The Journey: blog

Updated- ways you can Serve! @BhamDreamCenter on Thursday evenings- See you tonite!you

We have updated the "ways you can serve" on Thursday evenings file. Here's the new pdf:  Download Ways to serve- updated 06-11-2011

Again, if you want to serve, the best ways to get involved are to do any of the following:

1) Use this list and start serving directly on Thursdays. 

2) Go to the registration table. They will have this list and introduce you to a team member.

3) Attend The Growth Track. Attend four weeks, on Thursday evenings, 5:50 p.m. to 6:35 p.m.

More info on  a previous post.

Prayer Force United prayer walk heads to Bessemer for June walk... next Saturday (18th)

Next Saturday, June 18, 2011, the Prayer Force United prayer walks will pick up in Bessemer... This time last year, the group multiplied- now, prayer walks happen on the 3rd Saturday of each month in Birmingham and in Bessemer. We'll join forces this month- just as we did this time last year when their walks were inaugurated on the west side of town.

Walk starts at 10:00 a.m.-  you can join us an hour early for a pre-prayer walk prayer meeting at 9:00 a.m. 

All details are on the pdf flyer, attached: Prayer Force United  Flyer 6-18-11- Bessemer prayer walk

In July, we'll be back in Woodlawn- at The Dream Center.

Ways can you serve at The Dream Center, Thursday evenings

Here's the update... ways you can serve. If you want to jump in, you can do the following:

1) Use this list and start serving directly on Thursdays. The person you need to see is listed. In most cases, they are the leader. Sometimes, they are the person that can get you to the leader. Rest assured, they'll put you to work.

To download the list, you may need to "right click" and "save as"): Ways to serve- updated 06-09-2011

2) Go to the registration table. Anyone there (usually two gals named Julie and Tracy) can help point you in the right direction. 

3) Attend The Growth Track. The Growth Track classes run on Thursdays from 5:50 until 6:35- and are 45 minutes short. Four classes (taught the four Thursdays of each month) will take you from basic Christianity (101), through spiritual disciplines (201), your gifts (301), and your ministry (401).

That's it! Thanks, again- it's very humbling to see so many of you in action, so graciously and eagerly each week.

A staff member from The Village was shot this morning at least four times. He was hit in the neck, the chest, the hip, and the (no kidding) rear end. Local news stories have said that the shots were life-threatening, which is understandable due to the location of the bullets.

Despite the news report, Rob Malcom (the staff member) is doing incredible.

One doctor summarized it, "The stopping point of the bullets doesn't make sense from where they entered his body." 

One entered his chest and missed his heart by an inch.

Another hit his neck and missed his spine, becoming a "superficial" wound.

We visited Rob at the hospital- and the most painful wound is the one in the hip, he says.  When not updating people on the wounds, recounting the story of God's protection from being shot from less than ten feet away, or wincing from the pain in that hip, Rob prays for the man who shot him- a man he has never met and apparently was looking for someone else.

There is no damage to any organs, it appears. They are still running tests and waiting on final results (the shooting was around 10:30 a.m., this morning, so I'm writing about 4.5 hours post-event).

Rob's life story is a testament to the redemptive power of Grace. He currently runs one of The Village's not-for-profit businesses, and spends much of his time pastoring and counseling people coming through the same road he has travelled. His life has been radically changed by Jesus- and the Lord evidently has much more work for him to do.

We are grateful- and will post more about Rob later. Thanks for continuing to pray. 

@BhamDreamCenter mind-dump, from Thursday 05-19-2011

For the past 14-15 weeks we've been running a small group at The Dream Center (though it's not that small, anymore). We fire up the grill around 5:00 p.m., then feed everyone that comes until around 6:30. By 6:45, we're worshiping... 

Here's some thoughts from last night:

• We had 13 people saved last night!- that's 115 in the first 15 weeks.

• 20 people signed on cards that they want to be baptized next week.

• The 50 new red chairs we received two weeks ago are already full!

• Each person baptized will receive a shirt that says, "I got baptized." It will also have The Dream Center logo on the back.

• Best part of the shirt... Robert Record actually took his polo off- during the cookout and put the model on. It was a small- and, yes, it fit!

• 1,250 Bibles were donated by Books-A-Million to The Dream Center. We were able to give many of them out to people who attended last night.

• It is incredible to see so many teams coming together of people that are so eager to love and serve the people of our city... whether it be by cooking, serving meals, praying in the prayer tent, beginning new classes... It is an honor to serve with all of these people.

• Many of you have asked how you can serve, what you can do... We are actually going to create a list this week that Mark Bensinger will have in his hand on Thursday nights... 

• 101, 201, 301, 401... classes to help you discover basic Christianity (101), how to read the Bible & pray (201), your gifts and abilities (301), and your ministry (401) will start in June. Until then, we can work from the list and put you to work!

• I ran into a young man that I met at The Dream Center last week... then, providentially, ended up praying for him at the LIFE retreat on this past Saturday morning. He has someone that needs the men's discipleship program we do... The Lord continues bringing him back before me... I believe the Lord is going to raise him up to do some incredible things. I'm starting to see that He brings some of these relationships full circle.

• In two weeks, Eddie (the grill master- and, yes, he really is a grill master) is serving donated chickens from the grill. He told me that he believed cooking for the Kingdom may be his calling- I agree with him 

• We scored a baby sitter last night- Cristy and I are going on a date Monday. Thank you, Jaclyn!

These five people... and the people they will help train... are going to help bring change to our city. I'm grateful for their friendship, and humbled to be standing behind them.

Mark, Alexa, John, Gene, Keith... Thank you. The overflow of what the Lord is doing in each of you- and through each of you- is glorious and beautiful!

Help us raise $250,000 over the next 30 days!

 

Here are two ways you can help us raise $250,000 towards the Carraway project. 

1) Go to www.TheVillagePepsiGrant.com. You will be redirected to Pepsi's website and will need to register (you can do this and log-in with FaceBook, etc., or just register with an email address). If they redirect you after that, retype www.TheVillagePepsiGrant.com and it will take you to our "voting" / project page. You can vote for us right there, as well as post our project to your FaceBook wall, tweet it out, etc...

2) Text our code number (104108) - without the parentheses!- to Pepsi's number (73774) each day. It's free- and they will confirm that your vote went through.

Through these voting methods, you can push us to a $250,000 prize.

Here's what it's for:

We have an apartment complex on the northwest corner of the Carraway Hospital, which we will renovate and open for foster care / youth. It will provide housing and will be a community center for teens with no place to live. In addition, it will pool from the resources of the ministry mall next door. You can see our video and learn about it on the Pepsi site where you vote. The video is 3 minutes long.

We submitted a $250,000 grant request to Pepsi. Instead of investing money in Superbowl ads this year, they committed to giving away $1.3 million per month to various groups who would apply online through their website: www.RefreshEverything.com. To that end, we submitted a request on October 1- so that we could have our project go for voting on November 1. 

The votes are purely democratic. Everyone who has a project solicits their family and friends to vote each day throughout the month. In the end, the projects in each category with the most votes are funded.  That's why we need you to text every day during the month of November- and why we need you to vote on the site.

We applied for $250,000 to run the foster care program from the apartment adjacent to the park, near the large parking deck (north of the main hospital). It would be helpful if you could do the following: Have your co-workers, church members, associates from other groups, etc., do the following each day:

Would you do the following?

1) Go to www.TheVillagePepsiGrant.com. You will be redirected to Pepsi’s site and will need to register and log-in. Then, vote for us. You can vote once a day in this way.

2) Text our code number (104108) to Pepsi’s number (73774) each day. 

Then, share the word- post it on FaceBook, pass this email along... Twitter it...

Thanks, so much!

 

Shot for the Pepsi "Refresh Everything" grant- would transform one of the apartment complexes near the Carraway Hospital site into an apartment-living situation geared towards 18-year olds aging out of the foster care system in Jefferson County. They would live on-site, with a roommate... with "dorm parents" living down the hall in another apartment unit. And, they would participate in a program which would consist of life-skills training, vocational development / opportunities, and even college classes through a local university. More to come.

The voting starts on November 1, on the Pepsi "Refresh Everything" website. Links and details will be posted in the next few days.

Forget what you saw in Pretty Woman (which, by the way, is a movie about a prostitute that is genre'd as a comedy). Most prostitutes are victims, not shrewd business women. 

Just last year, my wife ran into a woman who was fleeing being beaten by her pimp and his other ladies- in the middle of broad daylight. The young woman ran onto our front porch for refuge- at about 12 noon.

Victims of human trafficking in our city- yes, Birmingham- generally fall under a set of guidelines for the "industry" that goes something like this:

1) The job pays about $15 per person- the cost the purchaser pays for the services to the prostitute (yes, fifteen- not several hundred like you see in the movies).

2) The pimp keeps 100% of the take- that's right, the woman makes nothing.

3) In exchange, she receives food, shelter, and "protection" (meaning that the pimp is the only one who is allowed to beat or rape her).

In other words, none of these women (who are God's daughters) are doing this because they are making a business or career move. They, simply, have nowhere to go... and are, the vast majority of the time, addicted to drugs. They feel trapped, and need someone to bring the message of freedom, an expression of Jesus' unconditional love, and walk with them through restoration...

She Dances is a group led by Jeremy Springer, who brings hope to the women in Honduras. Our joint prayer is that soon this same freedom can come to those in our great city.

Here's the two week notice... on November 5th/6th (Friday/Saturday) from 7:00 pm Friday until 10:00 pm Saturday- around the clock... the Birmingham Prayer Furnace is holding a 27-hour "come and go" prayer meeting at the warehouse (300 24th Street South).

Rumor has it... we'll make an off-site trip at 11:00am on Saturday, to pray off-site for an hour for a massive inner-city ministry project. If you have one hour to give, mark your calendar for Saturday, November 6th, 11:00 am.

Below is a video from the Prayer Furnace site: