Take It To The Streets The Good News

Progress and Take It To The Streets

2010-10-30T21:07:00.000-07:00

I have got to brag about last Saturday October 23rd. It was a momentous day for our ministry as we saw fruits of what God has been brewing for us behind the scenes. It was the 4th Saturday of the October and to give you a behind the scenes look at what took place I will say this. We pulled off our Field Day, Neighborhood Fellowship neighborhood outreach and our education class all on one Saturday (It took Cindy Barrinea ordering the food, myself, Cindy and Her son Matt picking out the bread and oranges, and then bagging it all up with the help of the kids at 1:45 PM).

First of all let me speak to the Neighborhood Fellowship that we have been doing since TI2Ts Ministry began. The vision for this initiative is that we will flood the streets of the Waylyn Neighborhood off of Dorchester Rd. with the light of Jesus Christ. Regardless of what church our local missionaries attend we want people to see the love of Jesus. So we had individuals from several churches joining us to reach out into the community. Pastor Mike Cooke from Life Community Church came out, minister Reggie Coaxum from Christ's Temple came out, and off course Seacoast Church attendees and the Well was representing. The great thing was that Jesus Christ was represented in that neighborhood. We reached out as 3 teams with a total of 15 people passed out food while at least 20 volunteers shared Jesus with the Kids off of Dorchester Rd. at the field Day. And Joey helped 2 men do job searches.

All this was done after a team of 8 TI2TS leaders planned for our harvest festival event on October 31st from 6 pm to 8 pm with God's House of Worship Church.

What a Saturday--the cool thing is that God has much more in store as we continue to see God at work. The next phase of our ministry is going to be powerful. We will begin to stabilize the ministry by putting together an Internship Program and a Local Missions Team and as we continue to be guided by God in future pursuits of His will.

Greater things are yet to come...greater things are yet to be done in our City!

I for one have to proclaim how honored it is to serve with all of you guys as I watch our talents bloom and as I watch God's Holy Spirit grow us into maturity and increase our faith.

I love you guys...

A servant of Christ.

Jesse Williams

He Became So We Could Become

2010-06-09T04:59:00.001-07:00

"He Became So We Could Become"

Wow what a statement, I was told by Pastor Judas Smith that this sums up the entire New Testament in those six words. How do you view the value of your salvations? Do you understand the cost, the price tag the impossible miracle of who you are in Christ, I can’t – but I will spend the rest of my life serving my Lord your King Jesus Christ. I write this as I sit on the porch of an expensive resort on the Myrtle Beach SC attending one of the top middle/high school church youth camps, in tears. The sun is on the horizon and God is smiling. It has been the better part of a year now that I have been on the ground serving with Jesse Williams and the Take It To The Streets crew. I remember chatting with the gang about God’s hope and his love for the children of Dorchester Rd, and how God and we wanted them to have access to all the kings previsions. It never seemed right that children who loved Jesus so much (pray to him, study his word, serve in their community, hand out food door to door to their neighbors, wait by the side of the road to go to church as their parents are a sleep), could never experience God the same way the children I watch every Sunday at the Long Point or even the West Ashley Seacoast campus did – they were so blesses. I wanted the best for my children, his children, my little M.O.G’s! So we set out to accomplish that and by Gods grace and abundant bless I can write this he (God-Jesus) has initiated and we ( The Young Leaders of Take It To The Streets ) have responded. One week ago today I received a phone call from Pastor Mac Mood telling me that Seacoast West Ashley campus would like to sponsor four of the Young Leaders of Take To The Streets to attend e-camp. We as a team arrived yesterday! Kenny, Jarmine, Jalial and Brice are all sleep right now unaware of what God has in store for them today. Please keep us in your prayers, and that we respond and seek to dedicate our lives to serve the Lord our King Jesus. Guy’s we are braking down walls that have been constructed in our city right now with the Holy POWER OF JESUS. I am watching this play out right before my very eyes and it is beautiful, and I shout Rise and Sing (are you alive and have you been redeemed)? Your Brother in Christ, Connor McIntyre

Stawberries and Prayer Anyone?

2010-06-04T09:11:00.000-07:00

God’s Providence Strawberries and Take It To The Streets: By Jesse Williams (June 1, 2010)

I love to see the impossible things made possible with God which glorifies him- because God’s timing is perfect.

I call it a God incidence but some would call it a coincidence or serendipitous.

The full service project today was a powerful testimony of the Power of God and how He works through his Body of believers. Several connections were made all because our heart is for serving the Lord and our heart is for seeing things how Jesus sees things. A missionary team had planned to come to Charleston from Hebron Baptist Church in Georgia they met with me around February of 2010 and I introduced Take It To The Streets ministry to them at North Bridge Baptist Church (a small Baptist Church) in West Ashley who is passionate about outreach.

So we planned on them coming into town on June 1^st, 2010 and doing a neighborhood revitalization project, but the neighborhood revitalization project leader decided to move to North Carolina two weeks before the date when Hebron Baptist would come in. Well God knows my heart and knew I wanted to provide an organized day for these missionaries and be able to show them the neighborhood. So Fields to Families needed help on that Tuesday they needed volunteers to pick strawberries to give it to the community and they would be starting at 9:30 AM. This was the time we planned on hosting the missionaries from Hebron Baptist.

So I was able to bless Fields To Families because their director was going out of town on that Monday and through God’s power I was able to facilitate the strawberry picking. Myself, Sarah and Sarah’s daughter Addison who is four years old went out representing Take It To The Streets and a big bus and van followed my little red truck to the strawberry farm six miles from Holly Hill, SC. It was cloudy and I prayed it would not rain and it did not for the whole time we picked strawberries. The group had to be downtown at 1:00 pm and we needed boxes to put the strawberries in…I had none when I arrived so I drove to Holly Hill’s Piggly Wiggly grocery store and on that day they had 9 boxes lined with plastic, old banana boxes. So we filled all the boxes by 10:40 AM and decided we would bag up the fruits and take them out to Ranger Drive and to the outreach area. I drove through the rain to North Charleston and again prayed for clear skies so we could bag up the fruits. It did not rain for the whole time we bagged up the strawberries by this time Martha Martin came to help us from Sarah’s house. I’d call this the missions house.

We bagged all the strawberries and filled nine boxes then drove the bus to Mrs. Sheila’s house off of Ranger Drive, who was ready to do yard work because I did not let her know of the change of plans. So we broke up into 8 teams of about 7 people in each team including little Addison who is 4 years old, walking down the street of one of the most crime ridden areas, but blessed by God. We walked for about 15 minutes passing out strawberries and praying with residents, then it began to rain. We passed out about 60 pounds of strawberries and we blessed the whole neighborhood with the joy of Jesus as 60 people strong walked around the neighborhood in the rain, motivated by the love of Jesus. The residents’ hearts were warmed to us and embraced the young missionaries. The chaperon's told us we have done an awesome job, they recognized the soil we had tilled through past efforts of taking the love of Jesus to those streets off of Ranger Drive.

In the end, we went back to Sarah’s house to pray and rejoice in what God had done on this Strawberry picking outreach day. I was even able to take a box to Without Walls Outreach Ministry to bless Pastor Gordon and his team with God’s bountiful harvest of Strawberries. I believe it was a symbolism of God’s divine providence and love for the Take It To The Streets family and for the people of Charleston.

Way FM Faith and Fun Night

2010-03-21T08:47:00.001-07:00

On Saturday the 20th Take It To The Streets took some of the kids from our outreach neighborhood to Way FM's Faith and Fun Night at the North Charleston Coliseum. We got to see the Charleston Stingrays play some great hockey followed by an incredible concert by Group 1 Crew. For these kids it was the first hockey game they had ever seen. They quickly joined in with the crowd in cheering on the home team and taunting the away team. It was a small thing bringing the kids along with us as tickets were not that expensive but to them that arena could have been a million miles from their daily struggles in their neighborhood off of Dorchester Road.

After the concert was over Way FM brought out Group 1 Crew who rocked the house with a lot of songs from their new not yet released album. Between each song each band member gave testimony to where they came from and how God had brought them to where they are. Their testimony actually sparked conversation between the kids as they talked about coming from a broken home, not knowing their father, and growing up poor. All of these themes resonated with the kids as they listened to their words and yet saw these individuals talking about growing up this way yet where standing before them preforming on stage. No part of their story glorified the use of drugs and alcohol but rather gave glory to God. One of the things that even touched me was the true humility in which their testimonies were given and that like our kids this was the first hockey game these three had been to as well. Through the second half of the game Pablo one of the band members actually sat in the row right behind us to watch the game. The night was a great time of fellowship for our leaders and volunteers as well as certainly expanding the kids bubble allowing them to experience a piece of life that many take for granted.

To The Rescue

2010-03-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

This is a fun blog for me to write and I think it will be an even funner one for you to read (is funner a word?). It all started with a phone call on Thursday March 11th from Fields To Families Jacki Baer. Jacki said, “Connor I have got 100 lbs of collard greens, but there is a catch you have got to pick them up today – actually in two hours”. I said, “Sure we can get them where are they” Jacki said “ Mt. Pleasant”. For those of you who are not up on TI2TS news we have a new partner Fields To Families (www.fieldstofamilies.org), they are a non-profit who started in 2006 that works to ease hunger in the Lowcountry by gathering crops form generous farmers and community gardeners and distributing them through their network of partners. This was such great timing with Neighborhood Fellowship on Saturday we could hand them out almost instantaneously! So I called Jesse and asked if he could get the van and scoop them up, as at that time I was having lunch with one of the parents of young leaders. Jesse said “no problem – text me the address”. At that time I thought everything was great easy peasey. The next morning I got a call from Jacki asking me “where were you yesterday I thought you were going to pick up the greens”? I didn’t know what to say and apologized for any inconvenience I may have caused. I let Jackie know that I would leave right away and could pick them up personally. She explained to me that it was to late that she already called another agency partner who was on the way. As you can image I was disappointed and worried that we had damaged our relationship with Fields To Families. Later that day Jesse, Mike and I met up for lunch to talk about TI2TS as well as this issue. At that very moment that we were talking about this issue Jesse’s phone rings – then mine, it was from David Truluck from Shield Ministry. We both agreed that we would call after our lunch. As we left Alex’s Restaurant, Jesse called me and said did you hear the message from David? I said “no, why”. David called to inform us that there was 100lbs of collard greens in the van. As you can image this was quite an experience for both of us. Shield Ministry was the partner agency that was on the way to pick up the collards.

On Saturday five children from the ages of 8 to 11 bagged up sixty grocery bags filled with collard greens and granola bars. Then on their own street they went door to door (with TI2TS volunteers) and began to pray with their neighbors, BOLD! I can’t tell you how proud and impressed I was with these boys this was a BOLD and Courageous move that most adults I know couldn’t or wouldn’t do. So next time you see Jahlea, Eddy or JJ give them a high five and tell them great job!

P.S. The neighbors loved the collard greens praise Fields To Families, Shield Ministry!

Connor McIntyre

Neighborhood Revitalization

2010-02-21T20:47:00.000-08:00

This weekend Neighborhood Revitalization lead by Bergen Hall put in hours of work clearing trees away from power lines and helping a family rediscover they had a backyard under all the dead leaves and tree branches. Neighborhood Revitalization is working to help give a community in need of hope a renewed sense of pride in their homes. Many of the individuals that live off of Ranger Road in Dorchester are single moms, disabled or elderly. They do not have the means or ability to do the normal upkeep on a home that helps to keep it in shape. You can not imagine the blessing it is for these people to feel the love from strangers who are willing to give of their time and themselves to help with basic yard work and home repair. It is truly a blessing both to them and the servants who live out "loving your neighbor as yourself".

We are still in need of volunteers who can come out and help us revitalize this neighborhood. On the first and third Saturday of each month from 9 - until we will be out in the community helping our neighbors. If you can give 1 day a month to help be a part of this growing ministry please contact us here. Just a few hours of your time, whatever you are capable of giving, can make a huge impact in the life of another.

Searching the Web can support your favorite charity.

2010-01-28T09:05:00.001-08:00

Take It To The Streets is now partnered with Good Search a search engine with a conscious. Good Search takes a different business approach to searching the internet. Instead of spending large amounts of money on advertising and increasing the profit margin of the company it allows users to select a charity they want to support. Every time you enter in a search, pennies on the dollar are given to the charity. In the large scheme of things this may seem like nothing but your giving away that money anyway right. Google and Bing work the same way and every time you make a search on their page you are giving money to those organizations so why not help a Non Profit group instead. By taking two minutes of your time to add a search bar to your internet browser or change your home page from Google to Good Search you will be helping support a charity every time you are on the internet. The cost is nothing to you but it channels BIG Advertising dollars from corporate coffers such as Microsoft and Google into the hands of charity's that are working to change the world. Of coarse we would like to see you help our cause and you can now type in Take It To The Streets as a group you would like to support, however you can support multiple organizations through your searching. Since Good Search does not spend money on advertising it relies on its users to spread the word so that more charity's can be supported. You will find links both on this Blog and on our website to search through this group.

You can also shop online through Good Shop. Good Shop is portal to all the major online shops like Best Buy, Amazon, and Ebay. You can buy all your items from the same stores you always do but by going through Good Shops page rather then directly to the store the advertising money again goes to the charity's. A percentage of whatever is spent through the online sales goes to the charity of your choice. Think about how much time you spend online and how by spending a few minutes you can make a part of your daily habits a way to generate money that will help feed the poor, bring clean water to those in need, or support urban missionary work. Is a few minutes of your time to try a new site worth the impact you can have with no sacrifice required?

For those of you out there like myself who run solely on FireFox you have search bar built in at the top of the browser that lets you select which search engine you want to search from. Below is a link that will the add Good Search to that list so every time you use that search it will go through Good Search and save your favorite charity to your cookies.
Firefox Add-On
If you would like to add good search to your Internet Explorer options click here.

If you would like add good search to your Google Chrome options click here.

Good Shop

Good Search

Michael Waters
Web Graphics/Digital Media Designer
mwaters@ti2ts.org

Blessing a Family

2010-01-25T02:34:00.000-08:00

This week we had the privileged of being the instrument of God in blessing a family in need. Jamaal and Michelle who have five kids have been staying with a friend over off Wye Lane. With the birth of the newest member of their family Michelle is back at work and they have gotten their own place. However all of the furniture and household items at their previous residence belonged to someone else and they had nothing to move into their new house. In one weeks time God provided enough furniture to furnish their entire new home.

I would like to thank those who donated items and are still donating items. For those of you who could not be a part of moving the furniture in I hope the pictures can convey a small sense of what was done this day. Jamaal could not stop smiling and saying "God is good, yes he is". I would like to also thank everyone who helped pack a Uhaul full of this furniture and move everything in to their new home. At times it was some dirty work and it has been a week long process to get everything together. Everyday they wake up in their new home this family and their kids will have a constant reminder of God's love and an amazing example of the obedience of those he has called to serve him.

Jamaal will be attending the Take It To The Streets Education Program starting in Feb. These classes focus on resume building and goal setting and we also work to help every member who comes through the program find a job. The second greatest commandment we were given was to "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:30-21) and I know at this moment these neighbors feel loved. As they have friends and family over that love will be passed on. Their friends and neighbors will see, in their home the physical manifestation of the love of God carried out through his humble servants.

If you have donations you would like to make or be a part of more service projects like this please visit our website at http://ti2ts.org and go to Contact Us.

HIS humble servant,

Michael Waters
Take It To The Streets
Web Graphics/Digital Media Designer

Burns Buddies

2010-01-15T12:42:00.001-08:00

Group I am very proud to announce a new edition to the Take It To The Streets programs Burns Buddies. This program is a partnership with Trident United Way, Charleston County School District, Cummins & Take It To The Streets. The leadership group has been working on this partnership sense August of 2008 and has just recently underway. At this time the Take It To The Streets leadership team has been on the ground almost daily at Burns Elementary School meeting with teachers and students. We have also started building an independent website burnsbuddies.org which will allow all agencies to show case this program to their constituents. As many of you are aware this school is directly across the street from the Take It To The Streets Family Field Day Field as well as it shares the parking lot with the JB center were we hold our Young Leader and Work On The Street Program. At this time we have identified several teachers that we are going to be partnering with from 1st to 5th grade. All of these classes currently have Take It To The Streets children enrolled in them. The kids are SUPER excited to see us in the school as well as having the opportunity to eat lunch with us. This partnership gives Take It To The Streets an unique advantage point to how the children are living out what they are being taught on Sundays. Often time the feedback provided by their teacher is the most detailed and impactful.

As it isn’t a surprise to many of you our Take It To The Streets children are struggling in school, some of which are three grade levels behind. There are numerous behavior issues and at time the kids can be known as a handful. I believe this is why God has put them in all of our lives, and it is obvious that they need his help to make it through these early childhood development years. At this time we are open to volunteers participating in the Burns Buddies program (Lunch and Learn 11:30 to 12:30 M-F). This program is not for beginner volunteers and all volunteers will be fully vetted prior to having access to the school. As you can understand this is a tremendous opportunity for both us and the children, God Bless and have a great day!

Connor

Servicing the Community

2009-12-22T23:14:00.000-08:00

This outreach was a special outreach because on this Saturday we had a full fledge service project where we cut down trees in Mrs. Alma’s yard, who lived on Ranger Drive. Mrs. Alma has always been encouraging to us since we began our Neighborhood Fellowship two years ago. Her husband accepted Jesus into his heart about 6 months before he died. He was such a joyous person. This past Saturday we saw the vision of true neighborhood fellowship come alive as two brothers Quan and Jahleel ages 8 and 9 volunteered to help us with Mrs. Alma’s yard. They truly enjoyed helping out. The bothers were able to walk around with a leaf blower and Quan got to use the chain saw, which he was very excited to do. They probably had never seen these tools before, but they trusted us and they served with their small Take It To The Streets shirts on.

These two brothers had been coming out to the field for a full year and they have been able to get closer to many of our volunteers. As Myself, Brooks, and Bergen worked the chain saw, pressure washer and extended saw, our two little brothers continued to help and they enjoyed every minute- they took a few breaks and we could see them being kids and jumping on the trailer as they said hi to guys walking by that they knew. I could tell that some of the guys walking were up to no good- maybe they were drug dealers. It does not really matter, because our two young volunteers had joy in their hearts as they served Jesus. What was very exciting was when Mrs. Alma saw the house and how it was pressure washed- all she could say was “God Bless” “Love You” and “God Bless”. All the volunteers were certainly blessed because the King sees all things and Jesus was looking down on everyone and smiling. That is the glory of God when light can begin to shine in a place that was otherwise dark, literally and figuratively.

~Jesse Williams

Take It To The Streets Christmas

2009-12-20T14:51:00.001-08:00

First I want to say thank you to all of the wonderful people who helped make this moment happen. Last Sunday we had a number of people come together to give of themselves to put together shoe boxes full of toys for the kids. We had a good system of wrapping going on and got a good look at the wrapping skills of our friends. For those of you who were not able to be there to hand them out your generosity went miles in making this Christmas a happy one for a lot of children, many of whom would not have had any presents under the tree were it not for your gifts of love. Without Walls Ministry also lended a hand by donating extra shoe boxes they had to help us meet our need for the growing number of kids that are coming to Field Day now.

Yesterday we handed out presents to all the children at Field Day and the response was overwhelming joy. We did not announce that we would be doing this to the neighborhood but rather made it a surprise. Some of the kids tore into their gifts right away and were already playing with the toys that they were given. A lot of presents came with kids books that told different stories from the Bible and I saw children comparing which book they got to another "I got Daniel and the Lion what did you get?" There was a huge moment of love as they all sat and open their presents, in which all of their differences and squabbles were put aside and the worries of school and their home life were forgotten. A few of the kids did not open their presents, when I asked one little girl why she was not opening her gift she said, "Cuz I want to put it under my tree just like this." Though they all know the reason for Christmas with a resounding answer was "Jesus", there was joy they experienced in the physical manifestation of the love of Jesus Christ carried to them through the hearts of volunteers who helped make this happen.

The Greatest Gift

2009-12-15T07:39:00.000-08:00

Group it is great to be able to report such a wonderful story, at such a wonderful time of the year. This past week end we got to participate in witnessing a child receive the greatest Christmas present of his life. At this time I would like to introduce you all to Eddy Ancrum a fifth grader (10 years old) from Burns Elementary School. Eddy is a wonderful kid often characterized as a gentle giant. He has a warm heart and has been participating in Take It To The Streets Family Field Day since the very beginning. Eddy lives about two blocks from the field and is always the first one there and the last one to leave. He is not hard to miss when he is at the field he is often found handing out drinks and filling cups full of ice for all the kids, he takes this job very seriously (don’t mess with Eddy).

Each weekend we take a van load of children to the North Charleston Dream Center for the Noon Church service. About a month ago Eddy who has never gone to church nor anyone in his family that I know of showed interest in attending. I told Eddy if he would like to join us to walk to two blocks to Alex’s Restaurant and if he was there at 10:30 then I would buy him pancakes. So somehow this message got mixed up and he arrived at 8:30 and he waited for two hours for us to arrive. He walked up to me and said “hey man where have you been”, at that moment I knew he was all in. So last week at Church Eddy told Kim Wiggins that he wanted to be Baptized! As you can image we were elated. As the week went on the leadership team talked about the logistics of Eddy being Baptized. On Saturday in true Eddy fashion he arrived at the Field early in 45 degree raining weather, however today he was going to step it up a notch. Instead of running the drink station Eddy wanted to be apart of bring his community an eternal supply of water. Eddy decided he wanted to join Matt Vegel and hand out food and pray for his neighbors in the community. Five teams set out for Neighborhood Fellowship and the last team to return, you guessed it Eddy and Matt. Eddy was so excited he did an interview (Travis Evens Videographer extraordinary) along with Matt he shared the days blessings.

The next morning Sunday it was raining and quite a miserable day. We pulled into the parking lot at Alex’s at 10:30 and at the first table as we walked in Eddy was sitting waiting for us. As I sat down I was reminded that I owed him a bible, so I went to the trunk of my car and had the glorious honor of signing his first bible. As I gave it to Eddy he asked me if he was going to get Baptized today (I love his persistence)? I didn’t even have time to answer the question as Eddy was so excited to share a dream he had the night before. Eddy said “I had a dream last night and Jesus was in it”! I said wow really what did he look like? Eddy said “he was a tall white man, with long white hair and a long white beard, and he was glowing”. I said what did he do? Eddy said “Jesus asked me to help him, he was chopping wood and I was to grab the logs and he would split them in half”. As you can image all the hairs stood up on my body and I as well as everyone else that was sitting with us was blown away. All of this coming from a ten year old WOW! At that moment I knew we had to figure out away for him to be Baptized TODAY!

As we got to Church we checked to see if the Baptism tank was full, it was not. So I went to Eddy and told him that we don’t have a place to perform the Baptism indoors so we are going to have to do it outside, where it was raining and cold. Eddy said “I don’t care”. So in typical Take It To The Streets style we packed up all the kids and a handful of volunteers and headed to my neighborhood pool (which was closed and crazy cold 50 degrees). While Eddy was changing into his bathing suit he was jumping up and down, there was an excitement on his face I have never seen before. All the kids lined up along the pool with the volunteers as Eddy, Jesse and I braved the ice cool water. At this point the pictures tell the rest of the story. I hope that this story warms your heart this holiday season. Know that there is hope being planted in North Charleston and children that from the outside may look and seem poor and deprived are some of the richest children of all! Welcome my Brother Eddy Ancrum a REAL M.O.G (Man Of God) to the family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The pictures are in time order, Check out his eyes in the last photo – Look out Eddy is Coming!

Connor McIntyre

December Newsletter

2009-12-10T15:05:00.000-08:00

The December newsletter is hot off the press take a look here or download the full pdf here.

Thanksgiving in the Park

2009-12-03T11:47:00.000-08:00

Last week Take It To The Streets had the pleasure of supporting Without Walls Ministry with their Thanksgiving Outreach. It was an incredible experience spending time on a holiday all about giving thanks, reaching out to those who are less fortunate and giving them a reason to be thankful. We helped to serve over 50 turkeys, 30 hams, and all the other traditional thanksgiving trimmings to many Charlestonians who had nowhere else to go on Thanksgiving day. By midday over 500 blankets and jackets had been distributed to the guests. It was heart touching to see how many people came out to willingly sacrifice time away from their families on a holiday to touch the lives those who had no family to spend it with.

As I walked around trying to capture the joyfulness of the occasion on film I felt a great peace in knowing that if Christ were present in the flesh that day that he would have been sitting at those very same tables giving hope to the "least of these". I can only hope that everyone who is a part of my life gets a chance during this holiday season to feel that same joy and peace. I know that in the act of serving pure of heart, that the server is blessed as much if not more so those than those being served. You may just find that in the act of changing the life of another it is you who are being changed.

To see all the pictures from the days events please visit http://photos.takeittothestreetsministry.org/

Garbage Day!

2009-11-29T17:33:00.001-08:00

Garbage Day!

Group every once and a while you get to see a dream come true, this happened for me on Saturday. After the day and reflecting with Jesse we concluded that is was easily one of our top five Field Days of all time! So what did we do, well how about I tell you what we didn’t do first, we didn’t set up any chairs, we didn’t break out any games, we didn’t even prepare a lesson mainly because we didn’t know how the kids were going to respond. As the kids all arrived we gathered them in a circle and told them our plan. The plan for the day was to serve their community and pick up trash for one hour. We broke the kids up into teams of five with one volunteer per team. The teams left the field in multiple locations armed with bags, gloves and a determination that was unexpected.

I was leading the Ranger Rd team along with Jesse. Starting at the Watson’s house and heading North with Jaleal, Kateria and Katiasha we hit the ground running. What I hoped for happened, the kids were excited and even racing at times to pick up the garbage “that’s mine, he’s to fast”. Not only was it great to see the kids doing something for their neighborhood but to see the faces of their neighbors in disbelief was priceless. God opened so many doors for discipline on this day from being a good steward of one surroundings, to the poisoning effects of alcohol and cigarettes. At the end of the day I was so proud of the kids and better yet they were proud of themselves they looked, acted and were leaders in their community, leading from the front. God is good and no matter if I write this story 100 times it will never convey the beauty of this day.

Connor Mcintyre

United Live!

2009-11-24T15:05:00.001-08:00

What a weekend we had last week! For all of those who were able to attend United Live WOW! Thanks to the volunteers from Take It To The Streets bring out 20 plus volunteers way to represent! For those of you who were not able to attend, no worries because we are in the process of planning another event January 22^nd 2010. I had the pleasure of busing in 10 kids from Ranger Rd that evening. They were so excited, you should have seen their face’s Zarion said “Man this is dope our church is got a Rap concert”, this was from a ten year old. The night was awesome it was like having a personal Rap concert for our family. The light stage and sound equipment was off the hook, and our very own Martha Martin did an incredible job painting the backdrop. Real and Sasha blew the roof of the Dream Center “Get it Get it”, and Pastor Ben laid down a powerful message.

It was so fun to see the kids personalities come alive as well as come together. Many of you have heard this story but as the concert came to a close the Take It To The Streets kids took over. They all rushed the stage as the DJ played their favorite song “Joyful Noise by Flame” it was as if they just drank 15 cans of Red Bull. All the volunteers crowed around the stage to cheer them on as De Angelo was stringing his air guitar, and Zarion was on the his back spinning is circles, Quan was sliding on the top of his head as his brother Jaleal was pulling a one handed handstand. There is no other word for this but “Freaking Amazing” I guess that is two words. As much time I have spent with these kids I had no idea how talented they were, it was as if we are watching an audition of So You Think You Can Dance. You could see the joy and disbelieve on all the volunteers faces. The kids absolutely loved it! The volunteers would cheer loader the kids would dance harder; we all knew that this night the kids would never forget. It wasn’t until thirty minutes after the concert had ended, all the other kids had left and most of the volunteers had gone that the DJ was wore out and had to stop the music and the TI2TS had to get off the stage. As I said before they were excited, almost to the point of madness. The kids insisted on not leaving so they for another thirty minutes they broke down the stage and wrap up the two thousand feet of cord and wires. It was an awesome privilege to witness this event and have a front seat in his glory and splendor.

Take It To The Street Christmas Cards

2009-11-19T13:49:00.000-08:00

Christmas should be a time for giving and enjoying quality time with family and friends, but all too often, it turns into a season of high stress and last minute panic gift buying. Why not do something totally different this year by giving charitable gifts to loved ones and close friends? A charitable donation is tax deductible, eco-friendly (no expensive wrapping paper required) and donations are also perfect as unique corporate gifts for clients. Make a donation on behalf of someone you love and we will give you a unique Christmas Card to give to that individual. Inside of the card will be a certificate letting that person know that you donated on their behalf and what their gift will be used for. For those of you out of state or away for the holidays we can mail you the card and envelope for you to address and mail out and for those of you who we all see on a regular basis you can request to get yours in person from Connor.

To purchase a Take It To The Streets Christmas Card click here.

$20.00 Sponsors one day of Neighborhood Fellowship = Door to Door meals and prayer for 30 families

$50.00 Sponsors one day of Children Sunday School = Transportation of 25 children to Church and all day activities

$100.00 Sponsors one day of Field Day = 50 children receive food, sports activities, crafts, worship and bible school

$200.00 Sponsors one student in Word On The Street Program = six week training course on resume building, interview skills, goal setting and 100.00 voucher for interview outfit

$500.00 Sponsors one Laptop for Mentor ship Program = After school mentorship program helps students with there homework and develops improved study skills as well as bible study and community building.

Thanksgiving in the Park

2009-11-12T06:36:00.000-08:00

On Thanksgiving Day we will be partnering with Without Walls Ministry to help serve Thanksgiving Dinner to the community. Last year we helped out with this event and it was absolutely amazing. Over 200 people showed up to help show the love of Christ on this holiday. The event takes place from 9am - 1pm at Hampton Park downtown. Volunteers who wish to drive themselves can park at the Food Lion a few blocks away and walk to the event or we will be meeting at the field behind Alex's Restaurant on Dorchester Road and car pooling to the event. Volunteers need to be there early so the car pool will be leaving at 8 a.m. Please remember to wear your Take It To The Streets t-shirts, maybe over a long sleeve shirt as it might be a little chilly in the morning.

We are asking each volunteer to prepare one dish or desert to bring with them to the event. If you can make something please post a response so we know what we will be able to take and we can let Without Walls know. I will be making my special lemon based Turkey :D If you are unable to attend or can not prepare food and still like to help out you can make a finacial donation for the event please contact Connor Mcintyre at 843.614.2307. We will also be collecting warm clothes, gloves, blankets, etc between now and the event to give out to he community. If you have any of these items please bring them to Field Day any Saturday between now and the event or on the day of. As you can tell the weather is getting cold at night and your extra blanket collecting dust in a closet may serve as a constant reminder of the love of Christ for some individual.

More information can be found here
Directions to the event can be found here

Posted by Michael Waters

Bringing The Gospel: The Good News- a sneak preview

2009-11-08T16:18:00.000-08:00

You may have seen this in email Form- but we are very proud of this News Letter: The first newsletter produced by an official News Letter Action Sub Team.

Praise God for all you are doing! All for the glory of God. Please share this blog with a friend and comment on anything you are thinking or that can be used to better our community and our world. Check out our web site at ti2ts.org and let us know if you want a full news letter sent to you. We want to thank Mike Waters for his co-service to the Lord and our community- he has been diligent with his time and abilities.
Thanks, Jesse: A servant of the King.

Check out the full News Letter here

Posted by Jesse Williams

Special Halloween Field Day

2009-11-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday we held a special Halloween Field Day for the kids. The goal of the event was to provide a safe environment for the kids to come out in their costumes and trick or treat. The event may have gone off too well. Imagine 40-50 kids on a sugar high and you get the idea. The volunteers and kids alike showed up in costume and had plenty of activities to take part in. We had fishing for prizes as well as the classic boxes marked brains, eyeballs, and guts, of coarse filled with jell-o and grapes. There was face painting and costumes provided for the kids who did not have one of their own. We had treats to go around from pumpkin cookies to Halloween style donuts and of coarse plenty of candy.

The kids were given a safety lesson and safe trick or treating practices like letting your parents look through your candy first and don't eat candy that is already open. Along with the safety lesson was a biblical lesson with jack-o-lanterns. All of the kids got their very own kid size pumpkin and were shown how like making a jack-o-lantern Jesus first removes all the ick or sin from inside of us, then carves us in his image, and finally places the Holy Spirit inside of us to be a light to the rest of the world.

Huge turnout for Neighborhood Fellowship

2009-10-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday was awesome! We had four teams out in the Neighborhood. There were approximately 20 volunteers for Outreach. God provided extra food to give out this week. The volunteers handed out the October Newsletter, as well as a flyer for the Trunk or Treat event next Saturday. It was a blessed day! Our team in particular prayed for a family whose uncle was just diagnosed with Cancer. We also prayed for Ms. Elma who is one of the elderly ladies we love to visit with. We met a young man that is interested in making a change in his life. We shared the opportunities that Take It To The Streets offers to better his education and find employment.

It has been such a blessing to see all the new volunteers come back in awe of what God is doing in the neighborhood. Like the saying goes, "Bless someone, and you will be blessed more." It is true!

Outreach On 10-17

2009-10-17T17:28:00.000-07:00

Today's outreach was packed full of good lessons and good time to fellowship. We had about 30 kids come out thanks to our street team who walked around and told the kids about our filed day. We had a mixture of new and old attendees and the new kids had to get used to who we were and had to adjust their behavior accordingly.

We learned some valuable lessons as volunteers. We have to step up to the plate and begin to mentor the kids who simply need the love of a father figure where one lacking. We ended the filed day early because of a decision by Martha, our field day coordinator. The kids were told to come back next week with better behavior and respect. With this we pose two questions: will you help mentor a kid 2. What ideas can we put together to create community with the adults and parents.

Any thoughts of current environment and possible improvement.

Convoy Of Hope

2009-10-14T10:11:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday Take It To The Streets partnered with 25 other organizations and 75 churches to help host this years Charleston Convoy of Hope. It was a very humbling experience. I literally felt like I was in another world all day as watched over 5000 of my fellow charlestonians come out seeking aid. Volunteers arrived at 7 a.m to start setting up for this all day event. Take It To The Streets worked with Guest Services all day to help those 5000+ people get in to the event in a timely fashion. We handed out water and drinks to people as they were waiting in line in 90 degree weather. Some of our volunteers handed out games to the kids to help keep them in good spirits and walked around blowing bubbles with them. Our volunteers walked around and talked with those waiting in line and helped direct them through the front gates as the received information on all the different offerings Convoy had to offer.

There was a tent for everything. One tent was offering free haircuts and giving hygeine products. Another tent was giving out free shoes and washing the feet of the guests. There was a tent for health services and screening complete with a free chiropratic check up. There was a tent for job services where employers from the low country came to help those in need find employment. There was an incredbible kid zone that was like a mini fair unto itself. The kid zone had jump castles, clowns, face painting, cotton candy, and so much more. There was live entertainment all day from music acts, to poetry readings, and even a wrestling for jesus ring. Perhaps the most important tent of them all was the prayer tent where 3000 bibles were handed out 4,500 people were prayed for and 300 people came to know Christ for the first time. Right now you should be saying Amen as you read this :D If you would like to see more pictures from the event please visit our website at http://ti2ts.org or join us on facebook. If you have special God size moments from Convoy of Hope please share them in the comments section. Couldn't be everywhere at once and it would be nice to hear some of the ways God showed up.

Children Lifting Up Children

2009-10-08T10:08:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday Take It To The Streets finished our teaching series at Field Day on character building words. This week we gave the kids TI2TS bucks (which they get for good behavior and Christ like actions, that can be redeemed for ice cream or other items at the end of each month) that they had to give to someone else. Each kid had to give away his bucks to someone else for being nice or helping out in some way. The response to this was overwhelming. The kids could not say enough good things about their friends. In some cases they got annoyed that we did not have enough time for them to continue praising one another. The looks on their friends faces as they would lift each other up in praise was priceless. It was an amazing thing to witness and see the impact that we are making in the lives of these kids.

The days activities were also a blast as you can see from the pictures. Kevin and Jan Herr organized a relay race for the kids Double Dare style. After the first race there was a resounding cry of "Can We Do It Again" Thanks to Kevin and Jan for organizing last weekends activity from the pictures it is obvious that the kids had a blast. The full set of pictures can be seen on our Facebook page and I will be uploading them to our website soon. This Saturday there will be no Field Day as TI2TS will be supporting Convoy of Hope. More information on that can also be found on our webpage as well as Facebook or by googleing Convoy of Hope Charleston. I look forward to posting multiple stories from this weekends event as well lots of pictures for those who won't be able to make it.

HAPPY Birthday!

2009-09-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

I think we all can remember our favorite birthday as a child. For me it was my seventh birthday and it was at a roller rink. This birthday was extra special not because of any of the gifts (I cant remember one of them) but who was there. All of my friends from the third grade especially my girlfriend Erica. It is the people that make birthdays special and memorable. This weekend Take It To The Streets had the awesome privilege of celebrating Zirons (aka CJ’s) seventh birthday. The “Praise Warriors” got a giant cupcake/football shaped birthday cake along with a card and a few small gifts. Ziron sat down on a folding chair in the middle of a huge circle of volunteers and kids as we all sung Happy Birthday, all he could do was blush. Immediately after that we opened the card and I got the opportunity to read it to the group (see expression in picture). In the picture you are not seeing a child’s expression of how cool his present is but how much he values the love of his family and friends “priceless”. This picture is incredibly important to me and let me tell you why. Earlier in the week, Thursday to be exact I got a chance to meet up with Ziron and his family. Thursday was Ziron’s official Birthday and his family was going through some really difficult financial problems. I knew that Ziron’s family was not able to throw a Birthday Party or even celebrate this glorious day, at that moment is when I remembered my seventh birthday party (the one at the roller rink). This picture is “priceless” and a testimony to Gods love poured out to his child through our “Praise Warriors”, I believe Jesus was smiling just as big at that moment.

Connor