HAPPY Birthday!

I think we all can remember our favorite birthday as a child. For me it was my seventh birthday and it was at a roller rink. This birthday was extra special not because of any of the gifts (I cant remember one of them) but who was there. All of my friends from the third grade especially my girlfriend Erica. It is the people that make birthdays special and memorable. This weekend Take It To The Streets had the awesome privilege of celebrating Zirons (aka CJ’s) seventh birthday. The “Praise Warriors” got a giant cupcake/football shaped birthday cake along with a card and a few small gifts. Ziron sat down on a folding chair in the middle of a huge circle of volunteers and kids as we all sung Happy Birthday, all he could do was blush. Immediately after that we opened the card and I got the opportunity to read it to the group (see expression in picture). In the picture you are not seeing a child’s expression of how cool his present is but how much he values the love of his family and friends “priceless”. This picture is incredibly important to me and let me tell you why. Earlier in the week, Thursday to be exact I got a chance to meet up with Ziron and his family. Thursday was Ziron’s official Birthday and his family was going through some really difficult financial problems. I knew that Ziron’s family was not able to throw a Birthday Party or even celebrate this glorious day, at that moment is when I remembered my seventh birthday party (the one at the roller rink). This picture is “priceless” and a testimony to Gods love poured out to his child through our “Praise Warriors”, I believe Jesus was smiling just as big at that moment.

Connor

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Neighborhood Fellowship

Neighborhood Fellowship allows us to meet residents where they are. The Lord has opened up some amzing doors to tell families about Jesus off of Dorchester Road. We push forward no matter what to show the residents that God loves them despite their curcumstances or surroundings. We do Neighborhood Fellowship on the 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month. In fact, we are going out into the neighborhood this Saturday- meeting at the field behind Alex's restaurant at 3713 Dorchester Road at 1:30 pm. By 2:00 pm we will be hitting the streets passing out food, praying with residents, and showing love to the sick and down trodden. We have been blessed every week we go into the neighborhood.

Last year we visited an older lady every time we did outreach. The lady was 99 years old and her 60 year old son would see us waking down the street. The son would call us over and say "don't pass our house". The mother was laying on a bed in the middle of the living room. We would bring her food and she would walk and put it in the kitchen. Later on she would just be laying in the bed and she would say "let's pray". She said "I know I am going to heaven, so I am not worried". She loved to pray with us. One Saturday we went by her house and she was dead- her son said she passed away. We know this is one lady that will go to heaven and she blessed us with her willingness to pray and invite us in the house. We hope she is praising Jesus in heaven and asking Jesus to bless Take It To The Streets and our our team. In fact I am sure she is praising Jesus and one day we will she her in heaven in her revived body where she is not confined to the bed. This lady who was 99 years old saw the power of the Holy Spirit at work. There is now power greater than the power of God at work within us. It is the type of power that can move mountains. We have so many stories just like this of the Church being the church outside the building- Let's continue to Take It To The Streets.

A servant of the Lord- Jesse

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Kids stepping it up at Field Day

Today TI2TS saw a major rise in volunteers, all under the age of 16! A new tool was implemented today inform of the Take It To The Street Buck. This is reward system that we are hoping to use to encourage Christ-like behavior and it was a major success. The kids were in a frenzy about these new dollars. We had a trash pick up crew and a line leader (which helped out with line organization immensely.) One of the highlights of the day was watching a line of kids that looked more like worker ants carrying field day supplies back into the supply the closet. They were so into helping that at the end of it all we had to remind them that they were getting rewarded. They just enjoyed feeling like they were a big part of the ministry. God really showed up today in these kids. What was so amazing its that these kids were living out the lesson all day which was:
1 Corinthians 9:24

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize."

Our field day activity was a ballon race which is in the above picture but the Spirit of God was in all that those kids did today! What a wonderful day that the Lord has made!

Martha Martin Childrens Ministry Coordinator

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The Door is Open

TI2TS has been using the Jeannine Batten community center every other week as a meeting place before Neighborhood Fellowship. We received word that hey have decided to let us use the building for the launch of our mentorship program on Wednesday nights. The mentorship program will begin by meeting the children's educational and social needs. Please consider how you might volunteer to help tutor or lead a small group discussion on these evenings. These children need the constant presence of people who care about them if we want to see them succeed and end the cycle of poverty. We will also be holding the Word On The Streets Education Center Resume classes there, possibly on Monday or Tuesday nights.

Now that we have transportation we will again be able to bring in woman from My Sister's House to continue helping them find jobs and build resumes.

God continues to show us that we are on the right path as we make preparations for this new and exciting transition and growth time. Just yesterday we received word from Knology that they have agreed to donate Internet for the building for these programs. We will be using laptops and the Internet to help children with school work as well as adult students in the resume class. The Internet is a key factor in student success in this day and age. Thank you Knology for supporting us as we Take It To The Streets! The door is open for us to do some amazing things...

Sarah Harrelson

Central Administrator

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Neighborhood Girl Makes Public Profession of Faith

This weekend marked a milestone for TI2Ts, not only did several kids get picked up for church in our new van but several of them made it out to the beach for The Seacoast Beach Baptism! Among them was a girl whom I have become very close with. Since we are looking in particular for kids we would specifically like to mentor in or new mentor program coming up I thought I would invest sometime with this girl Sunday after church. Since one of our TI2Ts volunteers was getting baptized, I asked her if she would like to come along. On the way to the beach another volunteer and I explained to her what it meant to get baptized. As soon as we got there, when she saw all the people lined up she said to me, "I want to get baptized." I explained to her that if she wanted to get in the water that was fine but being baptized is something serious, and that it showed a commitment to Christ. I told her about the sinners prayer and asked her if she had ever said it and she said never. Then I asked if she would like to do that and she said yes! Praise Jesus! So we ran down to the beach and she was baptized. Just like that there was a new sister
in the Kingdom. That's what it is all about guys. That is why we do Take It To The Streets. These kids are not only finding hope for their lives but they are finding hope in Jesus Christ!

Children's Ministry Coordinator - Martha Martin

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God is moving us forward

God has truly been moving the ministry forward. As each new question comes up on where do we go from here and how do we go about getting there, God shines a light on the path he has chosen for us and is opening doors along the way. This weeks field day was great, each week we see the increase in attention from the kids along with a change in their behavior. It isn't just us who are seeing the change in the kids, we have had testimonies from the parents talking about how the principles we are teaching the kids on Saturday are carrying over into the rest of their week.

We now have a van that has been donated for use to Take It To The Streets and we are packing out the van with kids from the neighborhood and transporting them to church at the North Charleston campus. Along with taking the kids to church we have more volunteer's giving of their time to be a part of these children's lives on Sunday morning and helping out the children's ministry at Seacoast. Take It To The Streets has been blessed with a location for our Dicipleship and Mentorship program that will be starting up very soon. We will be able to use the Jeanene Batten Community center tohost this new program so check back soon as we post more details. With the ministry growing we are always looking for new volunteer's that would like to help be the hands and feet of Christ. If you or someone you know would like to be a part of this ministry feel free to contact us at htt://TI2TS.org

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Field Day 9/5/09

Today was an incredible field day, it is awesome to see the explosive growth that God has brought to this ministry. We had a lot of new faces today getting plugged in to volunteer and I want to thank all of the individuals who help make this ministry happen. It is amazing to see the the impact we are having in the lives of these children and community members. We must not grow weary of doing God's work. There is so much to be done yet he has brought us so far. It was mentioned today about how many teenagers live in this community and how they pretty much hang around and sell drugs and get in to trouble because they don't have much else to do. I would like to challenge our volunteers to think about ways that we can further engage the 13-18 crowd and impact their lives. Another need in the community has been presented to us, which is another opportunity to let God's light shine on these people.

One of the kids told me today at the end of field day that he was afraid of God because he was afraid of dieing. When I asked him why he thought he was going to die he said "Because I'm going to grow up and get shot because that's what happens here. You guys can't be here all the time to protect us." I tried to explain to him that the reason we were there was because God sent us and that he is with him even when we are not. It broke my heart to hear those words come from someone so young and yet it gave me hope. He already has more hope in his life because of the impact of Take It To The Streets. That hope is reflected over and over in the eyes of all the children who come out there, and now we have another opportunity to further foster that hope.

When I asked another kid if he was going to church tomorrow he said "yeah I'm going to your church". We have volunteer's who take time on Sunday morning to pick up family's and kids from this neighborhood and bring them to the Seacoast North Charleston campus. The campus however needs more help with Kidscoast and helping out with the kids. So we have some of the volunteers from TI2TS attending the 12:00 service to help out with Kidscoast and Nitro. If you would like to be a part of this just show up at the campus at 12 and we can get you plugged in. We have an opportunity to further enhance our witness to these children by letting them see us in church with them and being a part of their lives for another day of the week. Please feel free to post your comments about moments from today's outreach that really touched your heart to share with those who may not be volunteer's yet or to share with our other outreach partners.

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God's Work: Vans and The Building

We are given so many examples in the bible of someone stepping out in faith and acting on the vision God has given them. We depend on God so we wait on God to show up as Take It To The Streets ministry we believe that God truly knows what He is doing and we know that his timing perfect. The bible says that if we can be trusted with a little we can be trusted with a lot. So I got a call from one of our ministry partners (Shield Ministries) about needing someone to act in their drama. I said I would think about it, but God was laying it on my heart to ask him about the vans that he has sitting in a parking lot. See our ministry gives rides to about 12 people to church every sunday, pick people up for our field day every Saturday, and pick people up for our resume building and goal setting class every Monday. We do all this in our personal cars. So I called David and ask him if we could us a van. He says that he only uses one van and he has another van we could use. Look at that open door. So amazing. Now we have vans for our transportation needs. It was right on time after God saw we were good stewards of what we have. Also today I receive a full set of blue print drawings that a local engineer put together for our ministry. This guy happens to be one of the original teams from Northwoods Assembly who started Seacoast Church and who made cold calls to Mt. Pleasant residents. So I will take the blue prints to the local Mayor's office in North Charleston and to the owner of the building n hopes that we gain the support of those people. We need all the help we can get to make the building Center a reality. First we can use the monetary donations to have a place where we can invest in the community. Please contact me if you would like to look at the blue prints of faith.

In Service to the King- Jesse

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