New Playground at Village Oaks in Progress!

Thanks to some generous donors, we are in the process of installing a new playground at Village Oaks!  The playground should be fully ready for play on Friday, when we plan to host a modest grand opening party (complete with Oreo cookies!), and the kids are ready to go!  Look for pictures of the completed playground and party soon!

 

 

 

 

-- Behind Every Door Ministries

March Madness Basketball Tournament!

Village Oaks was host to quite the basketball tournament on Saturday!  8 teams showed up to contend for the title, but only one team walked away victorious.  March Madness at Village Oaks was a lot of fun and there were plenty of spectators to cheer on the teams.

Thank you to the volunteers who helped pull this off: Luke Allen for stepping in to referee.  Will Allen for his incredible ability to unite the crowd with unparalleled sports-casting skills; look out Vern Lundquist.  Thank you to Mike Allen for helping with score keeping and general order.  Steve Adams for his photography skills.

Congratulations to the Show Stoppers on their victory over the 'Velt Dogs to win the Championship.

Enjoy the pictures below!

 

 

 

 

 

[The Tournament Champion, Show Stoppers, with their prizes.
Each team member received a new, leather basketball.]

-- Behind Every Door

Power Lunch

Power Lunch! We are excited to be partners with H.I.S. Bridgebuilders, a non-profit organization with a focus on job training and job placement.  The friends at Bridgebuilders are blessings in the lives of many, many people.  We are thankful for them.  Once per quarter at each apartment community, we are co-hosting a "Power Lunch" with Bridgebuilders...it is a time of teaching, prayer, and learning about the job training and placement process!  An opportunity to get a job, especially for those needing a "second chance" because of a legal or other issue, is a gift.  We are thankful for Bridgebuilders and excited for our friends looking for a job to have this opportunity.

Last week at Village Oaks, we hosted our first ever Power Lunch.  Towards the end of our Question and Answer time, an older man raised his hand.  He started by saying that he was about to turn 62 years old.  He was worried about finding work at his age, and worried that he would be stuck in his circumstances for the rest of his life.  There was a strong sense that he had no hope.

Von, who works with BridgeBuilders, looked at the 62 year old man and responded by saying that age does not play a factor.  While BridgeBuilders cannot guarantee a job to everyone, they can provide training and friendship to all who are interested.  And if this man was interested, then he was welcome!

We are thankful to be working with an organization like BridgeBuilders!

-- Behind Every Door Ministries

Spring Break Camp!

We are thankful to H.I.S. BridgeBuilders for including us in their Jam'n with Kids Spring Break Camp.  Each day last week, we packed the kids from Willow Pond and Village Oaks in to vans and drove them to Turner Courts.  Thank you to Blood N' Fire for lending us your van ALL week - these kids would not have been able to go without your help!

Each day was filled with fun, games, and snacks.  They even made a video that will be on YouTube.  Enjoy the pictures below!

-- Behind Every Door Ministries

Life Skills

My nose got the best of me last week, and I found myself stumbling in to something put together by the Gateway Program case managers.  They were making home-made fried chicken, vegetables, and a salad for a Life Skills Lunch.

The lunch was an open opportunity to those interested in refreshing their life skills.  How do I carry on a conversation with someone?  Is body language important?  These were two basic questions that I was able to catch the end of.

What an incredible opportunity for our residents!  Some have not functioned in what we would call 'normal, everyday life' in 3 or more years, while others might have never learned these simple skills.  But, God has brought caring people to Village Oaks who desire to know the people they serve.

We are thankful for the Gateway Program!

-- Will Dowell

Heartfelt Compassion

Therefore, God's chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, accepting one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so also you must forgive.

Put on a heart of compassion.  That is something we have talked about at the Village Oaks Kids Club. Compassion is not only internally feeling sympathy for someone, but it is also coming alongside and helping to heal their hurts.  Compassion is being the ear to listen, the shoulder to cry on, and the mouth to give advice.

I was sitting with the kids in the Community Center and we were discussing compassion.  One by one the kids started to tell their story.  One story sticks out in my mind.

A girl stood up and started to tell us the story of her mom.  She told us how her mom had left her at a very young age.  With tears in her eyes she told us how she prayed to God every night and asked Him to take care of her mom and to bring her home safely.  As she finished telling her story some of the other girls came up and started to comfort her.  It was amazing to see the heart of God in each of these girls.  No one told them to comfort this girl, but they saw someone hurting and instinctively came to her side.

I sat their silently thanking God for what I was witnessing: Heartfelt Compassion.

-- Rickey Fanning

Times, They are 'a Changin'

I'm sure a lot of us remember the lyrics to the simple nursery rhymes that we sang as kids.  We sang them while we were jumping rope or clapping a hand-jive with our best friend.  For example, when we clapped a hand-jive, me might have sung:

"Pat a cake, Pat a cake, baker's man
Bake me a cake as fast as you can;
Pat it and prick and mark it with a 'B'
And put it in the oven for Baby and me."

Well, one day I was talking with one of our 1st graders who came in for homework help.  She finished her homework and instead of playing with her usual buddies, she said, "Ms. Jayda. Let me show you something."  She grabbed both of my hands as if we were about to play 'Pat A Cake.'  I very quickly went over the words silently in my head to make sure I remembered them.  When we began our hand-jive, I began to belt out the song!  "Pat a cake, Pat a cake, ba..."

She wrinkled her brow and gave me a perplexed look that said, "What are you singing, Ms. Jayda?"  Naturally, I stopped belting out the song, and returned the perplexed look.  We continued clapping to the tune of 'Pat A Cake,' but she continued with these words instead:

"Mama, Mama, Can't you see?
What this baby's done to me?
He took away my MP3
Now I'm watching dumb Barney!"

Times have changed and we are having a blast!

-- Jayda Ekundayo

Right on Time

I had the privilege of attending an incredible event last week: the Gateway Program's Partners Appreciation Breakfast.  The Gateway Program is a supportive housing program at Village Oaks for people coming out of homelessness.  All of the Gateway residents are living in their own apartment for the first time in at least several years.

I walked in just after 9am, having been invited to receive something on behalf of Behind Every Door.  Many of the Gateway Residents who live at Village Oaks were there and they were joined in their seats by some of the partners being recognized.  The program started with a change to the agenda: the entertainment was running late so we would start with recognizing the partners.  No big deal, I thought.

After the partners were recognized, the Gateway staff asked the residents if they had anything to share.

"I am grateful."  "I appreciate everything you have done."  "I feel safe now."  "I am truly blessed by God."  "I have a family again."

For 20 minutes, one-by-one, people stood up to share things like these.

After the residents shared, there was a spirit of thanksgiving in the room.  It was welling up inside each of us, and there was a sense that it needed to come out.  Now it was clear that the entertainment had arrived right on time.

From the back of the room walked a group of men called the Men of Nehemiah.  These are men who have lost almost everything they ever had - jobs, money, houses, cars, families, friends - as a result of an addiction.  Many of them have been homeless.  Now, they walk in the victory of Jesus, free from the pain that once stole their joy.  But, their Joy is no longer stolen, and here they were to praise God.

Their late arrival had allowed us to express what we were all feeling: thankfulness.  Thankfulness for provision.  Thankfulness for freedom.  Thankfulness to God for never giving up on us. Thankfulness for the work that God is doing in our lives.  The Men of Nehemiah sang loud and their choir grew quickly.  We were all singing now, thanking Jesus for loving us so well.  We were thanking Him because He is good.

-- Will Dowell

Do You Know I Love You?

What is true love?  Is it a feeling or an emotion?  When Jesus talked about love it came with a list of actions.  Love was more than just saying it.  It was an outwardly expression to those around Him.  Jesus showed what love was when He gave up his life. He didn't just run around telling people He loved them; He showed them.  If there was a perfect picture of love it would be a 33 year old who was beaten, bruised, spit on, mocked, nailed to a cross, and yelling out, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do!"

This is what is so special about being at the kids club: these kids hear people say I love you, but a lot of them never see true love.

So as they grow up they have a misunderstanding of what love looks like.  At Behind Every Door Ministries we have the opportunity to change that.  It's not just enough to say it.  We spend our time here showing them what love truly looks like.

I remember when I first started at Willow Pond, the kids were surprised to find out that we were here to stay.  For a lot of these kids abandonment is attached to the word love.  So it is a new concept to these kids for someone to come in, show them love, and consistently be there.  William Shakespeare said "they do not love, that do not show their love."  We just want our love to be evident to these kids.

-- Rickey Fanning

Feeling Welcome, Feeling Wanted

“We want to make them feel that they are wanted, we want them to know that there are people who really love them, who really want them…It is not very often things they need. What they need much more is what we offer them. In these twenty years of work amongst the people, I have come more and more to realize that it is being unwanted that is the worst disease that any human being can ever experience.”                                                                 -- Mother Teresa

An unassuming man stood in the back of the meeting room.  We don’t know his story, other than the fact he had come from the streets to an apartment at Village Oaks via the Gateway Program. The occasion was a Gateway event recognizing some of the partners of the program.

The man expressed his gratitude to the Gateway staff and their partners.  He expressed his appreciation for the help he had received: his furnished apartment and a life going in a new direction.

And he said something more.  It was his main point and what he was most thankful for.

“You walked with me and you took my hand.”

Our friend at Village Oaks is thankful for the things he has been given, to be sure.  And we’re so thankful he has a home at Village Oaks. But we’re even more thankful he has experienced walking together.  Being taken by the hand.  Being wanted.

-- Behind Every Door Ministries

Genesis

Our team was in the process of building a relationship with a teen from the Kids Club.  We gave her a bible, and I honestly doubted she would actually read it.

The next day she ran in to the Kids Club exclaiming, "Mr. Rick test me! Test me on the first 14 chapters of Genesis!"

Wow!

She and I talked about the book of Genesis and many questions about things she didn't understand.  Walking away from the conversation, I was "wowed" that she actually spent the night reading the first fourteen chapters.  To this day, she carries the bible everywhere she goes in her backpack.

-- Rickey Fanning

Who Turned On the Light?

You might have seen a recent blog post written by Jayda titled "Queen Esther."  For weeks, Jayda and I have both asked our friend to change her signature from "gutter girl" to "Queen Esther."  I want to update you on the friend from that story.

This friend has been coming to my church with Suzanne to attend children's church.  I was preparing for the children's class in the back of the room when our friend came up to me.  “Mr. Rick, I am angry,” she said.  I asked her why?  “I just saw something on a guys phone that really made me mad,” she replied.

I looked at her and responded, “I think God is trying to show you something.”  I was met with a blank stare, and after a long pause she asked, “What do you mean?"

“Well you saw something on his phone that offended you, right?”  She nodded.  “That is how we feel every time we see 'gutter girl' at the end of your text messages to us," I said.  "I am offended when I see my friend talked about that way.  I think God is trying to show you that sometimes we do or say things without ever really thinking about who it might offend.” 

She let out a short sigh and an “oh,” and I saw a light bulb go off.

-- Rickey Fanning