CrossRoads Missions Fall' 09

a year in review2009

CrossRoads Missions3231 Ruckriegel Parkway, ste. 111Louisville, KY 40299 (502)713-4859

www.crossroadsmissions.comphotos by John Palmer Greggwww.johnpalmergregg.com

help build hopeOur Help Build Hope team takes joy in our responsibility to mobilize local congregations in a meaningful service projects that bring glory to God. Help Build Hope enables church members to be introduced to Christian service in a relaxed atmosphere. We then challenge the church members to “be the Body of Christ”… meaning to serve, to care, to reach out, in essence to extend the kindness God has extended to us. We often use the Christ’s parable of the Sheep and goats in Matthew 25:31-46. We emphasize verse 40… “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ This simple action of building a wall for a family is actually service to our King. It is our prayer that this message coupled with the action, drives the message home of the importance of being vibrant members of the body of Christ. The wall building project takes place directly on church parking lots. The walls are then donated to partnering organizations like Habitat for Humanity or The Fuller Center for Housing. In the past twelve months we have lead churches from Richmond, VA to Tulsa, OK from Tampa, FL to Chicago, IL and many parts in between. We pray and ask you to pray with us that our small team of two would continue to have the strength, health and tenacity to keep up with this growing segment of the ministry.

It is amazing to chart the growth of this ministry of CrossRoads Missions. Here are the statistics… 2005 - 16 events/churches engaged – 24 sets of walls constructed 2006 (response to Hurricane Katrina year) – 28 events/churches

engaged – 113 sets of walls constructed 2007 – 30 events/churches engaged – 83 sets of walls constructed 2008 – 33 events/churches engaged – 59 sets of walls 2009 – 36 events/ 48+ churches engaged – 73 sets of walls

It is encouraging to see that churches across the country are interested in using this tool to actively involve their members in Kingdom service. As the word spreads regarding this dynamic program, we will need more staff to

keep up with the heightened interest. Please pray for those people to become apparent to us so that we can keep up with the growth God has blessed this ministry to be responsible for. y p

I can only give positive feedback for this program as all of

our experiences have been more than positive and the

staff that we have worked with has been so accommodating

and friendly to work with that it makes the decision to

return each year a snap. One of the best and easiest ways I

can recommend to get your build off to a positive start.

Valorie Williamson, Director of Operations

Habitat for Humanity Hamilton County

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piedras negras

Congrats to Shannon and Emily Wiedeman! Welcome to the CrossRoads family, Shannon!

The Mexico team was confronted with new challenges new to our fi eld which has existed for nearly two decades. The swine fl u virus and the media coverage of Mexico border violence created some hysteria that signifi cantly impacted our participant numbers. However, Piedras Negras was relatively unaffected by either of these problems. In spite of the negative affect these issues caused to our numbers, our team had a tremendous year. We were able to form new relationships and to assist in projects that signifi cantly impacted some of our ministry partners. We also believe that those that were part of this year experienced an opportunity to have their view of the Gospel expanded.

The major focal point this year was our partnership with two local orphanages. The fi nancial crisis has hit these ministries hard. Our groups thoroughly enjoyed constructing block walls at Casa de Paz

and helping to build a boy’s dormitory at Casa de Misericordia. We also continued to develop Piedra Angular as we further establish it as our base of operations. We built more dormitory space, intern housing and created more permanent offi ce space. Crossroads strengthened its relationship to ministry partners by making offi ce space for Hands and Feet Ministries and Mission Trinidad at Piedra Angular. Ramon and Olga Moreno moved into their new home that we fi nished in August. Ramon and Olga continue to direct our outreach programs that focused on the state hospital, the two orphanages and a children’s soup kitchen.

There are also some fun things happening in the lives of our team. We anticipate great things to come with this team and our partnerships this year. The Hatter’s, Jarrett’s and Gina Wells are now all based in Piedras Negras for the next year. Emily is based in Kansas and will continue to coordinate our trips from there. Why is Emily in Kansas? Emily Boone got married on October 3, 2009!

My students look forward to our trip to Piedras Negras with

CrossRoads Missions all year. This trip is a beautiful blend of

work and worship. The point is not for you to get work done,

but to work on your relationship with God while sweating,

laughing, singing, eating and laboring.

The team in Piedras is simply full of people that love God

deeply. They are people who are trying to live out the gospel

and bring the Kingdom of Heaven to a little border town in

Mexico. Your students will thank you for taking them on

this trip. When you’re done, you’ll thank God for what He is

doing through CrossRoads Missions.-Jesse Dukes, Student Pastor

Christ’s Church at Whitewater

Fayetteville, GA

CrossRoads Missions New Orleans team had an exciting year with many new beginnings.

We have two new full time staff in Monte Brenneman and Bruce Dale. Monte, along with

his family, served in Gulfport, Ms. for the past two years in a similar position. Bruce and his family come

from Louisville Ky. Bruce served as project superintendent commercially for several years. God blessed us with two skilled and Christ centered leaders. We have strong team of year long interns in Julie Whiteman, Jeremy Fouche, and Toni Davis. Julie has felt God leading her to stay an additional year which would be a huge blessing to our fi eld. She has an incredible heart for our volunteers and inner city missions. Others have expressed interest in a longer stay and are currently seeking direction. Please be in prayer as these individuals seek God’s will for their lives. Chuck McCoy continues to serve in NOLA and is a big help to the incoming staff (three years plus under his belt in NOLA). This summer we had three summer interns get a great taste of serving with an urban ministry. God has richly blessed the new staff and interns with many opportunities for development and growth. Continue in your prayers for additional long term staffi ng. A vision cast is hard to fulfi ll without strong, dedicated leadership and staffi ng.

By years end, more than 1000 volunteers will have served with us. It is a great pleasure to utilize them to serve the needs of our partners and ultimately the people of NOLA. With their help we have renovated eight homes on all levels from reframing to trim and painting. Two of those houses, one small 800 sq ft and one large double, had extensive reconstruction in partnership with St Roch Community Church. These were ongoing projects through the spring and summer with the completion of the smaller of the two in July. We had a strong partnership with The Gathering, another church plant in St. Bernard Parish, as we played a major role in assisting them in rebuilding a bowling alley they purchased for the purpose of opening a community center. Two different children’s programs were supported with staffi ng needs throughout the summer. Excite All-star program in New Orleans East and a Fun Fridays in Lakeview with Hope Christian Church gave us the joy of serving the youth of NOLA.

Our building in the Desire neighborhood remains unoccupied as we encountered some fi re code issues. We recently received our revised architectural drawings and we are able to move forward on our new New Orleans headquarters. Thank you for your prayers and support for CrossRoads and the NOLA fi eld. Our endeavors would be futile without the prayers and support of His people. We pray a rich blessing on your ministry and ask for God to lead us all in furthering His kingdom.

I had the opportunity to take 23 students from the University of Mary-land to New Orleans in partnership with CrossRoads Missions. What I found was an organization well equipped and spiritually minded to provide both physical help and spiritual truth to a city in great need and at the same time open the eyes of university students to word and deed min-istry. CrossRoads provided a wonderful experience for our students both in practical ministry and learning about the needs of urban poor.

Chris Garriott, Campus Minister Reformed University Fellowship at The University of Maryland

new orleans

appalachia2009 was a year fi lled with blessings and challenges for the Appalachia team serving in Maytown, KY. We are grateful to Equitable Resource

Foundation (EQT) and Americans Helping Americans for their investment in our work in Maytown. For the

second year a grant of $15,000.00 from EQT completely transformed the home repairs we were

able to do in Floyd County, KY. Also for the second year, we received a grant from Americans Helping Americans for $6500.00 to aid in the expenses of conducting quality community youth events.

In addition to the grant funding, the Maytown Volunteer Fire Department unanimously voted to allow us to use the old fi rehouse for the cost of utilities only. This has blessed us with a three bay garage to house vehicles, tools and supplies. We received a few notable donations that allow us to transform a 1000 square foot meeting room into a two bed room apartment for housing of future full time staff to reside in Maytown. The potential for ministry are endless!

The Numbers� 12 week long trips� 4 weekend trips� Approximately 550 participants serving in Appalachia� 13,099 volunteer hours served the community and the Maytown Center� Renovated the conference room, one bathroom and assisted with the renovation of the Maytown Center Offi ce� Numerous repairs/clean up at the Maytown Center after the fl ood� Converted old Volunteer Firehouse into a garage and an apartment for future full time CrossRoads Staff� 7 homes renovated/repaired for low-income/elderly home owners� 3 single women received free lawn care for the summer� 11 weeks of day camp activities through the Maytown Center � 200 students involved in those activities

On May 9, 2009, Maytown experienced a fl ood that left us with some substantial damage. It was the largest fl ood that the town had experienced in fi fty years. We had six foot of water in town that left behind lots of mud and left some of the town homeless. We had spent half of the summer cleaning and making repairs from the damage the fl ood left behind on the Maytown Center, Firehouse and several of our neighbors’ homes. It has been a challenge and has left us feeling overwhelmed with all of the work to be done and overjoyed with the opportunities that it created for relationships. In spite of the fl ood, the year was fi lled with lots of laughter and crazy adventures that allowed for the gospel to be experienced in everyday and real ways by whoever was around. The Appalachia Team mourns the loss and celebrates the blessings that fi lled 2009. Thanks to all of you who prayed and supported us!

The interest in participating in Appalachia continues to increase. As we plan for 2010, we are looking farther ahead to 2011 and plan to launch another location within an hour of Maytown. Please be in prayer for us as we seek wisdom in this decision and listen for the leading of where God is taking us.

get plugged inNEW WebsiteIn 2009, the website for CrossRoads Missions had over 60,000 individual visitors. That makes our website the single largest source for sharing information about what is happening with the ministry. So … CrossRoads Missions has redesigned our website! The new design is cleaner; easier to navigate, with new videos and photos from 2009 and the ability to communicate more up to date information by our fi eld leaders. Visit www.crossroadsmissions.com and see where you can get involved in 2010!

Full Time Staff Needed CrossRoads Missions has opportunities for full time employment with our Help Build Hope, New Orleans and Inner-City Teams. All full time positions with CrossRoads Missions are support based positions.

Full Time positions available are:HBH Event Manager (with auto-cad abilities)New Orleans Field Director Inner City Field DirectorInner City Group CoordinatorInner City Project Manager

Visit www.crossroadsmissions.com for more information!

Internships for 2010CrossRoads Missions offers internships ranging from 10

weeks to 2 years in Appalachia, Piedras Negras, Mexico, New Orleans and Help Build Hope. CrossRoads Missions Internships offer individuals an

opportunity to expand their view of the work Christ is doing in and through His Church. You will have the opportunity to work with people committed to prayer, contemplation, love and humility. Visit www.crossroadsmissions.com/internships for more information.

Photography, Promotional Videos and More:Cover photos on this newsletter and 2010 promotional videos that are available online at www.crossroadsmissions.com are the work of John Palmer Gregg. Palmer is a professional photojournalist and videographer. His work focuses on Churches, Ministries, and Missions trying to further communicate their stories both here and abroad. For information on how to engage Palmer, visit his web site at:www.johnpalmergregg.com