March Madness!

March Madness!

   12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-14

  Every year, Tony and I stop all Living Bridges Ministry activities after the Birthday Party for Jesus in December.  We enjoy the holidays with our family and spend the month of January in prayer and resting up to be ready to serve again.  This year we scheduled no events in February either!  We used that month to network with other churches and ministries and to promote our Transformations program.  During the last week of February, we did two nights of interviews for that program and selected 9 students for the class.

 That brings us to March!  The rest is over and March Madness has begun!  No it is not the basketball kind, but I do get bonus points with the hubby for the sports analogy!  This madness, also known as the Big Dance, begins our whole year of ministry for 2016! We will be performing carefully choreographed moves through teaching our class, attending meetings, speaking about what we do, running our events, typing these blog posts, picking up and distributing donations and more from now until the Birthday Party for Jesus rolls around again in December!

  Our version of the “Sweet 16” entails 15 events (8 Kids Connections, 2 Clothing Exchanges, 1 Easter egg hunt, 1 Trunk or Treat, 1 Memorial Day weekend BBQ, 1 Thanksgiving Luncheon, and 1 Birthday Party for Jesus!) and the Transformations Class of 2016!  Our Elite 8 is more like an elite 9!  Those would be the newest students in our Transformations program: Diane, Taffiney, Jocelyn, Clarence, Samuel, Cassandra, Travis, Franklin, and Fathiyah!  They will be spending 8-10 months with us learning their way out of poverty and into self-sufficient living! Your prayers are appreciated for each of them! Our final four will be the kick off of our newest program, Mom’s Connection, during the final 4 months of the year.  Mom’s Connection is structured similarly to MOPS (Mothers Of PreschoolerS) and runs during the school year.  The difference is that the moms can remain in the group all through their children’s growing up years!  We are excited to be able to bring this program to Valdosta beginning in September 2016!

   All of these efforts are made for our Champion and Lord, Jesus Christ!  We are thankful everyday that He blesses us with prayer partners, volunteers, donors, and with those who share our information and help us get the word out about the things we are doing!  We do all that we do first and foremost to point people to salvation and eternal life through Jesus as their savior!  Secondly, we have a goal to make a difference in Valdosta and in the neighborhood we are serving in! We are off and running, pressing on toward to the goal!  Your prayers are appreciated!

Love, hugs, and prayers for each of you as well!

Darcy