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