unable to identify who the other young man was and said it may not be any of the kids that currently were involved with us at Rock Island.

As he went on to describe the dream he told us that Ron and I would be praying with the kids in a group. He said that during the prayer the young man, whom he named, would be by my side or next to me. During the prayer both the young men he told us of were to bless us, to lift us up.

So, here we go.

A couple weeks back following the conclusion of Cross and Crown's school store, after being physically and mentally drained mostly because of youth overload, Ron and I decided to rally up the youth that were helping for the day. We told them that we would finish up the day by cleaning up, getting some snacks, praying and heading home. As we started to clean up a couple boys from a youth group in Edmond showed up to help out. They have been coming off and on over the course of the summer and have been a pleasure to be around. So, we cleaned, got snacks and the kids grabbed a seat so we could debrief and pray. After a couple minutes of talking about the weeks experiences we figured it was time to wrap up and ask God's blessing over the rest of the week and the upcoming school year.

I started the prayer and asked for God's covering for the upcoming school year and for blessings over each of the kids. Then before Ron finished up the prayer he left a gap for any of the youth to pray that felt led. Now, let me clarify something before I carry on with the story. 90% of the youth that come to Cross and Crown or Rock Island haven't been to "church". They haven't grown up in Christian homes, been instructed how to pray or been around people that pray on a regular basis like most of us have. What this means is they haven't developed ideas or "common prayer topics", I'll call them, to pray about....like traditional prayers, such as, "God, thank you for this day", "God, thank you for your blessings over...", "God, please bless this family with a sick relative...", or, "God, please be with me during this situation...". Which makes what I am about to say even more incredible.

The young man, who was identified by name and said to be sitting next to me or by my side, was doing just that. He was sitting directly next to me while all the other kids were spread out sporadically throughout the sanctuary. He then went on to say the following, "God thank you for the school store and the bookbags we were all able to get for school...Thank you for Luke and Ron and all their hard work and I ask for your blessings upon them and their families. I ask that your face shine upon then and bless them".............

I ask for your face to shine upon them? I ask you to bless them and their families? Wow. Quite possibly one of the biggest, largest blessings of a prayer, that I am aware of, that has ever been prayed for me. But, that's not the end. Next, after he had finished praying, one of the young men from the youth group in Edmond began to pray. He prayed a very similar prayer. He prayed for Ron and I and the work we were apart of at Rock Island with the kids. What a blessing.

Initially I didn't connect this event with the dream that had been described to me. Hello!!! The reason the man who had the dream couldn't identify the other young man who was going to pray for us is because he has never met or seen him. In his dream he just saw that there were going to be two young men. One he knew, the other he didn't.

I'm not sure when I finally realized that the dream that was to happen...just unravelled right in front of me. But, regardless of when it was that I finally figured it out, I definitely felt the power and presence of God.

I don't tell this story to make it sound like I am anything special, because I am not. I tell this story to be an encouragement to you who read this. Know that our God is the living and active God. He still does those "edgy", "old-testament", "why doesn't God still work like he used to" in the old days, things. God doesn't just want to be apart of our Sunday services and church get-togethers. He wants to be apart of every aspect of our lives. Be encouraged and know that if you desire to feel God's presence, He's ready. Ask.

Authentic Worship

"Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker"
Psalms 95:6

This is a picture I was able to take of our friend, "Oakland", at Cross and Crown Wednesday. I wrote a blog about him several posts back. He calls us his "kinfolk" and swears that my dad is his brother, that I am Danny Ainge and that my brother is Chauncy Billups. We love him and he loves us. He knows the streets better than most, but more importantly, He knows Christ.

School Store Complete

It's the first of August which means for those of us at Cross and Crown the annual school store was back in session. Every August, generally about 2 weeks before school starts, Cross and Crown distributes backpacks, pencils, rulers, paper, highlighters and everything else a student might need for the school year. We, as well as the families that came to receive backpacks, were pleasantly surprised to be blessed with some unexpected items to go along with the backpacks this year. A couple days before families came to get their backpacks, we were also given of hundreds of canned drinks, potato chips, cleaning wipes, stuffed animals and crocs.

School store is one of the most enjoyable weeks of the year at Cross and Crown. We, along with many volunteers, take a break from the more traditional setup that happens throughout most weeks and focus solely on the school store.

Check out some of the action...

J-O-B-S

As of late there has been a growing desire for jobs amongst the youth of Rock Island. I know, huge surprise. During one of the toughest times in history for grown adults with developed educations to get jobs, now the 16 and 17 year old kids want them! With that being said, I understand that most managers/business owners might not be super amped to hire a high school student to work for them. I also know there are alot of jobs that many grown adults and educated people consider themselves "over-certified" to work or not suitable for their needs.

So, my proposal, my need, my question to you is...do you own a business, a company or some type of establishment that is in need of workers? The summer is over halfway gone and school will start back up in less then a month. Do you have a need for workers after 3, 4 or 5 o'clock once school is over?

Maybe you do. Maybe you don't. Or maybe you kinda do or could have a position but you're not interested in hiring a kid from the neighborhood we're in because he or she is too big of a risk... There are alot of people I know, and even more I am sure that I don't know, that say they wish we were open different hours or different days because with the hours we have now they can never come because it's during the work week. They want to come help at the mission and be apart of the ministry that is already planned and going, which is great. But...

What if... what if you could use your current business or workplace as your own ministry.......You could hire on younger people and/or adults, even risky ones, just for the sake of ministry! You could secretly try to mentor or teach kids work skills that they could use in their current job and maybe even in the future. No, maybe not. You might have to spend extra time with them or give them a bigger learning curve or walk them through things more than you would like. Plus, you don't want to mix work and ministry, that's just asking for a loss in sales or more of a hassle for you because it takes up your time. And, time is money, so, hiring a "risky" kid or some guy off the streets that seems shady is basically a loss of money...and it's just ministry and you can do ministry at church or maybe even a Saturday.

Ok, really bad idea by me. But, maybe if you think it is a bad idea too and want to consider it because you like bad ideas like me, let me know... lwhitmire@hotmail.com

Not your typical youth group

I'm not really sure you can classify Rock Island as a youth group. Do a cluster of young people meet in a group at Rock island? Yes. Are we a traditional youth group? No.

Typically, for sake of time and explanation, anytime someone asks Ron or myself what we do or where we work we will explain that we work at Rock Island, a youth center, in downtown Oklahoma City with kids from the neighborhood. Generally we shy away from the term "youth group" because we don't function like most youth groups people are accustomed to. We don't meet on Sundays and Wednesdays. We don't meet at set times (even though we have set times just for some form of organization) each time we get together. We don't meet, eat, sing, listen to a devotional thought, hangout and then go back home. Nothing wrong with that, that's how I grew up doing youth group, but that's not what youth group looks like at Rock Island.

Here's what "youth group" looks like at Rock Island this summer. Meet 4, sometimes 5, times per week. Carry boxes of food for families that come for assistance for a few hours a day. Mow some lawns in the neighborhood. Play some video games. Have a weekly Bible study (currently in Luke 19). Paint some houses. Pickup donations from other churches in the Okc and Edmond areas. Eat lunch together, EVERYDAY! Go swimming. Watch movies at Rock Island. Workout in the gym. Play basketball. Move families and their furniture, appliance, beds and clothing to new homes. Work in the prayer room at Cross and Crown and pray for people (some of the students translate for other volunteers also, big help!). Unload 15,000 lbs of food cans, produce and drinks at Cross and Crown.

My point is Rock Island does "youth group" a little differently then most, differently then what I was brought up doing. We didn't originally plan it this way but that's the nature of where we work and the youth we are in relationship with on a daily basis. Ron and I have learned that in order to actually have an influence in these kids lives, we have to know them, we have to learn about them and we have to be in their business. And, we are. The best way we know how to do that is to spend as much time with them as possible and get into their lives as much as possible. Do Ron and I want to strangle some of the kids sometimes because we are with them constantly on a daily basis? Yessir, but that's part of the plan. Not strangling them but being with them long enough that they can be real with us and not hold back or put up a front.

This summer has definitely been a great time of relationship building and learning for everyone involved at Rock Island. We'll see what the rest of the summer has to offer.

Ft. Worth = Success

We have been back from Ft. Worth for a few days now and I am still catching up on sleep. Good news is Ron and I had Friday and Saturday to recover, just in time for the official summer program to begin Monday. Regardless of the lack of sleep the trip was one to remember, a definite success. So many stories, lots of fun, plenty of work and a great start to the summer as we solidified several relationships with kids and built up some good steam for the next few months.

We left Monday afternoon around noon and arrived several hours later in Ft. Worth, checked into our hotel and then headed to the home church for the week. When we arrived at the church we were greeted by a room full of teenagers from multiple youth groups throughout the Ft. Worth/Dallas area. After a short worship time we were divided into groups and given our assignments for the week. The Rock Island youth were broken into two different groups and teamed up with other youth groups that were also apart of the work project. Afterwords we enjoyed a great time and meal at Chilis. We then headed back to the hotel, got room assignments and then had some down time to discuss the plan for the week and talk about the theme for the work week, "Called".

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings and afternoons were all very similar. 7:00am wakeup, breakfast, paint and scrap, 12:00 lunch, paint and scrap some more and then clean up around 3:00 each day. For the most part the Rock Island youth did a pretty good job of staying on task. Of course we had the occasional paint fight and lack of interest but it all worked out and the kids got some great work done. After everyone had cleaned up we would make dinner plans. Tuesday night we ordered some pizza to be delivered to the hotel. Wednesday night we joined a youth group at their church and experienced their youth hangout (and ate pizza again). Thursday night was the big finale. We took the kids bowling and had a roommate bowling challenge. Each room would be a team and compete against the other rooms to determine who would choose where we were to eat that night. Well, my team got last, the girls got second and Ron's team won. They choose Razoos. Not bad.

Thursday night (more like Friday morning) was also the night of the epic "Ft. Worth Prank" that will go down in history as the most ridiculously planned, chaotic, yet very successful prank.

We then headed out early Friday morning and got back to OKC around 1:00pm. We had some great conversations with kids. Got to know alot more about some kids that we didn't know much about. The kids experienced being apart of a more traditional youth group. The kids shared the love of Christ. What more can you ask for?

Ft. Worth Work Camp

We're going to Ft. Worth. Ten of our middle-school and high school students will be leaving for Ft. Worth this Monday, June 8th. There are a total of 8 boys, 2 girls, 2 male sponsors (Ron and myself) and 2 of our best female volunteer sponsors (Jenny and Mary).

While in Ft. Worth we will be combining our efforts with other youth ministries from the Metroplex in housing projects. We will be scrapping old paint, applying new paint and doing everything else in between. We are to meet early each morning with the other groups for breakfast and assignments and will work into the early evening each day. From there Ron and I envision campfire Bible studies and the singing of Kum Ba Ya... or something like that. Actually, we will have lots of swimming, PLENTY of showering, probably our fair share of farting (at least in the boys rooms) and time in each of the rooms for the studying of the Word.

Following the completion of our work on Thursday afternoon we will head back to the hotel to clean up and then we're off to a Rangers baseball game.

Wish us luck and please pray for our safety.