A few pics from Block party

Picture #1 Beautiful babies playing in the moon bounce!
Picture #2 Sidewalk chalk is always a hit!
Pictures #3 Harry plays happily with Leggos
Picture #4 Cha-Cha slide always gets our party started!
Pictures #5 The Food Czar (known as www.shaunbwilson.com) did an amazing job with food coordinating!

Does Anybody Hear Her...

I was sitting in my office tonight talking with Ms. Roxanne about Amanda, and this song popped in my head, this song has several different meanings, but it made think of Amanda, could anyone hear her? Could anyone see what she needed, was there something that we could have done differently? I can't stop thinking about how much her life meant to so many people, while others turned there noses up at her, I can't stop thinking about how to all of us she was a beautiful person whose life got cut short.

I ask that your prayers be with us this weekend as we celebrate the life of someone beautiful!


She is running
A hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction
She is trying
But the canyon's ever widening
In the depths of her cold heart
So she sets out on another misadventure just to find
She's another two years older
And she's three more steps behind

Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?
Or does anybody even knows she's going down today
Under the shadow of our steeple
With all the lost and lonely people
Searching for the hope that's tucked away in you and me
Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?

She is yearning
For shelter and affection
That she never found at home
She is searching
For a hero to ride in
To ride in and save the day
And in walks her prince charming
And he knows just what to say
Momentary lapse of reason
And she gives herself away

Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?
Or does anybody even knows she's going down today
Under the shadow of our steeple
With all the lost and lonely people
Searching for the hope that's tucked away in you and me
Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?

If judgement looms under every steeple
If lofty glances from lofty people
Can't see past her scarlet letter
And we never even met her

If judgement looms under every steeple
If lofty glances from lofty people
Can't see past her scarlet letter
And we never even met her

Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?
Or does anybody even knows she's going down today
Under the shadow of our steeple
With all the lost and lonely people
Searching for the hope that's tucked away in you and me
Does anybody hear her? Can anybody see?

He is running a hundred miles an hour in the wrong direction.

Block Party, Post Block Party and Prayers`

Wow, I don't even know where to begin this blog, the block party was amazing, however the events following it, have broken my heart along with many others that serve with me at Charm City. This past weekend will be one I will not forget for a long time, for many reasons some sad, some super exciting and some just because this weekend rocked my world in ways I may NEVER be able to explain!

On Friday our missions team from Carpenters Church in Pennsylvania joined us and humbled themselves at the door and served us to the maximum, thanks to them we now have all of the classrooms in the down stairs in working order, they also fixed a toilet, helped us flier the neighborhood with Block Party Fliers and rocked people's world in the neighborhood in the process. Saturday they helped us pull off the block party, which was more amazing than I could have ever imagined. It didn't stop there though, these kids worked their hearts out helping to set up, execute and clean up the block party, then they went to Fell's Point and loved on some our homeless friends, came back helped clean up the church and then in the morning they helped us pull off our Sunday morning service, by rocking us with some amazing worship.

God used these youth in ways they don't even know this weekend, they changed lives with their actions, their smiles and their humble hearts. I can only pray that they all went home changed in one way or another. This morning their pastor returned to set up our sound system for us, I know in my heart this is a relationship that will continue to grow and hopefully we can continue to partner for upcoming events and projects.

The Block Party, wow is all I can say, once again in the end I stood back and thought to myself wow, God used US to pull this off. There were some things we did differently this year, that I really liked including having a Baltimore Free Store Free Market, renting a Block Party Trailer and no stage. Somethings we didn't do this year, I think would have worked out better, but all in all it was a HUGE success. The crazy thing is, that it appears we served more people this year than last and that just down the street while there was a Muslim outreach event happening, while we were having a rockin' party for Jesus!

Somethings that stick out the most to me from the event 8 people got saved that day, I am still getting emails from people who served with us, telling me awesome stories about people that they met and connected with. I met "K" this man who really desires to be delivered from this neighborhood and this lifestyle, as he stood with tears streaming down his face telling us about his life of being broken and battered, I had to hold back my tears. Looking across the lot and seeing the cha-cha slide being danced by everyone, white, black, young, old...it was such a bonding moment, and one that I prayed for. I can't stop thinking about the whole day, images pop into my head and I just think to myself, wow did that REALLY happen...or wow that was awesome...or wow I am so happy we did things this way this year.

One thing that will forever be etched in my mind, is the hug and the prayer I shared with Amanda...knowing that I will never see her again, that we'll never hear here call Pastor Mike her Pasker or that we'll probably never ever see Arianna, Alicia or Josh, or that I won't wave to her on the corner of Payson and Wilkens. It was a complete and total God thing that Amanda was at the Block Party on Saturday and that most of us who've formed a relationship with her, got to lay our hands on her, whether it was a hug or a prayer, we all shared some form of communication with her that day.

Fast forward to Sunday morning, there was an unidentified body found in S.W. Baltimore that morning, the person had been brutally murdered...it turns out this body that had been beaten an left for dead on the corner was our dear friend Amanda, someone we all loved, someone we all prayed for and with, someone that we loved despite the choices she made, despite the fact that sometimes she didn't love us back. She let the streets get the best of her, she made decisions that put her in a compromising position and someone took advantage of that and now she's gone from us.

From the second the Block Party trailer was packed up until the current second I sit here writing this, Satan has been busy in our body, first two vans, same night, within an hour of each other break down, second Bruce gets extremely ill and ends up having his appendix removed, third Amanda is found dead, one of us experience severe personal attacks from Satan, one of us it beaten down so bad it's hard to get back up...and the list goes on and on...so right now I am begging you to lift our little family up in prayer, pray for Satan's hands to be bound in our work and our lives, pray for lives to be changed because of Amanda's death, pray for miracles to happen. We lift up our new Block Party friends and old ones as well.

I cannot begin to Thank all of you for your support whether it through serving with us, donations, prayer or just a thought about the block party. I hope that your lives were rocked just as much as ours were!

Thanks!

<3 and prayers friends!

Amazing! Amazing! Amazing!

So today was AMAZING! Tuckers missions team arrived today and WOW are they amazing! They have worked their little hearts out today, they set up not one, not two but THREE classrooms, working classrooms something we've been praying about for a LONG time, and we just haven't had the time to do, the clothes closet which if you've EVER been to Charm City you've seen it, is organized and you can see the floor, the girls got all of the stuff ready for the Block Party and now, well we're going to bed five hours earlier than last year!

I can't believe in less than 12 hours we're pullin' this off :)! It's going to be great! Keep an eye out for pictures and stuff :)!

Pray for tomorrow if you think about it :)!

The Block Party and other Random stories

I just realized it's been officially two weeks since I've updated, for that I apologize I have been completely consumed in planning the 2nd Annual Metro Kidz Community Block Party! It's happening this weekend at Charm City from 11 a.m.-4 p.m.! Everyone is welcome! They'll be carnival games, a moonbounce, clowns, A Baltimore Free Store, Free Market and Free Food! We hope you'll join us!

So many exciting things are happening in my Charm City world, this week we send two of our high school girls off to college for the summer, they and I are very excited about this. They'll be living on the campus of Towson and UMBC this summer, while taking college classes and having the opportunity to live outside of their environment. I am not only so proud of them, but so happy that they'll have the opportunity to see what awaits them out there! So please keep "C" and "S" in your prayers this summer. Pray for their relationship with God, that while they are away from us it will still continue to grow, pray for them to see what's out there, that there is a whole world of amazing opportunities that awaits them outside of this neighborhood.

So as I was driving into the neighborhood for church on Sunday, I couldn't help but let a couple of tears roll down my cheek, I watched three very beautiful (to me) women get into three different cars and well it doesn't take much to figure out for what. I wanted so badly to pull my car over, ask them what they needed and drag them away with me. It breaks my heart to watch this happen. As I continued to drive I watched deal after deal take place...and my favorite boys were out of my favorite corner. The funny thing is though since our "run-in" those dealers leave when my car pulls up and don't return usually until after I am gone.

There hasn't been much else going on! But please keep praying with us for workers, we've decided we need about 10-15 more people to be able to break our groups down even smaller, also please keep praying for finances, and finally for patience for all of us.

Thanks friends! Hope to see some of you on Saturday!

"K"

Wow, so I can't even begin to describe how I am feeling tonight, God used me in a way I don't think I was quite prepared for tonight, however it happened and I walked away feeling like a different person, in a way I can't explain, like I felt like my life has been forever changed. So tonight I went to Subway before prayer, to get out of the building and eat before I took some medicine, well I ordered my salad, and sat down pulled out my bible and started reading, all of a sudden I heard, "Excuse me ma'am can I sit with you," when I looked up I saw who I later learned was "K", he said he saw me reading my bible and thought I could pray with him. He told me he's 18 about be 19 and he's a dealer, he started weeping, telling me he wanted out, but he's fearful for his life. He told me that his mom is a "church lady" like me and she's been begging him for years to go to church, and he wants too...but he feels his mom has given up hope on him. He also told me wanted to graduate high school this year, but he got too involved and lost interest in school, so he's hoping to take classes this summer and finish by winter. By the time he finished telling his story he was weeping, begging for prayer, he wanted prayer for hope, for his future and for guidance of a positive male figure. It wasn't until after this boy poured his heart out to me that he said, "Umm...so what are YOU doing in a neighborhood like this?" I got to share my story with him, tell him about Charm City and invited him to Metro Kidz, not sure if he'll actually come, but I told him he'd be more than welcome!

I left Subway with a smile in my heart, I felt relieved that because I had a bible sitting on the table someone felt like they could talk to me. I spent my time in prayer meeting tonight praying for this boy, for hope, for his life, for his future, for God to do a mighty work in him, for a strong positive male influence and for God to use him among his drug dealing peers. I also spent time thanking God for using me in a way I never dreamed, for allowing me to be approachable and for giving me the words to calm this poor, broken heart.

Also one other thing you can join us in prayer for tonight:

Bruce's Family, his grandfather is dying and we're praying for a miracle to be done in Bruce's Family

Putt-Putt, Fusion and 16 Double Cheeseburgers!

This weekend has been such an exciting one with our kids, it provided new experiences for a lot of them along with amazing teaching opportunities. Saturday we were supposed to take our kids to Halethorpe to play in the gym, but it didn't work out because they were having an event, so we instead decided to take the kids to play Putt-Putt, taking a bunch of city kids who've never been putt-putt'ng before was pretty much amazing. Not just because they were so excited to be there, but also because it was so much fun to listen to them work together on teams, to cheer each other on, to be excited and to laugh and laugh.

A couple of highlights from that outing include, seeing the kids play with worms and get all squirmy when someone caught a fish and let them hold it :)! Another funny thing was these kids don't get to see many goose or ducks running around in the city...so you can imagine how excited they were when a flock of geese and a few ducks were hanging around...off they went chasing them....

After putt-putt the we crashed the Newell's house they were such good sports for running at the last minute to the store to buy hotdogs and making nearly 60 on the grill for us to polish off before heading home, it was such a great relaxing night for us/the kids!

It's nights like Saturday that make my job worth it, to see how the little things that I and my friends take for granted make my kids so happy...to hear them say how much fun they had at the end of the night and thank us...ah!

Last night we had the opportunity to take some of our kids to Fusion, it was such a great night for the teens, I heard some really positive feedback, not only that I think it was good that Fusion had the chance to experience them. We stayed and had dinner with them at Food and Fellowship and people loved on them...and the drummer (I don't know the name of last nights drummer) made one of my kids SO excited when he let him have the drumsticks he played with last night.

But the best night of all was tonight...so we went to the city and the kids were so excited...there were about eight of them in the backseat of my car within five seconds, because apparently that were all the cool kids hang out. They really wanted us to take them to get food, so I decided we should, so that began our search for food, we ended up at the Mcdonald's close to the church, which the staff there was amazing, all in all we ordered 16 double cheeseburgers and 16 orders of french fries, and we feed 16 kids tonight! But while we were counting T piped up and said that we should count some of the kids because they don't love God, I didn't really reply to him, I just kept on...three more times he said this to us, and finally we were able to have this amazing teaching moment with him. Explaining about how them not loving God was more of a reason for us to love them, and how we should all love like Christ. I pointed out that there were people who loved him before he loved Christ, examples being Ms. Karen, Pastor Mike, Mr. Bruce etc. and he totally got it...and was even excited about it....

Then there's N.P. he's someone who's a leader in the making and has a heart as big as Texas, but sometimes he doesn't use his brain...so tonight we had a couple of amazing teaching moments with him, one included treating girls/women not as sexual objects, but as the beautiful women that God created them to be, the other was a lesson in manners, when someone does something special or nice for you, you should thank them for it. Again, it's nights like these that make all of the pain, hard exhausting nights and moments when I question this all worth it.

I told Ms. Crystal tonight as we were pulling away for these kids who we spent time with tonight are the ones we see most often, and they are finally reaching a point with us of trust and of love, they can see that we're not going to let them down and that we love them and it's okay for them to love us back, which for some of them that's such a foreign concept, they can't really grasp.

So normally before I end I have some prayer requests, but tonight I have such a huge praise report and then a prayer...two of my girls Cierra and Sarah are speaking tomorrow night at Hopkins, about their success stories, where they've come from and where they want to go in life, these girls are AMAZING, they both are going to spend almost the entire summer living on college campuses, taking classes and continuing to succeed and excel. Word on the street is tomorrow night they might possibly be presented with scholarships.

I beg you as my friends to pray for these girls, thank God in their honor for the opportunities He continues to provide them with, thank Him for making them see that there is something more out their for them, ask Him to continue to allow these girls to glorify them through these opportunities, and beg Him to provide opportunities for these girls to share their story.

Thank you friends!

Excuse me miss...

Tuesday afternooon, I got out of my car and headed down Lemmon St. to talk to some of my kids who were playing basketball, when all of a sudden I heard "Undercovers" and the people on that street fled, like it was their job! At first I was a little confused as to what exactly was going on, and then I heard, "Excuse me miss, rumor on the street is your an undercover police officer, you're always hanging around here, so what exactly is it that you're looking for?" I looked at this kid like he had three heads and replied, "Me undercover and then laughed, and quickly explained that I worked at that church (and pointed over to Charm City)." He didn't believe me at first and I felt like I had to convince him I wasn't lying. As I walked across the street to my office, I laughed out loud to myself and thought me undercover yeah right :)! I wasn't sure if I should be honored that they thought I held such a high title or scared that they didn't believe me that I wasn't.

Tuesday evening we met for prayer, just as we do every Tuesday night and then we hit the streets for visitation and prayer, we walked over to Hollins St. and pastor Mike embarked on a group of kids who've got my heart, I love these kids, I don't really know them other than I know that they are the young hustlers on the corner. A few of them used to hustle against the church, but I think they got tired of me making conversation with them and inviting them to Metro Kidz because it hasn't been happening as frequently. But these particular kids are the ones who act so tough when you tell them about Metro Kidz and invite them. One kid even went so far as to rip up the paper Pastor Mike gave him with the church information on it and using a few choice words to express his anger with being looked at, let alone talked too. This particular child steals my heart every time he walks past the church, I just want to run after him and tell him how much we love him and his buddies, how they should come and hang out with us and find something that so much more fulfilling than the lifestyle they currently lead, I can only pray that one day God will send me the words to say to them, to share His love with them.

At the end of those nights, I always come home on an emotional high, I love being out in our neighborhood, meeting our neighbors and making them aware of whats going, sharing Gods love and allowing his presence to be felt. I love the opportunity to pray with people who are some what leery of us in the beginning, but end up talking to us for a lot longer than they actually expected. On this particular night we had the opportunity to pray with a few people who had sincere requests and really need God to intervene in their life.

The kids were wound for sound last night, nights like that we seriously have to walk away and ask God why, why he's put us there. Nights like that we sometimes find it hard to love the kids who are walking all over us and disrespecting us, but God reminds us of the Grace and Mercy He has on us and that makes it easier to have that Grace and Mercy on the kids. I have to do three home visits on Monday, none of which I am excited about, these three girls will have to be out for a week and have to apologize to one our volunteers, I can only hope that they'll be able to put their pride aside, understand that they are in the wrong and apologize.

On a more positive note, Tucker Hibbs (www.tuckerhibbs.com) visited us last night from Pennsylvania, we met him via Tally Wilgis (www.tallywilgis.com) who paid us a visit a few months ago. Tucker is planning to bring a team down this summer the weekend of the block party, they will be staying with us the entire weekend at the church :)! I was so excited to meet him, and when he left was even more excited to be able to serve alongside him and his team this summer. He is so excited, so on fire for Jesus and so full of energy. God is really blessing us with some amazing partners...I pray that their experiences serving with us in the city, will be just as exciting and rewarding for them as it for us.

So to close out here are a few prayers requests:

Pastor Mike, 10 a.m. Friday morning he has an important meeting about finances for the church, we're still praying for a miracle so that we can secure our building and continuing to reach our neighborhood.

For N.P. I'm still have dreams about him and last night he was kind of in a mood and left in a tizzy. I just pray for protection over him.

For N.C. she is 20 and has two children age 1 and 3 and I know she got herself into this situation, but I know it's hard for her, I pray for love from an older Christian woman to be a good example in her life, I pray for guidance and wisdom on how to raise her children and for protection for her family.

Thanks friends!

Angels, Light Company and Drugs

So it's true that angels really do exist, on Sunday one of our kids, rode his bike to church and parked it in the lobby, while we were having a church service someone walked in and stole it, this kid was heart broken. Several people drove through the neighborhood trying to help him find his bike, and there was no luck. The very next day I receive an email from someone asking me where this child lives as God had blessed them with something for this child. These angels delivered this child a brand new bike. Last night as I was leaving Metro Kidz I saw this child and he was so happy about his new bicycle and raved about his angels and how awesome they were, and how he didn't think he was going to get a new bike, and how sad he was. He was honest and real with me, he made tears well up in my eyes, because the conversation I had with him last night made me realize just how "innocent" he really is. I love all of my kids, but this particular child pulls at my heart just a little bit more, even when he's telling me that this is the worst church in the city and he's never coming back...I just have to smile and think to myself yes he is, because he knows that he is loved, and he craves that.

Speaking of innocent children, yesterday as Nicole and I were pulling into Metro Kidz we went down my favorite street (Hollins St.) I want to do an outreach specifically to that block, because the corner of Payson and Hollins is a very high drug traffic street. Yesterday I watched a baby, a child I just met two weeks ago at the Spring Fling, who is at the most eight years old buy drugs, I watched the entire transaction take place. I feel so helpless in situations like that...what do I do, what do I say...if anything at all? I drove away, praying in my head for this child, asking him to be delivered from these circumstances...he's so young, who knows if he was buying the drugs for himself, a friend, a relative it doesn't matter, it makes me sick to think about it...these are babies...

Literally an hour later, I went outside to sweep up the mounds of glass that were lining the Payson St. sidewalk and I saw my buddy "Na" hanging out with some of his friends on the steps next to the church, within the 20 minutes that were outside, I watched two drug deals take place, involving "Na" and his buddies, one of them was not discreet at all and they were doing their hustling right against the building.

It was so hard for me not to run after "Na" and scream he's mine, Satan let him go...these kids some of them are bound by Satan, they need to be delivered and caught...we as servants in this neighborhood, need to be ready to catch them...

On a more positive note, last night Light Company the middle school ministry at Grace, came and rocked Metro Kidz (literally) the ceilings were shaking up and downstairs. It was pretty much a condensed version of a Sunday morning at Light Company and it was amazing! One of the girls "S" that I took with me on the Light Company retreat a few months ago, accepted Christ last night, and Andrea, Shaun and I got to pray with her. It was such an amazing experience. I watched cultural barriers be broke down in a way last night, that I will never ever forget. The Light Company kids were so excited to be there and it was evident in their actions, our kids (most of them) were excited for them to be there, they joined them in worship (a few of them might be recruited to start our own worship team) and sat quietly (which sometimes doesn't happen often) for Shaun's talk and actively participated. I can only hope this is the beginning of a great relationship and nights like last night happen more often.

So tomorrow (Friday May 9th) marks my one year Metro Kidz anniversary, it was one year ago tomorrow that I walked through that door on 2001 Frederick Ave. and my heart was stolen forever. So much has happened in the past year, it makes me excited, giddy and a little sad as I scroll some of the events through my head, but it's been an amazing year, one that's changed my life and one I wouldn't change for the world.

So before I end a few prayer requests:

Finances, so we can purchase our building and it'll be ours!
Relationships, ones that are being restored, some that are beginning and the ones that are continuous.
N.P. he's the kid I wrote about last time, for his safety
For laborers, we still need a few more people in place


thanks friends!

And the Chaos Continues...upcoming events and some specific prayers

As the days go by the chaos continues, it feels like we're all in a bad dream and can't wake up, my heart aches, my heart got broken yet again, I can't seem to stop the tears tonight, it's very rare when this happens, but it just feels like every act of violence that's happened in the last few weeks we've been connected too somehow, and my heart has that very real feeling of how much longer are we going to be "lucky," how much longer is it going to be before we're really affected, until this is one of our kids?

The gangs and the drugs are on the rise in our neighborhood, you can just feel it. I've been approached several times in the past few weeks, and each time a young man has offered to sell me drugs. One of those times I was in my car with my window down and a young man came up to my window, and said "What can I get for you today." It makes me sad, everyday I pray about walking up to these kids and trying to form a relationship with them, I really desire to learn more about them and how they can be helped? I pray everyday for the right words to say to them...I really hope that God gives me some words/wisdom soon...

I've had a really burdened heart lately for these kids who are involved in the gangs, violence, drug hustling etc. that's happening in our neighborhood, but I've had a separate burden for one of my kids specifically. In fact I fear for his life, I've had some pretty scary nightmares about him. One night I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep, so I just spent serious time in prayer for this kid. I don't want to disclose his name, but please pray for "N.P."

On a happier note, there are some pretty special things about to happen at Metro Kidz, all of which are going to rock our kids and community to the core. I am super excited about each and everyone of them. The first one happens on June 21st, it'll be our second Annual School's Out Block Party, I am hoping that this years will be just as amazing or better than last years! If you're interested in helping this year (please check out www.metrokidzbaltimore.org) for some specific needs.

The second event is going to take place on June 28th the event doesn't really have a name yet :) but it's going to be a day of fun and pampering for our girls and hopefully some girls from Urban Outreach (UO) in D.C., hopefully we'll have an amazing woman coming to talk to the girls about being God's princesses, I have a few friends who are coming to do hair and makeup and at the end of the day we'll serve them a nice meal. This is probably one of the most exciting things to plan :)!

The third, doesn't have a date yet and is not 100% official yet, but God has really placed this on my heart and I just have to figure out the best/safest way to pull this off, I want to hold an Midnight Lot Party, I want to open the gate from 11:15-11:45 p.m. and let kids in off the streets into the lot, then I would like to have the gate closed and manned from Midnight until 2 a.m., I would love for it to be a safe place for the kids to come, play volleyball/basketball, eat some snacks and hang out. That's the time when some of the places surrounding the church are beginning to hop, and if this is successful I would love to make it a "regular" event.

So before I end...I have some specific prayers:

For laborers...we need just a few more people to make our team complete

For Unity we need to make sure we're unified as a team all on the same page and all in this together for the right reasons

For "N.P." for his life, for his future, for his family and most importantly his safety

And finally a personal request:
Is for my trip to California for UYWI to really be a reality...it'll be such a GREAT learning experience for me as well as a time to reload and recharge my battery!

Alright friends, thanks for reading, praying and being involved!