Merry Christmas

Available with Low Expectations

We recently went through a transition in changing our Vision Onward night with the kids to Friday nights. We were trying to accomodate the schedules of those who were interested in volunteering, which can become quite difficult. There were church schedules, sports schedules, social schedules, work schedules and so forth. . . .we all know how that goes.

Since we began VO nights with the west side kids, we have had it on three different nights. We started on Wednesday nights, then moved to Thursday nights and now currently to Friday nights. What is interesting about this to me is that it doesn't matter at all to our VO kids what night we meet- - - -they are ALWAYS available. These children do not have schedules. They simply can't afford to be involved in activities.

When I first realized this, it was quite sad to me and I started thinking, "how can we get these children sponsored so they can be involved in the same activities that the east side kids are?"
Then as I began to think more about it, I have come to believe it is probably a GOOD thing they are not so busy! They are always available for whatever it is we want to do with them and whenever we want to do it.

Not only are they available, they have low expectations. They do not expect to have some kind of amazing presentation or entertainment. They just want to come hang out with us. It took me a while to "get this" because I am so used to a different set of expectations- - -my children and even my own. I wanted to have the best games, the best curriculum, the best entertainment, yada, yada, yada.

These children do not need any of that, they simply want to be loved. They want hugs so we give out LOTS of those. They want to be listened to and it's easy to do that. And we must not forget, they love to be fed, so we always do that. It is as simple as that!

So many times I try to complicate things when they are really quite simple. Jesus never told us we had to have the best curriculum or the best entertainment to bring people to him. He simply tells us to "LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND and to "LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF". It really is all about LOVE and being available to receive it and to give it and THAT is nothing fancy.

So, in the end, I am so thankful that our VO kids are exactly the way they are - -available with low expectations.

Stage Art Dance at Walk This Way 2008

Thank you Stage Art Productions for your hard work in preparing and teaching the children this dance for Walk This Way 2008!

Changing to Friday Night

Dear Friends,

We wanted to make everyone aware that we will be changing our weekly time with the kids to Friday nights. We have had many conflicting schedules with our volunteers and it seems that Friday nights works best.

We will be starting a new curriculum from House of Faith Ministries. They write their own curriculum specifically for inner city kids and for children who have never been churched.

Now that are group has become large enough, we will also be breaking up age ranges into a couple different classes so we can become more intimate with the children and give them more attention.

Some of you have expressed interest in volunteering so we wanted to give everyone the option to get involved on Friday nights. We will need teachers, tutors, small groups or families to provide food, bus drivers and nursery care for the babies and toddlers. We would love to have enough volunteers to create a rotating schedule.

If you would like to be involved, please email us at jeff@visiononward.org and let us know what area you would like to serve in.

Thank you,
Jeff Holley

Cheyenne Transitional House

Jeff, Jude, Kevin, Dave and Nate spent a lot of time this week at a house on Cheyenne that we plan to use as a transitional house as soon as we can get it fixed up. This week, the guys put a new roof on it.

We have plans to move a family of 3, a single mom and her two boys, into this house and allow them to live there for one year rent free. We will provide financial counseling, clean up their credit and help them to save money to put down on their own home after the year is up.

Below are some BEFORE pictures of this house. We still have LOTS of work to do so if anyone has remodeling skills, we could use you!

A Wonderful Walk This Way 2008

Reflecting on the weekend, Jeff and I could not have been more pleased with how everyone pulled together, despite the weather, and created an amazing environment of fun and love for everyone!

We are so thankful that Virginia Avenue Baptist Church allowed us to invade their entire facility for the weekend. We are also thankful for the other many different churches that pulled together under one roof to serve the community.

The main vision we had in starting Vision Onward was to "see a passion ignited that brings unity among churches, to share time, treasures and talents between the west and east side on an ongoing basis. " We definitely saw this take place in a HUGE way this weekend! We know there were many churches were represented there. The ones we know of for sure were Grace Community Church, Virginia Avenue Baptist, Bartlesville Southern Baptist, First Baptist Church, Life Church, Happy Hill Church and Eastern Heights Baptist Church. It is possible there were even more that we are unaware of.

We are also extremely grateful for the food donations that allowed us to serve free lunch, dinner and brunch. We were given pizzas from local pizza places, hot dogs and hamburgers from Wal-Mart, personal donations of brisket and hamburger and hot dog buns, and a complete and amazing brunch served by Celebrate Recovery. The brisket for dinner was amazing- - -thanks to the Westside Community Center for smoking it all day Friday. We had MANY compliments on how good the brisket was! We know we served at least 600 plates of food on Saturday and probably 200-250 plates on Sunday.

The music artists did a phenomenal job of entertaining and at the same time preaching the gospel. If you listen to the words of their songs, it is as if they are singing straight from the Bible. PAE, Gospel Cam, and God's Army are all incredibly talented artists and we truly enjoyed our time with them.

We would like to leave you with a few testimonies we have received from the weekend:

"HI Jeff,
I just wanted to let you know that my sons have attended a few times to the weekly church function and then they also attended last Sat and absolutely LOVED every minute of it. I think it is really great what you do for all these kids(and the others that help you). I know that my children have learned alot from the few times they have attended. So I just wanted to say Thank you and your great!! I would like to keep them involved with your program, which nights is it now and where?? Thank you again."

"Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of the Walk This Way event. It was such an honor to be of service to the amazing children and families that came. Jeff, what you are doing is just incredible---you really are reaching out to those who I know, often don't have anybody that cares about them. You are a living example to us all.
Please let me know any way I can be of service to Vision Onward.
God Bless,"

"I was so surprised at the level of desperation of some of the people I talked to. I would just be making small talk, asking where they were from, how long that they had been in Bville, etc.and I guess their needs were so burdensome that just having someone express any kind of interest in them they were just ready to "unload" and be able to share their burden with someone. To be honest, I was completely caught off guard."


"Jeff and Marci,
Thank you so much for putting together the WALK THIS WAY event last weekend! It was such a unique joy to see people from so many different churches come together to truly be the body of Christ and to help share the love of God with so many people. Thank you for allowing me to be part of your team of volunteers. I pray God will continue to bless Vision Onward and your family as you continue to be available to serve him through this wonderful ministry He has given you. God Bless"

"I would have to say that the things that I love about walk this way the most of course are the precious children! I love to see their excitement and joy playing games, doing crafts, and getting to learn dances from Stage Art. God’s Army is amazing and I enjoyed seeing them interact with the kids and touch their lives through the message of the gospel. I also loved seeing all the people of Bartlesville coming together to serve and love on others in the community. Thanks for all your hard work Jeff and Marci putting this together. It is a blessing for the entire community."

We felt truly blessed by the number of people that came out to support Walk This Way. We could not have done it on our own. So thank you all so very much for your support!!

**Also, for anyone who was there and volunteered, we would love your feedback. What did you like / dislike? What did we do well/ not so well? Any advice you could give us to make it better next year? We would love to hear from you!!

Walk This Way 2008

We are gearing up for Walk This Way which will be in three weeks on September 13th -14th. We are very excited that The House FM has chosen to sponsor our event this year.

We have many fun things planned this year such as:

• Dance classes by Stage Art Productions – they will be teaching a dance on Saturday to be performed at Sunday Service
• Craft Tent
• Fun Games
• Inflatables
• Adult Workshops
• Free Concert
• Free Food
• Give Aways
• Health Screening
• Free Haircuts

The tentative schedule looks like this:

Saturday Schedule of Events
11:00-11:30 – Bus routes begin / Registrations
12:00-1:30 – Lunch, music, inflatables
1:30- 2:00 – Registration for workshops (prize given away)
2:00-5:00 - Workshops
5:00-6:00 – Dinner, Bands, Inflatables
6:00-6:30 - Intermission, Ask the Pastor, Big Prize Give Away, House FM
6:30 – 8:00 God’s Army
8:00 Big Prize Give Away


Sunday Schedule of Events
11:00 - 11:30 Breakfast Begins (could bump that to 11:00)
12:00- 1:00 Service and Dance
*close with some more music

If you would like to volunteer to serve during the weekend event, please email us at jeff@visiononward.org or mholley@surfecg.com

Thank You New London Baptist Church

This past week we had a church youth group come up from New London, TX for their week long mission project. They did a lot of work within the community- - -for the Lighthouse, Voice of the Martyrs, Greater First Baptist, Agape and for us at Vision Onward. It was neat to see a group of young kids taking a week out of their lives to SERVE! We had a great time with them at our usual Thursday night meeting. We grilled out dinner, blew up one of our jumps, and then had a time of worship and devotion. They did a great job with all the kids. Here is a video of one of the songs they did with us:

It really meant a lot to us for them to go so far out of their way to serve our community. What a neat group of people!

THANK YOU STEVE FOR WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO SERVE THE LORD AND FOR ALL THE PEOPLE YOU BROUGHT TO BARTLESVILLE TO SERVE!!

Walk This Way 2008

Poverty 101: From Talk to Walk (Part 1)

Poverty is NOT just about money. . .

To be continued . . . . .

Kids To KAA Camp / Thursday Nights

We are excited to be sending three of our Vision Onward kids to Kids Across America Camp this upcoming week. We originally had five kids scheduled to go, but one of the moms took off with her children this summer and we weren't able to convince her to let them come back to go to camp. This was disappointing because these particular two boys would really benefit from being there. They have come a long way since we have met them, but they still have a REALLY tough home life and it would have been neat for them to have gone. The three that are going are counting down the days until they go. They are so excited!

We have switched our weekly meeting with the kids from Wednesday to Thursday for the summer. We have been meeting at Douglas Park- - -we let them play, feed them and end with a devotional time. It is good to be in that neighborhood because it is a tough area. We know that many of the houses surrounding that park are involved in illegal activities so we really think our presence there during the summer is important.

Updates regarding Walk This Way 2008 are soon to come!!!

Misc Update

Over the past couple weeks we have spent time with the kids explaining to them how to use their voices to affect change in positive ways for them. A week ago Wednesday, we explained to them the Frontier Pool situation and they all got together and wrote down reasons and responses as to why they think the city should put money into keeping Frontier Pool open. It was neat to see them express themselves to "the city" in the only way they have possible- - -by writing a letter. You see, these kids don't get to vote- - -they HAVE NO VOICE! They have very few people advocating for them- - - -and sadly enough, it is definitely NOT their parents.

As much as we HATE to see taxpayers having to pay a little more sales taxes, we realize that without it, these kids will be left with nothing. We highly doubt that anything or anyone would come along and renovate this pool for the kids on the westside- - -without it being city funded. We are thankful for the YES vote and we are thankful for all the people who supported it. It definitely means A LOT to our Vision Onward kids. Here is a picture of their excitement:

(Please click on the picture for a close up)

We are so thankful to many people for working diligently to push and fight for these kids, but the ones who stand out the most to us are David and Sonja Settle!! Thank you so much for all of the city meetings you have attended, the letters you have written, the emails you have sent and the YES signs you distributed! You guys are amazing and we so appreciate what you are doing for these families on the west side of town!!

Now, for a quick update: Jeff and I are going to be OUT of town for a month beginning May 21st. There is going to be a planning meeting held at Grace Community Church for the Walk This Way event on Tuesday, May 20th at 11:45 if anyone is interested in being a part of this event. Walk This Way is scheduled for September 13 at Douglas Park and it will be an all day event including music artists, workshops and free food. We will be needing lots of volunteers for this so please pray about whether there is an area where you could serve. We will be posting more specific roles and responsibilities in the near future.

This summer we are prayerfully considering many more structured programs like single parenting classes, job skill training, after school programs and tutoring. If any of these areas fit your gifts, please contact us. We cannot do this alone and we desire to bring in as many helpers as possible. We are the body of Christ, with many different gifts and abilities; if you have a gift or ability to share, we would love to hear from you!!

We still have MANY needs on our DEEDS 4 NEEDS list waiting to be filled. Please check to see if there is a need you could meet.
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Taking Ownership & Upcoming Summer Plans

I love it when we see some of the kids at VO taking a bit of ownership in what we are doing. We have occasionally had people come in and lead some worship on Wednesday nights, but not on a regular basis. Tonight, three of our older girls had gotten together and put a couple songs together and wanted to LEAD in worship. It was really cool!! I was so proud of them. We also were blessed tonight with a delicious dinner from the Gore small group and we are so thankful for them coming and helping out!!

Jeff will soon be moving into the position of getting out of the business world so we are hoping to get a little more organized and focused with VO! We have been praying for this for a year now. He felt called to be out of "working" a little over a year ago, but the timing has not quite been right. We have LOTS of ideas and things we are wanting to implement with VO, but with working full time, we just haven't had the time to get much done. We had planned for VO to just be small for a while- - -just a handful of families we could pour into until we had more time to actually START a ministry. Well, God had different plans! Things took off quickly- - much more quickly than we anticipated or even desired, but who can argue with God. So we have just been trying to manage for the past few months. The building is still not completed, there has been NO decorating the inside, we still need a bigger bus or another smaller bus, and the list goes on and on of things we need to do- - -so hopefully soon we will be able to get to all those things. The neat thing is. . .even though we don't have the fanciest facilities, great entertainment for the kids, or the most organized curriculum, the amount of kids we have coming keeps increasing and we haven't been losing any kids. They just keep coming back. We laugh about how "amateur" we are at doing this "ministry thing" and how we really have nothing "great" at VO or offer anything extremely "fun" for these kids, yet they keep coming back. Sometimes it makes me think we should just keep it like it is- - - -simple and to the point!! We may try to complicate it too much and start losing kids. Who knows! Right now, we really just try to focus on the kids while they are there- - -mingling, talking, caring. . . .instead of worrying too much about getting through our "curriculum" or providing the "best" entertainment.

All that being said, we do have a few things tentatively planned out for this summer. Below is a list of things we are looking forward to:

• Jeff spoke with the head of House of Faith this past weekend and we are going to go down to Texas and meet with them sometime this summer and see how they operate. Their ministry is very similiar to ours and they have about 10 years of experience on us so we want to "pick their brains" and use any help or advice they can give us.
  
• We would like to send about 6-8 kids to Kids Across America camp so we are trying to come up with the funds to do that.
• Sept 13 will be the 2nd annual Walk This Way concert. We are planning to have God's Army, Lecrae, and a few other bands performing at Douglas Park along with workshops for kids and a free dinner.
• Service projects that we can do as a group with some of the older kids at VO so we can teach the children how to serve
• Possibly a trip to Branson and Silver Dollar City
• Neighborhood block parties with our blow ups and grilling food - -Jeff had a pastor from Texas wanting to bring a group up this summer to do their service project with us- - we are considering doing a neighborhood VBS using their volunteers.

PURE EXCITEMENT

I posted last Sunday night on my personal blog about an amazing day I had with one of the girls who I have been trying to reach out to through Vision Onward. I decided that I should share my story on this blog as well because without Vision Onward and what we are doing through this ministry, this opportunity would not have taken place. To read about it, please click HERE.

Thanks Nikao!!

Here is a picture of half of the dry erase board listing all of the things needing to be done at the Vision Onward building. And if you notice, MOST of the things are marked off. Grace's Nikao group did an AMAZING job during spring break:




Here is a slide show of pictures of the work:

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO CAME OUT TO HELP!! YOUR WORK WAS AMAZING!

Wednesday Night Worship

We were blessed last night with Hannah and Sarah Gore leading us in some fun worship! The kids really enjoyed having some music. It has been a desire of ours to begin doing a little bit of worship time on Wednesday nights and this was a great start for us. We also purchased a worship DVD that we can use, but live music is so much better. SOOOOO if you have a gift in music and would like to lead our group in a few worship songs on a Wednesday night, please let us know. We would love to have you!!!

Here is a video clip of The Gore Girls!!!!

Spring Break Work Days

We are blown away at the generosity from members of Grace Community Church and Bartlesville Southern for spending their free time during spring break working in the community.

There was a TON of work done and I will post more about it later. . . . .but for a quick preview, CLICK HERE for a blog update from Courtney Berg.

Growing and GROWING!!

"Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously." 2 Corinthians 9:6

This is one of the Bible verses we discussed last night at our Wednesday night Bible study. We talked about how we should give of ourselves generously so that we can show (sow) love into the lives of others. It was awesome listening to the kids have a discussion about this topic and I loved it when one girl shouted out, "Actions speak louder than words!" So very, very true!! How many times do we tell our children to stop being selfish when we ourselves are being selfish. How many times do we tell our kids to love others more than themselves, but are we doing the same?? I know we all struggle in this area. We cannot just TALK about doing the things God calls us to do, we have to start SHOWING our children HOW to do them.

It has been amazing for us to watch this group of kids growing in number each month and also growing in the Lord. When we started this summer, we had about 3-7 kids and we were meeting at Douglas Park. Last night, I believe there were between 25-30 kids. The children we have had since the summer have already changed SO much- - -the trouble makers have settled down and are actually being good examples to the newcomers who are now the trouble makers. It is neat to watch this "discipling" going on- - -even though they do not realize that this is what they are doing; they ARE doing it. These children are actually sowing into the lives of their friends and they are bringing more and more kids each week. It seems sometimes children can GET IT better than we do.

One of the boys who has been in A LOT of trouble- - -at church, at home, and at school is now the one who always wants to pray before we eat (and he can pray so well). He answers LOTS of the questions during discussion. He was on the verge of being sent to a juvenile delinquent school when we met him. Now, he is so proud when he comes on Wednesday nights to tell us how he is getting along with his teacher now. We pray for him each week to be able to continue to do well in school and get along with his teacher.

Almost every child in our group is without a father. They are craving male attention. Young boys want a man to wrestle with, older boys need a man to talk to, and teenage girls need a fatherly figure to show them love and attention or they will definitely find it somewhere else. It is a sad, sad state. We are overwhelmed with the needs! We could spend a lifetime just trying to make a dent into it. Is it worth it?? Absolutely!! Each week as we watch these children grow, we KNOW it is worth it. If we can just reach a few, there are a few more that will be able to reach a few more and on and on. If we do nothing. . . .we reach no one! (If we sow sparingly, we reap sparingly)

We have realized how hard it is to reach the adults, but these children are reachable. If we cannot change the current generation, we pray God will use us to reach the next generation.


There is an amazing book about a ministry in Texas that started doing Back Yard Bible Clubs near elementary schools right after school. It is amazing how this ministry has taken off and how God has blessed it. Their story is touching and inspiring. They have been used by God to chang the lives for so many young people and these young people are now older and are affecting the lives of other young people. The ministry is called House of Faith and the book is entitled "The Hands and Feet of Jesus"


We apologize for the HUGE gaps between posts. We are going to try to update more often. Stay tuned for a post about what we are doing for SPRING BREAK WEEK!!

Your Ministry to the Poor

I wanted to share a devotion I received via email today that describes a little of how we became convicted about ministering to the poor:

Your Ministry to the Poor
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2, by Os Hillman
02-09-2008

"Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter?when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?" (Is 58:7).

For many years, I have read this passage without responding to it personally. I read it and moved on to the rest of my Bible reading without any actions steps. It was just another verse of scripture. Then one day the Holy Spirit asked me a question. "Os, how are you ministering to the poor in my name?" It was a very convicting question.

As I began to ponder that question, I realized I had no specific focus on the poor in my workplace ministry. Sure, I give to my local church that often gives to the poor and I may give a donation to the needy here or there. However, I was not directly involved in any specific activity that served the poor. I believed God was challenging me to change this.

I began praying about this and soon God connected me with a Christian leader in the nation of Uganda. I had never been to a third world nation. I had not seen poverty up close and personal. I decided this was God's answer to my prayer. Paying all my own expenses, I traveled to Uganda. I visited the camps where thousands of people have come to live - having abandoned their lands because of a 20-year rebel war. Children have been killed and maimed. During my stay, I experienced limited access to electricity and other basic needs we take for granted in the west. It is a stark contrast to how so many of us live.

This trip has begun a long term relationship with the nation of Uganda. The Lord does not ask us to give what we don't have. However, I do believe each of us should ask God, "What do I have in my hand that I can offer?" That is what Elisha asked of the widow. And God performed a miracle through what she had (2 Kings 4:2).

Ask God today what you have in your hand that you can give to the poor.

A Goose Bump Moment

This past Wednesday night while we were doing our normal group night with the kids, I had a "goose bump" moment while I was listening to one of our girls pray before we ate.

This particular girl, who is in her teens, has been with us now for 4-5 months. In remembering back to when I first met her, I recall thinking, "this poor girl is a MESS!". Truthfully, some of the things she said even scared me a bit. She has had a rough life and it was obvious. As much as my flesh wanted to protect my two young girls from some of the things she was saying, I knew that we needed to become a part of her life. She needed us!

Over the past few months, we have seen a HUGE change in her. She has become so sweet and has a level of peace about her that was not previously there. We haven't done anything extraordinary to cause that change in her- - -we just gave her our time, our love, and our consisitency.

I am so proud of her and as I listened to her praying last night, I got those wonderful goose bumps that I love to get when I witness our great God at work!!

I am so thankful for moments like these that encourage us to keep pushing on. We have many moments of discouragement and frustration in dealing with children from broken homes. It is really nice to get a small bit of encouragement now and then.

Thank you Lord!!

Thank You Kumon!

Here is a video of some of the boys that have been sponsored to go to Kumon. It has been a great experience for them and they have progressed a ton since they began.

Jeff Was Speechless

Ok, for those of you who know Jeff well, you know that he is NOT the type to be left speechless. Well, something happened this week which left him in just that condition. Here is the story:

A few months back, Jeff was introduced to a man by someone from our church. This man was homeless with a 7 year-old son and was staying in a hotel. He had been "adopted" by a small group from our church and they had really been trying to reach out to him. Jeff had been asked if we might be able to find somewhere for him to live. Within the week, someone donated to us a house to use for one year. This alone was an answer to prayer for us and for this man!! This was our very first transitional housing experience. We took this man from being homeless, gave him a place to live and gave him "in house" spiritual counsel from our good friend Rob who decided to live with him.

Soon after, we hired him to help us do the reconstruction on the Vision Onward building. With this house being free transitional housing, he only receives $100 a week from his paycheck each week to live on. The rest of the money he makes goes into a savings account for when he moves out of the transitional housing. We have sinced learned that this guy is extremely talented in construction and has done a fabulous job for us.

He has grown tremendously over the past few months in every area of his life and it has been amazing to watch the transformation. This past week he wanted to meet with Jeff. He started telling Jeff how things had been going so great and he was so thankful for all we had done for him. He proceeded to tell Jeff that the money he had saved up to this point he wanted to give back to Vision Onward. He said he had prayed about it and this was what he wanted to do.

This was where Jeff became speechless. He truly didn't know what to say. Here we have a man who was just homeless a few months ago and still has minimal assets and he wants to GIVE what little money he has saved to US!!! Jeff's first thoughts were to tell him "No, you really need to keep this money for yourself; you will need this money!" But after thinking for a bit, he realized that he didn't want to discourage him about something that he felt God was telling him to do.

This just blew us away!! This man who has so very little has truly had a God experience that has transformed him into a more faith-filled man than most people in our churches today. This man has witnessed how God has taken care of him and knows that he is in God's family now and will always have what he needs!! THAT is what it's all about- - -transforming lives!!

This is the most modern day experience we have ever had that is so similiar to the story of the poor widow woman in the Bible who gave two coins to the treasury and it was all that she had to live on (Mark 12::41-44). Jesus said to his disciples, " Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on."

Sometimes the poor can teach us so many things that we cannot learn anywhere else. We understand why God values the poor so much.