Go tell it on the MOUNTAIN!

Recently, the second-year interns of the Summer Leadership Institute took a trip to Sky Ranch Ute Trail.  We backpacked through the San Juan Mountain Range near Powderhorn, Colorado.  This adventure through the wilderness was quite the experience filled with many firsts (and possibly lasts)! For many it was their first time  going out of state,  sleeping outside, climbing a mountain, sleeping in the rain, wearing dirty clothes all week, sleeping with bugs, seeing a marmot, sleeping on lumpy rocks, drinking river water, having a two hour quiet time, and being vulnerable with people they can trust.

  

Alongside first-time experiences were great accomplishments.  We hiked approximately seventeen and a half miles over the course of six days across some of the most rugged terrain in the continental U.S.  We crossed rivers, swatted flies, and watched Carlton Oby's eyes bug out as we teetered down steep switchbacks (or "snapbacks" as he likes to call them).  The interns were forced to sleep in the rain more than once, and spent a large portion of two nights in wet sleeping bags.  All our food was carried on our backs, and every single bit of it was eaten or carried out the other side, even the dishwater!  "Mountain Spice" became our favorite seasoning- anything dropped in the dirt had to be eaten, so why not give it a name?  Some of the clumsy ones in our group got a LOT of fiber.  

In the midst of all this, we can remember some really cool places, moments, and lessons.  Hannah really enjoyed sleeping out in the open under the stars.  In the clear mountain air, away from any sort of artificial light, the stars were lit at a brighter magnitude than we had ever seen.  Combined with the faint silhouette of the mountain ridge and the sound of the fir trees in the wind, it made for a really neat reminder of how God's hand created all that we see with beauty and great care.  Brian remembers stopping for a day of rest halfway through the week.  We set up camp on a grassy plateau overlooking a river with a backdrop of soaring mountains.  Here we spent a day and a half eating and telling stories, and even had a lively discussion of pressing issues in the interns' lives that carried on into the night.   However, the best moment was leaving that afternoon open for an extended two-hour quiet time.  We, along with the interns, were allowed to sit out in the open in complete silence and listen to what God had to say instead of walking and talking and pitching tents.  It was cool to hear how much he had to say when there was no one else to listen to.  Woven in and out of these places and moments were "life stories." These were times where each member of the trip was given the chance to open up about their life and be asked intentional questions which gave each person a true sense of who the other members of the trip really are. These stories made a great impact on the teller and the listeners, and each person was prayed over by their peers-their teammates in the struggle of the trip.  We believe it was the first time many of our interns have truly borne their hearts for all to see, and God was greatly glorified in each of the stories He wrote.

The trip deeply affected not only us, but the junior interns.  Read some of their quotes from our share time:

"It's not about who finishes first, but about the team doing it together."

"The strength He gave me reminded me that God won't give us something we can't handle."

"There's a whole 'nother world outside of Dallas.  I learned how to walk up and down a mountain with (what felt like) three or four babies on my back.  I feel like I can do anything now!"

"I learned I can be more open and let go of everything..."

"Nobody can tell me God isn't real after seeing all these mountains."

We saw the interns cry together, laugh together, struggle together, and overcome together in the crucible of the Colorado wilderness for six days, and we can say one thing for certain: God was working in all of it.  When we got back to Texas, the interns came to similar conclusions.  For them, the trip was something they're not sure they would want to do again, but they definitely saw God, had a great experience and were glad they came.  

We would like to take that one step further by seeing the application of that statement in our own lives.  Oftentimes, God brings us to things that are long, arduous, and painful.  God's word tells us that the journey to our final resting place will be one of persecution and struggle (2 Timothy 3:12).  He tells us that we will be faced with trials and temptations, but when we persevere through them we will receive the crown of righteousness that Jesus has promised us (James 1:12).  And He tells us that in all trials and temptations, Jesus will never let us walk alone and will always provide an escape (1 Corinthians 10:13).  They may not realize it now, but the junior interns learned those lessons firsthand while on a mountainside hundreds of miles from home.  Better yet, they experienced them firsthand as they looked down from the top of a mountain.  Its a safe bet to say that sometime in the future, one of our junior interns will come up against some problem that seems insurmountable and think something along the lines of, "Forget this! I carried three or four babies up a mountain!"  And they will just laugh and go on, continuing the journey God has put them on.

By: Hannah Goodwin & Brian Roy

           Leadership Institute in Colorado - 2013 from Mercy Street on Vimeo.

Unless the Lord Builds the House...

Things were really crazy around The Street the past two weeks, especially for a person who loves order and organization.  The second year of the Leadership Institute has been exciting, but as with any new program, it has been full of changes in schedule, going with the flow, and a lot of flying by the seat of your pants.  I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to schedules and organization, and will work until I get blue in the face to make an air-tight plan that is completely foolproof.  However, that very attitude of schedules, agendas, and programs is contrary to the very core of Mercy Street's mission: to spark Christ-Honoring relationships that develop the future leaders of West Dallas, not to develop Christ-Honoring programs.  Schedules are rigid, people are flexible.  Programs are orchestrated by man, but God calls us to be led by His spirit.  Things we do are temporary, but people's souls last forever.  Therein lies the beauty of the ministry of Mercy Street's mission- to be willing to drop any program, any phone call, and change any plan to facilitate the opportunity to develop a relationship.  It has been refreshing and puts my busy mind in a position to ditch the agenda and allow God to move.  I saw this idea play out in such a cool way during our weekly elementary outreach program, Super Thursday.

We had our first Super Thursday of the summer last week, and most of it was planned and orchestrated by the Senior Interns. We lead the Bible studies and planned the crafts, and took care of most of the programming.  We lead the music and made sure everything went just as planned.  But at the end of the day, while talking with one of the junior interns who had been planners for Super Thursday before, I begun to realize that I wasn't teaching any sort of leadership in this way.  I was "leading by example" by planning and organizing and making sure everything ran smoothly, but not helping any of my junior interns take ownership of the program and learn  how to lead.  This was doer-ship, not leadership.  My heart wasn't content with that.  And to make things worse, despite the super-smooth program, I didn't see a crowd of kids begging to accept Jesus or thirsting to learn more about Him.

So, this week I took a completely different approach to the week: let's delegate everything.  The Bible story would be taught by a junior intern, as well as the other activities in class.  Let them lead, and let them fail if need be.   It irked me, it bothered me, and I wanted to just do it myself so we could make sure it went well.  I noticed the other Senior Interns following suit- the group time and stage direction was done by the high school students.  It was neat to see, but behind my smiling face, my head was spinning with questions: Have they thought about this?  Who is doing what?  Will they be able to explain the lesson as I would?  But, just like the t-shirts tell me to, I kept calm and carried on.  And thats when stuff got interesting.

As I stood in the classroom doorway and the kids filed in, I was full of confidence (and pride?) at the cool activities that we had come up with for the day.  But kid after kid kept filing in.  And then more kids filed in.  And more and more.  Suddenly, my confidence was stripped.  We had prepared activities and crafts for 8-10 kids and 6 leaders, but suddenly we had a room full of about 30 sweaty and excited primary-schoolers all wanting to talk and be noticed at the same time, as well as 6-8 volunteers from Bethel Bible Church.  How was the plan going to work?  How would we make it turn out perfect?  We were telling the story from Matthew 7 in which the wise man builds his house upon the rock, and had this awesome plan to make a fort out of sheets and have them all sit in it to listen to the Bible story to get the point across.   But there were far too many kids for our plan.  We couldn't even fit all of them inside the fort!  To make matters worse, I'm not sure anyone could pay attention to our awesome junior intern telling the Bible story because they were distracted by the tent we all thought was so awesome.  After the craft we had prepared was a bit of a flop, I would normally have just chalked the day up as a loss and tried to fix the kinks to do all I could to make the next week perfect.  But God was teaching me things.

I looked back at the course of the day and saw beautiful things.  While we had three times as many kids as the previous week, which screwed up the plan, we had three times as many kids there to hear the Gospel!  What a gift!   While not everything went perfectly, we had high school aged interns articulating God's word to a younger generation.  While their telling and interpretation wasn't flawless, what makes me think mine would have been?  I began thinking, wasn't this what Jesus was meaning when he called us to make disciples?  Wasn't it about people who love Jesus teaching other people who love Jesus how to tell others about Jesus in the best way they can?  That's far more beautiful than a schedule or a program, and sure includes far more interruptions and by-the-seat-of-your-pants moments.

I finally stepped back and realized that in all my schedules and plans and ideas of how things should go I am a lot more like the foolish man building his house upon the sand of his own ability.  That pointed me to Psalm 127:1a:

"Unless the Lord builds the house,
Those who build it labor in vain."

It appears that even if the house is a fort made of sheets, Jesus should always the builder.

The Mudskipper by Trey Hill

“Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14

I flipped to the National Geographic Channel the other night, thankfully interrupting the Good Luck Charlie marathon that was happening in our house, and I saw a segment on this curious little fish called the mudskipper.

The mudskipper is an amphibious fish that has adapted to its environment in order to move on land and breathe by holding water in its gill sacks. Now this odd looking creature, like other gobies (the family of fish in which the mudskipper is a part) was made to live in water. However, over time, it has evolved so that now it lives most of its life out of water. And though this is impressive, it is fatally dangerous too, because if the mudskipper strays too far from the water it will eventually die. So here is my point: I am a mudskipper, and I suspect you are too.

Jesus said, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). But I don’t believe it—too often I don’t live like I believe it. I try to fill my gills with just enough Jesus to get through the day, week, and month. I try not to stray too far from the Living Water—you know, just in case. But this is not how man was designed to live.

We were made to live dependently on God. God uses all kinds of metaphors to impress our dependence on Him. He says we are to “abide in the vine” (John 15:5), “eat of the bread of life” (John 6:35), and here to drink from springs of living water so that we “will never be thirsty again.” God made man to be completely dependent on Him for everything.

His intention, His design, His command is that we would rely on Him moment by moment for the life-giving sap that only comes from Him; that we would feast on Him for our daily nourishment and drink deeply of His grace and be satisfied. 

But like the mudskipper (and all mankind), I try to adapt from my original design. Instead of drinking deeply from the Spring of Living Water to sustain me, I try to get just enough to hold me over until my next sip. I like to stray from the place I am meant to be. “I’ve been a Christian a long time; I already know the Bible. I don’t have time to pray today; I run an important ministry. I’ve been to seminary; I don’t need to go to Bible study. I am saved by grace; spiritual disciplines are just ‘works.’”

Sometimes I start drinking from other wells hoping they will give me life. I drink from the well of performance, desperately wanting people to be impressed with me. I drink from the well of materialism, thinking that somehow something will make me happy. I drink from the well of self-pity when I don’t get what I think I deserve. I drink hoping these wells will give me life, but they never do. In fact, when I drink from any source but Christ, I find myself frustrated, empty, depressed, and even thirstier.

I’m guilty of the same sin for which God charged Israel: “For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jer 2:13).

Another danger for the mudskipper is that it is slow-moving on land—so slow that it becomes easy prey for its predators.

As I stray from the living water and the life-giving power of the Spirit, I too become easy prey for my enemies—the flesh, the devil, and the world. The false promises they offer seem more real, tastier, and more pleasurable than the promises of Scripture. “Maybe a different career, one not spent trying to help others, would be better,” I sometimes surmise. “Earning more money would surely make me happier,” I think. “Beautiful surroundings would certainly satisfy my soul,” I daydream. But they won’t, because they can’t. At 45 years old, and as the founder of an inner-city ministry, one would think that I would have learned this by now. But I haven’t. I’m still learning, I guess.

If you are like me—a slow learner—and find yourself thirsty today; Jesus bids you to come to Him, the Fountain of Living Water, and dive in until you lose yourself in blissful, self-forgetfulness, overwhelmed by the immensity of His love for you to the point that, “If His grace were an ocean, we’re all sinking” (David Crowder,How He Loves Us). Finally, unlike the water from which the mudskipper came, the ocean of God’s grace is where we are meant to be and where we breathe most fully

Not Just Another Monday...

After being ultra-oriented, the Summer Leadership Institute is finally up and running.  Yesterday marked the first day of a "normal" week with the Junior Interns.

It started out with breakfast, crazy games, and fellowship with the youth of Bethel Bible Church.  They have come to serve and grow alongside us this week.

Then off to my favorite time of the day: Quiet and Small Group Time.  This summer we are going through N.T. Wright's Matthew study.  Tuesday's passage, Matthew 6, repeats "your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you," (Matthew 6: 4,6, and 18) in reference to giving, praying, and fasting.  The sweet girls in my small group seemed to really have understanding of this concept.  We discussed how the ways we serve and the things we do for the Lord, should be done For the LORD.  We do not serve so people will see us as great or really Godly, but we should serve because God deserves the glory.  Which was a great segway into our after lunch activity.

Service projects: Every Monday, the future-leaders of West D split up into groups of about 5 to serve at various locations around the community.  Voice of Hope, an out-of-school time program, allowed some of the interns to come and put on a skit and do crafts with the children participating in their summer program.  At Brother Bill's Helping Hand, another group got to stack and organize food for their Grocery Store.  Another group was able to help Readers 2 Leaders Label and re-cover books for their library.  Lastly, H.I.S. BridgeBuilders allowed a group to come and sanitize the toys for their church's nursery.  You can find more information about these organizations below! 

Voice of Hope:     http://voiceofhope.org/
Brother Bill's Helping Hand:  http://www.bbhh.org/
Readers 2 Leaders:   http://www.readers2leaders.org/
H.I.S. BridgeBuilders:    http://hisbridgebuilders.org/

Change a Life Forever

Emily and Ryan Greening Interview

- A recent article produced by Watermark Church - 

Can mentoring change a life forever? Ryan and Emily Greening would say so. But when they began mentoring Terry Jenkins, a West Dallas 13 year old with cerebral palsy, they never anticipated how much that relationship would grow, or how God would use Terry to change their hearts.

How Did You Begin Mentoring with Mercy Street?

Ryan: “We were looking for a place to serve together. So we went to an event for Mercy Street, a mentoring ministry Watermark partners with in West Dallas. As a mentor, you commit to meeting with your mentee face- to-face twice a month and calling them twice a month. That seemed like something we could do.”

Emily: “Going into mentoring, our ‘plan’ was to each get mentees, a brother and sister in the same family. The Lord’s plans were different. Mercy Street asked if we could mentor a kid with special needs and matched us with Terry. Cerebral palsy left him unable to walk and with limited the use of one arm. But he doesn’t see those things as a disability. He is a happy, fun, smart kid with a really sweet spirit and a ton of friends.

“It took time for trust and friendship to grow with Terry and his mom, Tomeka. Seeing Terry’s enthusiasm increase as we built the relationship made it much easier. As we played games together and hung out at their house, our relationship grew.”

Ryan: “Emily has a background working with kids with disabilities. I was nervous about it, but that’s where God was leading us so I was in. When we got started, we
 went to Mavs games, Ranger games and other things Terry hadn’t done before. Those things were fun, but didn’t necessarily improve our times together. We actually had a better time doing stuff like playing Monopoly at his home. God taught me to meet Terry, and eventually his brothers, right where they were. That’s when we really connected. We soon realized that the minimum requirements of time spent with a mentee weren’t enough. We felt like God was calling us to do more and deepen the relationship.”

How has mentoring Terry Grown into Creating a Watermark Small Group in West Dallas?

Ryan: We started taking Terry to Watermark with us in my two-passenger truck. Then his brothers, cousins and friends wanted to go. I eventually sold the truck and got a bigger vehicle that allowed us to do so much more.

As we got to know other kids, we started attending a Watermark small group for boys in West Dallas. We meet at a ministry called Readers to Leaders, and that helps us connect with the boys during the week. There are two leaders (myself and another mentor), and about 10 kids in the small group now. I’ve seen these boys experience tremendous growth. One kid in particular, Jacoby, has gone from a boy who wants to beat everyone up to a leader who is praying, asking good questions, trusting Christ and being honest about his struggles.

“During small group, we talk about typical things the boys face: sexual temptation, drugs, alcohol and the lack of support they feel in life. Negative influences wear on them, and their little souls reflect it. The gospel is new to most of the boys, so when I am able to love them as Christ loves me, they soak it in. When the boys began to ‘get’ God’s love for us, their responses never cease to amaze me.”

How Has God Used Mentoring in West Dallas to Shape Your Heart?

Ryan: “God showed me I can’t control their environment, or expect that a better school or better circumstances is going to make them a better kid. A relationship with Christ is what the boys need. God also taught me to hold my resources freely. Everything we have belongs to God. He taught me to trust as we steward our resources on to other things.”

“There are definitely days when I don’t feel like going to West Dallas (I’m tired, I want to spend time with Emily, or I just want to be lazy). But Lord has taught me that loving those boys and leading them to ‘life’ means that I must ‘die’ to myself. I have NEVER spent time with the boys and returned home saying ‘it wasn’t worth it.’ The Lord has grown my faith in Him through these experiences of “dying to myself” and I will be forever changed because of them.”

Emily: “Mentoring has been a huge learning opportunity for us. I quickly saw how much of stereotype I had about poverty and people living in West Dallas. Once I got
to know some families, I realized how prideful it was to think that the way I lived my life was the ‘right way.’

I wasn’t there to fix these kids. God put me there to know them and to love who they are. Mentoring is not about me, and I certainly cannot do it on my own. My job is to constantly ask the Lord how He would have me serve and live in dependence on God.” 

The Mentor Leagues

“Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”  Matthew 7:13

In West Dallas, the road to destruction is expansive and perpetually crowded.  It is littered with drugs, domestic abuse, gangs, violence, and pervasive fatherlessness.  Those who populate this path are trapped in addiction, generational poverty, broken homes, destructive lifestyles, despair, and hopelessness.

Mercy Street, an IBC ministry partner for 6 years, seeks to reverse course. Offering resources like one-on-one mentoring, leadership training, and sports development, Mercy Street pursues mutually-transforming relationships with the future leaders of West Dallas. This is a narrow-gate dream for families and youth saturated with love.   

Mercy Street utilizes mentors and coaches to assist in transforming West Dallas into a Christ-honoring community through baseball, soccer, and karate teams.  This is the story of how God called minor league player Garrett Baker into little league coaching.

From the time he was young, Garrett was raised to love baseball and Jesus.  “The turning point in my life came when I realized I should play baseball for an audience of One,” Garrett explains. “Regardless of whether my teammates and I played a good or a bad game, I could always play sports in a way that honored God". 

This mindset led to a baseball scholarship at Dallas Baptist University, which featured a Christ-centered ball team with a winning record.  It was here that God strengthened Garrett’s faith and prepared him for the temptations of the secular minor leagues. 

After college, Garrett joined the San Francisco Giants for 2 ½ years where he encountered worldly teammates, heavy partying, and female groupies.  Garrett’s distinctive lifestyle eventually led to spiritual conversations with several teammates, many of whom became followers of Christ.  After completing his education and accepting a job in Dallas, Garrett learned about Mercy Street.

“I really wanted to serve God with my talents,” says Garrett.  “Since sports are a great alternative to video games and spending time on the streets, I decided to serve as a baseball coach.”

The children on Garrett’s teams came from various backgrounds, and most were financially disadvantaged and living with single parents or relatives.  They needed a male role model who would give them boundaries and teach them about respect, teamwork, and having fun.  “Sports are a great platform to minister to kids,” Garrett says.  Garrett sought to minister to the families of his kids, as well.  After every practice, when family members were arriving, Garrett or one of his team members would pray, or hold a devotional.

A highlight of Garrett’s coaching experience was taking his team to the Urban Inner City Initiative Tournament in Houston.  Many of his players had never been out of West Dallas.  In addition to competing in three games, they also attended a Houston Astros baseball game.

Transformation extended to Garrett’s life as well. “I lived in a nice area, but a 15-minute drive opened my eyes to the difficulties facing West Dallas.” He adds, “Becoming a coach took the focus off me and reminded me that my life isn’t about me or my status in the world.  It is about making an impact on God’s kingdom.”

Garrett’s hopes the children he coached will consider remaining in West Dallas to serve alongside Mercy Street and disciple other children from the same difficult backgrounds. Regardless, he desires that his former players will boldly proclaim the gospel wherever life takes them.

Garrett encourages others to volunteer to coach, even if they don’t have a sports background.  “You learn as you go, and coaching is more about being a consistent role model and a good teacher. You need a servant’s heart and a willingness to guide the kids towards Christ.”

After two years at Mercy Street, Garrett recently took a job in the Bay Area of California.  He hopes to link up with a similar sports ministry or perhaps even start his own.  While he will miss his West Dallas kids, he urges other potential coaches to overcome obstacles and excuses.  “GO FOR IT!  Garrett enthuses.  “God will open up your schedule and bless your service.”

Kaylene's Poem

We had each of the Next Level students work on a creative project to express something they've learned this past semester. 

Our hope was that it would cause them to reflect on what they're learning and make it more of their own as they put fresh expression to it. I wish I could share every single thing they shared, but I want to at least give you a glimpse. Attached you will find a poem Kaylene wrote that wrestles with the depravity of human nature and God's grace to us in the moment by moment choices. It's just beautiful! 

I share it with you because every single one of you are playing a part in kids like Kaylene being transformed by the Gospel of Jesus, and I would hate for many of you to miss out on seeing some of the fruit that's coming from your day in and day out service.