Progress and Take It To The Streets

I have got to brag about last Saturday October 23rd. It was a momentous day for our ministry as we saw fruits of what God has been brewing for us behind the scenes. It was the 4th Saturday of the October and to give you a behind the scenes look at what took place I will say this. We pulled off our Field Day, Neighborhood Fellowship neighborhood outreach and our education class all on one Saturday (It took Cindy Barrinea ordering the food, myself, Cindy and Her son Matt picking out the bread and oranges, and then bagging it all up with the help of the kids at 1:45 PM).

First of all let me speak to the Neighborhood Fellowship that we have been doing since TI2Ts Ministry began. The vision for this initiative is that we will flood the streets of the Waylyn Neighborhood off of Dorchester Rd. with the light of Jesus Christ. Regardless of what church our local missionaries attend we want people to see the love of Jesus. So we had individuals from several churches joining us to reach out into the community. Pastor Mike Cooke from Life Community Church came out, minister Reggie Coaxum from Christ's Temple came out, and off course Seacoast Church attendees and the Well was representing. The great thing was that Jesus Christ was represented in that neighborhood. We reached out as 3 teams with a total of 15 people passed out food while at least 20 volunteers shared Jesus with the Kids off of Dorchester Rd. at the field Day. And Joey helped 2 men do job searches.

All this was done after a team of 8 TI2TS leaders planned for our harvest festival event on October 31st from 6 pm to 8 pm with God's House of Worship Church.

What a Saturday--the cool thing is that God has much more in store as we continue to see God at work. The next phase of our ministry is going to be powerful. We will begin to stabilize the ministry by putting together an Internship Program and a Local Missions Team and as we continue to be guided by God in future pursuits of His will.

Greater things are yet to come...greater things are yet to be done in our City!

I for one have to proclaim how honored it is to serve with all of you guys as I watch our talents bloom and as I watch God's Holy Spirit grow us into maturity and increase our faith.

I love you guys...

A servant of Christ.

Jesse Williams

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He Became So We Could Become

"He Became So We Could Become"

Wow what a statement, I was told by Pastor Judas Smith that this sums up the entire New Testament in those six words. How do you view the value of your salvations? Do you understand the cost, the price tag the impossible miracle of who you are in Christ, I can’t – but I will spend the rest of my life serving my Lord your King Jesus Christ. I write this as I sit on the porch of an expensive resort on the Myrtle Beach SC attending one of the top middle/high school church youth camps, in tears. The sun is on the horizon and God is smiling. It has been the better part of a year now that I have been on the ground serving with Jesse Williams and the Take It To The Streets crew. I remember chatting with the gang about God’s hope and his love for the children of Dorchester Rd, and how God and we wanted them to have access to all the kings previsions. It never seemed right that children who loved Jesus so much (pray to him, study his word, serve in their community, hand out food door to door to their neighbors, wait by the side of the road to go to church as their parents are a sleep), could never experience God the same way the children I watch every Sunday at the Long Point or even the West Ashley Seacoast campus did – they were so blesses. I wanted the best for my children, his children, my little M.O.G’s! So we set out to accomplish that and by Gods grace and abundant bless I can write this he (God-Jesus) has initiated and we ( The Young Leaders of Take It To The Streets ) have responded. One week ago today I received a phone call from Pastor Mac Mood telling me that Seacoast West Ashley campus would like to sponsor four of the Young Leaders of Take To The Streets to attend e-camp. We as a team arrived yesterday! Kenny, Jarmine, Jalial and Brice are all sleep right now unaware of what God has in store for them today. Please keep us in your prayers, and that we respond and seek to dedicate our lives to serve the Lord our King Jesus. Guy’s we are braking down walls that have been constructed in our city right now with the Holy POWER OF JESUS. I am watching this play out right before my very eyes and it is beautiful, and I shout Rise and Sing (are you alive and have you been redeemed)? Your Brother in Christ, Connor McIntyre

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Stawberries and Prayer Anyone?

God’s Providence Strawberries and Take It To The Streets: By Jesse Williams (June 1, 2010)

I love to see the impossible things made possible with God which glorifies him- because God’s timing is perfect.

I call it a God incidence but some would call it a coincidence or serendipitous.

The full service project today was a powerful testimony of the Power of God and how He works through his Body of believers. Several connections were made all because our heart is for serving the Lord and our heart is for seeing things how Jesus sees things. A missionary team had planned to come to Charleston from Hebron Baptist Church in Georgia they met with me around February of 2010 and I introduced Take It To The Streets ministry to them at North Bridge Baptist Church (a small Baptist Church) in West Ashley who is passionate about outreach.

So we planned on them coming into town on June 1^st, 2010 and doing a neighborhood revitalization project, but the neighborhood revitalization project leader decided to move to North Carolina two weeks before the date when Hebron Baptist would come in. Well God knows my heart and knew I wanted to provide an organized day for these missionaries and be able to show them the neighborhood. So Fields to Families needed help on that Tuesday they needed volunteers to pick strawberries to give it to the community and they would be starting at 9:30 AM. This was the time we planned on hosting the missionaries from Hebron Baptist.

So I was able to bless Fields To Families because their director was going out of town on that Monday and through God’s power I was able to facilitate the strawberry picking. Myself, Sarah and Sarah’s daughter Addison who is four years old went out representing Take It To The Streets and a big bus and van followed my little red truck to the strawberry farm six miles from Holly Hill, SC. It was cloudy and I prayed it would not rain and it did not for the whole time we picked strawberries. The group had to be downtown at 1:00 pm and we needed boxes to put the strawberries in…I had none when I arrived so I drove to Holly Hill’s Piggly Wiggly grocery store and on that day they had 9 boxes lined with plastic, old banana boxes. So we filled all the boxes by 10:40 AM and decided we would bag up the fruits and take them out to Ranger Drive and to the outreach area. I drove through the rain to North Charleston and again prayed for clear skies so we could bag up the fruits. It did not rain for the whole time we bagged up the strawberries by this time Martha Martin came to help us from Sarah’s house. I’d call this the missions house.

We bagged all the strawberries and filled nine boxes then drove the bus to Mrs. Sheila’s house off of Ranger Drive, who was ready to do yard work because I did not let her know of the change of plans. So we broke up into 8 teams of about 7 people in each team including little Addison who is 4 years old, walking down the street of one of the most crime ridden areas, but blessed by God. We walked for about 15 minutes passing out strawberries and praying with residents, then it began to rain. We passed out about 60 pounds of strawberries and we blessed the whole neighborhood with the joy of Jesus as 60 people strong walked around the neighborhood in the rain, motivated by the love of Jesus. The residents’ hearts were warmed to us and embraced the young missionaries. The chaperon's told us we have done an awesome job, they recognized the soil we had tilled through past efforts of taking the love of Jesus to those streets off of Ranger Drive.

In the end, we went back to Sarah’s house to pray and rejoice in what God had done on this Strawberry picking outreach day. I was even able to take a box to Without Walls Outreach Ministry to bless Pastor Gordon and his team with God’s bountiful harvest of Strawberries. I believe it was a symbolism of God’s divine providence and love for the Take It To The Streets family and for the people of Charleston.

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Way FM Faith and Fun Night

On Saturday the 20th Take It To The Streets took some of the kids from our outreach neighborhood to Way FM's Faith and Fun Night at the North Charleston Coliseum. We got to see the Charleston Stingrays play some great hockey followed by an incredible concert by Group 1 Crew. For these kids it was the first hockey game they had ever seen. They quickly joined in with the crowd in cheering on the home team and taunting the away team. It was a small thing bringing the kids along with us as tickets were not that expensive but to them that arena could have been a million miles from their daily struggles in their neighborhood off of Dorchester Road.

After the concert was over Way FM brought out Group 1 Crew who rocked the house with a lot of songs from their new not yet released album. Between each song each band member gave testimony to where they came from and how God had brought them to where they are. Their testimony actually sparked conversation between the kids as they talked about coming from a broken home, not knowing their father, and growing up poor. All of these themes resonated with the kids as they listened to their words and yet saw these individuals talking about growing up this way yet where standing before them preforming on stage. No part of their story glorified the use of drugs and alcohol but rather gave glory to God. One of the things that even touched me was the true humility in which their testimonies were given and that like our kids this was the first hockey game these three had been to as well. Through the second half of the game Pablo one of the band members actually sat in the row right behind us to watch the game. The night was a great time of fellowship for our leaders and volunteers as well as certainly expanding the kids bubble allowing them to experience a piece of life that many take for granted.

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To The Rescue

This is a fun blog for me to write and I think it will be an even funner one for you to read (is funner a word?). It all started with a phone call on Thursday March 11th from Fields To Families Jacki Baer. Jacki said, “Connor I have got 100 lbs of collard greens, but there is a catch you have got to pick them up today – actually in two hours”. I said, “Sure we can get them where are they” Jacki said “ Mt. Pleasant”. For those of you who are not up on TI2TS news we have a new partner Fields To Families (www.fieldstofamilies.org), they are a non-profit who started in 2006 that works to ease hunger in the Lowcountry by gathering crops form generous farmers and community gardeners and distributing them through their network of partners. This was such great timing with Neighborhood Fellowship on Saturday we could hand them out almost instantaneously! So I called Jesse and asked if he could get the van and scoop them up, as at that time I was having lunch with one of the parents of young leaders. Jesse said “no problem – text me the address”. At that time I thought everything was great easy peasey. The next morning I got a call from Jacki asking me “where were you yesterday I thought you were going to pick up the greens”? I didn’t know what to say and apologized for any inconvenience I may have caused. I let Jackie know that I would leave right away and could pick them up personally. She explained to me that it was to late that she already called another agency partner who was on the way. As you can image I was disappointed and worried that we had damaged our relationship with Fields To Families. Later that day Jesse, Mike and I met up for lunch to talk about TI2TS as well as this issue. At that very moment that we were talking about this issue Jesse’s phone rings – then mine, it was from David Truluck from Shield Ministry. We both agreed that we would call after our lunch. As we left Alex’s Restaurant, Jesse called me and said did you hear the message from David? I said “no, why”. David called to inform us that there was 100lbs of collard greens in the van. As you can image this was quite an experience for both of us. Shield Ministry was the partner agency that was on the way to pick up the collards.

On Saturday five children from the ages of 8 to 11 bagged up sixty grocery bags filled with collard greens and granola bars. Then on their own street they went door to door (with TI2TS volunteers) and began to pray with their neighbors, BOLD! I can’t tell you how proud and impressed I was with these boys this was a BOLD and Courageous move that most adults I know couldn’t or wouldn’t do. So next time you see Jahlea, Eddy or JJ give them a high five and tell them great job!

P.S. The neighbors loved the collard greens praise Fields To Families, Shield Ministry!

Connor McIntyre

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Neighborhood Revitalization

This weekend Neighborhood Revitalization lead by Bergen Hall put in hours of work clearing trees away from power lines and helping a family rediscover they had a backyard under all the dead leaves and tree branches. Neighborhood Revitalization is working to help give a community in need of hope a renewed sense of pride in their homes. Many of the individuals that live off of Ranger Road in Dorchester are single moms, disabled or elderly. They do not have the means or ability to do the normal upkeep on a home that helps to keep it in shape. You can not imagine the blessing it is for these people to feel the love from strangers who are willing to give of their time and themselves to help with basic yard work and home repair. It is truly a blessing both to them and the servants who live out "loving your neighbor as yourself".

We are still in need of volunteers who can come out and help us revitalize this neighborhood. On the first and third Saturday of each month from 9 - until we will be out in the community helping our neighbors. If you can give 1 day a month to help be a part of this growing ministry please contact us here. Just a few hours of your time, whatever you are capable of giving, can make a huge impact in the life of another.

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Searching the Web can support your favorite charity.

Take It To The Streets is now partnered with Good Search a search engine with a conscious. Good Search takes a different business approach to searching the internet. Instead of spending large amounts of money on advertising and increasing the profit margin of the company it allows users to select a charity they want to support. Every time you enter in a search, pennies on the dollar are given to the charity. In the large scheme of things this may seem like nothing but your giving away that money anyway right. Google and Bing work the same way and every time you make a search on their page you are giving money to those organizations so why not help a Non Profit group instead. By taking two minutes of your time to add a search bar to your internet browser or change your home page from Google to Good Search you will be helping support a charity every time you are on the internet. The cost is nothing to you but it channels BIG Advertising dollars from corporate coffers such as Microsoft and Google into the hands of charity's that are working to change the world. Of coarse we would like to see you help our cause and you can now type in Take It To The Streets as a group you would like to support, however you can support multiple organizations through your searching. Since Good Search does not spend money on advertising it relies on its users to spread the word so that more charity's can be supported. You will find links both on this Blog and on our website to search through this group.

You can also shop online through Good Shop. Good Shop is portal to all the major online shops like Best Buy, Amazon, and Ebay. You can buy all your items from the same stores you always do but by going through Good Shops page rather then directly to the store the advertising money again goes to the charity's. A percentage of whatever is spent through the online sales goes to the charity of your choice. Think about how much time you spend online and how by spending a few minutes you can make a part of your daily habits a way to generate money that will help feed the poor, bring clean water to those in need, or support urban missionary work. Is a few minutes of your time to try a new site worth the impact you can have with no sacrifice required?

For those of you out there like myself who run solely on FireFox you have search bar built in at the top of the browser that lets you select which search engine you want to search from. Below is a link that will the add Good Search to that list so every time you use that search it will go through Good Search and save your favorite charity to your cookies.
Firefox Add-On
If you would like to add good search to your Internet Explorer options click here.

If you would like add good search to your Google Chrome options click here.

Good Shop

Good Search

Michael Waters
Web Graphics/Digital Media Designer
mwaters@ti2ts.org

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Blessing a Family

This week we had the privileged of being the instrument of God in blessing a family in need. Jamaal and Michelle who have five kids have been staying with a friend over off Wye Lane. With the birth of the newest member of their family Michelle is back at work and they have gotten their own place. However all of the furniture and household items at their previous residence belonged to someone else and they had nothing to move into their new house. In one weeks time God provided enough furniture to furnish their entire new home.

I would like to thank those who donated items and are still donating items. For those of you who could not be a part of moving the furniture in I hope the pictures can convey a small sense of what was done this day. Jamaal could not stop smiling and saying "God is good, yes he is". I would like to also thank everyone who helped pack a Uhaul full of this furniture and move everything in to their new home. At times it was some dirty work and it has been a week long process to get everything together. Everyday they wake up in their new home this family and their kids will have a constant reminder of God's love and an amazing example of the obedience of those he has called to serve him.

Jamaal will be attending the Take It To The Streets Education Program starting in Feb. These classes focus on resume building and goal setting and we also work to help every member who comes through the program find a job. The second greatest commandment we were given was to "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:30-21) and I know at this moment these neighbors feel loved. As they have friends and family over that love will be passed on. Their friends and neighbors will see, in their home the physical manifestation of the love of God carried out through his humble servants.

If you have donations you would like to make or be a part of more service projects like this please visit our website at http://ti2ts.org and go to Contact Us.


HIS humble servant,

Michael Waters
Take It To The Streets
Web Graphics/Digital Media Designer

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Burns Buddies

Group I am very proud to announce a new edition to the Take It To The Streets programs Burns Buddies. This program is a partnership with Trident United Way, Charleston County School District, Cummins & Take It To The Streets. The leadership group has been working on this partnership sense August of 2008 and has just recently underway. At this time the Take It To The Streets leadership team has been on the ground almost daily at Burns Elementary School meeting with teachers and students. We have also started building an independent website burnsbuddies.org which will allow all agencies to show case this program to their constituents. As many of you are aware this school is directly across the street from the Take It To The Streets Family Field Day Field as well as it shares the parking lot with the JB center were we hold our Young Leader and Work On The Street Program. At this time we have identified several teachers that we are going to be partnering with from 1st to 5th grade. All of these classes currently have Take It To The Streets children enrolled in them. The kids are SUPER excited to see us in the school as well as having the opportunity to eat lunch with us. This partnership gives Take It To The Streets an unique advantage point to how the children are living out what they are being taught on Sundays. Often time the feedback provided by their teacher is the most detailed and impactful.

As it isn’t a surprise to many of you our Take It To The Streets children are struggling in school, some of which are three grade levels behind. There are numerous behavior issues and at time the kids can be known as a handful. I believe this is why God has put them in all of our lives, and it is obvious that they need his help to make it through these early childhood development years. At this time we are open to volunteers participating in the Burns Buddies program (Lunch and Learn 11:30 to 12:30 M-F). This program is not for beginner volunteers and all volunteers will be fully vetted prior to having access to the school. As you can understand this is a tremendous opportunity for both us and the children, God Bless and have a great day!

Connor

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