We are looking forward to a busy and productive summer! We have seven mission groups scheduled that will do work projects and kids clubs throughout Amarillo and at two apartment communities in Hereford. We’re excited that we will be including two city parks in our schedule this year. During the week of June 24-27, mission groups will conduct morning kids clubs at Eastridge and Will Rogers Parks. This will be a pilot program and we hope it leads to further involvement with the city parks during the summer of 2014.

In addition to our seven mission groups, two local churches will serve weekly at apartment communities throughout the summer. Paramount Baptist Church will do a weekly kids club at Amarillo Garden Community June 24-Aug 5. Trinity Baptist Church will do a kids club at Astoria Park-Greenacres Apts. starting July 2 and running through the end of the month.

We are excited to see the local involvement at Mission Amarillo growing. Of our five Spring Break groups, four were from Amarillo, the Panhandle or High Plains. Of our seven mission groups, six are from Amarillo, the Panhandle, or High Plains.

Please pray for our summer as these groups take the gospel to the less fortunate in our area.

As always, we are in need of shoes! So far, Mission Amarillo’s shoe closet has given away 1085 pairs of shoes to schools in Amarillo, Canyon, Bushland, and River Road. In order to meet the needs in our schools each year, we need to collect around 750-1000 pairs of shoes in the summer. We have a few churches that are going to collect shoes for us this summer, however, we are always in need of more. We need whole sizes in all children’s sizes, especially girls 12 and boys 11, all half sizes from size 1.5 through 11.5 and adult sizes above a size 5, both men’s and women’s. Please pray about your church or civic organization collecting shoes for Mission Amarillo this summer.

Finally, and most importantly, please remember our property missionaries. They work in these communities week in and week out. Their involvement goes beyond just showing up and doing a kids club. They help residents learn English, make doctor’s appointments, understand American culture, deal with issues within families, deal with the ramifications of absentee father’s, take kids to camp, take them to church, help with rent or utility bills, provide food, clothing, and other necessities; in short, they get involved in the messiness of people’s lives. They are the hands and feet of Christ to these residents and they serve joyfully. God has infected them with a love of the least of these and they give up their spare time to make an impact on those who would not otherwise hear the gospel. When people hear about Mission Amarillo, they think of shoes, our work in getting churches to adopt schools in poverty stricken neighborhoods, or the mission groups we host during Spring Break and Summer. However, the heart and soul of Mission Amarillo is represented in the property missionaries who take the gospel faithfully and consistently to the less fortunate in our area. Please pray for their families, their encouragement, and that God would make their efforts productive in furthering His kingdom.

Our shoe closet ministry is in full swing. So far this year, we have given away 636 pairs of shoes and have expanded the number of schools we’re working with to 41. It’s been a challenge to keep the shoe closet stocked at adequate levels. If you check out this link, http://www.missionamarillo.org/shoe-closet/needs , you can see that we have 6 men’s sizes and 5 women’s sizes that are out of stock. We have 15 men’s sizes with less than 3 in stock and 5 women’s sizes with less than 5 in stock.

We have implemented a few things to help us cope with this. First, we have collection barrels that we can put at your church, business, or civic organization. So far, three elementary schools, two campus organizations at WTAMU, and the advising office of Amarillo College have collected shoes for us. If you would like a shoe barrel to be brought to your location, please contact me and I’ll be sure to get you one as soon as possible.

Second, on Saturday, December 8, 9am-noon, at Paramount Baptist Church north parking lot, we are doing our first $5 shoe clearance sale. When shoes are donated, many of them are not the athletic type shoes we give out to students. Instead of giving these away, we have kept them to the point of accumulating over 1000 pairs of shoes. We will sell these for $5 a pair on Saturday, December 8 and use the proceeds to purchase more athletic shoes.

Third, we are seeking grants and encouraging churches, business, and individuals who do not want to do a shoe collection to give an offering to Mission Amarillo. Through these three methods, we hope the Lord will provide a steady stream of shoes so our attention can stay on getting them to the schools rather than put some much time and effort into collections. Please pray that the Lord who owns the cattle on a thousand hills will provide as He sees fit so we can continue to meet students needs.

We are constantly looking for new ways to help those in poverty, build relationships with them, and communicate the gospel through those relationships. We are currently looking at jobs curriculum that will teach people how to find a job, interview well, get the job, and keep it. The evaluation process involves several individuals I respect. We should have at least one meeting before Christmas and then will make final decisions after the first of the year. Please pray that the Lord would give us all wisdom and help us either find or develop a curriculum that will help those in poverty find and keep a job.

Last of all, please keep two churches in your prayers. First Presbyterian Church and Mercy Church are in the process of becoming involved in the lives of parents at elementary schools in our area. These parents face a lot of challenges that many of us could never relate to. Please pray that the Lord would give these two churches wisdom as they seek to not only help parents, but communicate the hope of the gospel to each family. My hope is that these churches could be a model for other churches to follow.

Thank you for your prayers and support. Feel free to ask any questions in the comment section. I’ll be glad to answer as best I can.

Grace,

Jeff Parsons, Director

KFDA – NewsChannel 10 / Amarillo News, Weather, Sports

“Hi Jeff! I have only met you a few times. First in Lori Bain’s office at Emerson while giving one of our precious boys a new pair of shoes and another time at the walk. While I don’t know you well, I see your heart. I’d like to help with raising funds for Mission Amarillo. My graduation from WT is in August and instead of a graduation party where people bring gifts, I’m asking for donations to Mission Amarillo. The pair of shoes you brought to that young man showed that we care. He has had a hard life and has lived the past five years in a Children’s home in Lubbock. He came to Amarillo to live with his mom and the situation was not good. We had to work very hard to build trust with him and our hearts and prayers were continually focused on helping him. I know it was “just a pair of shoes” but that was the last day we got to see him. CPS came not more than 30 minutes later to retrieve him and his two little brothers. Thank you for listening to Christ. Thank you for being Christ to our kids! Glenda Moore”

There are a lot of ways you can help Mission Amarillo help kids. Contact me and I’ll tell you how!

Jeff

It has been one of the best summers we’ve ever had at Mission Amarillo. We’ve just completed the work for the month of June and it’s been outstanding. So far, we’ve had 170 students and adults serve in 14 apartment communities and do work projects in 5 locations. They have served over 400 kids and adults in the apartment communities.

We have at least three more groups that will serve here over the next three weeks. Please be in prayer for them as well as the seeds of the gospel that have been planted in the 400 served so far!

To see out photos of our summer, check out our Facebook page at this link, https://www.facebook.com/MakeAStepUp . Be sure and like us while you’re there!

Following are more prayer requests that need your intercession:

Back to School Outreach – We are in the process of distributing and collecting registration for our school supply project, Back to School Outreach. We are trying some new concepts this year. In some of our more established communities, where our property missionaries know the residents well, we are selling backpacks full of school supplies for $5-$10 a piece. This helps the residents by giving them a steep discount but prevents the creation of dependency to some extent. The proceeds from these sales will be reserved to help residents of these specific communities when needs arise. This way, the residents themselves are participating in helping one another through the purchase of the school supplies. Please pray for Astoria Park/Greenacres, North Grand Villas, and Cypress Creek Apts as we implement this new concept.

We will still have seven apartment communities that we will provide school supplies free of charge. In all, we will help more than 800 kids with school supplies, so we need your help both for school supplies for the four mentioned above and for the seven communities that will received them free. We now have storage space available to store these supplies long term, so you can either donate school supplies or adopt a property. Either way will help us more than you know. Please call, 236-3487, or email me at jeff@missionamarillo.org to find out the details.

Shoe Closet – We are thankful to First Baptist Church Amarillo for donating around 450 pairs of shoes during their VBS in June. Also, FBC Claude will be collecting shoes for us during their VBS in July. These collections are appreciated, but we still need to collect as many everyday shoes as possible over the rest of the summer. Last summer and fall, we received around 1600 shoes through area churches and organizations. We ended up giving away 1700 pairs of shoes to students in 28 schools in Amarillo, Bushland, Canyon, and River Road, and to students living in 11 affordable housing communities. Our plans are to expand to every remaining school that has needy kids before the beginning of the school year. As you can imagine, we need to collect more everyday shoes to meet the demand we will face this fall. I’d like to ask you to do two things. First, consider hosting a collection event at your church or organization. Given our current inventory, we need to collect at least 1000 more shoes before school starts August 27. Second, please pray that the Lord who owns the cattle on a thousand hills would provide us with the shoes we need to help kids in need. To see the sizes we need most, from this website, place your mouse pointer on shoe/hygiene/household closet and click on “needs”.

Apartment ministry: One of the things I’m most excited about is the day to day ministry that is going on through our property missionaries. We have three properties with refugees from seven countries and we have your typical American poverty in our other communities. We are beginning to see a rise in interests in beginning organic/home based outreaches to the people living in these communities. We have what I would call a seed planting operation occurring regularly at Glenwood Apts. and we have new churches who are getting involved in reaching out to students in Amarillo, Canyon, and Hereford. We have excellent work going on at most of our communities and are beginning to see the fruit of our workers labor. Please pray that the Lord of the Harvest would send workers into His harvest fields and that He would raise up workers from the harvest.

Last of all, please pray for some efforts we are currently planning. We are trying to raise the general awareness of Mission Amarillo so more people can participate in the work. Anytime you participate in this type of endeavor, there is always the danger of the ministry becoming more important than the mission. Our ultimate mission at Mission Amarillo is to take the gospel to the forgotten and impoverished in our area and partner with willing churches to make disciples. Please pray that efforts to access more resources don’t overwhelm our primary mission. We always want to make Christ known to those who don’t know Him. We will need your prayers to accomplish all He wants us to.

Thank you for lifting up this ministry and the support you give it.

Grace,

Jeff Parsons

Dear Sharon and the Huntsville youth group mission team:

Thank you for coming to Amarillo and for working with our students at Green Acres/Astoria Park Apartments.  They loved you!  I could tell that some of the students really bonded with you; they always love the high school/college students that come.  They always ask when more will come.

Sharon and one of the youth boys donated money toward back packs and school supplies for two families.  I wanted to tell you this story that Morris’s father shared with me when I went to tell him of this donation.

Morris’s dad is named Jean.  He has been disappointed that the apartment manager has not fixed a leak in his apartment—a leak that is leaking a full stream of hot water into the tub and has leaked full stream for over a month and was a smaller leak before that.  There is mold growing and the bathroom is very steamy.  This family has been going across the street to another apartment rather than using their own bathroom.  On the first day of your Mission group, Morris’s dad was not available for Morris when the backyard Bible club ended.  Instead he had taken baby sister to the doctor as she had slipped into the bathroom unnoticed and got too hot and went limp.  While they were at the doctor’s office, a neighbor called dad and said an unknown man had Morris and they were scared.  Dad took a taxi and came back home as quickly as he could because he was unsure who was with Morris.  It was Jeff Parsons with Morris and they were looking for dad or a safe place to leave Morris.  Jeff was on the phone with me and we were discussing alternatives.

The day I told dad about the back pack donation, he shared that he thought he would need to move because of the bathroom (although the City of Amarillo is intervening now to get repairs made).  Since the hot water ran for well over a month, the electricity bill is very high.  Another reason for a possible move is that Jean fears some of the troubles in the Congo have followed him here to America.  He is fearful and paranoid.  He believes someone is trying to harm his family.  He is cordial to friends there at the apartment, but he does not allow himself to get too close to them as he is unsure who he can trust.  Someone has turned him in to CPS 4 times and CPS has threatened to take the children, but after researching it, they can never find anything wrong.  I have noticed that Jean and his wife are good parents.

His trouble in the Congo was due to his being “mixed”.  He explained that his father was Congolese and his mother was Rwandan.  There are many ethnic wars in Africa.  Jean lived in the Congo, but with his ties to Rwanda, many were suspicious of him that he had political ties to the Rwandan people.  His father’s mother also was not Congolese, so it was complicated.  His parents owned a compound (small farm with 2-3 small houses).  Soldiers and rebels kept harassing the family on this compound.  Once Jean had to be away for a couple days.  When he returned, he found that the rebels had killed his mother and hung her head in the tree outside the house.  Inside he found that his father, elder brother, and younger brother had been killed.   He was angry and hurt and wanted to go kill the bad soldiers.  He said to himself that he could not go after them because he was “under God”.   After a short time, soldiers came to the house where Jean lived.  His wife told him to hide under the bed and she would get the soldiers to leave.   She told them that he was volunteering at the Youth Center.  The soldiers left.  Jean knew he needed to go into hiding.  He left his family.  After a few days, he sneaked back home.  He learned that his wife had been stabbed and left for dead while she was washing the clothes at the river.  She was pregnant.  A neighbor found her and got her to the doctor.  Two days later she “put out the baby”.  The baby was born healthy and the baby was Morris.  Another time the soldiers came and they killed Jean’s first-born son and cut out his organs and threw them about.  Jean and his wife knew that they must seek help.  They appealed to the United Nations.  They went “under the UN” and began a wait.  They were in a refugee camp where they were interviewed and the story had to be substantiated.  Then they waited for a country to “want them”.  The United States arranged for them to come to America.  Before they left, they were also “wanted” by Australia.  They declined Australia as they were already making their plans for the United States.

They are happy here.  Jean had an injury while working for Tyson Meat Processing and has been out of work for 3 months.  His wife works and he takes care of the children.  He is looking for a new job.  He knows he needs college.  He finished the university in Africa and was ready to start his master degree, but here in America, he must start over and get a GED.  He plans to start GED training in the fall semester.  His children are doing well in school.  Morris will start school this fall.  In all of the time that Jean told me this story, he remarked numerous times of how God is with him and how glad he is to be a Christian.  His faith is strong regardless of his losses.  He was wearing a T-shirt with the saying, “Christ died for me, so I could live for Him.”

It is stories like these that make it rewarding to work with these families.  I hope that you also felt these rewards as you came to work for a week with our Amarillo families and make repairs for native Amarillo people.  May God continually bless you as you have blessed others!

Our summer is off to a good start with our first mission group from FBC Hale Center. These students have done an outstanding job all week of working hard at Hope Welcome Center in the mornings and doing a Summer Kids Club at Spring Terrace Apts. in the afternoon. If this group’s attitude is any indication, this will be a great summer. We have another nine mission groups set to work with us. They will do work projects ranging from painting houses, working in the shoe closet, and working at Hope Welcome Center. They will do Summer Kids Clubs in apartment communities, one church, and one elementary school in an impoverished and often forgotten area of our city. Please pray that the Lord would use these groups for His glory and that people would be drawn to Jesus throughout the summer.

The Lord continues to use the Mission Amarillo shoe closet to minister to those in need. Since Aug. of 2011, we have given away 1695 pairs of shoes to kids and adults in need. Today, we gave away 26 pairs of shoes to kids in the Bushland ISD who are considered homeless. It was fun to watch the kids excitement when they received their new pair of shoes. Many of them, who had just met me, would come find me to show me the new pair of shoes they had just received. While standing in line to leave, one of them held his new pair of shoes up to his nose, took a big wiff and declared, “Dang! These don’t stink!” He then wanted everyone else to smell his new pair of shoes. Please pray that these students wouldn’t just seek a new pair of shoes, but would understand that we give the shoes because Jesus loves them.

Awhile back, I told you about a new ministry we had started, Wheels to Prosper. This ministry is part of a national program that gives away a car to people in  most in need. We have been given a 2004 Toyota 4 Runner which has a resale value of over $13, 000. Rather than give this car away and have the recipient have to pay close to $1000 in taxes and registration fees, we are considering selling it and using the proceeds to purchase more affordable vehicles and possibly to repair existing vehicles. There is a lot that has to be worked out to do this in a legal and transparent way, so please pray for us as we consider our options and seek out what the Lord would have us do. We will give away our first car on July 28, through our WtP partner, Aardvark Automotive. Please pray that the recipient will feel the love of Christ and that Christ followers present there would make that love known.

Also, please pray that our shoe closet would be adequately restocked this summer. There are some churches in our area that will collect shoes for us. However, we have several sizes currently where we have very little or nothing in stock. Please click on Shoe Closet/Needs page on this site to see the sizes we need most. If you or your church would like to collect shoes for Mission Amarillo this summer, contact me at jeff@missionamarillo.org or call me at (806)236-3487 to get more info.

Finally, please remember to pray for our faithful property missionaries. They do all the hard work and are on the front lines of this ministry. They do everything from rental assistance, helping bridge language barriers, learn and reach out to different cultures, and deal with the challenges and tragedies of everyday life with the residents in these communities. They go because Christ has called them. They would be more comfortable in a conventional church doing conventional church stuff, but they have responded to the call of God to go out to the hard places in our city. They can’t be prayed for enough. Their jobs are hard, but they love it and are blessed to be a part of what God is doing on the properties. I’m privileged to work with them and am thankful that God allows me to be associated with them. Please pray for their strength, patience, that they remain close to God, that they spend enough time with their families, and that God would use them to draw residents of these communities to Himself.

Thank you again for your prayers and support. Please pray that God uses all we do to draw people to Himself.

Grace,

Jeff Parsons

Our first fundraiser, Chick-fil-a Walk a Mile in My Shoes is quickly approaching! I’d like to thank our event sponsors, Chick-fil-a, McFarlin’s Jewelers, and First United Bank for making the walk possible. I’d also like to thank our big shoe sponsor, Xcel Energy, and small shoe sponsors Amarillo National Bank, Advanced Eye Care of Amarillo, and Snack Pak 4 Kids. You’ve helped us get the walk off the ground and we will always be grateful. We will be doing a registration day at all area Chick-fil-as from 10-2 Saturday, May 19. If you can’t come to Chick-fil-a to pick up a packet, you can download one by going to the home page of this website and clicking on Walk a Mile in My Shoes. Packets and donations can be turned in at the Get Fit location on Georgia or you can simply bring them to the walk. We hope to see you there! Please pray that this walk would raise the money needed and that God would give us wisdom to use the money He gives us to minister to those in poverty in our community. If you’d like to help us collect shoes we need, go to the shoe closet tab on the home page of this website and click on “Needs”.

We have 9 mission groups that will serve this summer. They will do work projects ranging from painting homes of the elderly living in low income neighborhoods to organizing the shoe closet to doing maintenance at Hope Welcome Center. In the afternoons, these groups will do Summer Kids Clubs in apartment communities throughout Amarillo. Please pray that God would use these groups to bless those they minister to and that they would learn a lot about God’s redemptive purpose and the role they play in it.

As we near the end of the school year, I stand in utter amazement at all that God has done through Mission Amarillo. As of this writing, we have given away 1,662 pairs of shoes to students in Amarillo, Bushland, Canyon, and River Road ISDs. Receiving a new pair of shoes means a lot to a student. Stephanie Braddock of the Bushland ISD does a summer camp for impoverished kids in her school district. When she asked one student what he looked forward to most at camp, he replied, “Getting a new pair of shoes!”. Lisa Boydston at Sanborn Elementary told me of one fifth grade girl who was all smiles when she received her shoes and was still smiling when she saw her in the hall two hours later. I’m thankful God has chosen to us Mission Amarillo to show these kids He hasn’t forgotten for them. Please pray that God would continue to use Mission Amarillo to affect kids lives.

Last of all, remember our ministries in the apartment communities. Our property missionaries do a great job of loving the residents and meeting needs. We have four communities that are primarily refugee communities and have their own unique set of blessings and challenges. Some of these communities have residents who have lived there for years and others who only stay a short time and move on. However, our volunteers serve faithfully no matter the circumstances and do a great job of showing the love of God to the people who live in these communities. Please pray that they would be encouraged, that they would experience the joy of serving, and that God would bless them and give them a sense of peace as they serve Him in these communities.

Thanks for your faithful prayer support. Come out to the Walk if you’re available on Saturday, May 26!

Grace,

Jeff

My son’s encounter with a non-Christian at work got me thinking and I wanted to share those thoughts with you.

I’m a firm believer in the sovereignty of God. I don’t think we can force God to do anything and any act of kindness He shows us is not owed us. He does it out of His divine goodness and for the glory of His name. It’s the same regarding a move of His Spirit. Perry Noble, pastor of New Spring Church in South Carolina once said, “A move of God can not be planned, but it must be prepared for.” Since God is sovereign, we can’t manipulate Him, but we can live in obedience to Him, realizing He will use us for His glory. In the Great Commission, He calls us to make disciples. So how do we do that? How do we go about making disciples for a God who determines when He will move and how? I’m glad you asked…:)

The way I see it, we have four roles. Since Jesus often used farming analogies, that’s what I’ll do here.

1. Fertilize the ground through prayer. No move of God will occur without His people humbling themselves in prayer. Through this we gain God’s heart for the lost, a vision for accomplishing all He wants done, a sense of direction of how we should pray, and how we should go about sharing Him with those who don’t know Him. We won’t gain a burden for the lost without asking God to allow us to see them through His eyes. Through this, we gain a passion for Jesus and a love for those who don’t know Him. We should all have non-Christians we are praying for. If you don’t, ask God to burden your heart for someone and begin praying for them immediately. Also, start prayer walking in your neighborhood, an apartment community , a park, your workplace, anywhere people are and watch how your burden for the lost grows.

2. Plant the seed. In Matthew 13, Jesus tells the parable of the seed sower. Most read this parable and notice the result of each seed. This is something we should consider, but also notice the sower wasn’t very selective in where he scattered the seed. It went on the road, between rocks, in a batch of weeds, and only some into good soil. We need to plant the seeds of the gospel in peoples lives both through our actions and the words we speak. We should be able to talk about our relationship with Jesus as naturally as we talk about our kids, our hobbies, our jobs, or the Cowboys and Sooners losing in the same weekend.(I say that with a tear in my eye) We should scatter the seed everywhere, talking about our relationship with Jesus, in a very real and non-self righteous way, through most any conversation we have. Don’t force it. Just don’t hold back. Most of us know the opportunities we miss. If we simply take the opportunities presented to us, we will scatter a lot of seed.

3. Water it. 1 John 3:18 says, “Let us not love in word or in thought, but in actions and in truth.” Once we begin to talk about our relationship with Jesus, people will watch us. We can either validate everything Jesus says, or blow it by acting contrary to God’s word. This doesn’t mean we won’t make mistakes….it’s the way we handle those mistakes that will draw attention to Jesus. We need to be real, not real religious, and live intentional lives, focusing on communicating the love and grace of Jesus through our actions and words, realizing God has placed us in our jobs, neighborhoods, and communities for His purposes.

4. Be ready for the harvest. Each of us should be able to lead someone to Christ. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, if we believe God is telling us they are ready, we should be prepared to share the plan of salvation with someone. It’s not our pastors’ job, youth minister, or any other person in the vocation of ministry to lead our friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers to Christ. It’s our job. Again, don’t force it, but don’t hold back. If the opportunity is there, share…and see what God does with it.

At this point, we need to realize, our responsibilities continue. God didn’t call us to get people to pray a prayer, walk an isle, get dunked, and plug them into Sunday School (Although, that’s not a bad thing!). He called US to make disciples. If God gives you the privilege of leading someone to Christ, He expects you to play a primary role in their discipleship. Meet with them regularly, go through the bible with them, and teach them to be a reproducing disciple of Jesus. Don’t know the answer to every question? Good. God likes it when you’re dependent on Him. Also, this IS your pastor or minister’s job. He will help you with those questions and disciple you as you disciple someone else….kind of cool how that works.

I know you may be saying, “but I don’t have the gift of evangelism”…..you don’t have to. Jesus said people will know we are His disciples by doing two things: Obeying His commands and loving God and others above ourselves. If we devote ourselves to loving Jesus in front of those who don’t know Him, God will use that to the glory of His name and draw all men to His Son.

Spring Break 2012 was a resounding success! Throughout this update, I’ll include some pictures of the work the mission groups did throughout that week. FBC Earth, FBC Idalou, Calvary BC Friona, and Rush Creek Church Arlington painted four houses, added dress shoes and seasonal shoes to  inventory and organized the hygiene and household items at A Step Up, and did kids clubs in five apartment communities. I’m beyond thankful for groups that will come and sacrifice their week to help the least of these. They did an outstanding job and I look forward to working with them again.

Now that the hygiene and household items are on the shelves, we only need a few more items to make our inventory complete. Throughout the rest of this week, I will be speaking with area businesses and grocery stores to see how they can help us collect these items. Please pray that the we would be able to collect all the items we need and that the families who receive them would be blessed and know that God is showing them His kindness. We will make these items available through the schools this week, so please pray with me that this would be an effective ministry that blesses those who receive.

We have two new outreaches to pray about. First of all, the pastor at Eastridge BC has begun holding a bible study for Burmese Karen (pronounced Kah-RIN) and Kareny believers at Green Tree Village. We have an existing church plant there that attracts African refugees there and it’s a beautiful thing to see two pastors cooperating to reach residents for God’s Kingdom. Please pray for the work at Green Tree Village, that God would make His name famous, that He would open the hearts of  the many Muslims that live there, and that all residents there would be reached with the gospel of Jesus.

One of our board members, Will Ratliff, has gathered a team and begun knocking doors and praying with residents at Glenwood Apartments. He hopes that some sort of missional community will form out of these efforts. So far, people have been receptive to the offers for prayer. It’s possible that they have met their person of peace there, so please pray for God to use Will’s team to make disciples of the residents of Glenwood Apts. and the surrounding area.

While at the Verge Conference earlier this month, I met with a campus pastor from an Amarillo church who is considering enlisting at least one small group to invest in an area elementary school that is in an impoverished community. I plan on meeting with him again this week to talk more about what this outreach would look like. Please pray that the Lord of the Harvest would prepare the hearts of the people in this area to receive His gospel and to give this church patience as they learned the challenges of reaching people in poverty.

As part of the upcoming Opportunity Conference, our Wheels to Prosper team will give away a car to a needy family. They are in the process of evaluating applications, so please pray that the Lord would guide them to the family that would be helped the most. Reliable transportation is often the biggest obstacle to a family transitioning out of poverty, so we’re excited to see God bless a family in a way that could have long term impact.

Last of all, please pray for us as we continue planning our first ever fundraiser, Walk a Mile in My Shoes, May 26.  We are in the process of finding sponsors and registering teams. Our goal is to raise $12,000 through Walk a Mile in My Shoes and our fall banquet, Miles of Hope. Please pray that the Lord would inspire some area businesses to sponsor us and that we would have plenty of teams to participate in the walk. We’re excited about these fundraisers and appreciate your prayers as we continue the planning involved.If you or your business would like to be a sponsor for the walk, please contact me at jspmho@gmail.com or give me a call at (806) 236-3487.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

Grace,

Jeff Parsons, Director