At The Cross Update

It has been a very exciting summer for those of us serving the Lord through At The Cross Church of Christ. God has been doing awesome and incredible things as usual! There has been a lot of change and transformation of our ministry this summer.

OUR APARTMENT MINISTRY

We began the summer with the realization that the ministry at Allenhurst Apartments that was once so flourishing, had slowed down tremendously and we no longer had the energy and excitement it once had. We lost about 5 families that had lived at Allenhurst for a long time who could no longer pay their rent or had to move for other reasons. As we lost those families, I noticed more and more that the newer families that were moving in had less and less interest in what we were offering and the child population has continued to decline the past several months there. So when the owners told me back in May that they were definitely raising our rent--I simply felt like God was telling me that what we had done and seen at Allenhurst the past 5 years, was meant to be done at other apartment complexes in Mesquite. So we began to make plans to let our two church apartments go after June--which we did--and now all our operations are out of our building--FOR NOW!

This last spring we did not do our annual big cookout/funfest at Allenhurst for the first time in 5 years--simply because we've also lost a few of our good worker families who had grown tired of the work and ministry we do and they went back to more traditional church settings--and given our tightening funds--I just did not think we could easily sustain such an activity this last year--not too mention again, the lower child population at Allenhurst.

Balch Springs Church of Christ spent a few days helping us do some work at our building and we had a joint Sunday evening devotional with them in early June. Then a week later, The Heartlands Church from Lincoln, Nebraska joined us again for a week for their mission trip. They did wonderful work on our building during the day and awesome mission/discipling work at Allenhurst and Peachtree Apartments at night! Along with a big dinner/worship service on the grounds of Allenhurst (a couple of weeks before we shut down our two church apartments). Those young Nebraskan Christians were sooooo wonderful!! Watching them love on so many adults and children unconditionally and so fired up to show and share Jesus with everyone!

We still take a van through Allenhurst during the week and on Sundays and we still spend time there each week just visiting people and loving on them--but slowing our operations at Allenhurst has finally allowed us to really work Peachtree Apartments a lot harder and more consistently. We moved our Wednesday night dinner/Bible class to Tuesday nights at our building now. So the last few weeks, I have been picking up several kids from Allenhurst and dropping them off at the building and then running down the street and picking up a "FULL" van load from Peachtree--mostly kids but a few adults! These are children who really live in a rough environment! We serve dinner at 6:30 and those kids are so glad to get it--and then class at 7pm. Once a month, we don't have class and we do something fun for the kids. Like recently we had a "Teen Surge" night for all our teens and pre-teens. A brother named Jairus Withrow, who is a very talented musician, Christian rapper, worship leader and more--did some fun Christian rap and music that is somewhat relative to the culture of the young people we are ministering to--and then my old co-worker from CiCi's Pizza Sean Maness, who grew up in a low income apartment complex in Mesquite--gave a great kid friendly devotional talk! We are finding more and more, that WE SIMPLY HAVE TO DO THINGS OUT OF THE BOX--THAT DIFFERENT CULTURES OF PEOPLE TODAY CAN RELATE TO--SO THEY CAN GRASP AND GET THE GOSPEL MESSAGE!!!! That night we had over 40 kids and it was wonderful!

We are hoping to do some on site activities soon at Peachtree--like a back to school cookout. My summer intern, Jonathan Brooks from Harding University, and I went a couple of nights a week and just walked through both Allenhurst and Peachtree and said hi to folks and made friends. Speaking of Jonathan, it was a blessing to have his help. Although I don't look at interns as workers to help us--I look at them as an opportunity to give them as much exposure for future kingdom leadership/ministry roles. Jonathan sat in on some Christian marital counseling, some one on one Bible studies, taught every age group within the congregation Bible class, preached two different Sundays, made shepherding and outreach visits with me, and participated in every Sunday worship service in one capacity or another. He got to see some difficult people/bloody sheep situations. And he took a group of our kids to church camp for a week this summer. I am very proud of Jonathan. This Sunday we are having a special lunch honoring his service.

OUR WOMEN'S MINISTRY

A year ago I said our teen ministry which was going through a really rough time was our weakest link. Then a few months later, I looked closely at our women's ministry which had once flourished--was really hurting and had become our weakest link. I prayed and prayed for God to give some of our new sisters in Christ--some older, more mature Christian sisters to love on our women and provide some mentoring. Those prayers have been answered! God has since sent several of the sweet sisters again--from Highland Oaks Church of Christ to be a blessing to our women and they have a breakfast/devo once a month and other activities.

PRISON/JAIL MINISTRY

For years my family has written a brother in Christ who is in prison to keep him encouraged and occasionally put some funds on his books so he can get basic necessities. We have recently been involving our teens and younger kids in writing him and now we are going to start including other prison inmates in our regular love correspondence. If you have a loved one or a friend in prison and they need some encouragement, get us the mailing info and we will gladly encourage them.

FOOD PANTRY/CLOTHES CLOSET

Our food pantry has continued to grow--not just in clients, but in volunteers. Every week we have several sweet sisters from Highland Oaks Church of Christ who help us in that work. However, we are in the process of changing up both our food pantry and really all our benevolence ministry service. We are working to move into a new ministry that provides the good samaritan approach, but also at some point requires some giving back in work or service--so we do not hurt people by enablement. We'd covet your prayers as we pray and work through preparing for this new approach.

Please continue to pray for our work. We need to raise $75,000 by spring of next year so we can do the following:

1. Continue with at least one full time person (which has been me thus far)

2. Be able to go into a new apartment complex (not Allenhurst or Peachtree) and build infrastructure and rent an apartment like we once did at Allenhurst and be able to pay a part time minister to help with that work. I am currently looking at Hickory Tree Apartments not far from our operations and praying about that complex.

3. Continue to be able to provide some benevolence to the many poor families we work with and serve.

Please also be praying for God to keep not only sending us part time workers from other congregations--which are wonderful! But to send us a few more families from a church background who can put their lot in with us full time--who can serve, work, and tithe--so one day we are not so dependent on outside funds.

If you can give, please send checks (made out to At The Cross) to:

429 S. Walker
Mesquite, Tx 75149

Or you can give through our paypal--just go to our website at: http://www.atthecrosscofc.org/

There is much, much more work yet to be done in Mesquite! Many, many lost souls yet to reach! But all things are possible with God!

Love in Christ,

Bruce