That's A Wrap!

      That’s a Wrap!

In this season of Christmas cards, bows, and gift wrap, it is fitting that we also wrapped up another year of Living Bridges Ministry! What a year it was!!!! There were times when it was so hectic, we no longer knew whether we were coming or going. It seemed to get crazier and crazier until October, when we found ourselves praying for God to give us each day what we needed to survive the grueling schedule we had created. In November, relative calm was restored to our lives and our household. Just in time to celebrate the birth of our Savior, all activities have finished and we can see the result of God’s hand on the ministry!

At one point this year, a blog subscriber asked if we were still doing the blog! They had every right to ask. I had not written a post since late spring/early summer! When we began the blog, I did pray about not starting something that I would not stay on top of, but God kept prodding me to write and so I did. In the whirlwind of Transformations, Kids Connection, 2 Clothing Exchanges, and a move, I somehow lost the ability to stay on top of writing the posts. I think that was God answering another prayer for me! I often go back and forth about whether to ask for the donations our ministry needs to survive. I find asking for money or stuff awkward and uncomfortable even though it is for a great cause! Part of me longs to be like George Mueller who ran his orphanages on prayer alone as a testimony to the God he served. He never made the needs of the orphanages he ran known; he just prayed and God delivered! I LOVE faith like that! The other part of me wants to make our needs known because people always say: “IF I knew you needed ______________, I had that and would have gladly given it to you!” So my struggle is real! One part of me is at war with the other to post our needs or to live on faith. God helped us to find the balance between both ideas this summer. While for a time, it was not possible for me to pack to move, write and publish a blog update (or sometimes even a Facebook post), run the Kids’ Connection, and teach two nights a week at the Transformations class. God had all the things we needed ready for us at the time we needed them. Just when we thought we might not be able to buy food or supplies, a check would show up or someone would donate through PayPal. When we needed clothing, it just showed up. More than 100 toothbrushes and toothpaste were gathered on just a couple of Facebook posts. We were also able to furnish almost an entire apartment for a family with only two Facebook posts!

By late fall when the dust from the whirlwind started to settle, we realized that we were in the third phase of our Transformations (get out of poverty) Program, we had conducted 7 out of 8 Kids’ Connections (1 rain out), we hosted several lunch fellowships at the park, 2 Clothing Exchanges, and a Trunk or Treat! It was crazy how much God had done and how many people had donated without a single blog post of request. We did manage to get a few Facebook posts up, but not nearly the quantity of requests we had posted the year before! We had been able to pray through most of our needs and still post other needs! God showed us how to find balance!

In December, our Transformations students graduated! We cannot brag enough on what God has done there! One of our students began the program working part time at a local restaurant. Through the knowledge he gained in the program and with God’s grace, he was able to get a full time job with a $3/hour raise! He is now making almost $2 above living wage! Living wage is the amount you have to make to “live” in a given area. In our area it is $9.15/hour. Another student is in school full time getting her GED and is in a program where she will go on to nursing school upon completion of the GED. We had one more student finish the program, but she felt led to move from Georgia to a new state for a fresh start. She has not found employment in her new area yet. God is doing great and mighty things in these lives! In the spring we will interview candidates to take 8 new students and begin again!

Kids’ Connection is our awesome Vacation Bible School ministry which also serves as an outreach. That summer VBS at the park brings families from all over South Valdosta who get to hear God’s word, we feed them lunch, and they enjoy fellowship! That leads to those families attending our other events like Clothing Exchanges, Trunk or Treat, a Thanksgiving luncheon, or our Birthday Party for Jesus! At the Birthday party for Jesus we had record attendance for any of our events! We hosted between 50-60 people plus our volunteers! We fed and provided devotional books, gifts, food bags, and some jackets/coats to all who needed them.

While, I have not written a blog post in a number of months, please do know that we could not have done the work God called us to without prayer partners, volunteers, and donors! We pray for everyone who supports us in any way! We are so thankful for each prayer, each hour of service to the ministry, for the meals cooked or bought for our class, for those who donated material goods, and for those who donated money! There are also those who opened space in parking lots, schools, and board rooms so we could do the things we do and we are thankful for those as well! We are thankful to the church who hosted our students for their graduation ceremony! As we sit in the calm of the aftermath of all we were a part of, we see a glimpse of the beautiful canvas that God is painting for those whom He has called us to serve and we could not be more humbled that He called us to hold any kind of brush in that artwork!

We ask you again to pray for us as we rest that we may begin 2016 refilled, refreshed, and renewed in what we are to do in His service! We pray that this Christmas is filled with the wonder of all the Savior has done and continues to do, and that the year ahead is filled with God’s richest blessings for you!

Merry Christmas,
Tony and Darcy Gunter

Kids' Connection 2015!

Kids’ Connection 2015! Missions: Kids Around the World!

   We are very excited about the Kids’ Connection program this year!  For those who are not familiar with Kids’ Connection, it is very similar to VBS (Vacation Bible School) at the park! Kids who attend, hear a Bible story, make a craft, and have game time. It was our inaugural program last year when we began Living Bridges Ministry.

   This year’s theme is Missions: Kids Around the World!  This theme covers several stories of the Apostle Paul.  Each Saturday also focuses on a different country in the world and on missions in that country. Kids will be encouraged to learn the scripture memory verse for the summer. Learning this verse earns them their own Bible. Through the Pennies and Prayers part of our program, we will be actively supporting missions around the world!

   While the kids are busy at their various stations, the adults will be receiving a devotion tailored to the Bible story of the day.  They will also be equipped with information on how to lead their family in devotions at home.  Then they will either play Bingo to win items they need for their households or they will work on a make and take project for their home. After the activities are complete, we will come back together as a large group for lunch! The lunch food for the school aged kids will be supplied by Lowndes County Schools Summer Feeding Program for the June and July Kids’ Connections.* 

   Kids’ Connection is FREE for all who attend and begins again on Saturday, June 13^th.  We will meet the 2^nd and 4^th Saturdays of each month in June, July, August, and September (see dates below.) The Kids’ Connection is for kids ages 4yrs through 5^th grade.  Those in 6^th grade and above, are eligible to serve as buddies for the younger children in our groups.

  We meet at the Vallotton Youth Complex pavilion (700 Woodlawn Drive).  Registration begins at 10:15am with the program starting at 10:30am.  We are finished with the program and lunch by 12:30pm.  

  This year, we are trying something new to help get the word out about the Kids’ Connection. We are throwing 1-2 ice cream parties each week before a Kids’ Connection. People who attend Kids’ Connection can sign up to host a party where we will be serving ice cream to 20+ people. The goal of this kind of outreach as opposed to the door to door flyers we did last year, is to get to know people better. We find the best way to reach people is to build relationships and we are confident that there will be a much better attendance return on this investment.

    As you might imagine, it takes many volunteers to put on a program like this.  Volunteers help us with registration, serving the food, teaching    the craft, help with story time, help with game time, or work with the adults.  Volunteers serve on one or more Saturdays according to what fits into their schedule. If you are interested in volunteering, please email us at info@livingbridgesministry.org.

  Another key to the success of the Kids’ Connection is donations!  We publish a Needs List in our blog posts, our quarterly newsletter, and on Facebook! Donors who donate from the Needs List or who support us financially, make this program possible for all of those whom we serve.  

  We covet your prayers!  The basis of everything we do with Living Bridges Ministry is prayer!  We ask that you would lift us, our volunteers, and those who attend our activities in prayer as you think of us!                    

Kids’ Connection Dates

ALL dates are Saturdays

June 13 and June 27

July 11 and July 25

August 8 and 22

September 12 and 26

Kids’ Connection Needs List

80 bottles of water for each camp

Individual bags of chips to serve at lunch

Paper plates

Napkins

Baby wipes (to clean hands after craft time)

Plastic forks/spoons/knives

BINGO needs:

Bath towels, blankets, small appliances (coffee pot, mixers, toasters), everyday tools like screwdrivers, hammers, wrenches, home décor items, rubbermaid containers, gift cards of $5-$10 to stores/fast food restaurants.

Happy Birthday Living Bridges!

Happy Birthday Living Bridges!

     The cliché says, “time flies when you are having fun” and that could not be more true of our first year as Living Bridges Ministry! We have chosen to celebrate the date the state of Georgia granted our request for incoporation (April 30, 2014) as our birthday! So as of today, we are officially 1 year old!  Whoopee! J

     We have met so many wonderful people through this journey!  When we were praying about the direction God was taking us and our family, we knew He would guide us and that He would provide people and resources, but we were not prepared for all the things He was going to do in and through us and our vounteers!  We were not prepared for how much we would love the people we would meet nor were we prepared for all the needs we would be challenged to meet! It has been a growing experience for our whole family, our volunteers, and our participants as we have literally watched God work in South Valdosta.

    As we meet new people, we are often asked about our name: Living Bridges Ministry!  They want to know where we came up with that name and what it means.  Living bridges are difficult to adequately describe in print, but there is a video link that does it beautifully at the end of this post! In short, living bridges are true things in India. The premise that we fell in love with, and which I can‘t share with people without crying, is the sacrifice of the older generation of a tribe for the overall betterment of the tribe. You see the bridges that a generation builds, will likely never be walked on by them because of the number of years it takes to complete the project and the advanced age at which they begin the project! They build these bridges anyway for the betterment of their tribe! They also train the youth of the tribe how to build and care for them regardless of the fact that they may not see the end result! (I urge you to watch the video!)

   Now that we are already in year number two of our ministry, we are asking each of you to prayerfully consider your part in a “living bridge!”  We are working to transform a community where poverty is rampant, where crime is on the rise, and dark clouds of financial desperation are covering the light of hope! We are asking for your involvement whether you pray for us, you come out and volunteer one Saturday or several, you pick out some things on our “needs list” and donate, you help us get the word out about what we are doing by sharing our blog/Facebook posts/newsletters, or you decide to financially partner with us by donating money.  No part in God’s plan is too small and every gift is needed!  We even recently met someone whose God given talent is shopping (I thought I was the only one, but I was wrong! J).  This lady is going to come on board and help shop for our bingo prizes and help us with our Christmas shopping (Toys for Tots here closed and we are on our own to get our toys for Christmas this year!!!!!!!!)We have no guarantee that we are going to see the completion of God’s project. It could indeed be many years before the neighborhood is transformed completely, but we are investing for the betterment of the community. Seeing the end result is less important than restoring hope to the hopeless and bringing the light of Jesus into the lives of the people in South Valdosta!

  Perhaps, you have read our posts before and God has stirred something in your heart, but you weren’t sure what to do about it!  We have people who message us, call us, and some who even come out to our events to see exactly what we do.  We are always happy to talk to people about where their gifts and talents can be used whether they are volunteering one time or several!  We know life is hectic!  We understand that people are busy.  We acknowledge the sacrifice that people make to volunteer their time, but we also know few leave our events without feeling more blessed than when they came!  If you can’t physically help or God has asked you to pray for us instead, we love and appreciate all prayers!  There is nothing we do, that is not bathed in prayer and we are confident that prayer makes a huge difference in the life of our ministry!  Lastly, our donors help keep the material part of this ministry flowing.  We publish a “Needs List” every month where we collect all kinds of things necessary for the Kids’ Connection and other activities we have going on.  We also need monetary donors who help fund things like pavilion rental, textbooks for our Transformations program, food that we serve, prizes that we give, craft supplies, and the list goes on!  Again, no matter how God calls you to help, we are happy to have you and hope you will reach out to us so we can help you find your place on our team!

Until next time,

Darcy

Living Bridges video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jrmm7gjZGE

Transformations

     From the first prayers and thoughts about what God wanted us to do through Living Bridges Ministry; we were quite sure that it was about revitalizing a neighborhood in South Valdosta! We began with our Kids’ Connection program and several other programs and fellowship opportunities throughout the year!  Those programs are wonderful and we will continue to offer them, but to really revitalize a neighborhood and bring about the kind of change we believe God desires to see in this area, we are going to need to get people placed in jobs where they can earn a reliable income.  Thatwill enable them to live self-sufficient lives.

     For several months now, we have been researching, talking to people who teach this program, and reading about it!  We even went to Florida to see it in action!  After a lot of prayer, we are so excited to share about the Transformations program! Transformations is a 3 phase program designed to show people the way out of poverty and into self-sufficient living.  The program provides the opportunity for 12 “investigators” to go through the program each time; although our inaugural class will start with just 6 participants.  The program will meet on Tuesday evenings for between 8 and 10 months. Late in Phase 1, the class will vote on whether or not to meet 2x a week during Phase 2.  If they decide to do that then it is an 8 month program instead of the 10 months.

      During Phase 1 Getting Ahead in a Just Getting By World, investigators look into how they got into poverty!  A common misconception is that people in poverty got there by poor decision making.  While that does contribute to the number of people in poverty, there are several other ways to become impoverished including job loss, divorce, disability, and the list goes on.  While looking at the root reason our participants are in poverty, we are going to discuss changes that would make their lives better and their neighborhood a better place to live and how they can contribute to those changes. Some things we will be looking at will be transportation (Valdosta has no public transportation), crime prevention, and affordable housing among other things. This phase lasts 16 weeks and gets us ready for Phase 2.

     We have intentionally timed it so that Phase 2 Jobs For Life which contains the information and homework needed for creating a resume, filling out job applications, and working on interviewing skills practice will fall during the holiday hiring season for 2015.  Between those seasonal jobs and the jobs available every day here in town we expect to be able to place all 6 of our candidates (if they are serious about wanting to work and change their lives!) We will also be helping to connect participants to educational resources like junior college, university, GED prep, trade schools, etc.  This education will offer our student investigators information about the pathway to better jobs and sustainable careers. For those who desire to begin their own business, we will be connecting them with a small business incubator type program so they have the best chance at success in their business.

     Money management is the focus of our third phase!  Specific education about predatory lenders (title loans and payday loans) will be given.  Savings, retirement, and budgeting, credit scores, and more will be covered.  They will also learn about how to calculate the total expense of things like Rent To Own furniture, interest on credit cards, short term loans etc.  This phase will meet for 8 weeks!

   Throughout the entire 3 phases our investigators will be incentivized which means they will be earning rewards.  Every night the class meets, we will be sharing dinner with our participants.  This gives us a fellowship time to get to know them better while providing them a good meal.  Also those who need them will be given a bag of food to take home with them each week throughout the entire program.  Investigators will also be earning points to use on $5 restaurant gift cards for showing up on time, participating in discussion, and completing their work.  This incentive begins during the 6^th week of class. They should be able to earn one card each week for the remaining 10 weeks of phase 1. During phases 2 and 3 where more homework is expected, the incentive changes to cash. At that point, investigators will be docked “pay” for being late, not showing up, and not completing their work— this will be more like the real work world! The amount of cash per week will be lower dollars per hour than minimum wage because we want them to see getting a job of any kind as a step up in their financial world.  Incentive money is geared toward helping with childcare or gas expenses while investigators are in class not to providing income to live on.

     The best part of Transformations is that 2 of the people who complete the program will be invited back to facilitate the next class.  This will be a paid part-time position that 2 of the class graduates could use to supplement the income from their other jobs.  We will also be standing up an alumni program where graduates can come regularly to share their experiences with their education, jobs, etc with each other.

   As with all of our programs, there are ways people can get involved with Transformations!  Those who have been with us on any part of our journey, know we always ask for prayer first!  Please pray for us, our guest speakers, and for the potential candidates for this class who will be interviewed and receive orientation on Tuesday, April 14^th. Our first night of class meets on Tuesday, April 21^st. Next we need guest speakers and mentors for our investigators.  We need speakers who can cover topics like:

Goal setting

What to wear for an interview

Where to look for jobs in Valdosta

Overcoming obstacles (no transportation, child care, etc)

Character is more important than job skill (be on time, be honest, give 100% to the task at hand)

Resume building

Why education is important

Why saving is important

Basic budgeting

How to react to financial crisis

Those are just a few of the topics we are looking for in the coming weeks. A full list of topics and the dates those speakers will be needed will be on our website (www.livingbridgesministry.org) by the end of this week. Mentors will come into class several times during the program and will participate in things like interview role play, coaching on resume building, etc. If you or someone you know can speak on any of these topics or if you would like more information on becoming a mentor, please email us at info@livingbridgesministry.org.

Donations:

     We need donations of things like $5 restaurant gift cards, food donations for our food bags (please donate in quantities of 6 so we can send 6 similar bags home with our investigators.)  We need several restaurants to donate dinners for 8-10 people each Tuesday night for the entire program.  Paper goods like plates, napkins, and plastic ware for our dinners will also be needed.  Lastly, we will also need monetary donations to help cover the cost of incentivizing our investigators as well as to purchase books, pay the part-time teachers and room rent for the next class!

     We are so excited about this program and about the potential for the change it could bring to South Valdosta!

Until next time,

Darcy          

Upcoming Events!!

           I just wanted to update everyone on what is going on with Living Bridges.  Our next event will be the clothing exchange on March 28^th. Please see the website ( www.livingbridgesministry.org ) for details.  We are still looking for assistance in several areas for this event.  If you can donate clothes, have a truck to haul clothes or can volunteer to hand out clothes please email me at tony@livingbridgesministry.org.

                We are also getting ready to start our transformations class.  This will teach people how to get out of poverty and live independent lives.  The Lord is blessing this class more and more every day.  We were struggling to find a location to teach this class, but right at the point where we were going to have to cancel He provided the perfect setting.   So, we are pressing forward.  We will soon be accepting applications for students.  If you would like to help with this endeavor by sponsoring a student or serving as a mentor to guide them along the way, please email to let me know.

                Last, but certainly not least.  Thank you for your support in the ministry.  We have definitely been blessed by all of your prayers, resources, volunteering and funding.  However; we still need your on-going support.  We definitely couldn’t do what God has called us to do without you.  So, please visit the “How Can I Help” page on the website or email me and we will make whatever arrangements we need to make it happen.  Of course, the most important thing you can do is pray!  So, please keep them coming our way!

                If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please don’t hesitate to let us know.   We definitely value your input.

In His Service,

Tony  `   

Living Bridges Needs List!

Good morning, in our last blog post, I wrote about what we do as a ministry and explained all of our events and programs.  I did that so that those who were unfamiliar with us could get more information and so that those who volunteer in one program could get awareness about what else we do.

      Today, I am going to tell you about our “Needs List.” In our newsletters and on our website (www.livingbridgesministry.org), we share a needs list.  It is a list of all the things that would be helpful to our ministry if they were donated.  We take donations in various forms all year long. Our needs do vary according to the program we are trying to prepare for.

     We start our list with the most important donation information (or the most pressing needs).  This month we have a blurb about Easter Eggs, which is on top because this is the season that everyone is purchasing those.  People who are having Easter Egg hunts are wondering what to do with the eggs afterward.  Also the eggs will be going on clearance immediately after Easter at stores; which makes that the best time to purchase them to donate to us—as long as they are NOT candy filled.

LIVING BRIDGES MINISTRY NEEDS LIST

We are collecting empty plastic Easter Eggs and plastic eggs stuffed with toys so we will be ready for our Easter event next year.  Please don’t donate candy filled eggs as the candy will go bad before next year.

      

       Next on our list we have the needs for Kids’ Connection—our kids’ camp at the park that operates 2 Saturdays a month from June through September.  We are in the process of learning our eligibility to receive food through the school district because we feed kids/families that would be on subsidized lunches on school days.  At this time, we don’t anticipate needing food donations, but that could change once the school gets its new guidelines for 2015-2016 later this month.

Kids’ Connection Needs

80 bottles of water for each camp x 8 camps

Individual bags of chips to serve at lunch

Paper plates

Napkins

Baby wipes (to clean hands after craft time)

Plastic forks/spoons/knives

Large bottle of hand sanitizer

400 Brown lunch sacks (we send all the kids’ crafts/fliers/etc home in them)

Name tag labels (we need about 400 of these)

     While their children are at the Kids’ Connection, parents participate in a devotion and either play bingo for needed household items or make a take home project that they can use or give as a gift.  The list below is what we give in bingo prizes.

BINGO needs:

Bath towels, blankets, small appliances (coffee pot, mixers, toasters), pillows, everyday tools like screwdrivers, hammers, wrenches, home décor items, yard décor items, rubbermaid storage containers, laundry baskets/hampers, gift cards of $5-$10 to stores/fast food.

     Twice a year we offer clothing exchanges.  Families can come in and some items clothing for each family member for free.  Then they can turn in gently used clothing that they no longer need to get even more items of clothing for any family member.

Clothing Exchange

We are accepting new and gently used clothing year round for our spring/summer and fall/winter clothing exchanges.

We are also collecting brand new underwear in all sizes for kids and adults (we need these in all sizes by October).

     Trunk or Treat offers families a safe place for their kids to Trick or Treat.  However; we can’t in good conscience give candy out without giving toothbrushes and toothpaste as well!

Trunk or Treat

We need 100 toothbrushes (kids and adult sizes) and full sized toothpaste

Candy

Small toys (like kid’s meal prizes), or carnival prize type toys (small balls, stuffed animals, glow sticks, etc)

     At our Thanksgiving luncheon we feed our families a pot luck Thanksgiving meal. Living Bridges provides the meat, a couple of sides and the drinks. Realizing that other agencies give out food boxes for the Thanksgiving meal, we focus on sending each family home with a bag of staple food items to help get them through the holiday season.

Thanksgiving Luncheon

5lb sack of flour

4lb sack of sugar

Cake mix/frosting

Bottle of vegetable/canola oil

Cans of vegetables

Cans of fruit

Large cans of soup

     Last December, we were able to bless our families with board games.  These games were given to the parents to wrap as a gift from them to their children.  The goal was to encourage quality family time.  We were also blessed by a donation of toys which allowed us to bless around 40 kids with gifts.  The charity that provided that donation is no longer in business and so this year we are going to have to collect donations to meet that need.

Birthday Party for Jesus

Board games are needed to encourage quality family time.

Also collecting new toys Barbie Dolls, Legos, stuffed animals, action figures, etc to give to the kids at our Birthday Party for Jesus.

     As with any charity, we have a small amount of overhead for office supplies and we have miscellaneous items we need. So we have an ongoing needs list to capture those things.

Ongoing needs:

Computer paper

Colored computer paper

Postage stamps (postcard and regular letter)

Devotion material and Bibles for the adults

Gift cards to Hobby Lobby, Michaels and Oriental Trading for craft supplies

     We are so thankful for those who have donated to our ministry throughout the last year. God has blessed us with wonderful donors so far and we know he will continue to move on the hearts of those whom He desires to support us in one way or another.  We try to be the best stewards possible with all of our donations. In addition to the items we collect, it takes almost $300/month to cover expenses like renting the pavilion at the park where we hold 90% of our events, paying for curriculum for some of our programs, buying the meat for non-Kids’ Connection events, buying craft supplies for Kids’ Connection, ink for the printer, licenses for the county/city/state, buying miscellaneous things like banners/signs, table covers, tarps to sit on, and to purchase any of the items above that are not donated.  We have also been able to bless other charities with things we have left after an event.  At Christmas, we were able to give extra toys to Telemon (a charity who helps migrant workers). We have shared extra food items with 3 different food pantries, we supplied devotion materials to a local ministry, and we will continue to share our blessings with others wherever God supplies us with more than our needs!

     The awesome news is that we are a 501c3 charity and any donation you give is tax deductible. We write quarterly and year end donor letters so you can keep track of your donations.  Monetary donations can be made through Paypal on our website (www.livingbridgesministry.org) or by mailing a check to:

Living Bridges Ministry

9302 Davidson Rd PMB 175

Moody AFB, GA 31699

     Again, we thank you for any role you play in God’s ministry through us; whether it is by praying for us, donating to us, or serving alongside of us.  It is humbling to see what God is doing through very ordinary people who answered His call.

What do you do?

 

     

What do you do?

Every time Tony and I tell people about Living Bridges Ministry, inevitably the question comes up: “What do you do?”  We are humbled that people care enough to ask and want to know more about this ministry.  We also realize that through social media, we are “meeting” many people whom we don’t ever get to have personal contact or conversation with.  Many of them are curious what we do also.  So this blog post is a summary of each of our programs and what the volunteer needs are that go with those programs.

   In his song, Do Something, Matthew West sings:

I'm so tired of talking
About how we are God's hands and feet
But it's easier to say than to be
Live like angels of apathy who tell ourselves
It's alright, “somebody else will do something”
Well, I don't know about you
But I'm sick and tired of life with no desire
I don't want a flame, I want a fire
I wanna be the one who stands up and says,
“I'm gonna do something”

After reading about what we do and what our volunteer needs are, we hope you will take some time to pray about how/where you can become involved.  Come “do something” and make a difference in South Valdosta!

Kids’ Connection

  Our Kids’ Connection program was our very first Living Bridges program! It runs from June through September on the 2^nd and 4^th Saturdays of each month. The format is similar to Vacation Bible School only we are at the park.  Families come and the kids rotate through 3 stations where they get a Bible story, a craft activity, and a game or music time. While the kids are doing that, the adults are hearing a devotion.  The adults then make something to take home or they play bingo.  We all come back together as a group and eat lunch.  It takes 12 adult volunteers and several youth volunteers to successfully run a Kids’ Connection Saturday. 

Trunk or Treat

  Trunk or Treat at the park provides kids the chance to have a safe environment to get treats and play games.  Volunteers decorate their cars in a family friendly theme and then hand out school supplies, small toys, candy and other goodies to the children who come through. We have roughly 30 spots for Trunk or Treat this year and it will be held on Saturday, October 24^th from 5-7pm (car decorating and set up begins at 4pm.) In addition to those who set up cars, we need about 6 volunteers for registration and to help make sure the cars stay stocked with candy/prizes.

Thanksgiving Luncheon

  Our Thanksgiving luncheon is a potluck Thanksgiving meal.  Living Bridges provides the hams and everyone brings sides and desserts.  At this event, we hand out sacks of staple grocery items like flour, sugar, oil, etc to help our families through the holiday season.  The Thanksgiving Luncheon needs about 8 adult volunteers to serve food and sign in our guests.

Birthday Party for Jesus

  Held in December, our Birthday Party for Jesus is much like a Kids’ Connection program day.  We have 3 stations for the kids and the adults play Bingo to win prizes that they can give as gifts or keep for themselves.  We also collect board games throughout the year to distribute to our families as gifts in an effort to promote quality family time. We hope to have a new toy to wrap and send home with each child. We need 12-14 volunteers during the birthday party to run the stations, serve the food and help with gift distribution.  About a week before the party, we will have a wrapping workshop and 3-4 volunteers will be needed to wrap toys for the kids.

Transformations

  Our newest program, Transformations, is a 10 month long 3 phase program geared toward helping people out of poverty and into self-sufficient living. The first phase helps participants identify how it is they are in poverty and then to set realistic goals toward getting out of it.  The second phase helps with skills like how to fill out a job application, how to build a resume, and interview practice. The last phase teaches sound financial management decision making skills that will help guide participants in both the spending and saving of the money they make. Several volunteers are needed for this program in the following capacities: to serve as mentors for the participants, to speak during one or more nights of class on one of many topics we will be covering, to be a mock interviewer and share constructive feedback with our people, and to serve in the prayer circle that prays for this group.

Clothing Exchanges

  Clothing exchanges take place in the spring and fall and allow people from the neighborhood to show up and get 1-2 gently used outfits for each family member. Then they can exchange gently used clothing that their family has outgrown for more of our clothing in any size.  Our March clothing exchange needs 12 volunteers.  We anticipate needing about 16 volunteers for the one in the fall.

Mom’s Connection

  Mom’s Connection is a program similar to MOPS (Mothers of PreschoolerS.)  It gives moms with children of any age a place to come and enjoy fellowship.  While at the Mom’s Connection, mom’s will receive a devotion, information relevant to the stage of life they are at, and a snack will be provided.  Activities and supervision for children who are not in school will be provided for each of these meetings. Mom’s Connection will meet on 2 weekday mornings each month and will only go on during the school year.  It will take about 8 adult volunteers to run each meeting.

As I said at the beginning of this post, we hope you will be prayerful about becoming involved.  Some volunteers come out once or twice and others are there almost every time we have something.  We are blessed by all of them no matter how often they come. Consider getting your Sunday school class, your small group, a couple of coworkers, or a few friends together so you can work as a group! For more information on our ministry or about volunteering with us (including specific locations/times for each program), please email info@livingbridgesministry.org.

A Year of Stone Soup!

A Year of Stone Soup!

     Toward the end of last year, I began thinking of all that God had done during our first year of ministry and all that He would want to do in 2015.  We and our volunteers worked hard in 2014 and we were physically tired. However; God had done so much with so little.   Tony and I reflected on the first Kids’ Connection where literally no one showed up, but volunteers.  Then we reflected on the Birthday Party for Jesus (our last event in 2014) where we had 50 people not counting our volunteers!  God has brought us so far in such a short time!  We want to make sure to give Him thanks and praise for that!

     We did not schedule any ministry events in January—setting a precedent for years to come!  We wanted our volunteers to rest. Tony and I also rested, prayed, and were seeking to learn what it is that God would have us do in the year 2015.  Then we met with our board and our volunteers and presented a calendar and a budget so we could get going again!

    Our central theme this year is Stone Soup!  It was one of my favorite stories as a kid.  For those who are unfamiliar, Stone Soup is a folk tale about a group of 3 soldiers (monks or farmers depending on the version you read) who are on a journey.  They travel through a village at meal time and begin to ask villagers to give them so food.  Not one villager will share with them, in fact they all say they don’t have enough for themselves, let alone to share.  It is the same story with everyone the soldiers speak to.  Eventually, the soldiers decide to make stone soup.  They ask a villager for a pot and some water which they are given.  In the center of the village they build a fire and heat their pot with water and a few stones.  Curious villagers ask what the soldiers are doing and are told that they are making stone soup.  With each answer, the soldiers comment that the soup would taste even better if it had an ingredient (meat, potatoes, carrots, or spices) which villagers each take turns going home to bring back. Eventually there is enough delicious soup for the soldiers and the whole village!

   Our desire for this year using this theme, is to begin to build a partnership with the people we have been serving. The most effective ministry in our neighborhood is one that reflects a diversity of people and the variety of gifts that God has blessed each of us with!  In 1 Peter 4:10 we are told, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”  You may notice that it does not say “If you have a gift.”  Each of us has a gift from the Lord that is to be used for His purpose.  We know that while most of these people have needs that require outside financial assistance, they are still blessed by God and can faithfully serve Him and others. We will be encouraging them to find an area of service where they can use their gifts and talents to bless others! 

  We also want to encourage each of you to pray about using the gifts and talents God has given you to partner with us! We are starting two new programs this year so the need for compassionate and loving volunteers and mentors has never been greater! You may serve one time or several according to your schedule and how you feel led to serve.  We have openings where you can work with adults, with children, or volunteer to do more of the office end of things. To find out more about when/how you can volunteer with us, please email info@livingbridgesministry.org we would be happy to tell you about all of the areas we have available and let you select the best match for your gifts and talents!

Blessings, Darcy

Where Is The News??

Where is the News?

     Good morning friends!  Some of us are old enough to remember when Wendy’s fast food restaurants ran the “Where is the Beef?” themed commercials.  It showed a lady peering under the bun of competitor’s hamburgers trying to find the beef which indicated that competitors served smaller burgers.  Since we started Living Bridges Ministry, I have felt the same way about our newsletter.  I picture readers reading the whole 4 pages and thinking “Where is the news?”  The templates we had to choose from just didn’t allow us to get as much “news” into the monthly newsletter as we would have liked and my schedule does not allow me to “lay out” my own format! So we have prayed and searched and prayed and searched some more and we think we have found our solution (at least for now!)

    We are going to a quarterly newsletter which will show pictures and give snippets of information just like many of you have already been receiving monthly.  In between those, we will now write a blog.  Those writings will have more details about our programs and more information about exactly what we are doing in our ministry. As readers, you will probably feel more informed and you can easily share these blog posts with anyone you feel would be interested in the information.  By sharing a single blog post instead of a whole 4 page newsletter you can make sure that the person you share with is seeing exactly the information you wanted them to see.

     Another benefit is that we can blog when we have news instead of storing it up for the next newsletter.  This will allow us to share information faster (although we do share relevant information on our Facebook page fairly often!)  It will also allow us to share news that might not have otherwise gotten included in the newsletter due to space limitations!  Often, those stories are the ones about how God is really working in our ministry!  Stories like how we got the use of the picture of the living bridges that we use on our website and our Facebook page from an award winning photographer for only $100 because he admired what we were going to be doing! Or about how when we are low on funds and have an insurance payment due or other large expense coming up, a check shows up at just the right moment which has happened quite often over the last year (we call this Manna for Today!) Or how when it was 38 degrees outside (at the start), we had one of our largest turn outs ever for an event at our Birthday Party for Jesus! Those moments make us laugh, cry and give thanks and praise to God, but often, because we are trying to get news out about activities within the ministry, you aren’t hearing those stories! So we look forward to sharing more with you this year! We would also like to thank you for your prayers, comments, support, and for sharing our information with others as we continue our ministry in South Valdosta!

Ask and It Will Be Given To You!

     A couple of nights ago woke up for no particular reason.  But, I also had trouble falling back to sleep.  Several things were going through my mind.  One of those was the Living Bridges ministry.  I know that God has called us to this, and since the ministry is growing at such as astonishing rate I began to wonder where the funds and resources will come from.  Well, I prayed and expressed this concern to God and he answered very clearly “ask and it will be given to you.”  I wasn’t exactly sure where it was, but I knew it was scripture and when I looked it up it is Matthew 7:7.  It was then that I realized that we need more partners in this ministry, giving others the opportunity to be a part of what God has led us to do and the furthering of His kingdom through it.

                Let me explain what we have been doing as a ministry.  We started last summer by hosting Kids’ Connections 2 Saturdays a month.  On those Saturdays an average of 30 family members were blessed by what we offered.  The children would play games, do a craft, hear a story about what our father in heaven has, is and will do in their lives and recite scripture from memory.  The adults would have a Bible study, play bingo for much needed household items and on some Saturdays do a craft that gave them something they had created for their own homes.   We also hosted a “Trunk or Treat” that offered an alternative to trick or treating door to door.  This event drew around 60 children from around the area.   Just before thanksgiving we hosted a lunch where around 30 were fed.  Also, at this lunch we were able to send food bags home with each family that contained staple items such as flour, sugar and vegetable oil as well as canned vegetables and soups.  Just before Christmas we held our birthday party for Jesus.  Of course we celebrated the birth of our lord and savior, but we also were able to provide each child with a donated gift.   Board games were given to each family to promote more spending time as a family.  I also forgot to mention that at every one of the events every person was fed lunch that included hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, chicken nuggets, pulled pork sandwiches and other delicious food. But, do you know what the best part of all of this was?   It was the fact that several people accepted Jesus as their lord and savior and a few others decided to rededicate their lives to Him.

                As you can probably guess, as much as we love it, providing these things is not free.  Which is where “ask and it will be given to you” comes in.  Yes, we are asking for your support.  We have prepared a budget that we feel will cover all of the above items and a couple of others that include the pavilion rental at the park where we meet, state and local licenses, accounting software that will be used to track our finances and donations and buying curriculum for this summer’s Kids’ Connection and for classes we would like to teach to assist the people in the neighborhood get jobs and manage finances.  We figure that all together, we need approximately $3500 this year to accomplish what we would like to do.  This breaks down to an average of $290 per month.  So, if we could get 10 families to pledge to donate $30, 20 families to donate $15 or 30 families to donate $10 per month this goal would be met and we could continue to bless this area of Valdosta throughout the year.  Also, as a reminder, we are now officially recognized by the IRS as a non-profit ministry.  Which means that anything you donate is tax deductible.

                There are many ways you can help.  You can donate items that are listed on our needs list.  Of course, funds are always appreciated.  If you are able to donate funds, there are several ways to do this.   If you would like to send a check, please make it out to “Living Bridges Ministry” and mail it to the address listed on our web site.  You can also donate using paypal, the link can be found on our web site,  www.livingbridgesministry.org.  We also have the capability to accept funds by credit card.  If you would like to do this, please call us at (229)234-7427 and we will take care of it.  But, the most important thing you can do for the ministry is to pray that God will continue to bless it and use it to further His kingdom.

                If you have any questions, comments or concerns please don’t hesitate to call at the above phone number or email us at info@livingbridgesministry.org.

                                                                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                 In His Service,

                                                                                                                  Tony Gunter

                                                                                                President, Living  Bridges Ministry