Author: mission staff

Many Americans don’t really know much about Cinco de Mayo, me included. Most falsely believe it is Mexico’s Independence Day. No so. It is actually Mexico’s dependence day. Basically, it is a day to celebrate Mexico’s thwarting of a French invasion by the joining of forces from many Mexican states, including help from the United States. click here for more on Cinco de Mayo

Through this interdependence came freedom. Great lesson to remember. So today we celebrated our dependence and blending of two different cultures that we have come to call Cross And Crown Mission. We listened to ladies sing the Mexican anthem, ate pizza, drank margaritas (unleaded!), and visited with each other for hours. We think a pretty beautiful picture of unity.

Ron

Just as the seasons are changing outside, the seasons are changing inside the mission. Next Sunday night, April 25th, will be our last worship night of the season. Many of our volunteers begin to be busy with their kid’s track, baseball, prom, and many other activities that make it difficult for groups to provide meals without feeling a little stressed.

To honor the year-long commitment each group has made, we like to provide a season of rest. God instituted a time of rest and called it Sabbath. He intended that we would take a time away from work and reflect on Him in worship. Out of this rest we are to begin the week. We are designed to work out of rest.

We are honoring this principle by giving our volunteers a time of rest. Our Sunday night worship will begin again in September.

AA meeting will still meet at noon.

We are excited about Northchurch coming to help out one of our neighbors. Due to lack of resources, our friend needs to clean trash and build a fence around his property to comply with city ordinances. North Church will not only be building a fence on Saturday, but will have opportunity to build a lasting friendship.

Sharefest OKC 2010 Promo from Rex Barrett on Vimeo.

We are excited to host the city-wide networking luncheon this Tuesday. Below are details from Ben Nockels, Cornerstone Assistance Network Director:

“We believe that Oklahoma City can be transformed by the Son of God, the Spirit of God, and the People of God. We are committed to encourage and challenge the Church to remember its mission to meet the needs of the community. Our role is to network and mobilize the Church to strategically partner together on behalf of the poor and forgotten among us.

A wonderful relational network is forming. I am excited by the prospect of strengthening this community of churches and kingdom leaders to make Oklahoma City a better place to live for all people in Jesus’ name.
We will be facilitating a monthly networking lunch on the first Tuesday of every month. We simply want to be consistent in creating space for friendships to take shape and partnerships to be strengthened.

We will be gathering for lunch at Cross & Crown Mission located at 1008 N. McKinley Ave – OKC, OK 73106 on Tuesday, March 2nd from 11:45am to 1:00pm.

The story of Cross & Crown Mission is the story of eight people in a small group surrounding a couple who were being called to the urban core of our City. Since 2001, Cross & Crown has been committed “To Proclaim The Love, Mercy and Hope of Jesus Christ through Service and Prayer.”

Ronald Rolheiser in his book The Holy Longing says, “When we pray through Christ we are praying through the body of Christ, which then includes Jesus, Communion, and the body of believers here on earth. Thus, not only God in Heaven is being petitioned and asked to act. We are also charging ourselves, as part of the Body of Christ, with some responsibility for answering the prayer. To pray as a Christian demands concrete involvement in trying to bring about what is pleaded for in the prayer.”

Please mark your calendars and make plans to participate with us on Tuesday, March 2nd. Reply to this email with the total number attending so that adequate food preparations can be made.”

For The Good of The City,
Ben Nockels

A young man named “Brian” has been hanging out with us at Cross and Crown as of late. Brian is younger then most of the men we see in his situation. Most of the men that live a life similar to Brian’s, or that we are in relationship with, tend to be in their 40’s and 50’s. Brian is 23.

Personally, this is the first time I have been in relationship with someone, other than a jr. high or high school student, that has come seeking guidance, help and direction and has been younger than myself. This means two things: I am getting old (currently 26) and Brian is way too young to be in the situation that he is in.

I say that Brian is too young to be in the situation that he is in, but on the other hand, he shares the same struggle that countless other young men and women his age struggle with on a daily basis. He struggles with alcohol, he admits. He says that he got caught up with the wrong crowd early on and didn’t do much in school. He jumped schools a few times and ended up dropping out. Rich, poor and somewhere in the middle families each have their fair share of children that battle addictions but fail to address these issues head on. I can’t be sure of it, but Brian’s family appears to have addressed it head on.

Brian is homeless. He, unlike many of the older individuals who struggle with addictions, talks to his family relatively often. He stays at the Salvation Army most nights, he tells me, and he has acquired a locker at the Municipal gym as a place to keep his few possessions. He is very like-able. He is pretty quiet. He’s a kid.

He should be a senior in college or have just graduated. But he’s not. He is on the streets. He made adult decisions while he was still a kid and now, daily, he deals with the consequences.

I think that’s what scares me most. He is 3…4…5 years older than a lot of the kids I work with on a daily basis. Just thinking about some of the boys we have in our Rock Island group now and comparing tendencies they have to past mistakes Brian has made scares me.

I have hope for Brian. Honestly, a much greater hope for him than I do for a lot of the older men with his same problem. Is my increased hope for Brian fair? Maybe not. I guess it’s his youthfulness (which I get a glimpse of when he plays video games after hours with us). Maybe it’s because every time I am with Brian he is sober. He is able to suppress, to some extent, his addiction for certain amounts of time. Maybe it’s because I know there is some Biblical/spiritual foundation instilled in him from his family who I met last week.

Maybe it’s these things along with my belief in God’s power to restore life to brokenness that gives me hope.

“The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and it it to the full” – Jesus

Luke