15 years in the making article in the newspaper

Thanks Loretta for the great article.
MISSION ABILENE: CHURCH CELEBRATING 15 YEARS OF EXISTENCE

By Loretta Fulton
Published Thursday, April 5, 2012
"Come as you are leave different."

That's more than a slogan painted on the side of Mission Abilene.

"That's our banner prayer," said Chad Mitchell, lead pastor.Mission Abilene, which originated in 1997 as The Mission, will celebrate its 15th anniversary at 10:45 a.m. Sunday.

The church held its first organized service on Easter Sunday, March 30, 1997, in a space created in a warehouse belonging to Love and Care Ministries. Since then, the church has grown to the point that it relocated to the present site at 3001 N. 3rd St., just a few blocks from Love and Care Ministries.

A large room with seating for 400, plus a full size band, is filled every Sunday morning, Mitchell said. Although Love and Care Ministries and Mission Abilene are separate entities, they still share a common ministry to the poor and homeless of Abilene.

"They're the outreach," Mitchell said of Love and Care, "and we're the church."

The founder and director of Love and Care Ministries, Mark Hewitt, was pastor of The Mission until Mitchell was hired in 2003.

Easter Sunday service at Mission Abilene is likely to be a little different from what most folks are used to. The church may have one of the most diverse congregations in Abilene, with various ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds represented.

Someone who walks in off the street might be offered use of one of the showers available and a set of clean clothes before church starts.

"Some will come in suits and ties, and you'll see some with backpacks on their backs," Mitchell said.

The church, just like its parent Love and Care Ministries, stresses service to the city's neediest residents. For that reason, it is attractive to college students and faculty, as well as to the clients served by the church.

Mitchell, 32, holds bachelor's and master's degrees from Hardin-Simmons University, and he is typical of other students who are drawn to the church and its service ministries. A 1997 graduate of Abilene High School, Mitchell heard Hewitt speak when he was a student.

He listened to Hewitt's own story about how he was called to start Love and Care Ministries and how God had helped him in his personal journey.

"I felt compelled to come and help," Mitchell said.

But it took another year for him to actually make the commitment. He happened to stop by the tent revival that Love and Care Ministries sponsors each year and saw Hewitt there.

"The next thing I knew," Mitchell said, "I was grabbing sleeping bags and things for the revival."

He began attending the church regularly and became a staff member. His journey is typical of just about everyone who starts attending Mission Abilene. If you attend the church, you serve, Mitchell said. That service often results in remarkable transformations.

"We empower the least likely," Mitchell said, "the unlikely."

Today, Mission Abilene is much more than a church that draws 400 people on Sunday morning. During the week, its rooms are filled with volunteers from various organizations and agencies such as the International Rescue Committee and Child Protective Services.

Addiction recovery meetings and sessions for abused women are scheduled throughout the week. On Wednesday evenings, young adults under the leadership of Heath Henderson go to three nearby apartment complexes to hold outdoor services for the children who live there.

Other groups routinely conduct a "suds ministry" by handing out bottles of detergent to people in laundromats. Still others sometimes take loaves of bread or other gifts and leave then on the doorsteps at neighborhood homes.

"We just do various things to say we're here," Mitchell said. "We want to be a lighthouse in the community."

That light not only shines on the neighborhood, it also draws people from all over town and all walks of life. Henderson, pastor to young adults, holds both bachelor's and master's degrees from Hardin-Simmons University. He was used to a traditional church service when he first attended Mission Abilene.

"It was probably the most different church I had been to," he said. "I consider it to be kind of a cultural melting pot."

Henderson had two close calls with death in his younger years, one from an illness while in high school and the other from a car wreck. He was a passenger in a car driven by a friend who was drunk, Henderson said.

"I walked away and he didn't," Henderson said.

It's a story he now uses in his job as a prevention specialist with the Abilene Regional Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. The wreck happened in July 2001, the summer before Henderson entered HSU. It also was two months before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Those two events together were devastating to Henderson.

"I kind of gave up hope," he said, and remained in that state until age 25. That's when he discovered Mission Abilene.

"I found hope again," he said.

That's a sentiment shared by many Abilenians who have passed through the doors of Mission Abilene the past 15 years. Because the church serves the poor and homeless, its resources are scarce. Members who can give more, do, but offerings are usually a few coins fished from pockets.Knowing that, member Brian Holamon was thrilled when a special offering for a project he started netted $1,400 in pocket change. He wasn't shocked, just thrilled. He knows that the church members are as generous as their means allow.

Holamon, who owns God's Care Lawnscapes, has been a member of the church almost from the beginning. In 2002, Holamon took a trip to Brazil with his father and had a revelation. He fell in love with the country and has returned every year since.

He connected with a missionary there, with the intention of sharing his love of Christ with people he met. But he eventually realized just telling people about Jesus wasn't enough.

"God was teaching me the value of relationships," Holamon said.

He learned that villagers needed access to clean drinking water and began a project that he now calls Living Water Brazil. Last September, Holamon installed two water purification systems in the city of Primeira Cruz.

In February he returned and installed two more. The cost of each system, including customs fees, shipping, and installation is about $5,500, which comes from donations.

Holamon said he was drawn to Mission Abilene because it emphasizes service work at home and in distant places like Brazil.

"It was a church that actually did something," he said.

As it continues to grow, Mission Abilene will do even more, its pastor, Mitchell, said. The church already is cramped in the building it moved into eight years ago. Mitchell won't predict the future of the church, but he has no doubt it has a great future in store.

"There's no telling what can happen," he said.

Pray for Dallas!

I sent a text message to my college roommate who is a Dallas Police Officer to check to see if he was okay after the tornado...
This was his response...

"Luckily we weren't hit but our church is the central donation location for the city. Some places are real bad. We got a lot of help"

Please pray for DALLAS!

It's not just Texas News, Yes it happens in Good Ole Abilene too.

Much of my life I have lived my life like many, oblivious to the issues that surround me. Living with such a mindset could cause one to think, "this is good ole Abilene, violence doesn't happen here,"BUT IT DOES! If we don't acknowledge our city has issues of violence, who will speak up for the innocent? The answer is simple. NO ONE! I pray that you do all you can to make some NOISE today. According to KTXS An Abilene man charged with the death of a 2-year-old boy was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Friday. Franklin Ramey Jr., 32, was scheduled to stand trial today. Last year, Ramey went on trial in connection with the death, although a mistrial was declared after jurors said they could not reach a verdict. Ramey was convicted in connection with the Feb. 2011 death of Hayden Vickers. During the trial held last year, Taylor County Assistant District Attorney Joel Wilks told jurors Ramey injured Vickers the morning of Feb. 18 and the boy had injuries consistent with “abusive head trauma.” The boy died a day after the incident. Amber Vickers, the mother of the boy, told jurors she left the house that morning of the incident to borrow money to buy cigarettes. Instead of making a quick trip, she said, she instead stayed at her grandmother’s home for two hours before receiving a phone call from Ramey, her then-boyfriend. Ramey during the trial maintained he was innocent and the boy’s death was an accident.

Texas News

Just a quick observation of today's Texas news on KTXS makes me angry, makes me want to cry, and even throw up all at the same time...when will it stop? It will stop when each of us choose not to be silent! SAN ANTONIO (AP) - An 18-year-old San Antonio teenager has been accused of fatally injuring his girlfriend's 5-month-old infant boy. Antonio Santos Garcia-Vera has been charged with knowingly injuring a child, causing serious bodily injury, the San Antonio Express-News reported Sunday. Bail has been set at $1 million. Police said Remii Apollo Shaw-Antwine died three days after he was left alone with Garcia-Vera. Police said Garcia-Vera told them he got frustrated with the crying infant at about 7 p.m. Wednesday. According to the arrest affidavit, Garcia-Vera lifted the baby to his chest and patted his back vigorously and "causing the victim's head to bounce back and forth." Police said Remii's mother reported the baby wasn't breathing late Wednesday. He remained on life support at University Hospital until Saturday, when he was pronounced dead. Mar 26, 2012 7:21 a.m. HOUSTON (AP) - Houston police say a man killed his wife and left her body in a car parked in a Walgreens lot before turning himself in. Investigators said the man turned himself in around 8:30 a.m. Sunday. They said the man told police where the body could be found, according to a KTRK-TV report. Police said the Walgreens didn't open until a half-hour later, and there didn't appear to be any witnesses. The names of the suspect and the victim have not been released. Mar 26, 2012 8:21 a.m. ENNIS, Texas (AP) - One of two people suspected in the death of a 15-year-old girl whose body was found burning by an Ennis road this month has been arrested. Ennis Police Chief John Erisman said Sunday that 29-year-old Jose Manuel Alvarado was arrested Saturday in the Dallas suburb of Grand Prairie. Alvarado, charged with murder, remained in Ennis police custody Monday. No bail has been set. Police did not have attorney information. The Dallas Morning News reported that the Dallas County medical examiner's office confirmed Moriah Gonzales' body was found March 17. Authorities said the teen from Waxahachie wasn't attending school and had been staying with her sister in Ennis, about 35 miles south of Dallas Police said Gonzales and Alvarado were former co-workers. A woman also wanted is still at large. Make some noise. C

I AM ONE

I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.  -Edward Everett Hale

World Water Day

Today, March 22, 2012 is world water day. Recognized by the United Nations and the global community, World Water Day reminds us that much of the world still faces a global water, sanitation and hygiene crisis, and that it is our urgent obligation to act. A coalition of diverse US-based groups is calling for increased commitments by the US government and private citizens to reduce poverty, disease and hunger by helping to improve sustainable access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation for many millions around the world.

Will you  make this world a better place than you found it?

Don't forget to join us this Sunday as we explore the recent efforts of livingwaterbrazil.com and our church.

Make some noise.
C

Nothing like home

Currently I'm out of town closing out the Spring Break week with my family. Usually as a result of our schedules we rarely find ourselves out of town. But when we do travel it is quite the event as a result of the great amount of stuff we have to take with us to make sure lil Sadie's needs are taken care of. Yet beyond the mass preparation it takes to travel, the lengthy hours in a car with a toddler and a pre-teenager, and the unfamiliarity with the things that surround us there is always something that is never quite right. Even as I type, once again I'm surrounded with that "it's not quite right" feeling as a result of being in an uncomfortable hotel room that never feels like home. My home is a place of comfort, security, and refuge. Over the years I have slept in countless hotel rooms as a result of being blessed to speak across the U.S, yet not one time has one of those rooms I stayed in felt like "home."
Much like an average hotel room that just never feels like home, is our life when we step outside of God's will. It just doesn't feel like home. I pray as you close out your week, regardless how far you have traveled away you will remember theres no better feeling than being at "home," right where our Creator wants you.

Make some noise.
C