Rather than adopting families for Christmas as we have done in the past, we are collecting new coats, gloves, heavy socks, boots, hats, blankets, and scarves for children and adults.We also need electric heaters.

*Children all sizes

* Adult XL and XXL sizes only (for layering)

Drop-off at Cross and Crown from now until Friday, December 16th.  Items can also be dropped off after Christmas break for the remainder of the winter season. Thank you, as always, for your generosity that keeps our neighbors warm during the cold and harsh elements of winter.

At Rock Island the same holds true. Ron and I both realize our responsibility with the youth of this neighborhood is not only in leading, advising and mentoring them but also to help them realize their potential in future leadership roles as we do our best to develop their passions and skills in ways that empower themselves and the people of THEIR neighborhood.

Bottom line: The future of Cross & Crown and Rock Island lies in the hands of the people of this neighborhood.

(the following has been done with permission and request (might I add, several requests) of Darvin)

Exhibit A: aka, Darvin

When we first meet Darvin 8 years ago he was just a wee lad at the age of 7. He was quiet, curious and sharp. Not much has changed for Darvin except that now he is starting to spread his social butterfly wings and is quite the conversationalist. He is still very sharp and is one of the more academically advanced students. (Don’t get a big head, Darvin).

Over the course of our 8 year friendship with Darvin we have had plenty of opportunities to see him grow and mature in just about every aspect of his life. With the exception of one or two summer breaks Darvin has made an effort to come be apart of whatever is going on at Rock Island 2-3 times a week for almost 9 years!

Recently, Darvin has shown an interest in being apart of a fundraising experiment Ron and I started to dabble in a couple years ago. With the permission of those donating, we began posting items, such as, furniture and electronics on websites such as Craigslist and Ebay. Any sales made from these postings went directly into the “Rebuilding the Walls” program.

After much deliberation and planning we worked it out so that Darvin could take as much ownership in this venture as he wanted. Because he is of working age and we didn’t want for him to have to choose between making money by getting a “real” job over choosing to hang out with two incredibly awesome, fun, hilarious, thought-provoking men (Ron and I) we decided to forge the two.

Now, Darvin works when he wants by helping pickup donations (when he can), taking all the pictures, uploading the pictures, describing the items and posting the ads online so that others can purchase them. He has seen reasonable success and now get’s to make a little extra change (10% of whatever he sells) while also contributing to the betterment of his very own neighborhood. Not to mention, this, also, allows for him to continue spending some quality time with the two incredible men I mentioned earlier.

The way we, at Cross & Crown, look at it is that it’s a win/win situation.

Earlier in this post I explained how the future of Cross & Crown and Rock Island is held by the men, women and youth of this neighborhood. We can’t afford to lose young men and woman with the skills, knowledge and ‘can-do’ spirit that Darvin possesses. This little scenario is just one small scale example of how Darvin, even at the ripe age of 15, can begin contributing to the future existence and success of Cross & Crown as we strive to serve the people in this often overlooked area of OKC.

Luke

Beacon Fine Homes

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday I go to a couple of different Walmarts here in the city and pickup food donations. It’s a relatively new experiment for Walmart, in Oklahoma City anyway. It’s pretty simple. Whatever meats, breads, fruits and vegetables the general public wont buy off the shelves anymore are given to us. You know, the soft fruits and meats that are 4-5 days away from ‘expiring’. The foods that we affluent people won’t have anything to do with anymore.

In months and years past this food that goes unbought at stores has been thrown away. Crazy. Perfectly good meat that still has several days until it ‘expires’ is thrown away because most people consider it too close to expiration date.

Well, not anymore. At least not at two locations. This food is now given to us at Cross & Crown in order to distribute throughout the neighborhood. At times it has been overwhelming. Some days we have been given 4-5 pallets of watermelon, nectarines and plums. Other days we have received over 1,500 lbs of frozen meats! Although it has become overwhelming at times the thought of all that food being thrown away three times a week is even more overwhelming. Overwhelming…..and frustrating.

I think if you were to ask the employees at Walmart what they thought about the whole process of donating the food they used to throw away they might tell you they wished they still threw away the food.

Here’s why…

Now there’s a lengthy process. Each department has to scan, organize and account for all their donations. Then the managers have to approve the donations. Then employees have to scan the donations out. It just makes for a lot more work. I get that part. Even though, I’m sure there was some type of process of accounting just throw the food away.

It’s a business. Business’ business is making money. Taking extra time by adding extra work without receiving extra pay isn’t good business. That makes sense, too.

What doesn’t make sense is waste. At least, not to me. I think throwing that extra food away is wasteful. Some don’t.

For instance, Wanye (not his real name). Wayne works at Walmart and is always very helpful when we come to pickup donations. Wayne questions whether or not the donated food being given away for free is helpful or not.

Wayne asked/stated, “Does giving the food away for free not just enable people that aren’t working to keep not working because you guys just give them stuff for free?”

“Shut up, stupid”, I replied to Wayne. Not really.

It seemed like an honest question. Maybe one that he has spent a little time thinking about. Also, maybe a question that he had pretty well decided he knew the answer to but wanted to hear our point of view.

Pops (aka, Paul. aka, my dad) was with me this particular day. The question was directed toward him and so he went on to explain. He explained, like most of us who work at Cross & Crown have had to do from time to time, that the food we give people and families is incomplete. What we supply families with is a supplement.

Families get a box of food with a few cans of green beans, corn, a couple cans of pinto beans, fruit, some pasta noodles, rice and cereal to go along with ‘expired’ meat and borderline, non edible fruit and vegetables. And, they can do this once every two weeks. You think this enables people not to work?

Now, I’m not trying to be rude or sarcastic (because I know it’s tough to tell the difference when you’re just reading and when you can hear someone’s tone in real life). I’m really not. But, that’s just ignorant. According to Dictionary.com ignorant means, “lacking knowledge or information as to a particular subject or fact,” or,”uniformed.”
Therefore, in this particular instance, Wayne is ignorant.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. I’m ignorant in a lot of matters. I’m, probably, ignorant in more areas of life then I’m actually….non-ignorant or wise. It just means he doesn’t know any better or maybe he hasn’t really thought intensely about the matter.

A family of 5 that receives a box of food containing the elements I mentioned earlier might be able to make 2-3 incomplete meals if they were to utilize every item within the box. So, the meals would look like this…

Meal #1 – One can of green beans. One can of corn. One can of pineapples. Half a bag of rice. 1lb of ground beef (half of the meat given to them). One loaf of bread.

Meal #2 – One can of green beans. One can of corn. One can of sliced peaches. Half a bag of rice. 1lb of ground beef (the other half of meat they received). One loaf of French bread.

Meal #3 – One can of pinto beans. Pasta noodles (no sauce). 5 bananas. Lettuce (no dressing, croutons, sunflower seeds, tomatoes, etc. You know, all the good stuff). One bag of glazed muffins.

So there’s three days worth of dinner for a family of five, assuming that they don’t work and just live off of what we give them.

What are some of the first words that come to mind when you read this meal plan for the first couple days of the week for five people?

Tasty?

Filling?

Delectable?

No.
More like…
Incomplete.

Still hungry.

And, really? Bananas with pasta noodles and pinto beans?

You get the idea. People can’t live off of the food we give them but it sure helps. It helps when they can save 7-8 bucks off their bill at the grocery store with the meat we give them. 3-4 dollars worth of bread. 10-15 dollars worth of canned goods. You all have been grocery shopping before. This stuff adds up but in no way would JUST these items be enough to sustain a family of 5 (and in most cases 5+).

So, if you ever have similar thoughts that Wayne had or wonder, “Hmmmm. Isn’t giving people free food just enabling them to be society leeches and not to be contributors?”, come find me at Cross & Crown and I’ll give you a box of food to live off of for 2 weeks. At the end of the two weeks come back and we’ll do it all over again. We’ll see how that works for you.

(Oh, but don’t forget to sign up on the food list at 8:00am, too. Be on time. No special favors : )

One of the reasons we supply food to those in need is to meet physical needs that, for whatever reason, have not and are not being meet. We believe this is important. It’s important because, I think, Jesus thought it was important.

However, meeting physical needs is not our primary objective. Yes, clothes, food, shelter, education etc. are all crucial and necessary. Meeting these needs is critical for both those in need and those with the resources to do so.

It’s no secret…the gospel is our primary objective.

Jesus is our primary objective.

The food, clothes, medical clinic, legal aid, whatever. These are all really great things but, if not for the message of Jesus, are nothing more than a temporary fix.

Food rots. Clothes are outgrown. Health deteriorates. The law, well, we all know how successful that has been lately.

Some people like to think of all the physical ‘goods’ that are offered as a “hook”, if you will. A “hook”, “bait”, call it what you want. I guess those terms are fair since Jesus was in to making people ‘fishers of men’. Whatever people want to call it, I tend to take a somewhat different approach. If meeting people’s needs results in an opportunity to speak directly about Jesus, so be it. If talking directly about Jesus leads to an opportunity to meet someone’s needs, even better.

I think, it is better said like this…
“We don’t feed people to share the gospel. We do it because it is the gospel.” – @hughhollowell

Luke

Come join us on Sunday, 9-11 at 6:00pm as we worship together at the Civic Center.

The Sing 9-11 from Frontline Church on Vimeo.

Last week we had a group from Fort Worth, Texas come help out at Cross & Crown. Like most groups they had a plan. They had been in contact with Ron for some time and were assigned a list of tasks, projects and duties to complete while they were here.

We welcomed them into Oklahoma City on Sunday afternoon and gave them a run-down of Cross & Crown, Rock Island and the neighborhood. They were going to need to be well informed because they planned on staying inside the facilities overnight for the week. They were told the ins and outs of each of the buildings and given an overview of what their week would look like while helping out at the each location.

Each day the group had additional activities for the neighborhood youth following their full schedule of projects throughout the day. Devotionals, times of worship and reflection, small group discussions, meals and games, this group did it all. They came. They saw. They conquered.

The group was tremendous but none of their scheduled, pre-planned projects were what impacted me the most. A scenario came about while their group was here that would not have fully developed had their youth and leaders not been intentionally relational during their time in OKC. Completed projects, devotionals, sleeping in a rough neighborhood in hot, uncomfortable conditions is great and makes for really cool stories when you get home but building a relationship with a neighborhood kid who has little to no family and making a measurable impact in his real life circumstances is what’s really helpful.

If you live in OKC or have school aged children that attend OKCPS you are aware that school started last week. Well, we had a student that just moved back to OKC after living in Michigan for several years. Again, like he did when he was in elementary school, some 6 years ago, he lives with his grandparents who live 4 houses down from Cross & Crown. His mom died when he was barely old enough to remember her. His dad is no where to be found. He has some extended family members who love and care for him but most times are unable to do a whole lot because they have children and families of their own and/or live in different cities.

Moving back to OKC the week before school started wasn’t necessarily the most timely plan but it was, likely, the only plan because of dwindling opportunities in Michigan. So, here we are. The unlikely match of a eager, young man back from Michigan teamed up with a willing, available youth group from Texas.

The group began work early each morning and continued throughout the day until the evening hours. Meanwhile, our Michigan-migrant continued to be truant. His plan with some family members from another city to help him enroll in school didn’t work out so I began piecing together as much information as I could to get him enrolled.

Tracking down immunization records from Michigan, faxes left and right, phone calls to advisers and counselors and a couple trips to the school with grandpa was all apart of the plan. I got the ball rolling on the process but I was quickly finding out that I wasn’t going to be able to juggle this scenario on top of some other things that were going on that week.

In steps the available, observant Texan (I know, hard to imagine that Texans can be helpful). She told me she had been wondering, thinking and praying about this particular student all week. She told me she had talked to him a couple times about being “truant” but was never really confident that he understood the urgency concerning his status.

She had stayed up the night before praying and weeping over this student and his situation. A deceased mother. A non-existent father.

Thursday morning I set aside some responsibilities I had committed to for that morning and got ready to take the young man to enroll at school. As we were loading up to leave the Texan inquired what we were doing. I informed her that we were headed to enroll in school and she communicated an interest in tagging along. Turns out, I was just tagging along.

Quickly after arriving at the school with the young man and his spanish-speaking grandfather the helpful Texan and I noticed the rising anxiousness of the student. We both verbalized some observations we had made and tried our best to relieve as much stress as we could.

Flash-back 10-15 years ago when I was enrolling at school. It was me and mom. Or, it was me and dad. What happened was the two of us would go to school. I would sit there and answer ‘yes’ and ‘no’ when questions were directed at me. Mom would tell me what I needed to do, when I needed to do it. She filled out the paperwork. She answered all the tough questions. She calmed my nerves.

This is when availability meets opportunity…

After being bounced back and forth from a few different people at the school I was quickly coming to realize that my time and place in this scenario was over. I had done my part. My had completed my function in this particular situation. It was time for mom to take over. And, she did. And, it was awesome.

Five hours later, after lots of waiting in lines, talking with counselors and answering questions temporary mom and child had done it. He was now an official OKC student. She hugged, encouraged, taught and loved him. Just like good moms do. Her time was limited in OKC with this student but her investment is timeless.

Thanks, available, willing, observant, relational, mom.

“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many…Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”
– 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27

By Luke Whitmire

After a few tweaks, we’ve created a beginning framework for our fall youth schedule. We are making more space this year to mentor and tutor the kids in smaller settings. If you would like to be involved, please contact us.

Fall 2011 Youth Schedule

Monday-
After School to 5:00pm
Hangout

Tuesday-
8:00am
Breakfast & Bible

Wednesday-
After School to 5:00pm
Mentoring/Life Skills

Sunday-
Begins in September 18th

6:00pm Family Meal
7:00pm Family Worship