Top 5- for the week ending March 31, 2012

Top 5 for week ending 03/31- as always, in no particular order. Just 5 great / fun / exciting things for which we are thankful… all of which happened in the last week.

1. Laundry room / laundromat now open. We tinkered with ways to wash clothes for all the people who have moved into- and will be moving into- The Village. The solution: an on-site laundromat. After a bit of running new pipes (plumbing) and lots of wire (who knew washers and dryers require so much) we’re up and running. Official opening of room: Tuesday, April 2.

2. Reunited- mother and son. This week a mother in our program was able to see her son for the first time in… as of her count… 8 years.

Mother and son- reunited after 8 years. Look how tall the handsome lad is!

3. Pastor Larry Coleman, Galilee Baptist, was in the house. This past Monday (03/26) we were honored to have Pastor Larry from Galilee Baptist visit / tour our new place. His church is about 1 mile from where we are located. Pastor Larry leads a group of local pastors (in the neighborhood) of various denominations and worship styles.

Pastor Larry will help us set up a time to gather these leaders together in the next few weeks to come see the new place, as well as brainstorm as to what ministry we can do together to do things bigger and better. We look forward to meeting our brothers and sisters in Christ who have been laboring in the area for quite some time faithfully.

4. Two new interns, cranked up. We add two more case managers to the roster as of this week…. bringing the total added over the last two weeks to three more. Welcome Brian, Jason, and Jason- really they have the same name. Brian’s been here for a few months and has just taken the new role; Jason (#1) has been at it since Wednesday; Jason (#2) starts on Monday, April 2. These are all gracious, Spirit-filled men who have a call from the Lord on their lives. I look forward to seeing the great things they do.

5. Tricia Gunn teaches grace at The Village. This Tuesday evening (03/27), Tricia taught grace to our residents and friends. This is the area in which she has received incredible revelation from our Heavenly Father. We were honored to have her. The audio will be up soon on The Village site. By the way, Tricia’s website / blog is www.UnveilingJesus.com.

Trica teaching at The VIllage.

Top 5- for the week ending 03/24/2012- better late than never : )

Here’s the top 5 for last week.  As always, this is somewhat of a “thankful journal”of what we got to see last week.

And, I’m sorry for the last post- it’s been a bit of a busy weekend, with taking time off and all : )

1. Tuesday nights are rolling well. That’s the night we teach the core curriculum at The Village. At some point in the future, I’ll explain what we teach. Anyway, Pastor Rick Cooper from Open Door Church was our guest speaker on 03/20. He’s an incredible man with the Father’s heart. Since I’m posting this on Thursday, 03/29, I’ll let you know that Tricia Gunn spoke about grace on 03/27. We’ll post the audio as soon as it’s edited and ready to go.

2. Community Garden starts blooming. Several of the guys at The Village have begun working, part time, volunteer, at the community garden across the street. A few people in the neighborhood have provided the brains; we’ve provided the brawn (spelling?). It’s as simple as that. By the way, here’s a pic of the greenhouse:

3. The family floor has been open for a few weeks. Thus far, we’ve housed married couples only. This past week, that changed. We opened our doors to the first married couple with kids- a husband, a wife, a beautiful 2-year old, and a baby-to-be!

4. A big thanks to The WellHouse. Last week, they blessed us with a truck load (literally) of much needed soaps, shampoos, Bibles, and other necessities for the ladies at The Village. By the way,  here’s a quick video of Tajuan, the founder, talking about The WellHouse on Channel 13.

5. Sozo team: Saturday, 03/24/2012, the team (led by Brannon Nix, a staff member at The Village) ran 30 Sozo sessions on-site with the team from Bethel Church in Atlanta. This was a great kick-off to what promises to be an amazing facet of what we’re doing at The Village.

New signs: now you know when you’re here

I’ll post the “top five” for last week later today or early tomorrow… Here’s a small thing that won’t make the top 5 that’s some what of a big deal to us- even though it’s small. Namely, we actually have a sign on our property, now! Sounds like a little thing, I know- but people couldn’t tell if they were “here” or not before the installation.

There’s a pic of Levi helping with the install.

We have signs on the front lawn as well as attached to the wings of the building- and near the front entrance.

Top 5 for last week (week ending 03/17/2012)

Here’s the weekly update. Again, it’s somewhat of our “look back” at what we see happening around us.

1. The tide is turning at The Village. I don’t know if this one makes sense to anyone except me. The fact is, we run a facility in which a lot of people would rather be in other places. People that are court-ordered would rather be at home. People that come to us from the Department of Corrections would rather be with their family. People who come to us from addictions would rather be with loved ones… Do you see a common theme?

The truth is, for us, we would rather them want to be those places. It’s healthy. However, I would rather them not “despise” or consider in any way that we are holding them back from what they really want / need. If anything, we are a launch pad. The truth is that some never see it. However, I see a greater “ease” and “peace” as we are settling into the  new facility.

Much of this, honestly, has to do with many of the men and women who currently call The Village home. They have, lately, stepped up to repair plumbing, to paint, to build beds, to create a courtyard in the rear or our facility… though this is temporary for them, they have blessed us and will be a blessing to others to come.

And that’s one of the “top 5″ for the week.

2. We have an incredible staff that only keeps getting better. And, it’s a joy to see them working together in such a fluid and honoring way. This Tuesday, a few of the team went to the nearby neighborhood meeting to share ways in which we can help if a disaster hits our area (i.e, tornado preparedness). Others stayed back and led the classes.

It’s hard to boil a “feel” or a “sense of unity” to a few words and a blog post. When you’ve walked both sides of the spectrum however, you can completely sense the difference. It’s tangible.

I’m honored by our team.

3. The Sozo team. Thursday we had a cook-out and discussed the upcoming plans for the team (which, by the way, will start meeting for training each Thursday night at The Village). You can contact  Brannon Nix for more info. Brannon did a great job of leading the meeting (this is his ministry; he is the team leader). We look forward to seeing how this all unfolds.

By the way, you can still join that team. In fact, a crew of us were at Open Door Church this Sunday morning where I was preaching. At the end of the message, a few people actually approached Brannon. They had seen blog posts and heard other “rumors” of the Sozo ministry unfolding… there are now 6-8 of them who will likely join the team.

The more, the merrier. After all, Jesus said the harvest is plentiful- pray for laborers!

4. The women’s ministry at The Village keeps getting better and better. This week, we opened a second computer lab (just for the women). As well, we were able to … get this… knock out a few walls… and adjoin a few unused closets that were attached to another office… and double their office space.

The best part… it was all unused space… and it was all done by guys in-house (see #1 above). Thanks, Wes & Wesley- yes, two different guys with the same first name.

5. This week is the series of Sozo sessions at The Village; number of sessions increased. Bethel Church of Atlanta’s team is coming  on Saturday, March 24. We had originally planned 3 time slots with 7 sessions each. Due to the demand, we added a few more sessions- raising the number of available opportunities to 10 per time slot. Now, there are 30 sessions all on Saturday.

Note: there are no more openings at this time. However, we are looking to do another round in another month or so.

As well, remember, the next Sozo training session will be the first weekend of June.

Related articles

• Top 5 from last week (andrewejenkins.wordpress.com)
• Top 5 from last week (welcometothevillage.wordpress.com)
• Sozo Training // Saturday, February 4, 9am – 4pm (welcometothevillage.wordpress.com)
• More about the Sozo training / doing for the weekend of March 24, 2012 (welcometothevillage.wordpress.com)
• Sozo ministry training / Saturday February 4, 2012 / 9 am – 4 pm (andrewejenkins.wordpress.com)
• Top 5 from last week (week ending 02/25/12) (andrewejenkins.wordpress.com)

Top 5 for the week (week ending 03/10/2012)

There it is. An actual employee handbook. Real job descriptions. Forms to use. Etc. All official, now

Here’s the news for last week. Again, this is in no order of particular importance- it’s all stuff we’re thankful for. Consider it our sort of weekly “thankful journal” for what we see the Lord doing in our midst.

1. Excellent neighborhood meeting. This one was such an experience that I’ve written about it in a separate post altogether. Read that for more info.

2. Bethel Church, Atlanta… We made a road trip Tuesday, six of us. It was full of laughing and joy. We were able to visit the “Healing Rooms” at Bethel Atlanta, as well as meet with some of their leaders from the staff and the school of ministry. The Village plans to implement a similar ministry in the future.

3. Free van from Piney Grove Missionary Baptist. Thursday I received a phone call from a staff member (who was off that day). “We’ve got another van,” he told me. Though we hadn’t advertised the need for one, or asked, there it was. Turns out, a pastor-friend of David’s (the staff member) in Hattiesburg, MS, needed two vans for his church. So, he told his congregation, “Sow where you want to reap” (i.e., you can’t plant in this field and expect a harvest in that field, or put corn seeds in this garden and expect them to grow down the street…  so, if you want a van- or two- you should plant a van). Then- “Let’s call The Village and bless them.”

4. Heath & his friends keep hitting the streets- and bringing more people in. That’s right. The guy who leads the street ministry out of our place- and provides case management for “walk-in” residents (i.e., came from the streets) has been at it, again, and has been building a great team of both men and women who are helping facilitate redemption daily.

5. We’re official, now. We have an actual employee handbook, complete with job descriptions, forms, etc. That’s it in the pic above. Sounds like a small thing, I know… and, though it’s not going to be devotional / inspirational reading for anyone, we’ve got it. Now, at least, we can all move forward with a more fluid ease to everything, since everything is written down, described, outlined, etc…

By the way, if you are in a similar ministry and need the info (to use, tweak, adapt, whatever), email me- we’ll send you the PDF free of charge. No strings attached.

Our team just got bigger- and it’s unified : )

Around the table. Checking calendars and dates for upcoming service projects / opportunities.

Excellent neighborhood meeting on Wednesday, March 7. Several of the neighbors came to a (planned) meeting on Wednesday- to work on the Open House (we would love for you to come, Saturday, April 7th, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm, come-and-go). We also planned to brainstorm some ways we could serve the immediate area around our new location.

The planning happened. Sure enough.

As it did, though, we toured the facility. A few of our new friends hadn’t seen it; a few had- but so much had changed, even in the previous two weeks or so, since they had been there.

A quiet walk of the halls was nothing of the sort.

It was a joy to see Gwin, Minister Ty, Cheyl, and others burst into spontaneous prayers (Ty could, I believe, pray paint off the walls or tile off the floor if she tried- the kind of prayers that stop storms and raise the dead!) and songs (they even made Jonathan, our Business Manager, pull the guitar and sing. Gwin’s heart is big- as big as the love of Christ that has been poured into her. And Cheryl is gentle and tender…

• Minister Ty will rotate into our Tuesday night teaching schedule (when we teach our core curriculum to the residents), as well as lead small groups on our Identity class.
• Others will be there for dinner times- and to have a presence.
• We discussed ways of taking our food trailer / mobile kitchen to neighborhood clean-up days and other special events.

• And, they are helping with the Open House. This is not just “our” house- it is our house.

They hugged residents; they laughed with staff; they lingered long after the meeting was over… as old friends do.

Our team just got bigger. We are honored to serve with these great people and look forward to seeing what the Lord has in store.

Cheryl and Gwin (our neighborhood President)- such women of grace.

Top 5 for the week (week ending 03/03/12)

Here’s the top 5 for the previous week at The Village- in no particular order. 

1. New partnering church. We are pleased to announce that Open Door / The Father’s House is a new church that has entered into partnership with us. I will be preaching at their morning service on Sunday, March 18- in just two weeks. Pastor Rick Cooper, in turn, will be teaching our residents at The Village on Tuesday, March 20.

2. The Dental Lab looks like it may have an accelerated time line. Suffice it to say, a few meetings lined up last week in nothing less that what could be described as a “God-thing.” Interestingly enough, I think the ministry venue this lab will create is going to be one of the biggest things we do this year. We’ll have the equipment all tested in the next few weeks to make sure nothing was damaged in transport from the old-site to our new home. As well, we’ll start putting a working framework (on paper) to how this thing will happen (in reality) to get the doors open.

3. Role changes with the staff. In the last week we’ve moved the Business Manager to the Women’s Program Director role. We’ve moved the Program Director to the Business Manager position- and we’ve moved a Case Manager to the Program Director role. It’s been an interesting shuffle- and has been incredible to see people step confidently into their new roles, as we align them more with their God-given gifts and callings. We’ll update the staff / contact page this week with updated phone numbers, etc.

4. I’ve been humbled by some relationships we’ve forged with some nearby business leaders. Their experience has enabled us to do far more than what we imagined in an shorter time frame. It’s great to see people believe in you, believe in the vision of what could be- and to back it. In a real way, what you’ll see when we have the Open House on Saturday, April 7 (5:00 – 7:00 pm) is the fruit of many people carrying the load together.

5. Sozo. The sessions for March 24 are (already) about full! Specifically, there are 2 slots left (as of lunch Monday, 3/5, anyway). We’re discussed adding more times / slots for that day- but have opted to do a second series of Sozos a few weeks later. We’ll post the dates / times / how to sign up in the next week.