April Update - God's Timing

Dear Friends,

Nina on the Rope Swing

Let me start with an apology.  It has been far too long since I have sent out an update.  It makes it difficult to know where to start…

CraftsMANship / Tea and Crafts Clubs:

God provided amazingly for these outreaches!  Lowe’s, Miller Hardware and Acme Tools all provided tools and materials for the CraftsMANship club as well as many individuals.  We have all the materials needed to build the birdhouses and enough toolboxes with basic tools in them for each of the kids participating. 

As far as the Tea and Craft Club goes individuals provided everything we needed for it.  From place settings to cookies and treats and all the crafting supplies.  God has supplied abundantly through all of you and we that you for that.

Neighborhood girls
enjoying working on crafts

In March we sent 500 fliers to the local schools advertising for both outreaches.  We got absolutely no response at all!  We were left to wonder, “Did we miss hearing you completely Lord?” The resounding answer was, “No”.  As it turns out, it is just a matter of timing.  The miraculous and abundant provisions God brought for these outreaches are evidence that we are to use these outreaches as a method to reach the lost for His Kingdom.  Where God guides, He provides or in this case, Where God provides, He guides…

We were left praying,  “When Lord?”…

Again He answered.  We have a rope swing in our front yard.  When the weather warmed up again, we suddenly had groups of kids playing in our front yard everyday after school and on the weekends, mostly girls.  I dragged the picnic table up to the front yard, Becca prepared tea, cookies, a lesson and the crafts and the girls LOVED IT!  She has done two impromptu tea parties thus far and will continue to do them throughout the spring, summer and fall.  We now have the kids knocking on the door asking if we could do a tea party!

More girls enjoying the Tea Party

This works out better than we could have imagined.  We are able to minister to the kids in our neighborhood; kids that we see everyday as opposed to kids we see once a week whose parents have to bring the to library from outside the neighborhood.  These kids get to see us live our lives out daily and witness what it truly means to live for Christ.  This format is much more relaxed and the kids seem more open and honest.

We continue to pray about when to do the CraftsMANship club.  There are several options before us right now and we trust that God will show us when and where to do it.  Please be praying for us in this.

Prayer:

• For health.  Ralph has been on a prescription med 10 years and is trying to go off of it because it is beginning to cause other health problems. 
• Provisions for the community gardens.  We desire to purchase the properties and need the funding to do so.  Also, we need materials to build raise beds, fencing, and a garden shed as well as labors to share the burden.
• Wisdom with the timing of the CraftsMANship club.
• Wisdom for provisions for our family as Ralph’s new job pays less and our insurance cost more.  We receive no pay from the ministry.  Ralph is praying about whether he should work more shifts or wait on the Lord to provide. 
• Pray for safety for those in our neighborhood.  There was another shooting/murder last week.
• For clear vision and direction for Church in the Park
• We are pre-qualified for a home from Habitat for Humanity.  We submitted a formal application and are waiting to find out if we will receive an interview.  Please pray for God’s will in this and for our hearts to be submitted, no matter what.

Praises:

• Tea and Craft Club has begun and the neighborhood girls really seem to enjoy it.
• Ralph was elected to the board of the King-Irving Neighborhood Association.
• We have two groups that work with kids that have contacted us about participating in the community gardens
• Ralph is assisting Saving Faith Outreach with ESL classes at the River Hills Apartments.  The classes are going well and he is building a relationship with a Muslim woman there.  Please pray for wisdom and insight how to reach her for Christ.
• The people of the neighborhood are warming up to us.  Kids know us by name and are coming to our house asking if we can come out and play (Nina too).

Weekly Update 03/09/13

We had a very busy week, despite not having Kids Club this Saturday.  We got much accomplished and God continues to provide.  We are excited for all the upcoming outreaches as we move into spring.

PRAISES

CraftsMANship Club

• We had a couple of persons offer to donate and loan tools for us to use to build the birdhouses. 
• I spoke to the Store Manager at Lowe’s on 50^th and Westown Parkway this week.  He said they do make donations to organizations and instructed us to send a letter to him with what we are doing and what we need.  I will be delivering this letter sometime Monday.  Please pray that the Lord would move in his heart to provide all that we need.  We are asking for toolboxes with tools (including a small cordless drill) for each kid that will be participating.  We also asked for materials needed to build and decorate the birdhouses.
• Rebecca found three handsaws at a garage sale today and got them to throw them for almost free with the other things she purchased.

Tea Party & Crafts Club

• Several ladies have graciously and generously purchased/donated supplies and committed to bake for the girls. 

Garden Club

• I spoke with the president of the King-Irving Neighborhood Assoc.  They have put together a lease proposal for us to lease the land.
• A neighbor has offered us their empty lot to use as a garden as well.
• We had a person volunteer to design/map our garden for us.  They are also going to acquire seeds and start all of our tomatoes, peppers and some herbs for us!

Church In The Park

• A group of believers have come forward and are interested in participating in this outreach with us.  They have some great ideas that they shared with us.  We will be meeting again in the future to develop this partnership and work out details.

Fishing Club

• Ralph is now an official Fish Iowa! instructor.  We have a big binder of fun curriculum and activities that should keep the kids engaged and learning fishing skills in the park this summer.
• We are also on the Des Moines Parks and Recs summer events calendar for the Evelyn Davis Park.  This is going to be a great opportunity to meet and build relationships with the kids through the hours spent learning fishing skills and actual fishing.

PRAYER

Tea Party and CraftsMANship Club

• We need people who are willing to commit to help with both of these outreaches.  Please pray to the Lord of the Harvest for laborers.
• There are still many needs for these outreaches.  Pray for provision.  Pray that Lowe’s would be moved to provide abundantly for the CraftsMANship club and that we would receive all that we need for the Tea Party as well.
• Pray for God to bring the right kids to these outreaches.  We will be distributing 500 fliers in the nearby public schools on Monday.
• Pray for God to begin working on the kids hearts now to prepare them to receive salvation and discipleship

Garden Club

• The list of needs for this is great.  Materials, tools, funding for lot lease, fencing, etc… Pray for God to provide.
• I have contacted many people about coming in once or twice throughout the summer to teach thirty-minute classes for those participating in the Club.  Everyone I have spoken with is very excited, but none have taken the step to commit to coming.  Pray for people to commit to coming and teaching.
• Pray for neighbors to get involved with the garden.  We would like to specifically target high school kids and adults.
• Pray for wisdom on how to use the second lot we have been offered.

Church In The Park

• We need much wisdom in this area. 
• Pray for God to show us when to do it (what day and time)
• Pray for other believers to come alongside us in this outreach.
• Pray for all the details with how to best reach the people in our community.

March marks our sixth month serving the Lord in the King-Irving Neighborhood.  It’s been a blur!  We are excited to see what the next six months brings.  It looks like it will be a lot of building and breaking ground literally and spiritually!

Kids Club and Beyond...

Kids Club

Week Five was a blast!!! We had a lot of fun. A group from Calvary Chapel Des Moines, my home church family, came out and delivered a great message. It was such a blessing to serve alongside of them. I long to minister alongside those I fellowship with on Sundays because they are so great at it! Thanks to all of them that came out.
 

I am sad that this will be our last Kid Club for a while. On the other hand, I am excited for the upcoming kids ministries. March 23^rd we will begin the “Girls Tea Party and Craft Club” and the “Boys CraftsMANship Club”. These activities will be six weeks long. We are limiting the number of kids participating and will be targeting middle school kids. We are focusing on building relationships with a handful of kids through these clubs. Our desire is to find several kids who are serious about walking with the Lord and really invest in them.

Rebecca will be hosting weekly tea parties with the girls. The focus is on communicating to the girls that their worth/value is in the fact that God created them. She will be doing weekly devotions with them emphasizing this. She has some really cool crafts planned such as soap making and sewing projects. 

Ralph will be teaching the boys the basics of carpenter hand tools and relating the different tools to spiritual principals. He will be focusing on what God expects of men and what the role of a man is, Biblically. This is especially important in our neighborhood as many of children live in a broken home with their mother or grandmother. The kids will be using the hand tools to build birdhouses. Des Moines Parks and Recs agreed to hang the birdhouses in the park through the summer so that the boys can display their hard work!

 

Updates

Ralph is working with a couple of people on getting a website professionally built. We are blessed to have two Christian brothers doing this and are donating not only their time to build the website, but will also be hosting it on their servers for free! Please pray that the Lord blesses them for their service. We will have a full-fledged website in the near future.

Forest Ave Outreach has filed articles of incorporation with the Secretary of the State of Iowa and is now a legal corporation. We received a TIN number for the ministry last week. Our next step is to file paperwork to be recognized as a non-profit corporation. We hope to get everything filed sometime this week.

Fishing Club, Garden Club, River Hills Apartment Outreach and Church in the Park are all beginning soon. Please be praying for the details of all of these to get completed soon. If anyone would like to help with the planning and coordinating of these please let us know. We could sure use the help.

 

Needs

CraftsMANship Club:

· Materials: 10 2”x8”x8’ pine boards, 2 boxes 1 ½ “ galvanized finish nails, 2 bottles waterproof glue (Tightbond 2), 1 gallon clear exterior finish, 40 3/8” eyelets

· Tools: 20 short (15”-18”) hand saws, 20 c-clamps, 20 small (12oz) hammers, 20 sanding blocks, 20 sets of screwdrivers (Phillips and straight), 20 pair pliers and 20 small tool boxes. (We will give each boy a set of tools in a toolbox when the course is complete and tell them to bring it to future sessions)

Church In The Park:

· We need to rent the shelter at the park for Church in the Park, which is $30 a week for 24 weeks ($720.00). Would you please pray about sponsoring a week or two? We would be blessed.

· We need people who would be willing to lead worship throughout the 24 weeks. Once again, would you pray about doing one or two weeks through the summer?
 

Garden Club:

· Vegetable plant starts

· Laborers to help get the garden set up

· Shovels, rakes, hoes, etc…

· Gloves

 

PRAY

• Please continue to pray for wisdom, strength, and stamina for us.
• Pray against the attacks of the enemy as we move forward.
• Balance between family, work and ministry
• Funding and provision for all we are planning
• Open doors for us to share about what God is doing through this ministry with other churches and organizations

Bug Guts, Sin, Perfection 2013 Kids Club Week Four

Bug guts... EWWWW! GROSS!  Well, the bug guts were actually prune juice which would probably illicit the same reactions from most kids.  This video is one of two demonstrations I used to illustrate God's perfection vs mans sin.  It way very effective.

10 children prayed and gave their hearts to Jesus this week!  Praise His name!  This is exactly why we do what we do!

I will try to post another video from week four of the other activity we used to demonstrate our need for a Savior later this week.

Enjoy!  Oh, the creaking sound you hear is from the tripod.  If anyone feels lead, we could obviously use a new one.

Wide Open Doors to Reach the World

Tony Didlo, myself and a representative from Freedom for Youth went to the River Hills Apartment complex in Des Moines, IA.  We met with the management about doing ministry with the kids and families that live there.   The management seemed receptive to the idea when we had called to arrange the meeting, so we felt good about it as we walked in.

When we got in to the office there was an older pressboard desk, three old kitchen chairs with tape holding the stuffing in the vinyl seats in from of it and a middle aged woman sitting behind it.  The lady behind the desk was polite and pleasant, but did not offer a smile as we introduced ourselves.  My initial thought was that this is not going to be a good meeting.  She asked what we wanted to do.  Tony Didlo, who has been going to the apartment complex for several years now, gave a brief explanation stating that we want to come in and do regular activities along with sharing the Gospel with the residents.

“Sounds Great”, the manager responded immediately with a beaming smile.  Then she told us that there are 246 apartments with 735 children who are listed on the leases.  She went on to explain the demographics in more detail.  Many of the families are immigrants from Africa and Asia with others from China, Japan, India, Iran, Iraq and India.  She stated that there is a big need for ESL (English as a Second Language) classes.  She told us of several African women who want to learn English, but have no transportation to get to classes outside of the complex.

At some point in our conversation, it was mentioned that we are planning to wait for the weather to warm up to begin out outreach as it will be outdoors. The manager was quick to point out that they have a “Community Room” we could use and even offered us a key to get in to it whenever we need!  We went to look at the room.  It is small and basic with 4 folding tables, some chairs, a kitchenette, and an old piano with the ivory lamination coming off of the keys.  Perfect for ESL classes!

After the meeting we went to lunch to discuss how to proceed.  Or initial plan is to begin with prayer, preparation and team building. We would like to begin with basic ESL classes on Saturday mornings sometime in late March or early April.  Saving Faith Outreach will be going door to door throughout the complex throughout April as well to hand out invitations to the ESL classes and the outreach that will begin sometime in May.  In May, we will begin the outdoor activities with the kids. Our tentative plan is to do a VBS/Sunday School style outreach with the kids on Thursday evenings.  We are praying about also doing an activity on Saturdays consisting of some sort of a “Service” with worship and teaching from the Word, finishing with food and fellowship.  The Saturday service will depend on many factors, including, but not limited to, the number of volunteers we have to assist.  The plan is to do two six week outreaches, one in the spring and another in late summer/fall. 

The potential of this outreach is GLOBAL!  In this one complex, in Des Moines, IA, there are families from four different continents.  Even more exciting is the fact that there are people here from countries that are completely closed to Christianity!  There is a very real possibility that we can share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with people who have never heard it before!  How exciting is that! 

So far, there are three ministries partnering in this outreach; Freedom for Youth, Saving Faith Outreach, and Forest Ave Outreach.  None of the organizations involved have a clear or defined role at this point.  Forest Ave outreach will be prioritizing the River Hills Outreach for the twelve weeks that it is going on as well as continuing the outreach programs in our neighborhood.

I want to encourage everyone to pray about how you can be a part of this outreach.  The potential impact is so far reaching, it is literally global.  Due to the large number of people at the apartment complex, we will need a large team of volunteers.  The more volunteers we have, the people we can reach and share the Gospel with.  God has laid a great opportunity before us and I am personally thrilled to step up and serve as a part of it!

If you are interested in participating, please email me at: forestaveoutreach@gmail.com

Week Three Kids Club Video

Here is the video from the puppet show we did for week three of the kids club.  The Lord orchestrated it perfectly!  There was no practice, rehearsal or even discussion prior to this.  It was completely ad-lib and I give the lord all the credit here.  We plan to do it again next week.

The video is shaky.  I apologize for that.  We will be bringing a tripod next week.  I hope you enjoy the video.

Lord Bless,

Ralph

Saturday Kids Club - Week Three

Today was AMAZING! 

It began around 11:00am.  Kipp Hagaman and I spent about forty minutes going through the neighborhood knocking on doors extending invitations to the Kids Club.  I am always amazed at the fruit that has in my life.  Most persons that answered their door were suspicious, defensive and even a bit frightened.  After introducing myself and sharing with them our desire to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with their children, the vast majority of people just light up!  I was thanked, shook many hands and even hugged by strangers this morning, just because I showed them the love of Christ.  When we were done knocking on doors, we both asked the same question, “Why don’t we do this more often?”

Once Kids Club began it was all a whirlwind.  The number of kids that showed up blew us all away!  There was no official count, but we had all of thirty kids.  We were able to effectively able to share the Ten Commandments with these children in a way they can understand.  Not only that, we taught them a series of hand gestures to remember the commandments.  I am confident that most of the kids left today having memorized the Ten Commandments!!!

In my personal opinion, the highlight of today’s Kids Club was a visit from our new puppet friend named Tina Ballerina (played by Kelly Roach).  Tina showed up when I was ending the teaching and was quickly losing the attention of the children.  She reeled them quickly and kept their attention.  The kids loved her and were able to relate to her. The puppet show began with Tina telling us how she never broke a commandment.  Throughout the course of my conversation with Tina, I was able to show her that she had, indeed broken many of the commandments.  In her distress, she asked the children what she should do now.  The kids were able to collectively share with Tina how to pray for forgiveness.  The puppet show ended with Tina leading the children in a pray asking Jesus to forgive them of their sins.  IT WAS BEAUTIFUL!!!

This was followed by craft time.  Rebekkah Nelson is real blessing in this area.  I found and tried to pull together a craft that I thought would be easy, simple and fun.  I was wrong on most of those points.  It was neither simple, nor easy.  Rebekkah came through in a big way and pulled it all together for the kids. 

After the craft we finished with snacks and clean up.  Two hours went by so fast!!!

There have been many more persons who have come alongside us to serve the children of this neighborhood.  We couldn’t do this without you all.  Thank you all!!!

Please be praying for next week.  We will be looking at our need for Jesus and challenging the kids to enter into a personal relationship with Him.  When I was a young child, I was invited to a Christian summer camp where I prayed to receive the Lord.  Although that didn’t stick with me at the time, I truly believe that it opened the door and gave God permission at that time to orchestrate the events in my life to bring me to where I am today.

The enemy has been attacking us more and more each week and I expect the warfare to be over-the-top intense this week.  Pray for our health, our jobs, our families and kids.  Pray for our computers, printers, phones and internet connections!  Pray for our vehicles and our finances.  Most importantly, pray for relationships among all the volunteers, with the kids we serve and with the staff at the YMCA.   I know this all sounds a little crazy, but all of these areas have been attacked in the last three weeks. Most importantly, pray for the kids and that God will be working on their hearts throughout the week to prepare them to receive the gift of eternal life as they choose to accept His Son Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.