Field Day 08_29_09

Today's field day was great. We had it a little easy today compared to the last two weeks which was nice. It was a hot one out today so the slower pace was a nice reprieve from the two giant weekends in a row. The kids were given a nice treat today in the form of balloon animals. It was truly a blessing to watch as they lined up to receive their inflated versions of dogs or swords. Throughout the day we talked with kids about honesty and their definitions of truth with some very unique explanations of that term. The days bible verse was Proverbs 16:13 and the small groups played a game called two truths and a lie with the kids.

This week we walked around and handed out the family portraits that were taken last week. As I walked over to one of the houses with one of the kids he was beside himself to present this picture to his mom and dad. He parted with his balloon made sword so that he could carry his family's portrait home and give it to his parents. It was heart touching to the see the difference that a simple act of kindness in one person's life makes. The light that appeared in his eyes as well as his family's to receive this gift with no agenda other than sharing the love of Jesus of Christ was truly amazing to behold. I will let some of the others who were part of giving these gifts share their stories about the response they got as the dropped of the pictures to others and I still have a few left to give out and can not wait to share their responses.

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Family Field Day

Today was an incredible witness to the blessings that God has poured out on to this ministry. We had a record number of members from the community show up to field day today, topping the record number of people from last week. Who knows what next week will have in store for us. Today we had Alyona Semenov, who is a local photographer here in Charleston, take family portraits of the the people in the community. We will be getting these printed later in the week and giving out a free 8x10 to all those who came today. I will post up the images on our website as well as make another blog posting this week once we have the prints in.

We cooked out BBQ chicken and hot dogs today along with having lots of sides such as potato salad and cole slaw. We served up 20lbs of chicken and 80 hot dogs. Thanks to the city of North Charleston the members of the community were able to enjoy their food on two new picnic tables that were donated to the field by the city. They are currently building more tables for our use and hopefully after seeing the pictures from the day they will see that they will certainly go to good use.

Today was a special blessing as we had a member from the community step forward to lead the worship session for today's field day as well as another member from the community step forward to do some poetry. There were many different testimonies from the community today and thanks for our presence and loving hearts serving to better their neighborhood. I will leave some of those for our other volunteers to post. I would like to draw your attention to the photos on the blog and to the difference in them. One shows what field day looked like a little less then a year ago. The other shows what today looked liked. Through the power of God we are making an impact in this neighborhood in a mighty way.


More images from Family Field Day can be seen at http://photos.takeittothestreetsministry.org

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Field Day - God brought the Neighborhood out in force

This past Saturday was nothing more then witnessing first hand the sheer force of God's power. This was our largest turn out yet for field day and it was incredible. Under normal circumstances we would not have had enough food to feed as many people that showed up, however God knows our needs even before we do. Miss Cheryl who goes to the Dream Center in North Charleston has been praying about the ability to get plugged in and helping out with kids. After talking with Noah Williams she volunteered to come out and help with field day and what a blessing she was. She brought trays of food with her from homemade chicken wings to some of the best green beans I have ever tasted. Through her help we were able to have enough food to feed every adult and child who came out to the field.

I talked with one man who lives a block over from where we set up each week and he was very excited about what we are doing in the neighborhood. He said "This is a great thing you guys are doing feeding these kids both physically and spiritually and for them both are equally important."

We had a great game of wiffleball for the kids while some of our volunteers spent time talking and praying with the parents who showed up. After lunch we broke the kids into groups and had a lesson about Moses leading his people out of Egypt where the kids acted out different scenes from the story. One of the parts of the day I will remember for a long time -
Kid playing Moses - "let my people go"
Kid playing Pharoh - "no....i....will....not....let.....your.....people....go" (giving great emphasis to each word)
Kid playing Moses - "let my poeple go you are a a bad king"

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More then I could ask or imagine

Quick back story. Couple of weeks ago I was telling my best friend how I had the closest thing to a vision that I had ever encountered. It was kind of like a waking dream. I saw the field somewhere in the future and in it were kids playing on a playground with parents sitting around on picnic tables and an abundance of life happening. It was a little bit more detailed then that but I did say quick. So anyway it has stuck with me for the last few weeks and I decided to see what it would take to make this vision become a reality. I called the mayors office.

On Thur I called them up and told them I was part of a non profit that wanted to see what we would have to do to go about raising money to build a playground at the field on Ferrara Drive. I was told that the person I needed to speak with was not in the office but they would take my name and number and give me a call back. I did not really give it much thought after that since I had a million things to work on and get ready for the weekend. Friday afternoon after a business meeting I got back to my desk to find a message waiting for me from the mayors office. I called back and was directed to the head of parks and recreation for North Charleston.

I really believe that this guy was more excited about helping out Take It To The Streets than I was about what he was talking about doing for us. (and believe me I was pretty excited) Come to find out he grew up off of Ranger Rd and is an active member of Northwoods Assembly of God. He was excited that there was a group of people working to improve the quality of life for people in this area. He offered is support more then I could have possible imagined. This coming week the city is going to put in 6-7 picnic tables in the field. They are also going to treat the field every week for fire ants. This is a huge blessing for those of us who do battle every week with this unrelenting army of biting machines. They will also be putting in two soccer goals in at the field. They are also donating kick balls, soccer balls, belts and flags for flag football, mesh jerseys, and a lot more sporting equipment. The city is also going to allocate grant money to go towards installing playground equipment at the field.

The ant treatment, picnic tables, and sporting equipment will be ready for us by the Family Field Day. God truly put his hand down and blessed this situation. I called to simply inquire about getting some information and received far more than I could have asked or imagined.

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Back to School Bash "The Results"

Today was an incredible day of seeing the fruits of our labor enriching the lives of others. Through our dedication to Gods word, lives were changed today and hundreds of people were able to experience the love of Christ through his disciples. Take It To The Streets had 15 volunteers pick up 12 children from our outreach neighbor and give them a ride to Hampton Park. Partnered with Without Walls Ministry we helped man the stations as hundreds of children filled the park. There were games and activities for all the kids from jump castles, a water spout cooling area, pony rides, games, worship, to a puppet show displaying the gospel of Jesus Christ with an alter call for the children. Each child that came through was given a bag full of school supplies to start the new school year off with.

Each of the kids we took with us to Hampton Park were given their own new book bags full of school supplies. After we we brought them home we handed out the book bags to all of the children, who were all smiles at their new gifts. One of the kids who rode with me today was talking the whole way home about how he was looking forward to getting a Batman backpack. Though we did not have a Batman backpack he did receive a Spider-Man backpack full of new school supplies. As I walked him home he was sporting his new book bag like he was king of the hill. He walked up to his dad in the front yard and said "I can't wait to go back to school now"!

I could go on about today's events but I will leave that for others to post. I do want to share with you how much we were able to collect through the combined efforts of our different small groups. THANK YOU to all of you who were able to help us make such an impact in the lives of these children.

We collected:
24 Erasers
15 Packs of colored pencils
31 Boxes of Crayons
10 Bottles of glue
50 Markers
23 Scissors
45 Highlighters
38 Glue sticks
766 Pencils
35 Folders
46 Spiral Notebooks
23 Packs of Paper
13 Book Bags
11 3 Ring Binders
2 Protractors
2 Compasses
13 Rulers
3 Composition Notebooks
131 Pens

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Back to School Bash

Tomorrow Take It To The Streets (TI2TS) will be partnering with Without Walls Ministry to help hand out school supplies and vouchers for school uniforms to children in need. We are meeting up at the field behind Alex's Restaurant off of Dorchester Road at 9 a.m to organize and pick up children from our outreach neighborhood. I talked with one of the parents this past Saturday explaining what we were doing this weekend and she was very excited. She told me that our ministry brings a much needed sense of hope to a neighborhood that is struggling in these uncertain times. The look on her face as she explained how much of a difference having help in getting school supplies and uniforms for her children would make to her and many other mothers like her, brought great joy to my heart. We are showing the love of Christ through our actions in giving of ourselves each week to those in need of love.

We look forward to seeing you all there. Come out and see the impact that one person partnered with one more person and so on and so on, can make in the city you live in. There will be food, music and games for the kids along with handing out school supplies and vouchers for school uniforms. The event runs from 10 a.m - 3 at Hampton Park in Downtown Charleston. I look forward to posting pictures and acounts of the days events early next week so stay tuned.

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