Welcome Mike,

We have a new addition to the MidStates team, Mike Thompson!   Mike started this week as the full time Area Director overseeing the communities of: Duluth, Duluth/Superior, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Benton Harbor, Sault Ste. Marie, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, & Denver.  Mike graduated from Bethel University in St. Paul, MN last spring with a degree in political science.  Mike served as a Site Director for our Chicago 1 site in the summer of 2012 and is passionate about continuing to invest into communities through this role at YouthWorks.

A few other fun things about Mike: He played college football at Bethel, he loves fishing and he is adventurous and loves trying new things.

Welcome Mike!

Reflections from the National Youth Workers Convention

Some friends of ours from Cincinnati were able to join YS for the National Youth Workers Convention in Dallas a few weeks ago.  Below is a note from Gary about the conference:

What a blessing to attend the National Youth Workers Convention. We are truly better together. To have about 3,000 saints and sinners gather in the name of Christ, battling for the lives of youth, joining in mission and purpose, is an awesome wonder in itself. Then to have time to reflect on the Wonder of God’s plan for us was icing on the cake.

We met in small groups called “family time” after each main session, and there were some powerful moments. We had opportunity to debrief, reflect, and encourage one another. It was in our family groups that we digested the information we gained and learned how to take it back to our youth in practical, real ways.

It was in one of the session that we were asked, “When did you first sense God calling your name, and what did you bring to the relationship?” We all just had a sense of wonderment that God called us, not because of what we bring to the table but because of his love. WOW!  If I could share one thing from the conference with you, it is that God called YOU. Not because of your abilities and skills to work with youth but because He loves you and knows you and He would have loads of fun and excitement  with you on the adventure.

We had a great time sharpening our skills but I think God’s greatest pleasure was filling our hearts.

Gary Loomans
Youth worker
North Presbyterian Church

Cincinnati Urban Promise

Last week I spent a few days visiting with community partners in Cincinnati.  It was a great time to connect with some friends in the community and hear stories about the summer.

The pictures above come from a ministry called Cincinnati Urban Promise.  YouthWorks has provided some groups to work on projects around the church facility as well as a children’s summer program they just launched this past summer in collaboration with Whole Again International.  They are doing great things in their neighborhood and are an inspirational vision of what God can do through those that are responsive to the call they hear.

Grace and peace,
-David

“Cincinnati Urban Promise, Inc. seeks to create holistic change in the lives of individuals, families, and neighborhoods by meeting their spiritual, physical, emotional, and academic needs through a Christ-centered approach to education, empowerment, and loving relationship.”

http://www.cincyurbanpromise.org/

Yea God

• 30 kids coming to our new Outrageous Sports Camp in Kansas City, KS

• Seeing families and people of all ages doing ministry and devotions together in Sault Ste. Marie

• For a new community contact in Duluth who is excited about the ministry that is happening

• A group of participants serving in Cincinnati noted to their Adult Leaders that they wanted to live more like Christ and not worry about what others think!

• A great start to Kids Club in San Francisco

• Yea God for Beyond programming in Puerto Rico and the depth of culture and Christ that students got to experience this week.

Cincinnati Team

The Cincinnati Team arrived to North Presbyterian Church in Northside Cincinnati on Sunday evening. It didn’t take long for us to start to feel a little overwhelmed, not because of the amount of lists we had to get through during prep week, but because of how excited the church was that we were finally here. Joann, our housing contact and immediate friend, showed us around the church right away. She told us the congregation had been asking for weeks when we were getting here and who we were. That the whole church felt blessed to be able to be a part of what YouthWorks is doing in Cincinnati.

One thing that was evident right away is that while they were patiently waiting they had also been preparing for our arrival. The rooms had been emptied and cleaned, all of our stuff had been brought down from a storage room in the building, and the biggest surprise? What last year was known as “the workout room” has now been sectioned off with real walls to make an apartment type living space for the staff, AND it’s on the air conditioned part of the building! They even had a big sectional couch they wanted us to use in the common room! And as we were expressing our thanks, it was clear that this was nothing short of normal hospitality at North Presbyterian. We feel so loved and so welcomed here and we are honored to be able to be friends and be working along side this congregation and community. What a great way to start off a great summer in Cincinnati!    Kati Brandt- Site Director

Cincinnati | Findlay Market

Rainy day at the Findlay Market.
Cincinnati, OH

-dp

God is at work in Chicago

Today was an abundance of community engagement and blessings for me….let me share with ya’ll just what it looks like to be caring for friends in our communities and to have great consistency.

Today I met with a multitude of folks, but I want to share a few experiences with you.  I spent the morning with Pastor Tomas, a long standing partner of ours.  My time with him looks much the same every time I come to visit.  He takes me on a walk around the block while updating me on the neighborhood and whats going on.  He knows my favorite place to stop is the Paseo Boricua a local Puerto Rican place that sells basic amazing sandwiches and Café con leche.  J  So as we were walking upon it he says to me as he puts his hand on my shoulder…..”Melissa, I have a surprise for you that you are not going to like.”  I said, what’s that.  He says “The Paseo Boricua was a part of the raids that happened in September, they are closed.”  He proceeded to tell me that apparently somebody was selling drugs out of the back of this location….it’s bizarre though, because the folks at this place are amazing and I’ve really enjoyed seeing them when I walk in….not to mention there were always police hanging out in there and eating….how life can change for people so quickly.  I hope they are doing okay and that they are able to recover from whatever happened in September.  We continued to talk and walk and reached a small convenience store that I would have thought was closed and boarded up.  Pastor Tomas says “This is Mohammad’s place” we walk in and Mohamed isn’t there but Luiz is who is the other worker there.  Luiz speaks very broken English but we engage in an amazing conversation about Luiz and his family and his faith in God and how he’s trying to represent Christ to Mohamed who is muslim.  Luiz shared two stories where he was faced at gunpoint in this specific store and will tell you that God saved him and it’s because his faith in God that he is still here today.  He(Luiz) is an amazing witness to Muhamed and I’m blessed to say that I was able to become friends with Luiz today.  I will stop back in there often and spend time in his presence.  I found out today that Muhameds store allows our students to use the restroom there during the summer, get cold water from there and shop there.  What our students don’t know is that they are a part of the witness to Muhamed! WOW!!  Did I really get to experience this today????  And my story doesn’t do justice to what I experienced with Pastor Tomas.

Next, I was with Rebecca Gonzales from Casa Central another ministry of ours.  Usually our meetings consist of quick business interactions about what the dates are for next summer and how the past summer went.  Today was different though, Rebecca and I talked about refining things and organizations.  What Casa Central was going through and how it was changing and thinking through how to do it better.  We shared thoughts about liabilities and having large workloads because they can’t fill a job.  Rebecca and I shared a meal together today, not only for business purposes…in fact, we talked about YouthWorks only because one of her interns was an old YW volunteer that came through the Chicago two site and volunteered at Casa Central only to go to school at DePaul and randomly get an internship with Casa Central.  Small world!! Rebecca and I became more than business acquaintances today, we became invested in each other.  Thank God for small things today.

While I was with Rebecca I received a phone call from Maggie Martinez an amazing woman who runs through volunteering/founded and fundraises for an organization called Yipee that we volunteer with in the summer.  She called to let me know that she double booked herself and she is supposed to go to a large business luncheon downtown for business ministries.  She called because she wanted me to be her guest and eat with her and hear about God’s work in ministries throughout the Chicago area.  WOW.  What you don’t know about a Maggie is she is DEEPLY networked in Chicago.  I can’t wait to see who I am able to meet Thursday.  It will be a blessing to be in the presence of them.  God is so faithful.

The first day I was here, I meet with Mr. Howard who runs Eden Place a ministry with us as well.  He told me among other things that he had tea with the first lady recently and was talking about YouthWorks and what we do for him and how we make it possible for him to do his work. ….really, Mr. Howard…the first lady!

Gosh, how faithful is our God to be at work when we are not around and when we think otherwise.

Romans 12:12
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

MELISSA BONETTI