by Bradley Stokes, Elementary/Teen Program Supervisor of The City Mission
The City Missions Pathways Teen Programs have been offering hope to many Cleveland teens for years. One way is through our scholarship program which awards students $1,000 per semester based on a few requirements. The City Mission has given aways thousands of dollars to teens helping provide hope and a positive future. The world says we’re working with a generation of teens that have no hope, but that is not true for the teens that come to Pathways. I see hope in each one of my students. While working with them can be challenging, it’s definitely rewarding. Pathways Teen Programs have been a safe place for Cleveland’s inner city teens to learn, grow in Christ, and have fun for years. I get an awesome feeling in knowing that the teens in this area look forward to being a part of Pathways.
There are two important things to keep in mind when working with teens, one is to be real at all times and two is to build relationships. Without those two items, you cannot be effective in teen ministry. Our teens have a saying that says “real reconginze real” which means if you are not being real with them, they can tell and when they sense that, they are not willing to open up and talk about issues going on in their life. Teens are looking for someone who genuially cares for their well being and is not afraid to be honest with them. I have a goal that every time a teen comes to our program they learning something new, most importantly something new about the Lord.
Our teens are dealing with a lot when they come to the Pathways Teen Program. It’s imporant that we become a support system and show them the type of love that Christ showed to us. That’s how they will know there is hope when others say there is no hope. Some come in and don’t want to hear about the Lord, but through building a relationship with them they become open and willing to listen. The greatest thing is seeing transformation on a weekly basis and seeing them realizing their potential. We must keep the light shining here at Pathways, there are teens waiting to be impacted by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Matt 5:16 “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
Just like the seasons have changed since God first created the earth, we also go through seasons in our lives. This year marks the 100th anniversary of The City Mission and the seventh anniversary of Laura’s Home.
At Laura’s Home we see many women and children blossom into a better life, a deeper faith, and a desire to be all they can be. There is such a feeling of awe, to see how God can take someone who has never known Him or had the help they needed, and show them they are special.
It reminds me of a grapevine I once planted. Early one spring I planted a grape vine in my yard. It grew a little that year, but produced no fruit. When fall season came, then winter, I wondered if it would survive. When the snow came, I saw how God protected that vine with the leaves that had fallen from the trees. The leaves had blown and created a blanket which covered the vine’s base keeping it warm.
It took several years of pruning and care for that vine to produce grapes. Just like that vine, the women, children, and men, who came to The City Mission are blanketed by God’s love. Staff and volunteers care for and provide help to every client, as if pruning and watering. God changes that person’s life and makes them fruitful. He removes the past, like old leaves and brings forth a better life with tools to thrive. God even extends them to reach others.
It all began with a voice message in March from Terry Grahl of Enchanted Makeovers. She said she was from Michigan and was on a national outreach tour of women’s shelters doing ‘makeovers’ and would like to come to Cleveland in May, would Laura’s Home be interested.
My first thought was that she was referring to hair, makeup and manicure services for the women, which would definitely be appropriate for Mother’s Day weekend. But as I viewed Terry’s website and then talked with her on the phone, I was wonderfully surprised as to the type of ‘beauty’ she was referring to! The goal of Enchanted Makeovers is to recognize all women as beautiful and to especially celebrate each one’s inner beauty as God sees it!
The two day event was set up to further inspire each woman who has found herself at a point in her life where a crisis has brought her to a shelter such as Laura’s Home, and to see that situation as an opportunity, not a difficulty, and to then allow God to work through them as they continue to focus on their God-given abilities and talents.
The event was ‘all that and then some’! Everyone had a blast creating their own two-dimensional works of art that captured their own personal ‘inner beauty’ for all to see!
This quote found at the bottom of one of the Enchanted Makeovers webpage’s sums up a message that we can all take with us: “Weave in faith and God will find the thread.”
What is the average age of a homeless person in the United States? As the Social Media Manager at The City Mission, I’m constantly looking at the online discussion that is happening regarding homelessness. From YouTube videos to organizational websites there’s a number you see over and over again. 9 years old.
It’s been tweeted and retweeted and quoted in blog posts by almost anyone who has anything to say about homelessness and why not? It’s a shocking statistic. That’s why I posted the question on facebook and twitter. Homelessness is hard to ignore when you change the face of it from a strung-out middle age man to a 3rd grader just learning to write cursive. Doesn’t it motivate you to act, to make a difference before it’s too late? It should. I have three little boys and they are precious. Not just precious to me because I’m their dad, precious because they are unique and full of potential. I would do anything for them. Will that change when they are older? If they grow up to be strung-out middle age men living on the street will I care any less for them? I ask because the startling 9 year average statistic is almost certainly wrong.
It’s hard to say where exactly the rumor started, but the fact is no one really knows the average age of a homeless person. It’s hard enough to agree on exactly how to make the classification of homeless and often the definition changes for children. With so many different organizations and perspectives trying to track a group in a constant state of flux accurate information is hard to find. The face of homelessness is hard to capture. Discovering the truth has made me think a lot and I’ve chosen a new question. Does it really matter what the average age of a homeless person is? Of course if you’re deciding how to help someone, then their age changes how you do so. But, that’s not what I’m doing at the moment. I’m just picturing a face and deciding whether or not I’m motivated to take action. Yes. Children are precious, but more so than the shoeless, dirty, drunken vagrant? Is the panhandler less than the playground pirate? Jesus didn’t seem to think so. Neither should we.
As time goes by we will have more information about people who are homeless. We will say how many million there are, how long they’ve been in crisis and how old they really are. That will be a good thing. But it is our understanding of the value of a single person, “the least of these,” whatever their age that motivates us to rise up and take the action that is needed.
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Are you ready? This simple question has so many people holding back from fulfilling the call of God on their lives. Are you ready to pursue God wholeheartedly? Are you ready to run after God? Are you ready to die? Are you ready to lay everything down that you have been holding onto year after year? Are you ready to trust God? Are you ready to give God your life? Most people would say no, our sin nature is not ever ready to lay it all down, to die, but this is not the time nor the season to hold on. God is calling out His soldiers and will continue to raise up an army with or without you. Are you ready?
God has a habit of calling people who are not ready, but once they decided to give God their life, He is able to use them in ways they could never imagine. Was Gideon ready? Was David ready? Was Jeremiah or Peter or Paul? In the flesh no, but God saw a spirit that was ready and that’s why He chose them. When they said yes, He equipped them with every tool, every weapon they would need to go to war for the kingdom of God. Are you ready?
So why wouldn’t God do the same for you. Just say yes and with that YES comes the grace and power of God over your life. Are you ready? When will we learn that this walk is not a game or a fairy tale, but life or death? That we have been called to reach the world, to reach the city of Cleveland?
A good friend of mine wrote a song that says “Giant Killers, Sword Wielders, and Spirit Fillers.” Body of Christ, this is the call to set the captives free. Are you ready? If so, stand up warriors and aggressively pursue God. To live is Christ and to die is gain. God has positioned us in a place in this city where people are hopeless, desperate, and need change, but in order for us to reach the city; we must say yes. Be encouraged, Body of Christ, for God is with us.
Jeremiah 1:9 “Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
You hear the blare of the ambulance’s siren as it races down the road to get the injured or sick the care they desperately need. You don’t know the person’s circumstances or condition, but you’re glad they’re going to the emergency room to get help. After all, that could be you someday. That’s what jail and prison ministry is like. We can’t be focused on how someone got there; we have to stay focused on the answer, the best help available for all sinners: It’s Jesus.
Some folks think they’re not sinners even if the Bible says they are. Sin, in Greek, is a bow and arrow term meaning, “to miss the mark”. It’s aiming for the bull’s eye but being off by a little or a lot. Some shoot more accurately at righteousness than others, but no one can reach God’s mark of righteousness. God explains to us that absolutely all our attempts fall “short of the glory of God”. Their best shot falls short of the mark.
To help us understand, God reasons with us through the words of Job. “Truly I know it is so, but how can a man be righteous before God? If one wishes to contend with Him, He could not answer God one time out of a thousand.” (Job 9:2-3) It would not matter if the man questioned is the professor with ten degrees of higher learning the burnout lying in the prison bed; neither can answer even one of God’s questions. That puts man’s wisdom in perspective. Man’s wisdom may be distinguishable from our perspective, but when compared to God’s wisdom the wisest of men is indistinguishable from the most foolish. (1 Cor. 1:18-25).
This also helps us realize how incredible God’s righteousness is. The greatest sinner is indistinguishable from the least when compared to the righteousness of God. No matter how bad a sinner we are, we can receive the gift of righteousness from God (Rom. 3:20-23, 6:23, 10:1-13, 2 Cor. 5:21), and no matter how good a person we are, it’s not good enough. We still need a Savior, and fortunately, God has provided One (John 3:16). It’s Jesus.
“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,”
A 2009 Crossroads graduate named Jerry stopped in at the Learning Center today. So what is so unusual about this? Nothing—and that is why his visit is so special.
Jerry is a walking epistle, a living, breathing, example of the power of Jesus Christ to change lives. From his days, or should I say nights, of sleeping at RTA bus stops in The Flats, to having his own apartment, Jerry testifies to the success of Christ in his life. This transformation is the new life the Bible speaks of in 2 Corinthians 5:17; “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
Believe it or not, it actually makes me think of gardening. Soon I’ll be putting in my vegetable
garden from seed. It has been said the principle of sowing and reaping means that we reap what we sow, later than we sow, and more than we sow. I know for a fact that when I sow one tomato seed, I’ll harvest a tomato plant with eight to ten fruit. Since life in the natural reflects life in the spiritual, it is no mystery that the success Jerry is experiencing results from Jerry and others sowing Jesus into Jerry. Here is Jerry’s recipe: weekly attendance at worship, daily bible study, daily fellowship, continual prayer and the openness to be used by Christ 24/7, 365 days of the year.
Jerry’s visits are special because he is special and he is special because of Jesus.
Have you seen these kinds of seeds produce a rich harvest in you or someone you know? If you have, please tell us about it in the comment section.
I have always loved the large mural on the wall in the dining room at Laura’s Home of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well*. But, I did not realize the many similarities there are to the women we serve here and the Samaritan woman that Jesus is talking with. Not only is the artist’s rendition of the Samaritan woman at the well a good visual summation of many of the women who find themselves at our doorstep when they are facing a crisis in their life, but that what the Samaritan woman is looking for and needs-Living Water, is exactly what Laura’s Home hopes to provide to all who come here.
The Samaritan woman in the mural is not making eye contact with Jesus because she is carrying within her a lifetime of hurt and disappointment that weighs her down. It makes her wary of this person who has asked for her help. We see that same look on the faces of those who walk through our doors. Why should she respond to His request or believe what He is offering her? Didn’t she believe in her five husbands and the man she is currently living with? How could she believe what Jesus was telling her about His living water? That if she drank of this water, she would never be thirty again? How can this be?
Our hope and prayer is that everyone who comes to Laura’s Homewill experience for themselves who Jesus is, what He has to offer, and if she hasn’t already received Jesus, that she will learn how she can receive Him for herself.
*The story of Jesus and the Samaritan women is taken from John 4:1-38
One of the greatest joys I experience as a person involved with urban youth ministry is the transformation of a young person from a typical youth into a disciple of Christ. Jesus commissioned us in Matthew 28:18 to go and make disciples. This scripture has been a guide for me and a reminder that I am not called to make converts or decision makers, but to make disciples.
What then is a Christian disciple? What does one look like? How does one behave? More specially, what does a Christian disciple look like in the inner city? Jesus, as if He was reading my mind, tells us what a disciple is in Mark 8:34. Consider with me three marks of a disciple based on how Jesus defines it in this passage.
“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34)
1) Deny yourself! Among American youth, the concept of denying yourself or delayed gratification is not something esteemed. But this is what Jesus teaches as a mark of a person devoted to Him. What does it mean to deny yourself? On one level it means to refrain from sin. But in a broader sense, Jesus is calling us to place his desire over our own. To deny ourselves simply means that we do what Jesus wants us to do even if it is uncomfortable for us!
2) Take up your cross! The cross in the first century was symbolic of suffering and pain. Crucifixion was death by the cross. This was the means by which the Romans would practice capital punishment for their most ruthless criminals. So painful was the process of crucifixion that a new word was formed to describe the pain, excruciating. Jesus disciples are called to be willing to suffer and even die for Christ.
3) Follow me! This may sound elementary, but it is impossible to be a disciple of Christ without following Christ! Yet, Jesus states this truth as He is addressing the crowd. Following Christ means that we are devoted to living life on His terms, not our own.
What does a Christian disciple look like in the inner city? The same way a disciple would look anywhere else. A person committed to denying themselves, taking up their cross, and following Jesus. This is what we witness on a regular basis at Pathways as we engage with inner city youth. We see young people coming to our program totally focused on themselves, leaving with a commitment to be focused on Christ!
We’ve all heard the stories of valuable art or antiques being discovered in thrift shops or yard sales, sold for a tiny portion of their true value. Even more remarkable is the discovery of such items set out on tree lawns for trash pickup, or even in dumpsters.
Such stories make me wonder how such value can be so easily overlooked and discarded. More importantly, don’t we often underestimate the value of the people around us, especially those whose outward appearance and behavior hides their intrinsic worth?
For 100 years The City Mission has been a beacon of light and hope to thousands upon thousands of men and women who have lost sight of their own value, overtaken by the consequences of all the wrong turns they’ve taken in life, and finding themselves among the outcasts of our society.
Former Executive Director Clifford Gregory wrote in a 1978 report, “Preaching and witnessing in a rescue mission service is not the easiest or most encouraging form of Christian service, yet … we are … in search of the diamonds in the rough among the men (and sometimes women).”
Now, as then our staff and volunteers remain committed to this ministry of redemption, for “…it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” 1 Peter 1:17-19 NIV.
It is this timeless message of redemption and forgiveness that has brought hope to countless thousands who have been raised to new life through the ministry of The City Mission.
On this Good Friday as we reflect on the high price that Jesus paid for our redemption, we gratefully and humbly acknowledge that “…he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5: 19b -21 NIV.
