Vision Onward

Pathway Transitional Housing

2011-01-20T10:55:00.001-06:00

There are so many incredible things happening at the Pathway Apartments. (Pathway is a comprehensive support program that was created in order to help homeless families transition out of a state of chronic dependency on others.) Currently we have 14 adults and 15 children (soon to be 16 as we will be adding a precious new born to our Pathway family in just a few weeks) residing in the apartments.

The "Getting Ahead" classes are scheduled to begin in early February. This is an incredible curriculum that is designed to equip the adult residents with the basic life and social skills necessary to survive and thrive on their own. In support of these classes we are looking to implement two new programs.

One is a Lawn Care Service. This Vision Onward sponsored business will employee residents that are struggling to find jobs and in the process teach them necessary skills that will aid them in finding employment that pays a life sustaining wage. To be able to get this small business off the ground by Spring, we are in need of push mowers, weed eaters, and leaf blowers that are in good working condition. If you have any of these supplies that you would like to donate, please call us at 918-766-3801.

Second is the development of Case Management Teams. These teams will be comprised of 2 to 3 people and each team will be assigned to certain apartments. The team will be responsible for meeting with their residents on a routine bases to discuss how things are going, talk about the goals each resident will be setting during their class time, advise on financial decisions, and become a community advocate when needed. What an awesome opportunity to surround these families with the love of Christ! If this is something you are interested in learning more about or you feel God nudging you to get involved, please call us at 918-766-3801

Haviland-Phillips Family

2011-01-16T10:23:00.003-06:00

Our family ministry is called JESUS twentyfourseven because we believe we are to live for the Lord 24 hours a day 7 days a week no matter what that looks like. We believe we are to live a fasted lifestyle which will keep us focused on HIM and what he has called us to do, which is to go into all the nations and prepare for HIS return. Matt.28:19. Wherever we go we want others to know who God is and how their lives would be different if they believed and lived for HIM. Our soul cries out for those that do not know HIM and we are commanded by God to share HIS love with them and to give them hope in Jesus. We also believe we are to encourage other brothers and sisters to stay strong in the Lord and to help them to draw closer to HIM, to keep the faith, and to finish the good fight. 1Corin.9:24, 1Tim 6:12, 2Tim 4:7.

You can visit our website here: www.jesustwentyfourseven.com.

If you would like to support the Haviland-Phillips Family, you can donate to Vision Onward through Paypal or mail a check to Vision Onward, PO Box 252, Bartlesville, OK 74005. Please note Haviland-Phillips on the donation.

Vision Onward is a 501C-3 organization and your donation will be tax deductible.

Daniel Castro - Reynosa, Mexico

2011-01-15T11:29:00.006-06:00

"After years of chasing things I thought would give me joy, peace, security, and purpose to my life only to end up depressed, frustrated, and hopeless I decided to commit my life to knowing God personally and seeking His will for my life.

In 2001, I joined a church group on a mission trip to Reynosa, Mexico to help build homes for those in need. It was there that I first witnessed a level of poverty which I had never seen before, with many needing the most basic of necessities.

As I spent time with families trying to meet their most basic needs and often just spending time listening to their struggles and praying for them, I realized how little acts of love and kindness could impact the lives of others both physically and spiritually.

The next few years as I searched for opportunities and served locally and globally on short term mission trips, I sensed God calling me to leave my comfort zone and make my life all about loving the poor, broke, and lost.

In August of 2010, I moved to Reynosa to work with friends in a community with much need. We are currently teaching English, distributing food, water, clothing, and medicine, building homes, gardens, and most importantly friendships with families in hope of leading them to a relationship with Jesus Christ.

We are hoping in the near future to construct a well for access to clean water as well as building a school to teach carpentry and basic computer skills. Daily we pray for wisdom and guidance in how we can further work in this community and proclaim the love of Christ and bring glory to God."

If you would like to support Daniel in Reynosa, Mexico you can donate to Vision Onward through Paypal or mail a check to Vision Onward, PO Box 252, Bartlesville, OK 74005. Please note Daniel Castro on the donation.

Vision Onward is a 501C-3 organization and your donation will be tax deductible.

Transitional Housing Volunteer Opportunity Update - All Fulfilled

2011-01-14T11:58:00.002-06:00

Thank you to everyone who stepped up here!! All of these needs have been met. Glory to God!

2010 Graduation - Year One

"A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor." Proverbs 22:9

Looking for a way in 2011 to get involved in the community? Vision Onward offers many opportunities for individuals and groups to be involved locally and internationally. One immediate way that folks can get involved in Bartlesville is through providing meals. The next group of Pathway Apartment residents are beginning the “Getting Ahead” class series.

Not familiar with this Vision Onward ministry? Well simply stated, the Pathway Apartments are a 22 unit complex that have been renovated into a transitional housing facility. This allows families or individuals a stable living environment for a twelve month period. Residents are provided comprehensive training, counseling, and coaching that are designed to equip them with the basic life and social skills necessary to survive and thrive on their own. It is the only transitional housing available in the Bartlesville area and the program has proven to be very successful as we have seen the first round of residents graduate and move forward into the community as productive and contributing citizens.

We are searching for families or groups that are interested in providing hot meals for 25 people. The meals will need to be delivered to the apartments “ready to serve” by 5:45 on the nights the classes are scheduled. The classes meet every Thursday night beginning Feb. 18th. The meal can be anything from spaghetti to tacos to a turkey dinner with all the trimmings – it is completely up to you but we will be happy to provide suggestions.

About now you are thinking, “I’m not a cook but I’d love to help.” Here is a list of items that can be donated a head of time and take no preparation at all. These are items that will be used in support of the meals during the classes. These items will need to be delivered to the Pathway Apartments no later than Feb. 16th but can be received any time prior to this date.

25 cases of water
12 cans of presweetened lemonade mix
625 paper plates
625 paper or plastic cups
1000 paper napkins
12 large packs of plastic forks, knives, and spoons
12 jumbo rolls of paper towels

If you would like to volunteer to help with the Pathway Apartment meals, donate any of the specified items above, or you would like information about other opportunities to volunteer with Vision Onward, please contact us via response to this posting or calling us at 918-766-3801.

Thank you to everyone who stepped up here!! All of these needs have been met. Glory to God!

NEW Deeds 4 Needs Website

2011-01-13T13:18:00.000-06:00

Pendergraphics has graciously donated their time and talents to redesign the Deeds 4 Needs website in order for it to be used nationwide and we are thrilled to announce that the new website is currently up and running! The website address is the still same www.deeds4needs.org.

NEEDERS:
If you had a need posted on the OLD website and it is still a current need, please go to www.deeds4needs.org and re-enter your need on the new website.

DEEDERS:
Please go to the new website register as a Deeder and also sign up for our newsletter so you will be on our mailing list for updated needs.

We are so thankful for the work Pendergraphics did on the website and are excited about making Deeds 4 Needs a nationwide ministry!

If you have any questions about the new website, please feel free to contact us at jeff@visiononward.org or 918-350-0205.

Testimony from Dusty

2011-01-12T14:11:00.000-06:00

Dusty and his family are currently participating in the Transitional Housing program through Vision Onward. We are excited to see how God will use Dusty and his family.

Testimony from Ken Peace about Trey

2011-01-12T14:09:00.001-06:00

Shoe Box Delivery 2010

2011-01-02T16:12:00.012-06:00

This is the fourth year for Vision Onward to deliver shoe boxes of gifts to children in need. It was once again a huge success with 265 shoe boxes delivered. We would like to thank St. John School and Grace Community AWANA's for providing shoe boxes. We would also like to thank all those who came out to deliver the boxes and West Oak Baptist for providing breakfast and hot chocolate for the deliverers.

Please enjoy the slide show of pictures below! Thanks to the Crowley family for the pictures.

Upcoming Trip to Togo, Africa

2010-12-24T09:48:00.003-06:00

Dear Friends and Family,

We would like to update you on the plans and progress for the work in Togo, West Africa. The Lord has provided 50 acres for the mission. Kossi and his new bride, Esther, have recently arrived in Togo to begin the processes needed to start building the Christian Missionary Center. This past week they have been meeting with officials to finalize the documentation needed to start the center.

We are also waiting for plans to be drawn up for the land so we can know where to put the water wells.

Marci and I will be making an exploratory, vision casting and future planning trip there from January 22^nd – 31^st. We are also excited about another family who is being led to partner with us in Togo. We have always felt that it would be a huge blessing to have another family go to Togo with us for support and encouragement. We are thrilled to announce that Kirsten Haviland-Phillips will be going in January with us. You can read more about how God is leading their family in her personal message below.

We would like to ask you for your prayers and support for this upcoming trip. The cost of this trip will be approximately $4,500. If the Lord leads you to support us on this trip, you can contact us at 918-350-0205 or make a donation through our website at www.visiononward.org. Make sure you note that the donation is for Togo.

We thank you in advance for your prayers and support!

God Bless You,

Jeff Holley

Greetings fellow Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The Lord has placed it on my family’s heart to team up with Vision Onward / Togo, Africa. We are hoping to join them in Togo to help make this vision come to fruition. In doing so, we feel it is important for me to go to Togo, Africa in January of 2011 with the Holley’s to help prepare myself and our six children for third world conditions. This trip will help determine if we will be moving over to Togo in due season. Please come along the side of the Haviland-Phillips family in prayer for wisdom and strength. Thank you for your prayer and support.

Serving Jesus,

Kirsten Haviland-Phillips

Red Apple Proceeds to Benefit Vision Onward

2010-12-09T11:17:00.011-06:00

(click image to enlarge)

20% of the entire proceeds will benefit Vision Onward. This includes all open bowling and shoe rental at Red Apple Bowling Center and all pizza and buffet sales at Game Time Pizza from 5pm until close.

Red Apple Bowling Center is Bartlesville's place for indoor family fun. The center is a smoke-free environment with 32 bowling lanes of which 12 have individually programmable bumpers. There is a spacious game room and some great eats from the Laneside Grill and Game Time Pizza. Game Time Pizza has a wide variety of specialty pizzas and is a great place to watch your favorite teams on the big screen TV's.

Coupon is NOT necessary and mentioning Vision Onward is also not necessary. Every purchase from every person who walks in the door on this date will be benefiting Vision Onward.

Thank You Red Apple Bowling Center for your support!!

Survivor Fundraiser 2010

2010-12-08T14:40:00.004-06:00

A huge THANK YOU to Ashley Rose for the photography for the evening!

The Survivor Fundraiser dinner was a huge success and we hope it was also pleasing to the Lord. We had a full house and received a substantial amount of donations. We are very blessed and thankful for everyone who attended and donated!

The volunteers at Vision Onward are the most giving, sacrificial, hard working and excellent group of volunteers!!! Lives are being changed through this ministry and God has brought us amazing workers to assist in this great mission. They did a phenomenal job in organizing this fundraiser and we are extremely grateful to them all!!

We were very proud of Trey and Nikai, two Refuge youth, who bravely shared their testimonies of how God has used Refuge to be just that. . . .a place of safety and Refuge for them on Friday nights. God has turned two hurting kids into strong leaders for Him.

Ronda Harris also shared her testimony and displayed many products from her new business "Cute as a Button; Decor, Gifts and More." She is extremely talented in making diaper cakes, towel cakes or any kind of gift cake for all occasions. Check her out on Facebook! We hope to have a website up for her soon so she can share her work with everyone.

Refuge Has a New Home

2010-12-06T10:30:00.001-06:00

After searching a few months for a new location for Refuge, we are so thrilled to announce that Refuge has a new HOME at West Oak Baptist Church. Randy and Pam have been absolutely wonderful in opening up this church for us to use on Friday nights. The facility is perfect for all the things we do on Friday nights with the children.

We praise God for His provision and for the generosity of His people. We pray that God will be glorified through this partnership and that children's lives will continue to be impacted by the ministry of Refuge.

Examiner-Enterprise Article about Transitional Apartment Graduate Ronda Harris

2010-12-01T20:39:00.000-06:00

Getting Ahead of Poverty: Opportunities Open for Local Woman Who Experienced Poverty

Saturday, November 27, 2010 10:21 PM CST

By Emily Droege E-E Staff Reporter

The well-known adage that things happen for a reason may well apply to Ronda Harris’ life. Even though she and her family were thrown into poverty, the experience of living poor opened an opportunity that is now providing Harris with national recognition.

Several years ago, Harris and her husband were enjoying a slice of the American dream, living comfortably with their two children in Louisiana and holding steady jobs.

Then, a series of unfortunate events suddenly struck the couple, and they soon found themselves struggling to make ends meet.

“We moved to Bartlesville in 2006 and were doing fine financially,” said Harris. “Then two years later, I started hurting in my right arm.”

She proceeded to go to the doctor and was eventually diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a chronic condition characterized by widespread pain in an individual’s muscles, ligaments and tendons. As a result of her medical issue, Harris’ workload at Sitel lessened.

Around the same time, her husband, Ivan, suffered a heart attack, causing him to work less as well. A major surgery soon afterwards resulted in him no longer being able to work. The tumbling blows pushed the couple into a spiral of deepening poverty.

“He became ill and wasn’t able to work as much either,” she said. “He then had a triple bypass surgery and was hardly able to work at all.”

Because of the couple’s limited working hours, the paychecks also lessened, while unpaid medical bills began to pile up. Harris said that the financial responsibilities and stress soon became overwhelming, and her family found themselves struggling to make ends meet, such as paying house payments.

“We were becoming victims of situational poverty, and it was something that I was determined to get my family out of,” said Harris.

Several Bartlesville resources came to Harris’ aid as she and her family tried to pull back from poverty. In particular, she credits Vision Onward and community-minded individuals like Jeff Holley, who helped her family move into a transitional housing program.

“If it wasn’t for the transitional housing program, I don’t know where my family and I would be today,” said Harris. “I’m so thankful for those involved that make a program like that possible.”

Harris explained that while she and her family were in the yearly housing program, she took the required Getting Ahead program. Under this six-month course, Harris was able to examine the impact that poverty has on individuals, families and communities and discovered theories of change to get out of poverty and become a productive citizen.

“During my time in the Getting Ahead classes, I really changed my way of thinking. My whole mindset changed. I learned so much about what I needed to do to take my family and myself out of the situation we were in,” said Harris. “I was determined to manage our budget more responsibly and pay off all the high interest loans.”

While in the Getting Ahead class, Harris created a “mental model” as an end of the course class project. She said the mental model is used to deepen and reinforce what students learn as the sessions unfold in the class.

“The classes were so inspirational to me. I kept visualizing the program as a road map, and being a visual person, I wanted to show what I learned on paper,” she said.

During a sleepless night, Harris put pen to paper and started sketching out the beginning of a board game, incorporating everything she learned in the 20-session class in her drawing.

She said she based her sketch off the popular Parker Brothers board game “Life,” with the intent to help people, particularly middle-class and above, understand what it’s like to live in poverty.

“The game shows how anyone can fall into the trap of poverty, whether its through paying fees, being bonded out, not having enough money for a lawyer, being convicted of a felony or falling prey to things such as pay day loans,” she said. “It’s also a way to raise awareness of why people fall in to poverty.”

Shortly after Harris showed her model to one of her class facilitators, M’Liss Jenkins, it was passed on to the hands of Philip DeVol, a developer of the Bridges Out of Poverty effort, a national poverty alleviation movement.

DeVol was clearly impressed by Harris’ mental model, as it soon will be used as a tool for the national Getting Ahead curriculum. As a result, the board game will be manufactured and distributed nationwide by aha! Process, Inc., which is the driving force behind the Bridges Out of Poverty movement.

As further proof of what she has learned and gained from the local Getting Ahead program, Harris also has shared her family’s story and showed her “Building Bridges” game at a national conference in Indianapolis.

“The game is a learning tool for understanding the daily struggles for those who live in poverty,” she said. “It’s also a way for players from poverty, get out of poverty, and for players of middle class and wealth to see the lack of resources and its effect on certain situations,” she said.

As a graduate of the Getting Ahead class, Harris said she is inspired to spread the word and change mindsets of falling into the trap of poverty.

“I want my children and others to know the situation out there,” she said. “I want to be one of the voices who are helping others understand and get out of poverty.”

“I’m so thankful for the Getting Ahead program and all the allies who are part of it,” Harris continued. “It’s not a handout — it’s a hand-up. It helped me take responsibility and strive to get out of the situation my family and I was in. It was a very positive experience and an all together win-win program.”

Harris has recently started her own specialty cake business, Cute as a Button: D/cor, Gifts and More in Bartlesville. She and her family has moved out of transitional housing apartments and now have a home of their own.

Transitional Apartment Graduate Presents at National Conference

2010-10-08T15:43:00.002-05:00

Ronda Shares Her Testimony

This past week, Ronda Harris of Bartlesville presented a Building Bridges game to nearly one hundred people at a National Conference in Indianapolis, IN. The City of Bartlesville began implementing Getting Ahead classes for families living in poverty with two pilot groups this past year. One pilot group was at the Vision Onward Transitional Apartments, which Ronda participated in, and was facilitated by M'liss Jenkins and Don Bush. The visual mental model was created as an end of the course class project, which then fell into the hands of the author of the curriculum, Philip DeVol. DeVol was so impressed by Ronda's mental model that they are making it into a board game to be used as a learning tool with their Getting Ahead curriculum.

Alabama State Legislator Patricia Todd, M'liss Jenkins and Ronda

The Building Bridges game is a learning tool for understanding day-to-day struggles that come with living in poverty. Playing it and discussing it opens up the lines of communication between players--to understand the resources that help players from poverty get out of poverty, and and for players of middle class and wealth—to see the lack of resources and its effect on certain situations, and the barriers that bring people into poverty. Designed by presenter Ronda Harris as a visual mental model of how the Getting Ahead class influenced the lives of Getting Ahead class members, including her own— showing what they learned and what they knew they needed to do to get to their future story. During the game, players develop the tools needed to build the bridges that a person needs to keep from being swept away into poverty.

This tool will be available to other Getting Ahead groups in early 2011.

Vision Casting Trip to Togo

2010-08-30T17:01:00.000-05:00

Jeff and Marci Holley will be making an exploratory, vision casting and future planning trip to Togo from January 22^nd – 31^st. They are excited about another family who is being led to partner with us in Togo. They have always felt that it would be a huge blessing to have another family go to Togo with them for support and encouragement. We are thrilled to announce that Kirsten Haviland-Phillips will be going in January with them. You can read more about how God is leading the Haviland-Phillips family in her personal message below.

We would like to ask you for your prayers and support for this upcoming trip. The cost of this trip will be approximately $4,500. If the Lord leads you to support them on this trip, you can contact Jeff at 918-350-0205 or make a donation through our website at www.visiononward.org. Make sure you note that the donation is for Togo.

We thank you in advance for your prayers and support!

God Bless!

Greetings fellow Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Serving Jesus,

Kirsten Haviland-Phillips

Christian Missionary Center (CMC)

2010-08-27T16:55:00.006-05:00

A HEART FOR TOGO AND THE NATIONS

Statement of Purpose:

Let us consider that each Christian is called to become Christ’s disciple, an important agent in the fulfillment of Christ’s mission on earth (Matthew 28:19-20); let us consider Jesus as the only model and example to follow by each Christian or Christ’s disciple; let us consider “a student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40); let us consider Jesus during his ministry on earth as he was assigned to a specific and clear mission to fulfill the preaching of the good news to the poor, the proclamation of the freedom to the prisoners, the recovery of sight for the blind and the proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:18-19). . . . . . .Christian Missionary Center (CMC) is created to fulfill that purpose.

Plan and Strategy:

A. Evangelism: CMC’s main goal is to bring people to the full knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ and to help them to become in their turn an agent in the announcing and proclamation of God’s word of grace.

B. Spiritual Maturity – CMC plans to build a church for the purpose of preparing and equipping people with a solid foundation of their faith in Christ.

C. Spiritual Formation – CMC plans the construction of a ‘Bible Institute’ to prepare those who have a desire to pursue their pastoral vocation.

D. Social Works – CMC plans to serve in meeting the physical needs of the people in the following areas:

Orphanage
Medical Clinic
Water Wells
Food assistance

E. Agriculture – CMC plans to support its efforts by developing its own farm to fight against financial dependency.

Abundant Blessings

2010-06-13T17:13:00.001-05:00

As the time was quickly approaching for Kossi to return to the United States from Togo, we were still a couple thousand dollars short on being able to finish the purchase of the land. It was important to have the land deal completed before his return because we did not know how long the extremely low price would remain in effect.

We are thrilled to share that once again, God has provided. A dear couple from Indiana who came to Bartlesville last summer to volunteer for Walk this Way, met Kossi and knew that God had called them to partner with him someday in Africa. They wrote an extremely generous check that put us above and well beyond what we needed to finish the land purchase. Now, we will also have the necessary funds to get the land drawn up and install some water wells at strategic locations for the surrounding villages who currently do not have a clean water source.

We are so thankful and praise God for His work, His Spirit and His people who were created to do good works, to bring aid to the poor and needy, and to bring the good news of Jesus to those who have yet to hear. We praise His name for the obedience of His people and for His revelation that the abundance of financial blessings is given to us so we may use it to further His kingdom and to bring glory to His name. We are so thankful for the partnership we have with lovers of God, those who love God more than this world and will die to worldly passions and sacrifice material gain for eternal treasures in heaven!! We are thankful and praise His name in advance for the work that will be done in Togo and for the souls who will be brought into the Kingdom because of the faithfulness of His people.

Father, continue the good work You have began in Togo. Father, guide us by Your Spirit and protect us from the evil one who would love to distract us from your work. Father, help us to stay focused on your purposes and your will! Father, soften and prepare the hearts of the Togolese; provide fertile soil for the seeds of your word to be planted and water those seeds through your Spirit in order to raise up a generation of Christ followers in Togo.

In Jesus name. . . .amen!

"So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God." Hebrews 13:12-16

Togo, West Africa Land Purchased

2010-05-03T22:21:00.010-05:00

Jeff's trip to Togo, West Africa was amazing! Although it was extremely tough on him physically and emotionally, he came home so blessed because God showed such great favor in choosing land for the future mission. Not only did God choose the land, He managed to get the sellers to sell it at an unbelievable price. Kossi had expected to spend $5,000-$10,000 per ectile (2.5 acres) and God provided it for $600 per ectile. They were able to purchase 3 ectiles (7 acres) with the agreement that they can purchase another 43 at the very same price. They were able to get it at such an amazing price that the person who was showing them the land asked "what kind of a God do you serve to get the land so cheap?" Kossi's aunt was able to share about the Mighty God we serve!

The land is beautiful and is surrounded by many villages that are in great need of clean drinking water, medical attention and most of all, the gospel of Jesus Christ. As soon as we are able to get the rest of the land purchased, we plan to get some water wells put in as quickly as possible so these poor Togolese people can stop drinking from the disgusting, contaminated water source they are currently using. It was VERY hard for Jeff to see what they were drinking from and to see the children with swollen bellies. It is so imperative for us to move as quickly as we can and we are thrilled that we have already raised 60% of the money needed to finish purchasing the rest of the land. We are only about $4,000 shy of reaching our goal- - -PRAISE GOD!!

Kossi will be returning to the states toward the end of June and would love to speak to anyone who would like to know more about the vision God has placed in his heart. If you would like him to speak to you, your small group, or your church, please feel free to contact Jeff at 918-350-0205.

Thank you all SO much for your support and your prayers. God is moving mightily and we are excited to see what He will provide next.

Here are a few pictures of the land and the villages surrounding the land.

The land that was purchased is about 45 minutes north of Lome, near the city of Tsevie.

"The afflicted and needy are seeking water, but there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them Myself, as the God of Israel I will not forsake them." Is 41:17

"And if you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness, and your gloom will become like midday. And the LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail." Is. 58:10.

A Cheerful Giver

2010-04-27T15:30:00.000-05:00

We have a youth boy at Refuge who has been meeting with us for the past 3 years now. A few weeks ago, his mother told us that she wanted to start tithing to Vision Onward. She said that Refuge is what her son considers to be his church and so this is who she wants her tithe money to go to. Mind you, this is a single mother with very limited income. She said she had been saving for awhile and then she handed Ken a huge wad of money (see picture above). This single mother gave us $485. WOW! This was so incredibly humbling for all of us. Ken even tried to decline it knowing that she has limited income, however she insisted and went on to say that she will be giving a monthly tithe from now on. God had placed this in her heart and she was giving joyfully and generously with tears of thankfulness in her eyes for how much has been done for her son.

This type of giving has been something we have seen over and over again since we began our ministry working with poverty level families. Those who have so very little are so very generous with what little they do have.

"Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.   As it is written:
   "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor;
      his righteousness endures forever." 2 Corinthians 9:6-9

"I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things have I given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you. O LORD, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you." 1 Chronicles 29: 17-19

A Note From Togo

2010-04-25T20:03:00.001-05:00

Here is a note from Jeff while he was in Togo, Africa last week:

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 5:50am

I must say that I will never be able to put into words the overwhelming emotion from things I have seen, but I'm going to try. Some things will be descriptive, not out of disrespect, but to paint the real picture. I knew coming to Africa would present challenges for me, but since I had been here before I thought I knew what to expect. The first hard thing was the 5 hr time difference...last night was the first time that I went to bed here on time and slept through the night for the most part. The second piece that has been hard is the heat. It has been around 104 with humidity each day and there is not an AC in sight. I have literally dripped sweat from the moment I stepped off the plane. It's hard to sleep when sweat is rolling off of you...it's like you are in a full time sauna.

About Togo.....the capital is Lome and it is very populated; one of the highest populated per sq mile in all of Africa. The goverment does not manadate or help facilate trash pick up so you can guess where every bit of it goes. At night you will see thousands of little fires along the road of burning trash, but since it's a seaside city, the wind is strong and it blows the half burnt trash all over the place. Every road except the main road is made of sand and dirt. Those roads are in really rough conidtion and are covered in trash. I started my first day on a walk through the city of Baguida and right off the bat, kids everywhere are playing in just their underwear and are covered in sand. The houses of some are made of concrete, but most are made of tree branches. None of the houses have running water; they all have water wells. There is also very little electricity. They could have both, but it is very expensive for them.

Literally every where you turn in every city they are trying to sell you bread and fruit and vegatables. They also are trying to sell water and the difference between the waters is unreal. Some of the people selling water looks like tea.

On Sunday, we went to an amazing church service. They sang and danced to the Lord for an hour and it was a treat for me to see. Then Kossi delivered the message and it was awesome as well.

On Monday, we went to visit the land that we are looking at for an orphange and church and medical clinic. The land itself was beautiful and it is has at least 15 rural villages within 2 miles. We visited some of them and that is when it got really hard for me. Seeing the pot bellied kids, who were butt naked with flies all around them and the women looking worn and only having clothes on from waist down. Seeing their houses made of mud and grass and seeing how far they have to travel to get water was tough to handle. When we got to where their water source was, it was a pond with moss or something green covering the entire top with insects and bugs all over the top and animals drinking from it. All of my emotions were overfilled and tapped and I think I was in shock for a bit.

So today we are working on the land deal and I must say the folks here have been so nice and the hospitality has been awesome. For the most part, the food has been really good as well. All the fresh fruit has been awesome, but what I have seen what some have to live through in and out of the city has changed me for life. I feel ashamed complaining about heat when I see what they live through everyday. Just to LIVE is tougher work than what most of us do for our jobs just to have the things we WANT.

(***I will be posting more about Jeff's trip to Africa soon with pictures)

What is Vision Onward About?

2010-04-20T15:29:00.000-05:00

WALK THIS WAY 2009 - Thank You

2009-10-03T21:45:00.001-05:00

Thank you to ALL the volunteers for their hard work and making Walk This Way a success!!

Refuge

2009-10-03T21:35:00.009-05:00

Every Friday night VO will pick up between 60-100 children from the impoverished areas of town and bring them into a safe environment and show them love. Volunteers in the community take time out of their week to spend time with children who desperately need love and attention. The children are served dinner and then move on to worship time, game time, and small group bible study time. We keep the small groups small because we believe it is important for the leaders to build strong bonds with the children in their groups. Refuge is exactly what its name indicates: it is a Refuge for children who have rough lives.

Want to make a difference in a child's life? Volunteer as a small group leader at Friday Night REFUGE!

Good News Talk Show

2009-09-24T20:36:00.002-05:00

WALK THIS WAY 2009

2009-09-18T10:27:00.002-05:00

Introducing. . . .

2009-08-28T05:56:00.000-05:00

. . . .two new full-time faces at Vision Onward. God has brought us two amazing men who have taken a leap of faith, left their current jobs and began full-time ministry with us. We are thrilled to have Ken Peace and Don Bush partnering with us and we are also very grateful for those who have been willing to help financially to support their work in ministry. They are amazing, strong men of God and are a great asset to reaching people for Christ.

Ken has a special gift with children and all children LOVE Mr. Ken. He has been spending a lot of time with some of the older boys and has developed great relationships with them. It is a huge blessing to have Godly men in the lives of the boys we work with because most of them do not have fathers in their lives. Ken will be in leading in Refuge, Men's Club and he also leads a D-Group (Discipleship Group). Ken has a passion to lead people to Jesus- - -especially children and youth!

Don is a man of many talents. He is very gifted with youth and is instrumental during Refuge with game time.

Don will also be handling many of the responsibilities at the Pathway Transitional housing where we currently have eight families residing. Every Thursday night, the residents of the apartments have classes that they are required to take and Don assists in coordinating those classes.

Both of these men have been a tremedous asset to this ministry and we know God has great plans to use them to further His kingdom!

Baptism

2009-08-27T22:09:00.006-05:00

This past July we were blessed to baptize four children in our ministry. The two girls have been a part of our ministry since we began back in 2007 and the two young men just joined us this year.

We met the families at Osage Hills Park and had an awesome fellowship grill out before the baptism where Jeff spoke about the meaning of baptism and why it is important.

We then went down to the creek and baptized them. Here are a few of the pictures of the baptism:

Pathway Apartments - Transitional Housing

2009-03-19T11:46:00.003-05:00

The Alameda Apartments are currently being renovated and will be renamed The Pathway Apartments which is will be a Transitional Housing Solution

Problem: Even before the current recession, essentially every social service support agency in the community was acknowledging the urgent need for transitional shelter along with comprehensive transitional counseling/training to help persons in the Bartlesville area who are completely dependent upon community resources for all their survival needs, but do not want to remain in such a state of dependency. Many people are in this condition because they do not know how to get and hold a job, and then manage their finances and lives so as to live within their means. They need intense counseling, training and guided help with developing basic life skills necessary to become and remain productive members of the community. With the severe economic downturn, the numbers of people likely to fall into this category are bound to increase in the coming year. Yet to our knowledge, no agency in Bartlesville has any firm program underway or in the process of being set up to deal with this urgent need.

Solution: Vision Onward Inc. (VOI) is taking definitive first steps to meet this growing need. With this proposal we propose to provide transitional housing and counseling/training/coaching/guidance to 20 individuals or families for a 12 month period, that will equip and enable them to become productive self-sufficient members of the community. We realize that the need is far greater than the supply we are proposing, and intend to expand our program in future phases as we are able. But we believe some help is better than none, and that taking some action is better than endless talking.

Goal: Life change---Productive citizens that can give in to the community instead of just receiving from it. Also create a band of Christ Followers.

Proposed Benefits:

Stable living environment in transitional housing units for a 12 month period.
Assistance with other material sustenance as they transition to self-sufficiency.
A comprehensive (and mandatory) training/counseling/coaching program designed to equip them with basic life and social skills necessary to survive and thrive on their own.

Proposed number of beneficiaries: 20 family units or individuals per year. We estimate that at least half will be families. Housing will be provided in a renovated apartment building formerly known as “The Alameda” and located at 312 Santa Fe in Bartlesville. The building renovations are currently underway with assistance from church volunteers. The building has 12 @ 1 bedroom apartments and 8 @ 2 bedroom apartments. The facility has an onsite laundry as well as a conference room for training.

Program Details: Program participants will be required to let program staff manage their finances over the first six months (they manage their own with coaching the last six months), agree to random drug testing, help with cleaning and maintenance of the facility, comply with curfews and other house rules, and attend all counseling/training sessions. Those who do not comply will be removed from the program. Counseling/training will include:

Personal budgeting
Debt counseling
Low budget cooking
Parenting
Phone etiquette
Resume building
Computer literacy
Other social service resources will be provided on an individual needs basis, including credit repair, “Celebrate (addiction) Recovery” program, and other programs based on individual needs.

Selection process: Applicants for program participation are directed to us from many of the other local social service organizations in the community. They may be either single adults or families. After completing the application, they are brought in for a personal interview, during which the entire program benefits and requirements are explained to them in detail. We are primarily looking for people who want to change and develop the skill of taking responsibility for their own lives and becoming productive members of society. Participants are selected from among applicants on a first come—first served basis. We currently have two approved applicants. One is an individual; and one is a small family.

Community Support: Volunteer commitment and participation by the Bartlesville community is growing by the day. Both Grace Community Church and Christ Community church are providing volunteers and committing to contribute towards the material and counseling needs of the program. Discussions are underway with other churches in the community about how they can best help. We have certified financial planners prepared to provide counseling. Momentum is building.

Timeframe:
Following is our target program schedule:
Start taking applications: Already started
Start Interviews: Already started
Start moving participants in: April 1, 2009
All units filled: on or before July 1, 2009
First participant completes 12 month program: March 31, 2010

Success measurement: The following indicators will be measured, reported to donors, and used to evaluate the success and impact of the program:

Number of applicants to the program
Number of applicants accepted into the program
Number of participants who complete the program
Number of completing participants who successfully get their own place and are able to support themselves

Funding:
As for all VOI programs to date, this program is currently being funded by private donations and volunteer labor. The apartment building that will be used in the program has been purchased with interim financing, and is currently being renovated. Interim financing is being provided by Jeff Holley, President and founder of VOI, and will continue until such time as adequate funds can be raised from other sources to pay for the building. Jeff is doing this because he believes in the program, sees the need for it as urgent, and does not want to delay its implementation any longer than necessary. Accordingly, Jeff will also provide interim financing for the rest of the project implementation if funds are not raised before they are needed. Therefore, VOI is proceeding full speed ahead with the program as scheduled. In the meantime, VOI is recently launching a fundraising campaign to bring in funds from a variety of additional foundations and donors, in order to ensure that the program does get fully funded.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-13T13:36:00.003-06:00

Available with Low Expectations

2008-11-08T12:12:00.001-06:00

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

2008-10-25T11:41:00.002-05:00

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

2008-10-11T14:03:00.000-05:00

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

2008-10-03T13:12:00.007-05:00

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

2008-09-16T13:38:00.001-05:00

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

2008-08-24T22:01:00.003-05:00

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

2008-08-10T13:15:00.004-05:00

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

2008-08-08T13:19:00.003-05:00

Poverty 101: From Talk to Walk (Part 1)

2008-08-02T16:29:00.003-05:00

Poverty is NOT just about money. . .

To be continued . . . . .

Kids To KAA Camp / Thursday Nights

2008-07-25T20:21:00.004-05:00

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

2008-05-15T22:10:00.012-05:00

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.
.
.

Taking Ownership & Upcoming Summer Plans

2008-04-30T21:20:00.006-05:00

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

2008-04-11T22:58:00.002-05:00

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!!

2008-03-30T13:31:00.006-05:00

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

2008-03-20T15:25:00.004-05:00

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

2008-03-18T22:58:00.003-05:00

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!!

2008-03-13T16:30:00.013-05:00

"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

2008-02-09T10:36:00.000-06:00

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

2008-02-07T16:24:00.000-06:00

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!

2008-01-30T19:50:00.001-06:00

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

2008-01-13T19:10:00.000-06:00

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.

Packed, Wrapped, and Delivered!!

2007-12-26T22:44:00.000-06:00

It was a beautiful Christmas Eve as we loaded up the bus with presents and people to deliver the shoe boxes that were donated. What an amazing experience!! We made children smile and made some moms cry- - -all with JOY!! What a blessing it was to be the hands and feet of Jesus and to give these gifts to needy families. We had a group of kids with us helping and it was neat to talk with them that night about what we had done and why we had done it. We explained to them how we wanted to do what Jesus would have done if he had physically been here. So since he was not physically here, we had the privilege to be his hands and feet. Some of these kids were from our group who are themselves needy in some ways. They were so excited to be able to give these gifts to other families. It blessed us to hear some them saying "God Bless You and Merry Christmas!" to the families who were receiving.

We were able to deliver a total of 112 shoe boxes!! Praise God!! Thank you to all who participated and thank you Grace Community Church for arranging this within our church!

Jerrell with the Shoe Boxes in the Background

Brookhaven Delivery

We couldn't fit all the gifts and people on the bus, so Jude followed behind in his truck

AMAZING SUPPORT

2007-12-21T22:39:00.000-06:00

A HUGE THANK YOU to all those who came to the shoe box wrapping extravaganza. We thought it might take three hours, but because of the overwhelming amount of people that showed up, we were finished in ONE hour!!!!

What a huge blessing. After most people had left, we had a small group that spent time praying over the boxes and the families that would be receiving them. It was a blessing to us to see the support!!

THANK YOU!! WE LOVE YOU!! AND GOD LOVES YOU!!

Gift Wrapping Night

2007-12-13T16:08:00.001-06:00

We will be having an evening of gift wrapping at the Vision Onward building located at 301 Quapaw (on intersection of Tuxedo) on Tuesday, December 18th from 6 - 9 pm. We have between 75-100 donated shoe boxes that need to be wrapped for children. If you have some free time on this evening, we would appreciate any help we could get.

We will supply all the paper, tape etc so bring the family and join us for a gift wrapping extravaganza!!

Thank you to all of those who donated shoe boxes!

Any questions, please call Jeff at 350-0205

2007-12-02T17:12:00.000-06:00

We are gearing up for the Christmas season as this is the time of year when families in need seem to struggle most. There is not a more perfect time to show the love of Christ than the Christmas season. We pray that as people are giving and serving, that those being served will get a glimpse of Jesus.

Grace Community has offered to fill 100 shoe boxes for Vision Onward this year to distribute to families here in Bartlesville. There have also been many people who have wanted to deliver their gifts and/or meals to the families personally and hopefully get to know and build relationships with these families. This has been a prayer of ours. Our vision is for those who are giving to actually meet the family they are helping. It means a lot more to meet someone personally than to drop off a gift and have it funnelled through an organization. There is a disconnect between the givers and the receivers. We pray that through this process, many relationships can be built and carried out throughout the years.

We did not have the building completed before Thanksgiving so we were unable to serve a meal there this year, but we were able to deliver some meals to families in need. So, in saying that, it is obvious our building is still "under construction". Progress is coming along and we hope to be able to post some pictures soon. We have had a generous offer from Terry Melton Construction to bring their crew in for an entire day and knock out as much as they can. This will be a huge blessing in the process of completion.

Deeds 4 Needs is continuing to strive. Jeff was invited to speak on November 17 at Eastern Heights Baptist Church and they were excited about their church being involved. We have other churches getting involved in fulfilling needs as well as local businesses. This is the kind of unity we were hoping for and we pray that it continues to grow. Vision Onward is a parachurch organization and we would love to see more and more involvement from many other churches and businesses.

Here are some updates on a few other items:

Ya'Way - Jeff realized after going to Denver and meeting with the owner of The Big Red Bus, that we really need to have a diesel engine bus to make the conversion. It is an expensive conversion and a gas engine will just not last long enough for it to be worth the money. So we are currently trying to figure out how to switch out the gas engine bus we have for a diesel engine bus.
Transitional Housing - - We currently have one house that a family is living in as transitional housing. He is able to work and save money while he gets on his feet so he can move out on his own at the end of 6 months.
Sunay and Wednesday Group - We have a FULL bus. Marci and the kids have officially been kicked off because there is not enough room for them. This is good and bad!! It is good that we have so many coming, but we really need a larger bus. The current one is only a 13 passenger and we would really like to have a 28 passenger. We do not want to get any larger than 28 without having a separate bus with an entire different group of volunteers who would like to be involved on a regular basis in the lives of those they are picking up. We realize that we are at our limit with being effective with the amount we currently have. This makes it very hard because we have more kids that could be picked up, but we have no more room. If anyone would like to be involved on Wednesdays or Sundays, please contact Jeff at 350-0205.

We would just like to end with a quote that we took from the Love Is an Action website:

"Sometimes, people will do something that will make your heart understand a bit more about why we are alive and what to do with that life. Love is an Action has many teams all over nation that are serving people where they are in the love of Jesus and with their lives, giving hope to those who have no hope and letting hearts know with their actions that they are worthwhile."

Outpouring of Love

2007-11-18T09:46:00.000-06:00

It has been exciting to watch God move in our community and see people responding and reaching out to those who are in need. We launched Deeds 4 Needs a couple months ago and things moved pretty slowly until the past couple weeks. We have received numerous needs- - -which we expected- - - and we have also had a lot of people volunteering to fill needs!! It is so neat to see the two come together. We are so very grateful to all of the people who are showing Christ's love by helping those in need! A few examples of needs that have been filled are:

1. A man getting his house cleaned out to avoid evictions
2. Disabled woman getting her house unpacked
3. Numerous furniture items donated
4. Services for an autistic child
5. Numerous financial donations for Boys & Girls Club & West Side Community Center

We are excited to enroll 11 children into Kumon, who otherwise would not have been able to afford it. A big thanks to Sung Park and Kumon who gave us a reduced rate and also to the West Side Community Center for paying for half the tuition for all kids enrolled. It is awesome to see people and organizations partnering together for the benefit of families and children.

We are also very grateful for our home church, Grace Community, and all of the support that they have provided to us. Our desire is to partner with more and more churches in the community in order to multiply the effect by uniting numerous churches under one cause - - -helping those in need and making a lasting impact in the lives of those we serve. All of this done for the glory of God and for growing His Kingdom!!

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has partnered with us!! We thank God for you!!

Happy Birthday Chris!!

2007-11-08T12:14:00.001-06:00

Wednesday was Chris's birthday- - -one of the kids we have been meeting with on Wednesdays and Sundays. He is also one of the boys we took with us to Branson. He seems like one of our own now and he is so special!! He told us on Sunday that Wednesday was his birthday. He also told us that his mom was not going to be able to get him anything. Soooooo that was all we needed to hear. We had a special birthday night for him at Jude's with cupcakes and hot chocolate. As you can tell from the picture at the top- - -he is too cool to smile while we were singing him Happy Birthday, but it was obvious to us that he felt very special. We had asked him what he wanted for his birthday and he said, "A Bible". Wow, how can you turn that down?!?! So we purchased him a Boy's Devotional Bible- - -his face was priceless when he opened it. Here is the picture:

He wasn't cool enough to hold that smile back!!

Here are some more pictures:

The Whole Gang

Kayla H., Kayla G, Trinity, Briana, Trey, Raina, Camryn

Darius, Chris, Jalen, and Jerrell (love his new glasses)

Trinity and Rob

Thanks to the staff at Jude's for letting us invade the store while trying to clean up and close!! We appreciate you!!!

What's Next????

2007-10-27T11:34:00.000-05:00

We have had a lot of people asking us, "So, what's the next thing that Vision Onward will be doing?" It is kind of hard for us to answer that question. We do not want our ministry to be about the NEXT BIG thing that we are doing. We want it to be about being a part of the lives of the people we are serving and showing them we TRULY care about them. It isn't the BIG events that make a difference. . . .it is the small acts of love that attract people to Christ. We will occassionally have some bigger events, but if we allow that to be our focus, we will not have the time or money to serve individual families as we feel called to do. We have been focusing a lot of our time with 2-4 particular families and really trying to serve them in different areas of their lives. And because of the time we are pouring into the lives of these few families, we have had more and more interest from other families who are wanting to be involved with what we are doing. It is truly growing organically rather than from anything major we are doing.

We have noticed that there are MANY single moms raising kids with NO father figures in the picture. We have a small group of men that have been spending some time with these kids (especially the boys) and trying to give them some positive male role models. There is such a HUGE need for more men and families to serve and disciple single parent families. We are praying for more and more individuals and families to be called into this area of ministry. It is such a huge blessing to help others. . .we have experienced it first hand. The children in the families we have been serving almost feel like our own now.

So, as far as what we are currently doing. . . .we have been meeting with a group of kids every Wednesday night at Douglas Park and doing devotions and praying with them. We have also been picking this same group up on Sundays and taking them to church.

We are also working on the building so we can hopefully get it functional enough to serve a Thanksgiving Dinner. We may be partnering with Agape for Thanksgiving since they do not have enough room where they are at. Our building still needs lots of work though.

We have also launched Deeds 4 Needs and pray to see the community and churches get involved with serving. Whether as individuals, small groups, families, Sunday school classes or as a church, we pray people will get involved in meeting the needs of those in our community. Steve Sjogren said in Conspiracy of Kindness, “It seems people don’t necessarily remember what they are told of God’s love, but they never forget what they have experienced of God’s love.” It is our prayer that Deeds 4 Needs will allow the body of Christ to make an impact on our community…one family at a time.

Please visit http://www.deeds4needs.org/ for a listing of the current needs we have. The website is updated frequently as new needs arrive, so if you would like to be on our mailing list to receive updates, please email marci@visiononward.org.

Here are some pictures of the building:

301 Quapaw - The outside of the building with the walls we tore out.

The future site of our kitchen.

The BIG community room - -one of the rooms we are trying to get finished for Thanksgiving.

Hallway leading to office space.

As you can see, LOTS of work to do!! :>)

Garage Sale / Work Day Success

2007-10-21T16:15:00.000-05:00

It was a long day yesterday, but much was accomplished. We sold tons of stuff at the garage sale and there was a lot of work on the building completed.

There are 3 rooms we want to get completed in the building as soon as possible so we can start using it. Although we did not complete all the work we had hoped to, we did raise enough money from the garage sale to cover the costs for all the supplies that were purchased for these 3 rooms.

We are very grateful for all the donations from people in the community for the garage sale! We had a ton of stuff to sell.

We are also thankful to all of our friends who showed up to pitch in with the garage sale and the construction on the building. There are so many to name and I will try to cover them all- - -Jude, Mindi & Lake Henry, Kipplyn, RandiKate & Chandler Summers, Frank & Shonna Dickinson, Laura Jones, Derrick Royer, Rob Nyoff, Henry, Rainbow, Johno, Chelsey, Daniel Walker, Alex, Rachel, & Dominique Feria, Mike & Kara Howze, Kristin Girard, Jim & Laura Robertson, Seth, and John. I hope that covered everyone- - -sorry if I missed someone!

We still have a lot of stuff left over and we are considering holding another sale next month!

We also want to give a HUGE thank you to the Nyoff family- - -especially Jim and Rob! They are a new family in Bartlesville and they have been such a huge blessing to us and to Vision Onward. They have jumped right in and have been able to help us with lots of "construction" things that we would have NEVER been able to do on our own. It has been so neat watching how God continues to place exactly the right people in our paths in order to accomplish His plans. It is also neat to watch how God is using other people, who are willing to serve, to advance His kingdom. The Nyoff's are an awesome example of servants of God and we are so very thankful for them!!!

Here are some pictures from yesterday:

GARAGE SALE / WORK DAY Saturday, October 20th

2007-10-17T14:15:00.000-05:00

We will be having our garage sale / work day this Saturday from 7 am - 4 pm at the new Vision Onward building located at 301 Tuxedo. We will serve donuts for breakfast and have hamburgers & hot dogs for lunch. We will also have the blow ups out for the kids to play!! Come on out and enjoy the day with us while we work on the building and have our garage sale! If you have anything you would like to donate for the garage sell, contact Jeff at 350-0205!

Update and Upcoming

2007-10-02T17:12:00.000-05:00

One of the most exciting things happening right now with Vision Onward is witnessing the people we have made contacts with coming to church. Although, coming to church is NOT the ultimate goal. . . .developing a relationship with Christ is. . . .it is an exciting first step toward that process. This past Sunday we were able to pick up 4 boys to bring to church and one of the mothers plans on attending with us in a couple of weeks. One of the boys we took this wanted to light a candle during worship for an answered prayer. Jeff asked him what prayer had been answered and he said, "That you would pick me up for church." Wow, talk about a goose bump moment. It brought tears to my eyes when Jeff told me.

We also saw another woman with her children that we met at the Walk This Way event attend this past Sunday. Many people at the Walk This Way event were asking us what church we attended and it seems to have sparked their interest in checking out our church. We pray that they will feel welcomed and loved at Grace and continue pursuing a relationship with Christ.

Jeff has been brainstorming about what steps to take next with Vision Onward and he has decided that we should always have 2 short term goals and 1 long term goal that we are working toward. Our two current short term goals include :

1. Ya'Way / Vision Onward Building- Jeff is going to be going out to Colorado to attend an event that The Big Red Bus is having in order to get a feel for how they utilize their bus for ministry. Also, to see some technical issues of bus design, set up, and tearing down type stuff. We have a lot of work ahead of us in reconstructing the bus. There is also a lot of work to do on the building to get it in good enough condition to use.

2. Deeds 4 Needs - -We are working on finishing up the "real" Deeds 4 Needs website that will hopefully be much more user friendly for everyone with much more information on it as well. Jeff's vision is to make this website a nationwide website that can be utilized anywhere in the country as long as there is an administrator in the area.

Our long term goal at this point is working on an apartment complex that we can begin to use for transitional housing for struggling families. While the families are staying in the transitional housing, we want to be able to have mentors teaching them important life skills and helping them learn how to handle their finances. We would allow the families to live there for 6 months as long as they are working and following the requirements that are agreed upon in the beginning. This would allow them to work on restoring their credit if needed and to also save money to go toward their future housing. This is also a great opportunity to build relationships for spiritual mentoring as well.

As far as upcoming events, we are planning on having a GARAGE SALE / WORK DAY at the Vision Onward building on Tuxedo on October 20th. We want to have the blow ups out for the kids, maybe cook out some burgers and hot dogs, work on the building and/or the bus and have the garage sale all at the same time. If anyone has anything they would like to donate toward the garage sale, please call Jeff at 350-0205 to set up a drop off or pick up time.

We would also like to serve a THANKSGIVING DINNER in November, but this will depend on the progress of the building. If the building is in good enough condition, we would like to serve dinner to many of the families we have made contact with over the past few months.

We will have more details to all of the upcoming activities in the near future.

"Joy comes not from finding ways to skirt God's plan, but by living in harmony with it." -Jeff Myers Passing the Baton

Blessed With a Building / Deeds 4 Needs

2007-09-22T20:00:00.000-05:00

Who could have imagined an 8,900 square foot building being donated to Vision Onward? That is just one of the cool things we have learned about God- - -expect the unexpected. There have been things we have expected to happen which did not happen and even more things we never would have expected that have happened. We have finally realized that it doesn't matter what our expectations are because God is sovereign and whatever is meant to happen will happen.

This past week we received the deed and keys to the old Coffer Music building on Tuxedo. It was a generous donation from Bill Coffer. This will be an awesome headquarters now for Vision Onward. It has 4,000 square feet of overhead garage space where we can park Ya'Way while we are reconstructing it. It also has office spaces and large storage rooms. There are so many things it can be used for and we are very grateful to Mr. Coffer for this amazing gift. It does have flood damage so it is currently being worked on by members of the Commonwealth. We thank them for their hard work as well. We have learned so many valuable things from them. They have such amazing servant hearts and are a great example of living a life of service.

We are also excited about two mothers who have asked us to pick up their boys for church this Sunday. These are contacts we made at Douglas Park on Wednesdays and we brought their boys to the Walk This Way event this past weekend. They are amazing young boys and their mothers are sweet as can be. One mother had back surgery this past week and we have been able to show Christ's love to her through Deeds 4 Needs and Shonna D. bringing her dinner and flowers tonight.

We just received an email from Shonna D about her visit with the mother who had back surgery. This is what she had to say, "We went in to meet K----, and I asked her if I could pray for her. She was not feeling very good at that time. She welcomed it. So we prayed. God is so wonderful. This is something new for me, being able to step out of my comfort zone and meet someone new and being able to pray for them. She was so thankful for everything. She mentioned that when she was better she was planning on finding a church. She is so thankful that Jeff is picking her son up in the morning to take him to church. She also said that if I wanted to come over and read scriptures to her to come over anytime. If she is not a christian she is really willing to know more. Praise the Lord. Your ministry is really planting seeds! Thank you for providing us with the opportunity to serve!"

Thank you Jesus!! We will continue to pray for her healing both physically and spiritually! It is so great to to see the blessings from people serving. Not only a blessing to those who are being served, but it is just as much a blessing for those who are serving. This is the beauty of the Deeds 4 Needs Ministry. It allows relationships to develop and grow through serving. When we serve people, they truly feel loved and cared for. This gains favor so they are softened to hear the good news of Jesus! Hallelujah!!

God is so good. We praise Him for what He is doing in Bartlesville. We pray that His love will be contagious. We pray that more and more people will have the desire to reach out to the downcast. We have seen so many sad, lonely and lost faces who just need someone to show REAL love to them. Someone to share with them the good news we have in Christ. Someone to show them a different way to live their lives. Please pray about whether that person might be you!!!!

If you are interested in receiving a blessing by serving, please visit Deeds 4 Needs and see if there is a need you can fill. We will soon be putting Deeds 4 Needs under the Vision Onward website, but for now you can check it at the above link provided.

Walk This Way 2007

2007-09-17T22:12:00.001-05:00

Wow, where to begin with the weekend we just had!! The words that come to our minds as we reflect on the weekend are: unbelievable, exhausting, humbling, heart breaking, awesome, inspiring, enlightening, entertaining, moving, but most of all God glorifying.

God's Army arrived in on Thursday and were able to be a part of The House FM all request hour that night. The DJ, Carter, is a good friend of Bryan Hindman so Bryan hooked us up with him so we could get some air time. God's Army just released their new album "6:12", which is in reference to Ephesians 6:12. So it was good to get some air time with their new songs. Many called in and expressed how much they liked their music. I was even listening to their all request hour tonight and someone called in requesting one of God's Army's songs. Below is a picture of the live video feed from their website:

On Friday, the band began by visiting Hoover and they were given free range to talk about whatever they wanted- - -even God. The teacher also told the students they would receive extra credit if they went to the concert. Later that afternoon the band visited the Westside Community Center and The Boys and Girls Club and spoke with children. The day wrapped up with the band members having dinner with their host families and then spending some time out at the High School Football game.

Things started off very slowly Saturday morning with just a handful of kids at the workshops. We were determined not to get defeated by the low numbers, so Rich, Johno, Laura Jones and I hopped on Barnabus, cranked up the music and cruised the Westside neighborhoods looking for kids. Within the hour, the bus was full of kids and just as we arrived with our bus, the Westside Community Center van arrived with a van load full of kids as well. Praise God!!!! It was amazing to see how God brought the kids like that. By lunch time we had so many kids, we didn't have enough chairs for everyone to sit. The kids were awesome during the workshops and seemed to enjoy themselves tremendously. They did workshops in dancing, rapping, and songwriting- - -with one of the favorites being a rap where the kids picked words and the artists had to make up a rap about them. The rap ended up being about Meatloaf and Asparagus. Here is a picture of Taivia teaching the dance moves to their song "Warrior".

After the workshops, we moved outside to Frontier Park with the Slide, Boxing ring, Juniper Jump, cotton candy, and craft table. The kids LOVED all of that. Janet Rix told us about how Camryn and Emma Robertson got all the kids around the table ready to do crafts and told them they couldn't do crafts until they listened to the Bible story. So Camryn and Emma proceeded to tell them about God and Jesus and then allowed the kids to do their crafts. By the end of it, they had about 18-19 kids signed up for a Bible Study. We are not sure when this is supposed to take place, but we will figure that out if these kids are wanting to do it.

We started serving dinner around 5:30 and we had TONS of people come through and eat. We ended up serving 600 hamburgers and we are not sure how many hot dogs- - -A LOT!! After dinner, God's Army and Tedashii both had awesome performances and everyone seemed to really enjoy their music. It was amazing watching people of different churches, different races, different ages, different socio-economic classes all coming together to enjoy an incredible day of worship!! We are very thankful to all the hardworking volunteers who made this event possible. We are humbled and awed by the sacrifices that so many made in order to show love to the people on the Westside. There were parents who said, "We never have anything like this over here!" We met so many kids and parents and now the doors have been opened to become a part of their lives. We can't wait to begin developing relationships in order to help these families find hope in Christ.

Thank you to all the volunteers who came out!! We appreciate you and love you!!! We also want to thank the host families for their hospitality in opening their homes- Brian and Aubrey Baker, Donnie and Tammie Mooreland, Caroline Casselberry, and Jude and Mindi Henry.

Special thanks to those volunteers who worked especially hard:

Bryan Hindman

Jude and Mindi Henry

Kristin and Keith Girard

Gary and Janet Rix

Judy and Melvin Hill

Mark and Laura Jones

Johno, Rich, Seth and Daniel

Brad and Kristin Barber

Brian and Aubrey Baker

Kalan and Mandi Powers

Paige Saylor

Jim and Laura Robertson

Alex and Rachel Feria

Hannah Gore

Erin Strobel

The M.O.B. group - -(Missions on Bartlesville)

Caroline Casselberry

Donnie and Tammie Mooreland

Frank and Shonna Dickinson

HOPEFULLY WE WILL POST MORE PICTURES LATER!! God Bless you all!!!!

Wednesday Devotion & Popsicles at Douglas Park

2007-09-12T21:13:00.000-05:00

In the midst of all the busyness of last minute details for the Walk This Way event, we were able to escape from it all and do our Wednesday night devotion and popsicles at Douglas Park tonight. It was the perfect time to stop and remember the reason why we are doing what we are doing. There were quite a few kids there for a change and we actually had one little boy, Jarell, join us for our devotion. Then, a little later his friend, Darris, joined us for a popsicle and we told them about the concert and they were real excited and wanted to come. Jarell's mom came out a little later and Jeff was able to talk with her and tell her about the concert and she said she would bring them if we could bring them home after it was over. Jeff also found out that she is about to have back surgery this coming Wednesday so we are hoping to be able to show God's love to her after her surgery and through recovery with a visit, a card, some flowers and a meal.

It is so neat to see how God opens the doors for us to show His love when we are just willing to do what He calls us to do- - - -love and serve. It would have been SO EASY to have skipped going to the park tonight with everything else going on- - -and it actually crossed my mind because when we went last week there was NO one there and sometimes it feels like a waste of time- - -but if we had, we would not have met Jarrell, Darris and Jarell's mom. We would have missed that chance to find out about her surgery, which gives us the opportunity to serve her through her recovery. I am so thankful that we didn't allow the busyness of this week to keep us from that time we had with them tonight. Thank you God for slowing us down tonight to see a bit of You!!!

That is our prayer for the remainder of the week- - -that we do not allow the busyness of the weekend to cause us to lose sight of why we are doing what we are doing. The details are not important; the PEOPLE are important. The people there are not going to care about all the minor details- - -they want to see that WE CARE about the people. Showing LOVE to them is so much more important and that is what they will remember when it is all said and done!!!

Dear Father, let Your LOVE shine through all the chaos!!!!

CALLING ALL VOLUNTEERS!!

2007-09-11T14:27:00.000-05:00

The Walk This Way event is quickly approaching. We are in need of willing bodies to help us out during this event. We appreciate all the people who have offered to help out and it is now just a matter of securing names and times for people willing to serve. We have needs from Saturday at 9:00 am - 7:00 pm and Sunday from 8:00 am - 11:00 am. If you would be willing to take a 1, 2, 3 or 4 hour shift we would greatly appreciate it. We will have workshops, juniper jump, blow up slide and boxing arena, sno cones, cotton candy, drinks, merchandise table, serving dinner on Saturday and breakfast on Sunday. So there is plenty to do if you are willing to serve. Please call us at 876-1928 or email us at marci@visiononward.org.

Prayer requests:
1. Good weather for the weekend
2. Volunteer needs to be met
3. For God to prepare hearts to be open to the message of hope and salvation for those who may not yet know Him
4. God would use us to bring Him glory- - -that the whole weekend would glorify Him
5. We would see a uniting among churches and community for a common good.

Thank you to everyone and God Bless!!!!

BarnaBus Near Completion

2007-09-07T16:17:00.000-05:00

BEFORE AND AFTER PICTURES OF THE BUS

The bus we previously blogged about, Barnabus, is a 13 passenger bus we currently plan to utilize for taking people to and from church who do not have transportation. Future plans will also include transporting groups of relief aid workers to areas of need along with picking up people in need to bring them to a place of service.

We were able to accomplish a lot of work on the bus this week thanks to the graciousness of people willing to give time and resources. Johno has spent numerous hours wiring, priming, painting and rewiring after some electrical problems and we are so grateful for his giving spirit. We are also very thankful for Brian McDaniel, owner of Truck Ranch, who allowed us to use his business garage to do the painting- - - -that was a huge help!!! So, it has now been wired with speakers and painted. We now just need to get the vinyl logo and some stencilling work done.

This week is going to be a crazy week due to the upcoming Walk This Way concert. The bands will be flying in on Thursday evening and we plan on showing them around the community on Friday. We are also going to try to visit schools on Friday and will be attending the High School football game Friday night. Workshops start at 10 am on Saturday and will finish up around 2 pm. Free dinner will be served at 6 pm Saturday and the concert begins at 7 pm. Sunday morning begins with free breakfast at 9:00 and the service going from 9:15 -11:15. Sunday morning will include KAA kids from camp, Greater First Baptist worship dancers, Mike Colaw leading worship and God's Army delivering the message. It should be a GREAT service!!!

LABOR Day Weekend

2007-09-03T22:53:00.000-05:00

It has truly been a LABOR Day Weekend for us thanks to some great friends who were willing to sacrifice their time and energy working on one of the buses (Barnabus) for Vision Onward. It is so neat to see people pulling together for a common cause and having great fellowship in the meantime. We were blessed by both the Jones family and the Henry family on Saturday as we spent the day together working, playing, eating and fellowshipping. The men were able to get the wheelchair lift taken out, which will give the bus much more room on the inside. They also completed sanding down the exterior in preparation for painting. Kayla and Camryn also worked hard on cleaning the inside of the bus.

Then again on Monday, Jude and Johno came out and worked from early morning until about 3 pm. Johno is an extremely talented guy to have around and he wired up some speakers we had here at the house into the bus and did many other other handy things. God is so good at putting just the right people in our paths right when we need them to accomplish a task at hand. We are so thankful to everyone who came.

We are hoping to have this bus on the road by the weekend of Walk This Way event so it can be used to transport the bands around town. So we have about 9 days to get it wrapped up.

Thank you to everyone who helped out this weekend: Mark & Laura Jones, Jude & Mindi Henry, Kayla and Camryn, and Johno!! You all are awesome and we appreciate it so much!!

How many Jesus Christ followers does it take to screw in 2 bolts?????

Apparently, THREE!!!

Ya' Way - - - - - - -the before picture

2007-08-31T07:17:00.000-05:00

CORRECTION: I had the wrong link in our previous blog for the Big Red Bus website and I wanted to put the correct link here. Here is the correct link http://www.bigredbus.org/index.htm.

We felt pressed upon our hearts that in order to connect with people who we want to reach, we needed to be able to go to them. One of the ways we felt we could do this was with a bus. The bus will allow us to go into neighborhoods, community events, local church functions and can be used for relief aid. The bus will draw people to us so that we can minister to them and develop a relationship of trust and acceptance.

Once we knew that God was leading us to have a bus and deck it out like the Big Red Bus, we were not sure WHERE we would get a bus and how much it was going to cost. Jeff searched around for a little while and even checked on Ebay. During this time, he drove by On the Rock Ministries and noticed they had some buses there that did not look as if they were being used. He was planning on going by there to talk with them about it, but did not get around to it that particular week. Well, that weekend someone from church came up to him and told him that Ken from On the Rock had called to get Jeff's cell phone number because he was wanting to donate a bus to Vision Onward. What???? We got a bus without even having to ask for it???? Apparently, Ken had heard from someone else that Jeff was looking for a bus and God took care of the rest. That is the awesomeness of God!!!! And thank you to Ken for his generosity!!!

So at this point. . . . we have an idea and we have a bus. Naming it was the tricky part. We did not want to name it something meaningless so we began brainstorming. We asked some of our creative friends to help us come up with a name and we had many, many great ideas. Most of us really liked the name Ya' Way - - -which was contributed by our great friend, Jude Henry. Jude has also been a HUGE asset in everything we have been doing. We deliberated over this name for a while and asked a number of people what they thought about it. We were a little concerned about the idea of naming a bus after Yahweh, God, and changing the spelling. We did not want it to be disrespectful to God in any way, nor did we want to offend anyone. We then sought out some wise counsel - -a handful were pastors- - -and I think most, if not all, thought it would be just fine to use Ya' Way as a name. We then learned that Jah (Yah) also meant God in Hebrew. So, by naming it Ya' Way- - -it means God's Way. Thanks Jude for your creative juices that gave the bus an awesome name. Also, thank you for all the time and dedication you have given to Vision Onward- - -you are a blessing to us!

We are currently in the midst of fundraising in order to get the bus ready to go out on the streets for ministry. If you are not sure what the vision is for Ya' Way, please visit this link http://www.visiononward.org/?page=ministries to read more about it. We will keep you updated on how things are coming along with the reconstruction of the bus.

We have been so blessed with many amazing people around us who have been supporting us through time, counsel, donations, ideas, contacts and prayer that we are hoping to be able to say thank you to one or two people with each blog we post. So, today was your day Ken with On the Rock and JUDE- - -THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!!!!

God Bless!!!!

The Beginning of Our Blogging Journey

2007-08-30T16:38:00.001-05:00

Hello and welcome to our blog!! I, Marci, will be doing the blogging as Jeff still uses the hunt and peck typing method, but I will be writing mainly about our experiences with Vision Onward as Jeff tells me about them. This will be the first of hopefully many exciting blogs to come. God is moving in amazing ways each and every day and we have finally decided it was time to keep a journal and allow others in on the awesome journey. We could probably post an insanely long blog just to catch everyone up from these past five months, but instead we will just give you a quick recap.

Jeff began feeling God pulling him away from the "business world" and into the "ministry world" in about March or April of this year. It happened quickly and Jeff immediately felt a peace about getting out of all the businesses and being able to devote his full time and energy to doing what God was calling him to do. He rallied some close friends who helped us come up with a name, a mission statement, a website, and a kick-off event. This was the beginning of Vision Onward and we would like to thank all of our friends for their support, wisdom and advice through the beginning. So, here we are in August with our kick-off event, Walk This Way 2007, quickly approaching and we have been watching people come out of the woodwork to help out in one way or another for this event. We want to give a HUGE thank you to Bryan Hindman who has been extremely instrumental in the planning and promoting of Walk This Way and will continue to be throughout the next couple of weeks.

Over the past couple of months, we have also received a generous bus donation from On the Rock Ministries, which we plan to gut and turn into a ministry bus called Ya' Way. It will be similiar to The Big Red Bus in Colorado, which you can view at http://www.bigredbus.org/index.htm. If you want more details on the mission of Vision Onward, you can view our website at http://www.visiononward.org/ .

We would also like to give a big THANK YOU to Chris Collins, who God has blessed with a tremendous gift for designing. He has designed our logo, the T-shirts for Walk This Way, and our website. He has amazing talents. Thanks Chris- - -it has all been GREAT!!

Jeff has met with so many people and we are excited at how God is stirring the hearts of many to reach out to the poor and vulnerable and show them the hope we have in Christ. God is so good and our heart's desire is for Him to use us for His glory. We are humbled every day at how BIG our God is and how amazing are His ways. We have been in complete awe at how He has been orchestrating this entire process. I cannot tell you how many times I have had goose bumps in the past few months by something incredible that God has done. Thank you God- - -we love, honor and adore YOU!!!!

Things have been going so well that we are anxiously awaiting for the spiritual warfare to kick in. We know Satan is planning and scheming for ways to pull us away from what God is calling us to do. There have been some minor things come up, but nothing major yet. So, please pray for us to be alert and prepared when the time for spiritual battle comes upon us.

We love you all and hope you enjoy our new BLOG!!

CONTACT US

2007-08-27T16:38:00.001-05:00

VISION ONWARD

PO BOX 252

BARTLESVILLE, OK 74005

918-876-1928

email: jeff@visiononward.org

website: www.visiononward.org

WANT TO GET INVOLVED??

2007-08-27T16:33:00.000-05:00

Here are some of the many ways you can contribute to the ministry of Vision Onward:

PRAY. Prayer is our greatest need. We are fighting spiritual battles everyday in our neighbrohoods. We are searching for those who can pray regularly for our ministry.

GIVE. Support Vision Onward with a donation of $10 / $50 / $100 per month.
Include Vision Onward in your church's mission budget.
Donate items

COME. Be a volunteer. We always need volunteers. Bring a mission team to help with our annual events such as Walk This Way, VBS camp and work projects.

PARTNER. Invite Vision Onward to speak at your church. Join us in unifying the body of Christ.

SERVE. Help us with your talents and abilities.

2007-08-27T16:20:00.008-05:00

Do you have a desire to show the love of Christ to those in need? Titus 3:14 reminds us that we must "learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs" so that we will not be unfruitful.

Vision Onward shares your heart for servant evangelism, and recognizes that the community in which we live provides us endless opportunity to be the salt and light in the lives of others. Every one of us is uniquely and wonderfully made, and outfitted with a portfolio of gifts and talents. We want you to experience the true joy that comes when giving of yourself, out of those gifts and talents, without the frustration of searching for the right fit or the right need that you are equipped to meet.

That’s why we created Deeds 4 Needs, to be a bridge between you and those in need. Deeds 4 Needs is a place for those in the community who have a pressing need to post their need. For those in the community who are seeking to do a service project, they can go to the website, view the various needs posted, pick one they are suited for and then show the love of Christ through fulfilling that need.

Finding an area to serve your community is that simple. This is an exciting opportunity to show God’s love. Steve Sjogren said in Conspiracy of Kindness, “It seems people don’t necessarily remember what they are told of God’s love, but they never forget what they have experienced of God’s love.” Won’t you join us in showing God’s love to those in need in your community?

If your church is searching for ways to serve the community, we would love to meet with you and further explain the ministry we began a few years ago and share some testimonies of how God has used this ministry in our community. We would love to guide you, teach you and support you in beginning this ministry in your community.

Thank you for It is our prayer that Deeds 4 Needs will allow the body of Christ to make an impact on your community…one family at a time.

"Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but TO SERVE, and to give His life as a ransom for many" Matthew 20:28

THE VISION

2007-08-27T16:10:00.001-05:00

We see passion ignited that is bringing all churches and service organizations together in unity to share time, treasures and talents to a community in need.

We see education and training classes for Moms and Dads that are transitioning their lives, managing finances, acquiring job and interviewing skills, parenting skills and so on. This includes tutoring and mentoring for kids.

We see a microeconomics program for transitional families and individuals which provides job opportunities as we provide housing for up to a year.

We see car clinics, where volunteers from the automotive profession service will repair vehicles for free while teaching participants how to do it themselves.

We pray all of these efforts will be pleasing to God and provide a conduit to one-on-one discipleship with indifiduals in need, their families, and generations to come.

The Mission

2007-08-27T16:01:00.003-05:00

Vision Onward strives to bring hope to the hopeless by sharing the love of Christ through both word and works, listening and responding to human needs and collaborating with the wider community to improve quality of life and build mutual respect among people of diverse racial, ethnic and social groups.

Who We Are

2007-08-27T15:55:00.011-05:00

Vision Onward's name has meaning for us and the people we impact now and in the future.

For us, it means moving beyond apathy to caring. We are moving beyond talk to action, affecting God's Kingdom, and passing on a legacy that glorifies God; by His grace

For the lives we hope to impact it means sharing a vision of hope and a purpose of life that is faith based. We share a vision that is beyond self centered interests and establishes a legacy for generations to come.

"Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." Psalms 82:3-4

Togo Support Form

2007-01-10T08:36:00.000-06:00

Vision Onward

Pathway Transitional Housing

Haviland-Phillips Family

Daniel Castro - Reynosa, Mexico

Transitional Housing Volunteer Opportunity *Update - All Fulfilled*

NEW Deeds 4 Needs Website

Testimony from Dusty

Testimony from Ken Peace about Trey

Shoe Box Delivery 2010

Upcoming Trip to Togo, Africa

Red Apple Proceeds to Benefit Vision Onward

Survivor Fundraiser 2010

Refuge Has a New Home

Examiner-Enterprise Article about Transitional Apartment Graduate Ronda Harris

Transitional Apartment Graduate Presents at National Conference

Vision Casting Trip to Togo

Christian Missionary Center (CMC)

Abundant Blessings

Togo, West Africa Land Purchased

A Cheerful Giver

A Note From Togo

What is Vision Onward About?

WALK THIS WAY 2009 - Thank You

Refuge

Good News Talk Show

WALK THIS WAY 2009

Introducing. . . .

Baptism

Pathway Apartments - Transitional Housing

Merry Christmas

Available with Low Expectations

Stage Art Dance at Walk This Way 2008

Changing to Friday Night

Cheyenne Transitional House

A Wonderful Walk This Way 2008

Walk This Way 2008

Thank You New London Baptist Church

Walk This Way 2008

Poverty 101: From Talk to Walk (Part 1)

Kids To KAA Camp / Thursday Nights

Misc Update

Taking Ownership & Upcoming Summer Plans

PURE EXCITEMENT

Thanks Nikao!!

Wednesday Night Worship

Spring Break Work Days

Growing and GROWING!!

Your Ministry to the Poor

A Goose Bump Moment

Thank You Kumon!

Jeff Was Speechless

Packed, Wrapped, and Delivered!!

AMAZING SUPPORT

Gift Wrapping Night

Outpouring of Love

Happy Birthday Chris!!

What's Next????

Garage Sale / Work Day Success

GARAGE SALE / WORK DAY Saturday, October 20th

Update and Upcoming

Blessed With a Building / Deeds 4 Needs

Walk This Way 2007

Wednesday Devotion & Popsicles at Douglas Park

CALLING ALL VOLUNTEERS!!

BarnaBus Near Completion

LABOR Day Weekend

Ya' Way - - - - - - -the before picture

The Beginning of Our Blogging Journey

CONTACT US

WANT TO GET INVOLVED??

THE VISION

The Mission

Who We Are

Togo Support Form

Transitional Housing Volunteer Opportunity Update - All Fulfilled