From Dee Mingo of New Testament Church.
"It became apparent that my husband and I had the same burden for
hurting men and women. The church “New Testament Central City” had a vision of
work that needed to be done in the area surrounding the church and they sent us
to a Neighborhood Transformation training conference at Eastbrook church. We
learned a lot and were eager to take it back to church and get started but
again it was not time for this. Our marriage was in trouble and we needed to
work some things out first.
Adopt_A_Block
Ministry team at New Testament Central City church (2400 W. Center)
This year we were asked to assist with putting the Adopt_A_Block Ministry team together.
The Lord arranged for me to work with the assistant director of Faith Builders
Community outreach team, who introduced my husband and myself to the director,
Richard Schwoegler. Using a combination of the material
we learned at the Neighborhood Transformation training and attending and
observing Faith Builders community team go out into the neighborhood, we were
able to put together our Adopt_A_Block Ministry team.
We started around April of this year 2015, walking a four block
radius picking up garbage at first, getting the alderman to put a garbage can
on the bus stop for people to put garbage in for themselves. We go out each 2nd Saturday at
12:00 we prepare for the event, after prayer we go out at 12:30pm and try to
return by 1:30 – 1:45pm.
When mother’s day came we thought it would be a nice way to get
to know the neighbors if we prepare a simple gift for each mother “perfumed
lotion, bubble bath, etc. as we delivered the small gift we had an opportunity
to talk to them and ask them if they wanted prayer. You would be amazed how
many wanted us to pray for them and shared their needs with us, some of the
stories about what is happening in their lives will just put you in tears! For Father’s day we combined ministry work,
the men’s ministry and Adopt_A_Block men combined to have a cookout for the men
in the neighborhood , ( same 4 block radius) they invited them to come out and
talk about anything they wanted to talk about and eat , it was a success!.
Each month we go out the neighbors become more and more familiar
with us, the neighborhood had become so much cleaner than it was before. We
have been able to call the DPW and let them know about trash in the alleys;
trash in vacant lots in order to keep the area cleaner. The last month some of
the neighborhood children came out to work with us they have also become part
of our youth ministry. This last month
we went out to identify how many children in the neighborhood needed book bags
, we got a total need of 57 children
that will need book bags we are
working on identifying how and where we will get these from.
This coming month (Sept) 2nd Saturday, we intend on
hosting a Community Day where we will be asking them to come out and join us clean up their homes and
prepare for fall, we will probably have some of the police that walk the area
join us and establish a one on one relationship with the neighbors. There is a
lot of concern about safety in the area."
