For Him and Them: October 2011
October 2011
We've always prided ourselves that we are a "lean, mean, missions machine" but this past month really showed how that plays out in ministry here at YouthPartnersNET and CityConnexx.
In January I joined one of our other staff members, Tim Snowbarger, as a part-time ramp agent for United Airlines. The beauty of these 10 hours per week part-time positions is that Tim and I get to fly "free" anywhere in the US. Well you can imagine with ministry partners in nearly every major US city, this benefit has save us thousands of dollars off our ministry travel budget.
The support our supporters have given has stretched literally from LA to NYC as we fly "the friendly skies" to equip, encourage, and connect ministries across the miles. God is using this benefit for us to be the best stewards we can be of the faithful gifts you donate.
Since Tim and I also get buddy passes, I was able to take our City Connexx Program Director of Operations, Mark Lingle, with me to San Diego for a large youth conference. We met a bunch of youth pastors who want to take their groups on mission trips with CityConnexx. With Hotwire hotels and eating nearly every meal at In & Out Burgers, this road trip was very inexpensive. That same weekend Tim flew free to Oklahoma to meet with about 50 youth pastors and stayed with family while back down in his hometown.
The next week I flew "free" to Indy to attend the Christian Community Development Conference. I got to meet old and new friends and signed up some new cities to join our national network. I stayed with my good friend Jay Height, who followed me as the Executive Director of Shepherd Community, the ministry we founded in Indy back in 1985. We dreamed up a few ideas while visiting over coffee.
The following weekend I flew "free" again to visit some folks in New York City and Philly. My son is at NYU Law School so I crashed at his dorm on a rollaway bunk bed. In Philly, Ryan, one of our partners, invited me to stay with him. We toured his neighborhood and visited a couple of new church plants that are doing some amazing things. One of the seven church plants is in a corner house that used to be the biggest crack house on the East Coast. It was made famous in several popular gangster rap songs. Go ahead and Google it "8th & Butler". The church just bought another house on the opposite corner that they want to renovate. God turned this corner from a "crack house to a church house" from "dope to hope" from "death to life". In the drug days, six were killed in one night on that corner.
Soon we'll be "flying free" to another city, another corner, another urban church that needs folks like you to invest in transforming neighborhoods and opportunities to create hopeful futures. In my travels I meet many young people who have been raised in the hood who are now serving God in some amazing ways. We challenge you to do something "Good for God" that will change your corner too!
For Him and Them,
Dean
Rev. Dean Cowles
CityConnexx Founder & National Director CityConnexx
www.CityConnexx.org
Ellen Barton
Executive Director YouthPartnersNET
www.YouthPartnersNET.org
