Category: Mission News

Really beautiful photo of an original window at Gospel Mission Church in Cincinnati. We are always finding really cool cross and crown imagery.

This morning as we loaded up the food, we wondered how we were going to make each box full. This is the week we receive our food shipment from the Food Bank so we are nearing the end of our supplies. Tony, one of our volunteers, buys frozen meats once a month and delivers them to the mission. Unannounced, Tony showed up this morning just in time. Amazing how God works!

The first of our Rebuilding The Walls houses is complete. Thank you to all those who have donated time and money to make this dream a reality!

The house has a spacious layout with 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, kitchen, laundry/mud room, and living room.

Our second house on 8th street should be completed in time for a family to move into by Christmas!

We are excited to get to participate in the CCDA Conference this year. Learning from the leaders of this association has deeply shaped our philosophy of  ministry, specifically the Rebuilding The Walls program. We have been encouraged to not only invest spiritually into people, but to invest in the redevelopment of our community. We look forward to being inspired to continue creatively engaging our neighborhood through service and prayer.

Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

Isaiah 58

Read more about CCDA

We will be working at 1500 Nw 9th Street today.

The following messages on each of these note cards have been collected over the last year and a half or so from one of my favorite friends downtown. His name is Michael and until recently he was homeless. Michael was an all-state football player (an alternate to Oklahoma’s own J.C. Watts) at Star Spencer high school and briefly attended college at Arkansas Pine Bluff.Michael now lives in a home where he pays rent to a few others in exchange for a room. Michael is an interesting man…..

To read more click link “Who Needs J. C. Watts” on Luke’s blog to the right.

The second of the Rebuilding The Walls houses is ready for paint on the inside.

October Blitz!

Cross & Crown Mission’s Rebuilding the Walls (inspired from Isaiah 58)
program is almost ready to hand over the keys to a “new” home to our
first family. Thanks to your donations, prayers and support – the
remodeling is almost complete for a house on NW 9th Street. What we
need now is to fill the home with furniture, household goods and love.
A blitz is scheduled (beginning October 6) to furnish the house and
also to work on other houses in the neighborhood (drywall, painting,
etc). Contact Paul for more information at pswhitmire@hotmail.com.

Oakland is a black man in his early fifties. He’s rough. He’s honest. He’s funny. He’s intimidating. He’s an alcoholic. He played college football at Langston. He was drafted by the Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders. Upon being drafted he was visited by Fred Biletnikoff, a former Raiders player, and given a large sum of money (Oakland claims it was $25,000). Once he flew out to California he partied, drank and wasted his money away. He never reported to training camp. Oakland is homeless and he’s always late to sign in at Cross and Crown for food.

A couple of years ago I got into it with Oakland at the front door when I told him he was too late to get food for the day. I repetitively attempted to explain to him how it would be unfair for me to allow him to get food at 1:00 in the afternoon when 50 other people had been waiting in line at 9:00 in the morning to sign up for food and another 3-5 people arrived at 9:15 or so only to find out they were too late. So, how did he see it fit for him to get food and not all those other people that had been waiting several hours before him in the cold? It didn’t matter. He was determined to get food that day (shoot, if i was in his position I probably wouldn’t take no for an answer either). After several minutes of failing to get my point across Oakland and I came to an agreement and worked out a plan.

Ever since this instance Oakland and I have been on good terms. Nowadays any day Oakland comes we talk basketball. Oakland is a big Celtics fan (go figure, in all honesty though he was fan well before KG, Ray and Pierce). He is a Kobe hater, so I’m in good company. He always asks me about my basketball playing and how my games have been going. He tells me I look like Jeff Hornacek ( http://www.nba.com/media/history/jazz_hornacek_240.jpg) . I promise him I don’t play like him. He calls everyone at the mission his kinfolk and says we’re the only family he’s got.

Luke

What a wonderful way to start back. We were expecting maybe a few who would brave the rain, but shocked to see our whole family back!

As if it couldn’t get any better, one of our friends, Alan, came up and gave his testimony including the singing of a powerful song.