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

When Compassion helped us launch CityConnexx urban & Native American mission trips several years ago, we had no idea it would be a ministry outreach to those that come to serve as well as those we're going to serve. But God works in ways we don't anticipate or plan which is a good thing. Let me explain. The original goal of CityConnexx was just that, to "connect" urban and suburban cities and churches on a short-term mission trip. We assumed those going on a trip would be fairly mature in their faith journey and testimony.  Well, surprisingly that's not always the case. So we've now come to realize that part of our "mission" is to present the good news of the gospel and transformation to those that come on a "mission trip" as well as to those living in at-risk communities.
 
In our first full summer of sending mission teams, a large group of 50 went to New York City. They loved serving and being with urban kids. On Wednesday night, they attended the mid-week evangelistic service along with all the kids and families from the neighborhood. Our local urban leader was preaching and gave an invitation as he always does. Along with many from the hood, 17 suburban teens raised their hands to invite Christ into their life.  They had never heard that kind of gospel message of salvation before in their church. We praised God.
 
Last summer a group from Montana came to the "big city". At the end of their trip we were down by the river that runs through Denver and two young men asked our Latino pastor about baptism. After he explained, they said that this trip really opened their eyes to the truth of the gospel and they wanted to know if they could be baptized right then and there. Their youth leader was so excited because he had been praying for these guys for a long time. So we did a baptism in the river next to Confluence Park where dozens of folks were hanging out enjoying a beautiful summer evening. Many started watching the baptism and one guy came up and asked if he too could be baptized after hearing the short message. So we held two baptismal services that evening!

This past week we had our first summer group finish their trip. Their evaluations were extremely positive. They knocked on hundreds of doors inviting children to a free summer lunch program at our ministry site. They cleaned homes for widows. They gave out 2,500 pounds of food and clothing to families. Played basketball with urban kids at "Holy Hoops", made and passed out 100 sandwiches to the homeless. For many this was the highlight of their trip. They went to a pro baseball game, and much more. I was surprised to find out that for a few, this was the first time they had even been to a Sunday Church service and it was at an African-American church where the service lasted two hours. They loved that experience as well.
 
This was their first mission trip. On the first day they were a bit anxious but soon warmed up to their surroundings. During orientation, we gave out "live compassion" wrist bands to those that could recite a scripture or at least make a good attempt. And we don't let them use, "Jesus wept" which is always the first one blurted out.  They enjoyed every part of their trip.
 
By the way, when we make sack lunches for the homeless we usually use food left over from the morning distribution. But on this day, the needs were so great we gave out all the bread, fruit, meats, vegetables, etc. There was nothing left. While it's not in our budget to go out and buy extra food supplies I didn't want them to miss the unique experience of feeding the homeless so I went to the local store and bought $61 of food. We were able to make 100 sack lunches. Not bad, 60 cents per lunch. If you want to make an extra gift to help cover these unbudgeted costs, that would be a great!
 
So your recent gift is not only helping share the good news with the less fortunate but it's also helping to bring that same story of salvation to suburban teens who just haven't had a chance to hear it yet.
 
For Him and Them,

Rev. Dean Cowles
YouthPartnersNET & CityConnexx
Founder

May is here and so is the full blossom of spring. Wow, does the green grass and bright flowers blow you away with God's amazing creation. It sure does for me.
 
I'm also "blown away," if you'll allow me to use that phrase, at the way God continues to bloom all over our urban and Native American communities. This past month we watched as the green grass of new programs and ideas sprang up in several key cities we work with in order to stem the tidal wave of poverty that floods our urban youth who are imprisoned in underperforming schools and neighborhoods.
 
Yet out of these ashes we see God moving in the hearts and lives of young people like Gilbert and Tim, whom I see nearly every week, serving without pay as volunteers at the urban ministry where we house our offices. I want to thank you for your donation this month that allows us to keep encouraging young men of God like these Latino youth who grew up surrounded by gangs but chose to follow God's call instead.
 
Tim is serving this year as one of our unpaid interns. He guides lots of suburban teens through our ministry facility and community. He tells his story of being raised in the projects and how the church turned his life and that of his family completely around.  But the other day I reflected on the fact that Tim never gets the chance to go on a mission trip himself like so many of these middle class teens do who come to experience urban missions.
 
So, we'd like your help to send Tim, Gilbert and hundreds like them on a real mission trip outside their hood into another city. YouthPartnersNET and our mission program, CityConnexx, have created a unique Urban Youth Scholarship model whereby your contribution goes toward their registration fee and they raise the additional travel expense.  Most of our kids have never traveled outside their local community.

 
Could you or your church group help make this trip possible for many? Whether you could contribute $25 per month in addition to your monthly donation or a special gift of $300 per youth, I know it would be a blessing for our urban kids. Pray about this and if God speaks to you, now is a good time before summer sweeps over us.
 
We’ve included our Urban Scholarship Fund postcard which gives a snapshot of this fund.  There is a tear-off which can be removed and sent in with your special gift.  This fund is also further outlined and can be selected online at www.youthpartnersnet.org.
 
Blessings and peace through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Rev. Dean Cowles
YouthPartnersNET & CityConnexx
Founder

If I could put a title to this letter it would read, "From the Hood to Harvard."

That's right. There is a connection between some of our urban at-risk youth and that esteemed Ivy League school.

The story starts back some 25 years ago long before these urban kids were even born. That's when my wife and I felt called to establish an urban church ministry and compassionate outreach called Shepherd Community in Indianapolis. We were honored to go back last fall to Shepherd for their 25th Anniversary. Shepherd continues to be one of our YPN/CityConnexx ministry partners.
 
Over those years God has blessed Shepherd. They now have about 60 people on staff, most of who grew up in the ministry and the community. In recent years, Shepherd has partnered and merged its programs with another local religious sports program called Jireh. I took a tour of Jireh when I was there for the Anniversary celebration. Behind the center are some old baseball fields once used by the Negro Baseball League. Many future MLB stars played on this very ground including Hank Aaron and Jackie Robinson.
 
Their vision for restoring this historic ground is to have a safe place for kids to express their God given talents in many creative ways, including sports. I wish you could see the facility. Gymnastic equipment donated. Wrestling mats and training gear had been given by companies and donors as well as a boxing ring, basketball court, baseball equipment and more.
 
Well, just this month one of the young urban gymnast was named a recipient of the Carson Scholar national award. One of the wrestlers out of the hood was accepted on scholarship to Harvard!!!
 
Isn't that wonderful! In John 1 Nathaniel asked his brother Phillip when hearing that Jesus, the Messiah was raised in a dusty, dirty village full of uneducated shepherds, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Phillip simply said, "Come and See". Yes indeed, some good can come out of the hood.
 
From the Hood to Harvard! That's part of the miracle that your recent donation is creating to help us continue to support places like Shepherd Community with training, funding, and CityConnexx mission groups. Speaking of CityConnexx, we had groups serve on their Spring Break this past month in places like NY City, Memphis, Denver and Los Angeles. We have more coming this month! We appreciate your faithfulness and the good work you are doing through your gifts of support.
 
For Him & Them,

Rev. Dean Cowles
YouthPartnersNET & CityConnexx
Founder

Normally in these monthly thank you letters I share stories and statistics about YouthPartnersNET and CityConnexx. However this time I'd like to give you some of the reasons, some of the philosophy and theology that make these stories of transformation possible.

Last month, I was asked to speak on "Creative Compassion" at a large National Church convention. It was an honor to share with so many and explain our unique version of what it means to "give a cup of cold water" to those in need in our nation's at-risk communities.

I don't have room to share with you my entire PowerPoint, although if you will email or call I'd be happy to send it to you. But I would like to give you some of the major points that are foundational to our philosophy of ministry we inherited from our many years of development with Compassion International.

I also want to thank you for your gift this month that provides us with the means to share this form of "compassionate evangelism" with our ministry partners across the United States.

My first point was that around here we spell compassion a little different: COMePASSION. What we mean is “come pass on your PASSION for Christ!”
Compassion isn't difficult; it's just one act of kindness built upon another.

Jesus told his disciples to just "come and see". See what God can do through you. When they started spreading the word about this amazing Rabbi, everyone wanted to see the miracles and hear his teachings. It wasn't very organized. It was organic and a bit archaic. Remember the feeding of the 5,000. They nearly had a riot on their hands with so many hungry mouths to feed after a marathon series of sermons.

• Point #1: Creative Compassion comes out of the crucible of crisis. The disciples pleaded with Jesus, "Send them away so they buy themselves something to eat." Jesus replied "You give them something to eat." A bit of a crisis and disagreement was starting to boil up.
• Point #2: Creative Compassion has sight and insight.
  "Jesus saw (sight) the crowds and had (insight) compassion on them." Mark 6:34 Jesus felt concern but had the wisdom to know what needed to be done beyond "sloppy agape".
• Point #3: Creative Compassion multiplies something out of nothing.
  "Loaves and fishes". Our responsibility is to bring the best we have, our lunch and our lives. His response is to break and bless what we've brought. Our reward is to pick up basketfuls of break left over.

I then went on to share stories and miracles of how we've had to get creative in order to stretch our small budgets to meet increasing needs in the city. I encouraged church leaders and pastors who have the desire to start their own compassionate evangelism ministries with the 5 core values we live by: church based; child and youth focused, compassionate programs, community outreach, making Christ followers.

Our hope and prayer is that your church and your family will be creative this season and this year to reach out beyond your walls to make a difference in someone's life that is less fortunate. If you'd like for us to come speak in your church or group, please let us know. We believe part of God's call on our ministry is to spread this message of compassionate evangelism as far and wide as possible. If you live along the Front Range of Colorado, I'd love to invite you to come Wednesday March 16th 9am as I share this message at Compassion's Chapel in Colorado Springs at the Headquarters.

May the Lord bless you and keep you in the days ahead.

For You & Them,

Rev. Dean Cowles
YouthPartnersNET & CityConnexx
Founder