Jeff Ward on Feb 15th 2010 Impact...Education and Mentoring,Local
One of the most exciting things going on these days is the Tuesday night kids’ club that is run by a collaboration of churches here in Dallas and is put on at an apartment complex in the Vickery Meadow area.
Here’s more details from Charla Dixon, who leads the effort from Watermark (cdixon@watermark.org):
Vickery Kids Club essentially meets Tuesday nights at 6:15-7:30ish in the school year at Ivanhoe apartments (though there are other occasional events that we offer too). There are several churches involved in the leadership team of Kids Club each bringing different strengths. It’s awesome to see the Body of Christ working together to be a part of what God’s heart is in Vickery.
The mission of Kids Club is “to share the Love of God by equipping children to passionately pursue Jesus Christ.” We do that through teaching biblical principles, instilling life skills, and providing a constant, safe environment to love one another regardless of race, creed or life circumstances. Our hope is that the kids develop into men and women who passionately pursue Jesus Christ and help reach the lost by using their God given talents. Plus, we just have fun! Some kids are refugees but many are just inner-city American or kids from Mexico. It’s fun to watch God work each week bit by bit and kids starting to grow in knowledge of Christ.
Right now, we’re creating a list of all the volunteer opportunities for Kids Club. Some opportunities would require more consistency. Some would be one time spots to help (like painting or cookouts). Right now, our greatest need is for small group leaders at Kids Club on Tuesday nights who can be consistent. The main requirement for leaders is to have a flexible, patient, teachable hearts who love Jesus and desire to impact these cute but crazy kiddos:) If that’s something you’re interested in, we can talk further and have you come out on a couple of Tuesdays to Kids Club to gain a better perspective of what’s going on at Ivanhoe. I’ve been helping at Kids Club for a year now and honestly it’s one of the best things I’ve been a part of because I know God’s working in these kids lives and shaping my own heart at the same time.
In short, there are opportunities to help lead a small group of kids on an ongoing basis as well as opportunities to help in more occasional ways. At any rate, we’d love the help if it’s a great fit! Thanks for being willing to serve. Those kids are amazing and no doubt we need more folks investing. Appreciate your heart!
Jeff Ward on Feb 6th 2010 International,Thoughts
We recently deployed a medical team of surgeons, followed by a second team of nurses, EMTs, wound care specialists, and others. Todd and I were able to join this group with the purpose of surveying the destruction, assisting our teams, and connecting with some of our partners on the ground as we pray and plan about a long term response. It was an amazing experience and God orchestrated the events, the people that we were able to cross paths with, and even our return trip. We were able to serve in our makeshift Operating Room with Mission of Hope Haiti and in their clinic; helped a motorcyclist who was hit by a truck right in front of us and suffered a fractured leg; walked the streets of devastated Port-au-Prince and mingled with folks scavenging for anything of value; jumped rope with kids in a tent city; set up a mobil medical clinic and treated 30-40 patients for everything from infected sutures to asthma to open wounds; viewed a mass grave and participated in the unloading of bodies and a mass funeral; shared the Gospel everywhere; and encouraged those who had been working there since the beginning. Again, it was an amazing time and I was reminded of Romans 8 constantly and the fact that all creation groans until the day it is completely redeemed when Christ returns.
I was also reminded that God is sovereign; that He cares for us; that remarkably He allows broken people in His church to be the “first responders” when earthquakes happen; as Todd says, “earthquakes are happening all around us” and a great reminder that we need to be about responding to the storms in the lives of people right here in Dallas; that ONE PERSON can make a difference; that we are building our foundations, whether we acknowledge it or not, on either rock or sand, and that the end of all temporal things is a pile of rubble, so we should be investing in the eternal. Stay tuned as we develop our long range plans and in the meantime, if you’d like to volunteer, please e-mail sjordan@watermark.org. Thanks to so many of you who followed Todd and I on twitter and prayed for our teams! If you want to look at those along with the photos, follow @wordsfromwags and @outwardfocused.
Here are some other links to information about that trip and some of my thoughts below those…
Link to Good Morning Texas interview – http://www.wfaa.com/good-morning-texas/Local-Doctors-Return-from-Haiti-83260462.html
Watermark Medical blog description – http://watermarkblogs.org/medical/2010/02/01/first-team-back-from-haiti/
Jeff Ward on Feb 6th 2010 Uncategorized
As we pray for “new eyes” to see the needs all around us, one effective thing we can do is try some simple things to help us identify with those in need – go without heat and air, try and live on $2 a day, go without shoes, don’t take medicine when you get a headache, limit water usage to 5 gallons per day, take the hunger challenge and fast…
Last Thursday night, while the other classes ate pizza, we ate the World Vision porridge that is served to at-risk children. This is a high protein corn-soy blend that tastes a lot like cream of wheat or a thinned out oatmeal. It was a great illustration of how resources have been allocated and how to those whom much has been given, much is required. Lots of other folks from other classes even got into the spirit and tried it. It did make for some excellent conversation.
If you’d like to participate in one of these “Broken Bread Poverty Meals”, check it out at http://www.worldvisionacts.org/brokenbread/.
