Real Men of Village Oaks!

We are excited to have started the Real Men of Village Oaks!  On Tuesday, a group of boys showed up to hear about being a real man.  We talked about Love and how this is an essential part of being a Real Man.  Real Men understand how to be loved and how to love.

Everything was going fine until we talked about loving your enemies.  Rickey and I both heard the sound of a needle falling off a record player.  From the comments and the looks on the faces of the boys, you would have thought we were trying to steal something precious from the boys.

"What?! No way I'm going to do that."

"Do what?!"

In Luke, Jesus confronts a cultural teaching: hate your enemy.  Jesus says love your enemies.  This is a guess on my part, but I think the people who were listening to Jesus that day might have had similar reactions to the boys in the Real Men Club.

"What?!"

"Love who?!"

What the boys believe us to be stealing from them is something very precious.  They believe us to be stealing part of their culture.  Something they have always known to be true.  If someone hits you, you hit them back and then some.  If someone dislikes you, you dislike them back and never talk to them.

What Jesus is calling us to do is very counter-cultural.  It is the opposite of what most of us grew up with.  He wants us to love the people we don't like.  He wants us to love the people who are hard to love, for whatever reason.  This is the heart of God, who is "gracious to the ungrateful and evil" and "who makes the sun to rise and the rain to fall on the good and the bad."

Pray for us as we continue to confront this cultural idea with the Truth of Jesus.  Both in our own lives and the lives of these boys.

-- Will Dowell

Thank You Volunteers!

Amy, Christy, Meagan, Brenda, Pat, B.L., Georgann, Stesha, Tamora! Thank you volunteers for your weekly commitment to work with the kids in the homework room.  Some of the kids have told us this is the first year they have done their homework.  Volunteers, you are making an impact and are greatly appreciated!

-- Behind Every Door Ministries

Quote of the Month from the Kids

Recently, one of the kids approached me with this to say:

“Do you know how I know God is real? It’s because of the people He has put in my life like you and Mr. Rickey.”

-- Suzanne Wallace

Givers

The subject for the Thanksgiving 7th grade English assignment was to write a paper on what you are thankful for.  One of our kids in the Kid’s Club answered the question in a little different way.  “Sometimes what you are thankful for,” she said, “ is not for what you get, but for what you get to give.”  She wrote about how she and some of the kids from the Kid’s Club go once a month to work and serve at a BBQ for the homeless.  She wrote of how she helps pray for the individuals and how they often come back the following month with those prayers answered.

One of our 4th graders wrote about her experience at the BBQs as well.  She answered in a writing assignment of how she is changing the world!

We initiated taking the kids to serve at the BBQs because our earnest goal is to grow these kids into givers and not takers.  These kids are getting it!

-- Suzanne Wallace

2010: A Blessing to Participate

In the Bible, at the end of Matthew and Mark, there is a description of the Great Commission when Jesus sends His disciples out to spread the Good News.  At the end of Luke, the writer seems to talk about the Great Commission in a different light.  The events are the same: Jesus is with the disciples, he commissions them, and then he is taken up.  But in Luke, the writer says Jesus “lifted up his hands and blessed them.  And while he was blessing them, he left them and was carried up to Heaven.”  Perhaps the Great Commission – this charge to all of us to spread the Good News of Jesus – is a blessing.

We are blessed to be participating in what God is doing in class-C apartment communities in Dallas.  The Good News of Jesus is being shared with words and shown with actions to thousands of people, and as we reflect on 2010 we are thankful to have been part of it.

I think of Keon and Choo, two boys who live at Willow Pond.  In July, Choo decided that he wanted to “change in to being a Christian.”  I love the picture of taking off the old ‘clothes’ and putting on new ones.  Once he made the decision, Rickey Fanning, our Community Center Supervisor at Willow Pond, began to read the Bible with Choo.  About a month later during our Vacation Bible School, Rickey told the story of Peter.  Keon approached us after the story and said that he wanted to follow Jesus!  After we prayed with Keon, Choo told Keon that they were brothers now.  Our God has a tender heart.

We were able to reward the kids in our Kids Club for completing homework and improving their attitudes with trips to Maverick’s basketball games and Cowboy’s football games.  We are excited to say that grades are going up!

At Village Oaks, we planted flowers and installed a brand new basketball court.  The court was once empty with weeds growing up through the broken asphalt.  It is now a gathering place for kids to play – and they play a lot!

We have invited residents to cooking classes and parenting discussion groups.  Kids are beginning to eat healthier foods and parents are beginning to parent their children.  Our parenting discussion group at Willow Pond became a place for confession and life change.  Parents who continued cycles of darkness were bringing things in to the light.  Quickly, kids began to act more respectfully.

Residents are beginning to serve their community, instead of being served.

At Willow Pond, a mother who at first opposed what we were doing had a change of heart.  Not only did her daughters begin attending the Kids Club, but when this mother saw what God was doing in her daughters’ lives she approached us with an idea.  She wanted to host a Community Garage Sale to raise money for the kids.  She organized the event and the community came together to support their Kids Club.

At Village Oaks, a resident named Frank spent an entire Saturday helping us cook food for the other residents.  For four hours he served his community!

Many of the kids involved in the Kids Club have attended a monthly cookout to serve the homeless.  They have determined to serve as often as they can, and what a joy it is to hear them speak about their experiences.

In many ways I feel like the writer of John – there are many more stories to include, but not enough space!  We have seen God do good things in 2010 and we are excited to see what He will do in the lives of people in 2011.

So, what’s in the works for 2011?

We are hosting March Madness (a basketball tournament) at Village Oaks in March.  We have plans for a quarterly job orientation lunch and devotion as part of a partnership with H.I.S. Bridgebuilders.  We have plans for the summer that include reading club, math camp, basketball camps, vacation Bible school, and art camp.  Throughout the year, with the help of partners and volunteers, we are planning cooking classes, service projects, sporting events, holiday parties and cookouts, parenting discussion groups, and other classes.  Whatever we can do to introduce people to Jesus we want to do, and we are trusting that God will transform communities as we go.

-- Will Dowell