This year we had Power House Christmas at 8 different locations with a total attendance of 370 parents and kids and 53 decisions for Christ. I was able to be at all but two of our sites. I guess you could say that I had the privilege of getting a bird’s eye view of our event.
Our lesson was about being a gift to God. People are valuable and God cares for each one the same. It is awesome to be a part of a church that reaches out to the community. This year particularly, even during a recession that has shook many in our own congregation, I saw people with the heart of God give of themselves to bless others that are less fortunate. Church members donated turkeys and other food items which were given to a parent from each site. Volunteers went beyond the call of duty. At one site, a couple of our volunteers baked cakes and knitted together stockings for all the kids. The night of the blizzard, volunteers battled the weather to make sure the kids didn’t miss out on Power House Christmas. Lives were touched. This year I saw God’s love demonstrated.
See pictures of our event on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=photos&ref=ts&gid=68532346215
Power House Christmas starts next week! We are currently collecting Christmas dinner food items like, turkeys, dressing, stuffing, canned food items etc. At this point, parents at each site will enter a drawing for a chance to win a food box. If we get enough food boxes, we will give them to the parents who show up. Donations can be dropped off at the Rezkidz office. Here are the Power House Christmas dates and times:
- December 1st – Alexander Elementary 7 PM
- December 3rd -Traditions Apartments 6:30 PM
- December 7th – Sun Flower Apartments 7 PM
- December 8th – Clancy Street Ministries 6:30 PM
- December 10th – Acts Gospel 7 PM
- December 10th – Grace Korean Church 7 PM
- December 14th – Lansing 6 PM
Come out and join us!
A man who was a great influence in my life passed away today. Through TV ministry, world missions, and international Bible colleges, Pastor Billy Joe Daugherty has impacted lives of millions around the world. Because of him, thousands of people are reached on a weekly basis in Tulsa. Just this last weekend his church fed 3900 people Thanksgiving meals. Each week 1200+ children come to church through the bus ministry. Thousands are ministered to through Sidewalk Sunday School and food ministry. Pastor Billy Joe was an amazing man of God. His church is known for outreach; the one thing that amazed me about Victory Christian Center was you could have a millionaire sitting on one side of you and a homeless guy on the other.
I’m just one of the many people whose life that were touched by Pastor Billy Joe. I attendend Victory Bible Institute in 1999 -2001 and stayed in Tulsa a while longer getting involved with the bus and sidewalk ministry at Victory Christian Center. Outreach is in my DNA. Hearing about Pastor’s graduation to heaven today just inspires me to do more. Pastor has done more in his lifetime than what many could accomplish in five lifetimes! He has left a legacy.
What we accomplish in this life will echo throughout eternity. We’re given one life, one chance to have an impact on the world. Will we live a self-absorbed life? Or will we live a life that makes a differnce in others? I want to leave an impact in this world. I want to leave a legacy.
Thank you Pastor Billy Joe for passing the torch on to us.
Last night was the second time that we were able to bring Power House kids to be baptized. We had 4 kids from our Sun Flower site come. I drove the van to pick them up and drop them off. They were very excited on the way to church. I think they were even more excited on their way back. (They got pretty hyped up on candy and cake.) 
We baptized 29 kids including our 4 Power House kids. In my opinion, the two most powerful events that we have here in Rezkidz/Power House is camp and baptism. I love it! After the kids got baptized, we laid our hands on them and prayed for them. When it is all said and done, the kids had a special reception in their honor decorated like a Birthday party. It was another awesome event. Check out a few pictures from the event.
Wow, all I can say is we are busy! Check out the upcoming dates:
5/6/09 – Power House baptisms will take place at 6:30 PM here at Reslife. We’re teaching about baptism at a handful of our sites. Those children who are interested in being baptized will be joining us. Last year we opened up this opportunity to one of our Power House sites and two children along with their families came. It’s a powerful service!
5/15/09 – Those children who have completed 13 of their Bible Adventures (Bible related homework) will be able to go to Craig’s Crusiers for laser tag. It’s a fun relationship building event.
5/16/09 – The Power House children that were picked to go to camp will be having a car wash to help raise money. The car wash will be held at Walgreen’s on the corner of 44th and Ivanrest from 11 AM – 2 PM.
6/15-19/09 – The first session of camp starts at camp Ao-Wa-Kiya. A few of our Power House kids will be attending this session, but most of them will attend the session in August at Springhill.
Other Stuff
So far we have raised $335.96 with our Power House Adopt-A-Camper cause. $185.96 has come from Rezkidz offerings from this weekend and $150 has come from other donors. That leaves us with $2,864.04 to reach our goal. Find out more about our cause on Facebook or click here to donate.
Power House gears up for a new season and wants to send 2 kids from each site to KidzCamp!
Can you even believe how great technology is?! We have great tools at the tips of our fingers and Pastor Jon knows how to tap into these awesome resources! Power House is on Facebook! If you don’t know what Facebook is, it’s a great website to network and connect with friends, family, and people. I’m here to tell you it’s an awesome tool you can use to connect with people you wouldn’t normally connect with on a regular basis. There’s something called a cause on the site it’s been used for the relentless campaign, keep Christ in schools, and many other types of causes. Now we are using it to get the word out for our Adopt-A-Camper for Power House. We have 69 people who are supporting the cause and counting, what’s that mean? It just simply means that we are getting the word out to people how they can support the Power House kids to go to camp. There’s also a donate link for donations. We believe that camp is a great way to get to really know our Power House kids. The more time spent with these kids fosters a greater influence in their lives. To just win them to Christ is not enough! We need to give them a firm foundation for their lives and mentor them as they continue to grow more like Jesus. We have solid evidence in two of our kids that grew up in Power House at our Dickinson site. Jamal is now at Michigan State and Jamar is working in RezKidz at our Lansing Reslife. They both head up the Power House sites there. Jamar and Jamal are both on fire for the Lord and continue to grow as mighty men for the Lord. I see each of these kids at Power House as potential men and women who will spread the gospel of Christ and be great influences for the Kingdom of God! All of the volunteers are so important and play a crucial part in each of the kids lives that they come in contact with. Let’s make this years camp experience be a truly successful one!
Here’s some dates to save on the calendar for Power House:
April 26th: is the bike-a-thon
May 6th: Power House kids Baptism
May 16th: Car wash @ Walgreen’s corner of Rivertown pkwy and Ivanrest
We are partnering with these kids to help them raise the money needed to send them to camp. We also have the Adopt-A-Camper program where people can donate money online. We also want to thank RezKidz for partnering with Power House to send kids to camp by taking up a special offering for our “Future campers”. Luke 6:38 It’s a great way teach these kids about missions and connect with our Power House kids.
It’s been said that it takes a village to raise a child, how true that statement is each of us have an awesome responsibility. Let’s get a hold of them before the streets do, God needs us to be that village.
Proverbs 22:6
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
Char Chandler
Power House Ministry
On Saturday, March 21st at 6 PM we will be having an all team meeting to kick off this season of sidewalk Sunday school. Come be encouraged and informed. We’ll be in room 513 by entrance I. We will have food. If you have kids, you might want to come early to check them into the service. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
If you aren’t currently volunteering with Power House, but are interested, feel free to drop by the meeting.
jonl@reslife.org
(616) 534-4923
Well, so far we have had two tutoring sessions at Traditions Apartments. We had 11 kids and 9 tutors show up last week and 13 kids and 9 tutors this week, which means we almost have a one to one ratio. The first week we mainly played games just to get to know the kids. This week we had a handful of kids show up with homework, but the majority didn’t have any. For the kids that didn’t have any, we spent time working on their math skills. We grouped the kids together by their school grades and then played War. To win a hand, the kids would have to do a math problem. The younger kids worked on their addition and subtraction while the older kids worked on multiplication and division. One of the third grade boys had so much fun that he said he was going come next week at 5:59 (We start at 6 PM). That’s good because half the kids seem to arrive 30 minutes into tutoring. I have a trick up my sleeve for the weeks to come to get the kids there on time.
I’m really excited about what God is doing there at Traditions through tutoring. I like the challenge of starting something new. I mentioned to the tutors this week how awesome it is to be a part of these kids’ lives. For some of the kids, schoolwork can be extremely stressful. I remember being in first grade. My mom worked late trying to put food on the table, so she didn’t have a lot of time to help me with my homework. To make matters worse, unfortunately, at the time, my mom wasn’t serving God. She had a boyfriend living in the house who wasn’t a good fatherly figure. He was abusive. He hated God and everything to do with God. We kids were extremely afraid of him. Some of the dumbest things would make him furious. I remember getting physically punished just because I dropped a newspaper. To avoid being punished, I would take home schoolwork that I got good grades on. All the work that I got D’s or F’s on I would leave in my desk at school. One day my first grade teacher noticed all the trash spilling out of my desk. She made me clean out my desk and take them home. I dreaded going home that day. I remember watching the clock. My stomach turning in knots as it got closer to 3 o’clock. My brother always got home from school much later than me. That day my brother got home from school before me, because I walked as slow as I possibly could. During my long journey home, I threw some of the papers away in the trash can at the park. I would then walk a few feet and drop a few papers. I continued to drop a few papers here and there as I walked. I felt like I was doing wrong, but I didn’t want to get in trouble. (If I would have thought about it, I would have thrown all the papers away.) I finally got home with about half the papers that I started with. I don’t remember how I was punished. All I remember is that it wasn’t good. For me, schoolwork was extremely frustrating. I had no one to help me with my homework. I tried hard to get things right, but seemed to fail the more I tried. I just needed help. The kids that we are working with may not be going through the same situation that I was, but there are kids who are in turmoil over schoolwork. With tutoring we are able to offer help to these kids and at the same time introduce them to the Prince of Peace.
Interested in investing in the life of a Power House child? There is no better way than by helping a child attend Kids Camp. Before moving to Michigan, I was involved with an inner-city camp every summer. And even now, as we send a few Power House kids to camp, the transformation in their lives is evident. The same kids who would come with their hats tilted to the side acting all tough, would be crying their eyes out at the altar the next night. Psalm 97:5 says, “The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.” As these kids gets out of their environment and into the presence of God, the mountains in their lives, whether it be problems at home/school or hurts from certain circumstances, begin to melt like wax and hearts are softened.
In the past we’ve been able to send two or three Power House kids to camp each year, but this summer, logistics work in our favor to potentially bring many more. The extent to which we can seize this opportunity hinges on the amount of support that can be raised to fund each child. Would you invest in the life of a child?
The cost of camp is $220 for Camp Ao-Wa-Kiya or $260 for SpringHill Camp. These are both small prices to pay to make such an impact in a child’s life. You can give towards a specific child’s account or donate anonymously. You can give as much, or as little, as you want.
We have 3 easy ways for you to donate:
- Drop off any donated amount to the RezKidz office.
- Mail in a check. Make checks out to Resurrection Life Church or RLC. Be sure to write “Power House Camper” on the memo line.
- Donate online. (There is a $3 charge to donate online for administrative costs.)
You may have never thought about it, but there is a real art to giving things away. Have you ever had an event where you were giving stuff away and ran out? You had some angry folks didn’t you? Or have you ever gave stuff away and felt the person receiving it really did not need it? Here are a few tips to make sure you continuously have happy customers and to make sure your gifts get put into the right hands. Some of these tips are pretty basic, but others are worth pondering. Continue reading ‘The Art of Giving Things Away’
