Fall Review...Spring Preview

Take heart, ministry is alive and well at Citychurch.  We have been working through more ministry than we could imagine, and it's wonderful!  The Lord loves these kids and He is giving us every opportunity to reach them with His love.  Be sure to check out the new video link and pictures on our website: http://www.citychurchamarillo.com/

Children's Ministry
The Wednesday evening puppet ministry started back when school started.  We pick the kids up in the neighborhood, bring them to the church and feed them a supper fit for kings.  Then...puppets!  The kids are exposed to a God-fearing, scripture loving Bass Monster who works with Mr. Hinklee's Good News Bike Messenger service to deliver bible messages to kids in need of Jesus' love.  Their efforts are slightly hindered by antics of Big Red and his crew, who wish to see families broken up and kids miserable.  But every episode, God's love shines through!

Just a few weekends ago we gathered up the kids on a Friday night, fed them at the church then headed out to Maxwell's Pumpkin patch.  We had almost 200 with us!  Mostly kids, a few volunteers and even families from the neighborhood joined us.  Everyone had a blast.






Earlier this week we hosted a Book Fair with the pre-school aged kids of the neighborhood.  Volunteers from the BGCT brought bookcases and books to give away to those kids who attended.  There were clowns, facepainting, a puppet show and a craft time.  Loads of fun!

We will continue the Wednesday night puppet show until Thanksgiving, which is coming quickly.  There will be a special Thanksgiving program and Christmas program.  Plus we have one of the coolest projects coming up, the Christmas Boxes!  We will package about 300 boxes for our kids this year.  Stay tuned for more details on that one!



Youth Ministry
The youth ministry has been busy as well.  These youth had active parts all summer in serving the kids.  Some helped in delivering lunches, working with the kids during VBS and pitching in wherever they could.

We had a fantastic youth camp at the end of the summer where those who served were able to leave their neighborhood and spend a week in the mountains.  Everyday they attended bible studies, had worship time, and a little bit of fun time.  It was during this time of closeness with God, several of the youth expressed a desire for mission work.  God is working with these guys!

The youth have their own Wednesday afternoon program.  We pick them up from school, bring them to the church, feed them like kings and share a message from scripture with them.  They even have their own youth led worship band, that leads them in worship on Wednesday afternoons.

With their expression of God calling them into missions, they have been working the last several week's planning their own youth led revival, to reach out to their friends and other youth on their blocks!  God has a group of youth here who are genuine in their love for Him!

There will be a special Thanksgiving meal and Christmas program for them as well.  And they will be a part of the Christmas Box project as well.

Looking back and ahead we see where God has been doing a great work in the hearts of the kids, youth, volunteers and families of Citychurch.  When we have a genuine love of Jesus and realize our reliance upon Him daily, then we can only give credit to Him.  The work is hard and we have to learn to be patient, but the fruit is good, and well worth the time and effort!

- Jeremy (follow me on twitter @tendingfigs)

To return to our website, click here...http://citychurchamarillo.com/

Friend us on Facebook Page "Citychurch Amarillo"

Follow us on Twitter @citychurchama

Citychurch presents...Jesus!

This morning, instead of loading lunches into our bikes and trailer for delivery, my sidekick Cannon (one of our youth) and I loaded up in the old "Citychurch Racing Van" and lurched down Polk street to the old Mary Hazelrigg neighborhood.  This week our neighborhood, along with North Heights, visits our park for a summer bible school!  For the kids from Mary Hazelrigg it was something new.  This neighborhood is a newly added route to our lunch and pastoring ministry and the last few weeks of serving these kids lunches was for the opportunity this week to present to them...Jesus!

We have fed 80 to 85 kids in this neighborhood.  Some are waiting for the bikes as they come down the road, but some are kept shut up inside the house, by mothers afraid of the surrounding neighborhood.  But they are always glad to see us, and somewhat relieved.  This place is loaded with sweet families, with hearts open to love.

As the vans were loaded this morning, the kids were silent, something unusual for a Citychurch van full of kids!  They weren't sure what to expect, having never been on a venture with us.  They didn't know each other, or really where they were going.  Some had a hard time leaving their moms.  But they came!

Our park is loaded with bouncers and slip 'n' slides, games, snow cones, snacks and lunches.  It is like a small carnival coming to town.  The basketball court is alive and the concession stand is serving.  Kids get to crawl all over the 40 foot rock wall cross and the two jungle gyms in the back, then build sand castles in our giant sandbox.

After playing, the visiting youth group pulls all the kids together, shuts down all the distractions, then teaches and leads the kids into something most of them don't know exists...worship of God!  It was sweet.  The worship is good.  It points the kids to the idea of God as a father and his love for us shown through Jesus Christ.  Today, after their hearts worshiped, they were led through a bible story of Jesus healing the centurion's child, introducing them to faith.  

And during the entire bible school time, the kids become best friends with the junior high and high school students and visiting adults who come with hearts ready to serve and love.

Needless to say the van ride home wasn't quiet, not even close.  The kids had new friendships with one another.  They had a blast at the park and they had hearts open to love with a seed of faith planted deep in it.  I told the guy riding with me that we just witnessed the work of God's love in these youngster's lives.  They are ready for tomorrow, as am I and I know, as is God.  We present Jesus everyday this week to these sweet kids and He begins a lifelong work in them!

- Jeremy (follow me personally on twitter @tendingfigs for daily updates and things that happen on the lunch route)

To return to our website, click here...www.citychurchamarillo.com

Friend us on Facebook Page "Citychurch Amarillo"

Follow us on Twitter @citychurchama

...with the least amount of resources.

"Let us reach the largest amount of kids with the least amount of resources." - Pastor Don Lane

This is a staple prayer  around Citychurch and is exactly that we are doing this summer in our lunch program.  With gas prices going up, we needed a way to cut the cost of running all the vans, so, out of 9 neighborhood routes, 3 of them will be ran on bicycles.  That's right!  Bicycles.

We have built cargo trailers to be pulled by some utility bikes and each can carry around 100 or so lunches.  We also notified the volunteer youth groups to bring their bikes along, so they can ride into the neighborhood with us.

It's a fun thing for the kids we feed too!  A bicycle is an important mode of transportation for any child, especially down here, and for us to pull up on bicycles with trailers helps provide a connection with those kids, not to mention the food passed along to them!

But not only is it a fun, creative and efficient way of feeding and connecting with the kids, it also goes to show how easy outreach can be.  You don't have to have a fleet of vans and commercial kitchen with 1000s of volunteers to feed hungry kids.  It can be as simple as making up some pb&j sandwiches in your home kitchen.  Then have your family hop on some bicycles and spend the afternoon riding up and down your local neighborhood, sharing the food with some hungry kids and spending time just getting to know them!

We welcome anyone to come down this summer and join us in the ministry.  Bring your whole family and your bikes and ride with one of us delivering lunches and sharing the love of Jesus.  If you don't have bikes, we have some extras.  And if you don't think you want to ride a bike route, then you still have 6 other routes done in vans you can ride along with.




We look forward to riding with you this summer, be it van or bicycle!  Also, keep up with our posts this summer for pictures and videos of the lunch deliveries.

All to share Christ!
-Jeremy

To return to our website, click here...www.citychurchamarillo.com

Friend us on Facebook Page "Citychurch Amarillo"

Follow us on Twitter @citychurchama

Fill The Bag and Feed A Child

It's almost summer!  And that means we need to gear up for feeding the kids daily in the neighborhood.  I could write paragraph after paragraph about our summer ministry, or you could just watch our video about it here:
Video - Fill The Bag and Feed A Child

And find more information here:
Info - Fill The Bag and Feed A Child...

-Jeremy

To return to our website, click here...www.citychurchamarillo.com

Friend us on Facebook Page "Citychurch Amarillo"

Follow us on Twitter @citychurchama

Hear the sermons here...Sermons

Closing Out April

The month of April draws to a close, and we have an average attendance of about 100 kids coming to the Wednesday night CityKidz' Stories program...amazing!  With so many kids here we had to split the program up into two shows on Wednesday night.  The younger kids go to a 6:15pm show and the older kids come in for the second show around 6:45pm.  Each show confronts a problem in their neighborhood, one they are familiar with, and teaches them how Jesus and scripture are the answer!

Our audience grew quite a bit, and pretty quick!  Part of it has to do with the van drivers.  We have a group of wonderful volunteer van drivers that truly love these kids.  They run the same routes Wednesdays and Sundays, making them a consistent figure in their lives.  This allows them to develop a relationship with the kids, one of care and respect.  Not only that, but the drivers are always on the lookout for new kids on their route.  They invite new kids to load up with the rest of the crew for a night at Citychurch.  A big thanks and "job well done" to the serving hearts of our van drivers.

Another part of the growth comes by word of mouth.  The kids are attending and having  a blast.  They know this is a safe place where the adults love and care for them.  They know they will have a chance to enjoy a warm, filling meal.  They know they will have fun in the park and enjoy watching a puppet show that mocks the bad things they see in the neighborhood.  And they know they will hear about God's love for them through Jesus...true hope.  Deep down this is what they are seeking.  So, they share what they experience here with their friends.  They invite them along and before you know it we are having to add another van to a route, add another show, cook more food and pray for more volunteers who will care about the lost.

April is coming to an end this week.  The month of May will see two more Wednesday night programs, then we will spend some time creating a fresh look to take us through the summer!  There is plenty of work to be done, and plenty of outreach to look forward to! 

Of course all bragging rights go directly to our Lord.  Without His grace none of this can be accomplished.  Jesus is who we glorify here, knowing His love for us and the kids is what drive us to share, it is the only thing that can be trusted in and the only reason we can have any hope.

-Jeremy

To return to our website, click here...www.citychurchamarillo.com

Friend us on Facebook Page "Citychurch Amarillo"

Follow us on Twitter @citychurchama

Hear the sermons here...Sermons

CityKidz' Stories - Media

Citychurch has hosted two more CityKidz' Stories programs since the last post, and both shows brought kids to the acceptance of Jesus!

Two Wednesdays ago the episode dealt with fighting and turmoil in the home and neighborhood.  Something we notice with these kids is they never see conflict worked out.  There will be constant turmoil in their house between everyone, anger just builds on one thing after the other until someone has enough, then they are gone.  But we communicated to the kids through CityKidz' Stories, that God doesn't want us living in constant anger towards each other.  We shared the message that is so dominate in the Bible, "Lover your neighbor as yourself."   We also shared Paul's warning to us, how if we don't love each other, we will end up devouring one another!

This last Wednesday we saw the reappearance of the Bad Habit.  The problem wasn't cussing, but stealing.  The kids also heard a story illustration about a kid who stole so much his hands grew to big to carry!  But both illustrations were worked out through Ephesians 4:28.  The kids learned that God wants us to use our hands for working and providing for other instead of stealing from them.

Here you will find the commercial for "The No Kill Shelter for Bad Habits" which was shown as part of the program for the kids this last Wednesday night.

Below is a doodle book that illustrates a story about William, a boy who couldn't stop stealing.

Good Times!

-Jeremy

To return to our website, click here...www.citychurchamarillo.com

Friend us on Facebook Page "Citychurch Amarillo"

Follow us on Twitter @citychurchama

Hear the sermons here...Sermons

Spring Break 2011!

I have to admit, this blog has been quiet for the last two weeks, but for very good reason.  Last week we were wrapped up in preparing for the work God had planned for spring break, and what a great work it was!

Our youth group just returned last night from their mission trip to McKinney, Texas where they reached out into neighborhoods to share the gospel.  They worked a VBS there over a three day period using crafts, puppets and teaching, sports and the Bass Monster to share God's love through Christ.  Stay tuned next week for a deeper report on that trip!

But just because our youth were gone with several of the church's adults, doesn't mean we kicked back and rested here.  God had plans for our entire outreach program here and McKinney!  Starting this last Monday all the way through Thursday we worked our neighborhoods with lunch and ministry in the streets, loving on the regular kids that attend and reaching out to any we could find!  On top of that, we held VBS in our park across the street down here on Polk and 2nd.

We fed around 300 lunches a day this week, and hosted over 150 kids from the neighborhoods at the VBS.  Every lunch sack contained a well rounded meal, with something warm, fruit, juice, dessert, and of course popcorn.  It also contained the "Lost Son" story from the Bible, which, whenthe child came to VBS, would see it acted out by Mr. O.T. Hinklee, his son N.T. and a few other of the puppet friends from Wednesday night's program.

Citychurch also hosted over 150 youth volunteers from local churches, a group from Burleson, Texas and even a group from Alaska!  All week these youth had a chance to clean, cook and sack the lunches, and deliver them to the kids at lunchtime out in the neighborhood.  After lunches were delivered each day, they returned to the park where they would have the chance to become a best friend to any of the many kids here for VBS.

 

At VBS the CityKidz' Stories troupe acted out the "Lost Son" story told by Jesus.  We also used crafts, had a small group teaching time, and a recreation time to teach the kids about the love God has for them, and His desire for them to know Him through believing in Jesus.  Every kid had an opportunity to pray and receive Jesus into their heart and many were saved!

But the program doesn't end there.  We know where these kids can be found so we can continue to minister to them and their families and teach them how they can live a new life loving God!  After the major work accomplished this week, glory and credit can only be given to God.  Both programs were a success and we have no doubt that His love shines through for these kids.  Thanks to God, supporters and volunteers.  The kids from the neighborhood and us here at Citychurch appreciate you!

-Jeremy

To return to our website, click here...www.citychurchamarillo.com

Friend us on Facebook Page "Citychurch Amarillo"

Follow us on Twitter @citychurchama

Hear the sermons here...Sermons