REDUCE POVERTY IN OUR TIME

On Tues April 28, over 1000 Christians, your brothers and sisters, went to Capitol Hill to knock on the doors of our Senators and Representatives, to ask them to remember the poor. Fourteen members of Lee Heights were among them. Our commission as we left Washington DC was to go back to our communities and work for justice because NOW IS THE TIME.
The church is living water. It can choose to be a reservoir-- where people can come to a safe place to drink the living water and sustain it can flow like a river. Where the river flows, there will always be life.
The reservoir starts full, but people drink from it without replenishing, they confine themselves to the walls of the reservoir. There are boundaries. It is safe.
But the river flows. Where it goes new life begins. The power of the river goes outward. Its strength is not controllable. It takes you to new places, not where you want to go but where it needs you to go.
There are 40 million children living below the poverty line. 26,000 children under 5 die every day. 200,000 children are homeless on any given night in the U.S. That is one in 4 of all of our homeless. In 2001 when Evangelicals were asked the question are you willing to help an AIDS orphan, only 3% said yes. they were less likely to answer yes than atheists or people from other religions.
Only 2-!/2% of American churchgoers tithe. That tithe is 75% less than in Blblical time. The highest level of tithing in American history was in 1933, the height of the depression. 98% of our tithe is spent in the U.S. That leaves 2% for the rest of the world. That amounts to 6 pennies per Christian per day. If the missing 7.5 % tithe was given by every Christian, it would dwarf most country's budgets and poverty could easily be eliminated by the church. NOW IS THE TIME.
The reservoir is evaporating. Its starting to stink. There is algae growing on top.
But the river flows. It pounds against the rock of poverty until it becomes a stone, It pounds against the stone of injustice until it becomes a pebble. It pounds against the pebble of indifference until it becomes sand. It pounds against the sand of our greed until it becomes silt and then the river carries the silt away.
Poverty is everywhere, in every community. There is so much of God's work to be done.
NOW IS THE TIME.
There is a movement afoot. People are starting community gardens. People are teaching Green jobs to high school dropouts and former inmates.
NOW IS THE TIME
People who once thought poverty was someone else's problem are now one mortgage And the work is the work of the church.payment away from losing their homes and people are pitching in.
NOW IS THE TIME
People are advocating for the poor in Washington and at home.
NOW IS THE TIME.

And the work is the work of the church. The river of the church can flow in places its never been. It can bring new life to communities. It can be about God's work.

 JEWS for JESUS

THANK YOU for YOUR MINISTRY

Lee Heights Community Church- A Christ-centered church family welcomes all without exception to join us in worship, in fellowship and service; to be peacemakers and share the love of Jesus and the Holy Word of God in our communities.

HELP NEEDED

Youth Group Leader
Sacara Martin

                                            
Categories and Sub-categories of how I would like to expand the Youth Ministry:

1.       Spiritual Development
Sunday School Sacara will continue to teach but would like volunteers to come and speak to youth as guest speakers or presenters. Also if anyone is willing to coordinate volunteers in the church who are available to give rides to kids on Sundays so that they can attend Sunday School on a regular basis.

Youth Led Worship Services Sacara willing to continue in this area but needs help getting rides for kids so they can attend rehearsals and be there on Sunday. Also help preparing breakfast for the kids.

Christmas Play need people who are interested in taking this on as an independent project.

Skits for Worship Need someone who will coordinate the youth and the elders so that the youth can plan and rehearse skits to go along with the scripture readings on Sundays. Would also like to have the youth give one of the Black History presentations each year.

Praise Band who can coordinate some of the youth into a praise band?? If interested get youth together and meet with Jeff and Eileen to rehearse. They need someone who will get the youth to rehearsal and to Sunday worship on a consistent basis.

Prayer Group people who will get together to pray for the youth and youth group.

2.       Program Development
Volunteer Coordinator need someone to help coordinate all volunteers

Calls and Rides Coordinator as you can see throughout this outline is a theme that one of the things the youth ministry needs is a system for calling youth and parents and a system for transporting youth to activities, rehearsals and church.

Community Outreach Coordinators we not been that successful at getting new kids from the neighborhood to join the youth group. We need a group of adults who are willing to help advertise game night and try to get youth from community to attend.

3.       Service
Service projects I would like to see the youth complete two service projects each year.

Community Garden we want to pair each youth with an adult gardener. The youth will play a large role in planning, gardening and distribution of the food.

Community Outreach and Service this can be accomplished by youth volunteering to help with the Community Development Corporation houses. We need some adults to attend and help coordinate this effort.

Peace Team we want the youth group to participate in the Peace Team at JFK with Carol Boddy's group. How can we work on this?


4.       Recreation and Activities
Youth Nights - currently the youth have about one youth night per month at the church. Sacara will continue to plan and attend youth nights.

Recreation -when the youth want to attend activities or recreation outside the church we will need volunteer drivers who will also act as additional adult supervision for the youth.

Game Nights - We need a large group of adults who are willing to host game nights at least twice a month at the church. This will include free food and activities will be open to the area youth. We need to have strong adult participation, especially adult men, people who are willing to rotate so that one individual does not end up doing all the game nights and we also need someone who will make sure that the Lee Heights Youth are in attendance to host.

5.       College
College Liaison someone who is willing to be the contact person for the Mennonite Schools and other schools and who will plan college trips and coordinate when the schools recruiters want to come and visit us. This person would work closely with Sacara to determine the needs of the individual youth.

6.       Finances
Accounting is handled by Helen Miller and Sacara

Fundraising Sacara is willing to continue working in this area but reallt needs a team of three or more people she can rely on who are willing to plan, coordinate and execute (along with the youth) at least four fundraisers per year. This will also require someone who will call the youth and their parents and will get the kids rides when necessary.

Coffee Hour I have been unsuccessful in getting the youth to help clean up after coffee hour even though they get much of the proceeds from the donut sales. It would be nice if someone could coordinate with parents to get them to donate baked goods and help their kids clean up at least once a month or once every other month.         

Convention Sacara will continue to be the major coordinator for convention. We will need adults to help prepare for convention like making the banner ordering t-shirts, fundraising, etc. I usually like to get the college age kids to attend the convention but sometimes we need adults to step in and fill that role.


TOP PRIORITIES FOR YOUTH VOLUNTEERS:

         1. Prayer Group
a.      
b.      
c.      
d.      

         2. Game Night and Recreation Volunteer Supervisors
a.      
b.      
c.      
d.      
e.      
f.      
g.      

         3. Calls and Rides Coordinators for Activities Rehearsals and Church
a.      
b.      
c.      

         4. Fundraising Team
a.      
b.      
c.      
d.      
e.      

         5. Volunteer Coordinator
a.      

         6. College Visits Team
a.      
b.      
c.