July Update

Four-square!

Connect Middle School Program - Together, 2nd Mile's high school program, BLOCK (building leaders of Christ's kingdom) and the Connect Middle School program went to one of our volunteer's house last week to enjoy a cookout, video games, fellowship, and outdoor fun. It was the first time that these two age groups intentionally got together to just have fun with each other. Hot dogs, burgers, chips, fruit, water, soda, Sonic racing, four-square, football in the street, watching movies, it was a great time! No lesson plans, no agenda, just quality time together.

BLOCK - Although I am not as involved with the high school program, they have been doing some exciting things the past few months. The high school students started running our open courts. Open Court has been every Friday from 4-6pm this summer which has loud music, basketball, concessions, and indoor games for anybody who wants to come hang out. We've been seeing some new and familiar faces on Fridays and it's been encouraging to build these relationships.

In a couple of days, students in middle school and high school will be driving to New Orleans for a week to either help out a ministry with their summer day camp or, weather pending, helping with some storm relief projects. Pray that students would grow closer to God, each other, and would grow in character, even if just a little bit in this next week.

Chassidy playing basketball with 4th grader Jabarie

Summer Intern - I came to 2nd Mile back in 2010 as a summer intern, after I had graduated from the University of Wisconsin. There were nine other interns that summer, including my wife. Since that year, there has been a spattering of interns here and there throughout the years. This summer, we have Chassidy. She will be a sophomore in high school and she has been a part of 2nd Mile since she was six years old. I've talked about her in previous blogs, but just wanted to express my admiration for how far she's come in knowledge, maturity, and leadership qualities. If you search for 2nd Mile Ministries on facebook, you can see her in one of our Pray, Collect, Act videos. She's helped with field trips, some office organization, and has had weekly Bible studies and book readings to help her mind grow even more. She has also been shadowing the various staff members and their ministry roles to see how a non-profit Christian organization operates. I can't wait to see how God uses Chassidy in the years to come, in whatever He would have her do.

As summer vacation slowly approaches its end, our staff members prepare for the long school year ahead. Please pray for the right students to be in our programs (not in our eyes but in God's), for the planning period to be well-thought out, and for God to be moving in the hearts of the students, volunteers, staff, and even in your own hearts as August fast approaches.

Book Highlight - I don't read much, but I read a book (easy easy read) this summer called Kai'Ro: The Journey of an Urban Pilgrim. I've been told it is similar to Pilgrim's Progress but with more of an urban theme. If you are looking for new books to read, I'd recommend this book. It's target audience is more for people living in neighborhoods like Brentwood, but anyone can find deep conviction and meaning in Kai'Ro's difficult journey through life as a new believer in a fallen world.

Summer Time! (June)

"Dear God, thank you for this day. Thank you that we could eat this Taco Bell and have fun at the park learning how to play disc golf." What a beautiful prayer said by one of our elementary school students on one of our summer field trips. After School Program- Normally a very busy, fun, chaotic, and hype summer, 2nd Mile Ministries is a little quieter for this summer. Without our regular summer day camp (we'll be back at it next summer), we've had to adapt to planning new things for the students to enjoy. In hopes to continue relationships with our elementary students, we've taken them on field trips to different places around Jacksonville, experiencing new things they may not seen or done before. For the field trip that I got to plan, of course I was going to expose them to the wonderful sport of disc golf. Not being able to play this sport myself much anymore because of my health, it was great to see them focus on how to throw their discs as far as they could. It was a lot more walking than they had anticipated, but they enjoyed the time. We got to play on the playground and shoot some hoops afterwards. Then we voted on where to go to lunch. Taco Bell won out, which to my surprise, was even a new experience to one or two kids. On another field trip, the students went to Sweet Pete's, a huge candy shop in downtown Jacksonville where they learned how to make taffy.

Rummage Sale-Summer Trip

Interesting items sold at the sale!

Every year in early June, 2nd Mile Ministries collects items from churches and other individuals for a whole week and then sells them for six crazy hours on a Saturday in hopes to raise money for our Summer Day Camp. Because there is no camp this summer, whatever money that gets raised is going towards our summer missions trip to New Orleans where middle school and high school students will go and help Urban Impact with their summer day camp for a week. 2nd Mile Ministries has modeled and practiced their summer camp after this ministry in New Orleans so hopefully their format will not be completely new and foreign to our students. Please pray for the students to grow in their relationship with Christ, with each other, and with themselves as they spend their weeks serving and leading and growing.

Connect Middle School Program- The middle school program, of which I am responsible for leading, has continued to meet throughout the summer. For me, this summer is going to be a time where I hoping to bring in some more students, whether faces that we've known from the past or completely new students. Where our school-year schedule is very focused on personal development, Bible studies, and becoming leaders, I wanted this summer to have a more inclusive feel to it, one where we get to know new students and incorporate them into our every week rhythms. Our first meeting of the summer, we just played a bunch of indoor games (because of Florida thunderstorms preventing us from outside). The students introduced themselves, their schools, grade they were entering, and their dream jobs. We had four new students come that first week. The following week, rather than games, we went to our community garden a couple blocks from the church where we meet. I've had the privilege of spending more time in this garden lately and getting to understand nature a bit more. We learned valuable lessons on hard work, teamwork, nurturing living things, careful planning, and removing the "weeds" of our lives. We picked eggplants, green peppers, and even a watermelon (it wasn't ripe enough yet). We also weeded, pruned some plants, and collected some greens. Please pray that more students would not only start coming this summer, but as the school year approaches quickly, that students would make the middle school program a natural part of their every week schedules all year.

Family Update- So Max still isn't eating. We don't know why. Doctors don't know why. Developmentally speaking, all of the oral skills are there. At this point it may just be a mental thing for him, preventing anything from going down his throat. On top of the non-eating, he's been throwing up a bunch. We've been tossed around his pediatrician, nutritional doctors, GI, endocrinology, and surgery with little to no answers. My wife and I are hanging in there, but it gets very easy to feel like we can't do enough for Max to get him on the right track. We follow doctors' instructions with very little results of change. He's visited the hospital twice in the past month and a half for low blood sugar issues. We now know how to check his blood sugar at home and how to deal with it if it gets low again, so I guess that's a plus. He's talking more now, his facial expressions are hilarious and beautiful at the same time, and he's just a joy to be around. Please pray that God would intervene. In the gaps of our own understanding and in the evident gaps of the doctors' understanding, pray that God would help Max get off the feeding tube, that his blood sugars would even out, that his puking would decrease.

If you got any more prayers in you, pray for me. I'm having similarly frustrating issues with my own health and getting the run around from different doctors. I'm still not completely healed from a couple years ago and honestly I can't say with confidence that I'm even getting better. All I've learned about my body in the past few years is, "If you don't want any pain or discomfort and you want to be able to sleep more at night, do nothing. Don't pick up anything heavy, don't carry your son for more than a couple minutes, don't throw anything, don't shoot hoops for too long, don't exercise one bit. I've tried easing back into physical activities. I've tried stretching. I've had appointments with my doctor, with a bunch of his various specialist buddies, and no one can tell me what's going on. I have a great long list of things it isn't, so.....that's helpful. Sorry about the venting. I've just been so used to being able to play sports, run around, and using those things to develop relationships and now that that's put on hold (hopefully just for a period of time), it leaves me feeling helpless and hopeless.

I've been trying to understand in the fog of my own grumbling and lack of knowledge what God's plan is for all of this. What does he want me to do, to learn? I know that it's not beyond a shepherd to break his sheep's legs in order to keep it from running down a wrong path and getting hurt. Please pray for how I deal with Max's and my health. Feel free to pray specifically for our health, but for some reason God hasn't answered those prayers how I'd like them to be answered. Praying for my attitude, my faith, and my heart would probably be a better venture. I know God can work on my heart and my mind. Thank you for your time reading these updates. Have a great week!

Connect (May and end of the year Update)

Connect Middle School Program: We wrapped up April watching The Passion of Christ the week before Easter. Some of the kids flinched and winced as they beat, whipped, and crucified Jesus. After the movie, we took some time to think through our lives, our sin, and confessing it to God, who loved us enough to send his son to die for those sins. We wrote them in permanent marker on a small representation of a cross. It was so quiet during those minutes of reflecting, I knew God was doing something. Although I tried not to read what others wrote on the cross, it was amazing to see their honesty and desire to admit to those sins.

Going into May, it was a unique month for our middle school students. Rather than having Bible lessons on Thursdays, three adults gave their life stories, their testimonies in order for the students to get to thinking about their own unique stories and how God is shaping them precisely where they are right now in life. We did a "hot seat" drill where the students each had 5 minutes in the "hot seat" where everyone could ask them any question that they wanted. Some of these questions were silly like, "What's your favorite color of carpet?", to more deep questions like, "Who has had the biggest impact on your life so far?"  It amazes me how much asking somebody questions about their life can communicate love and concern for them. I remember in counseling classes how important asking questions and really listening and engaging in their answers is to really caring and making connections with people.


Our last week of the school year, the students each painted a slat of our picnic table. I love art projects like this where multiple people flex their creativity and ideas into a single piece. It's so representative of life, many different people making up one world. To celebrate the end of the middle school year, we took a trip to St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest city in the country. We could've toured a really old fort, we could've toured the historical streets of this town, but no, we dared to go ziplining over some alligators and crocodiles.  Most of the boys that came were a little scared to zipline, so they went to the zoo part of the attraction. The middle school girls, although nervous, tackled the zipline and ropes course like champs. It was great to see them overcome their fears, and after the first long zipline, the rest was a piece of cake. I should also mention that one middle school boy did zipline. Way to go Christian!

As three of our students "graduated" to high school, our middle school group is getting smaller. I've seen God work in huge ways with our small numbers this past year. Attitudes shifted, hearts were more open to Jesus and conversations became more real and meaningful.

Prayer requests:
1.) Pray that God will go before us and open parents' and students' hearts to Christ's love.
2.) Pray for the right students to be incorporated into our program for this next school year.
3.) Pray for a safe and fun summer for our students.

Thank you, as always, for reading and I hope you have a blessed day.

The alligator farm crew

The ziplining crew

Nyla and Amaria on that ropes course

April 2019

Connect Middle School Program- April has been month of practicing what it means to have a relationship with God. Rather than just reading the Bible and learning about God, we took a couple Thursdays to spend intentional time with Him. We not only learned about quiet times, why they are important, and how Jesus had his quiet times, but we also took about a half hour to just read Scripture, journal, and pray to God himself. This was a new experience for most of the students and they said that they felt more and more calm as the quiet time went on. The following week, we spent time learning about prayer, how to pray, and what we could pray for. With various stations around the church with a different aspect of prayer (gratitude, pray for others, confessing sin, asking forgiveness, making personal requests), the students could freely go to whatever station they felt led to go to. It was encouraging to me to hear some of them say that the easiest station for them to pray was praying for others. I struggle with this one. Too often my prayers manifest themselves out of my own feelings and personal needs. Today we will be watching the Passion of the Christ and I'm praying that this powerful display of Christ's sacrifice would bring a deeper desire within the students to draw nearer to Him in their lives.

The middle school students have done some art with spray paint and glue (really cool) as well as had a night to just play around on many different musical instruments. It was a lot of fun playing/teaching simple tunes on the keyboard.

Community Garden- With the former garden keeper now in a new role, 2nd Mile staff and volunteers are now in a rotation to keep this garden looking nice. I remember my mom keeping a small garden on the side of our garage growing up, and I remember occasionally helping, but was never really interested in it. Missi and I went to the garden for less than an hour and let me tell you, it is hard work. We weeded, and we weeded, and we weeded, and we watered a little bit. I think the weeds were growing faster than we were picking them. Weeds are really annoying. I will say, however, that it was very relaxing to be in a place where nature is grown, little lizards are running around, and right in the middle of our Brentwood neighborhood. Hopefully the extra hands in the garden will allow more people to appreciate this little gem on our streets.

Personal Share- I'm sorry. We gotta talk about the Milwaukee Bucks. Never in my life have the Bucks been in 1st place in the Eastern Conference, only once in my life have they led their division at the end of the season. This is a special year for them and I'm really hoping they not only get past the first round of the playoffs, but hopefully contend for a championship in the Finals. Sometimes I forget that famous athletes or celebrities are people too. I elevate them as untouchable, only there to entertain me and for me to watch and consume. If you have a minute, I would really like you to read a blog written by Utah Jazz sharp shooter Kyle Korver. In a league that's 75% African American, Korver (white) talks about his experience in the NBA. He has a unique perspective and I think we all can learn a lot from his blog. Click this link to read it now. https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/kyle-korver-utah-jazz-nba

Did you read it? Makes you think huh?

Anyway, thank you as always for taking the time to read these blogs. Whether these blogs encourage you, challenge you, upset you, or just inform you, I thank you for reading.

Have a blessed Resurrection Week!

February and March 2019

two:fiftytwo After School Program - Only at the program once a week these days, I still cherish the opportunity to teach our weekly Bible lesson on one of God's promises. One particular lesson I enjoyed teaching was when all the students got to throw a bunch of balled-up paper at a student holding an umbrella. This was to represent God being our shield and taking care of us when going through a rough patch. Ephesians 6:16 says, "In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one." How foolish we can be when we sit there getting pelted by life even though God willingly offers his protection and guidance. Pray that as the school year approaches the final two months, the students would finish strong, that volunteers and staff would not burn out, and that those students that are still coming consistently can experience the love of Christ. Pray for the teachers of this neighborhood as well. Turnover is so great in neighborhoods like these since classrooms can be very stressful. Being in the school a couple hours a week, I see it firsthand. If you know someone who is a teacher, I challenge you to either offer them some help grading papers, or getting them supplies, or even just tell them you are in their corner praying for their year to finish off well.

Connect Middle School Program - I've had the privilege of leading the middle school program now for a few months and boy has it been eventful. In February, our Bible topic (chosen by the students) was MONEY. They learned about King Solomon's enormous wealth and how he saw his many possessions as meaningless. They looked up their own verses about money and we shared them with each other, learning about what God says about it in his word. They also learned about being good stewards of their money. The month of March, the Bible topic (again, chosen by the students) has been ANGER. Those who voted for this topic wanted to know better ways on dealing with their own anger. We learned that it's okay to be angry, but to not sin while angry (which is admittedly difficult when it's anger towards someone else). We even got to watch the movie Unconditional and wrote out times when the characters displayed anger, in order to help them recognize this emotion in others and the choices they made with their anger. We also learned that the things that we get angry about often reflect something specifically about ourselves. 

Entrepreneurs share their stories

We have Bible nights on our Thursday meetings, but on Mondays, we have our wild card activities including art, music, life skills, leadership, etc. A few weeks ago, we got to hear three African-American entrepreneurial women share their experiences with starting their own businesses. The students had the chance to brainstorm what types of businesses they would start up if they had the opportunity to do so. Their ideas were awesome! One girl talked about creating a social media app that helps to prevent online bullying. Peoples' accounts who make bullying comments could get blocked, then get suspended, and then eventually deleted. Another girl mentioned becoming a fashion designer who makes affordable clothing look stylish for those who don't have enough money to buy really nice clothes. These ideas were very specific to their own life experiences and I think it would be awesome if the seed was planted in their heads that if they wanted to, they could make their businesses happen.

Mission Teams - Every Spring break, we get college groups from all over the country (mostly Iowa) and they spend their week-long spring breaks serving the Brentwood community. We had teams from Northwestern College in Iowa, Simpson College (Iowa), and Asbury (Kentucky). The teams helped out teachers in the classrooms, mowed lawns, edges some sidewalks, picked up trash, bagged leaves, painted lines and colors on our courtyard, organized our church's storage and kitchen area, weeded our garden, watered our garden, spread zoo poop in the garden beds, spread mulch all over the garden, built new garden beds in the garden, completed our garden mural, and made an impact at our after school program. On top of all the ways they helped the community and 2nd Mile, we gave many talks about God's heart for the poor, God's heart for justice and righteousness, and the racial inequalities still experienced by so many people in our country.

Art night: learning about different textures

If you support the work that 2nd Mile is doing, consider giving towards our ministry. Check out our website at www.2ndmilejax.com and click "Donate." Thanks!

Remember Remember the Titans?

Moving to Jacksonville has changed my thought process a bit on many things. Here are some things I never thought about before while watching Remember the Titans for the first time in about a decade.

1. Coach Boone's white neighbors applaud him one night when they are going to the state championship game. When Boone first moves into their current home, the neighbors were nervous about black people taking over their neighborhood. Only when their home town high school football team performs well do they accept him, celebrate him, and applaud him (from a distance).

2. Ryan Gosling was a string bean in this movie.

3. What was supposed to be a "get this over with" meet and greet between Gerry Bertier and Julius Campbell turned out to be, in my opinion, the most powerful scene in the movie. Their raw anger and brutal honestly towards each other brought out the best change in one of the next scenes where Gerry gets on his white teammates for not blocking for the black QB. Julius, who recently lost a friend who got shot by a white business owner, was playing for himself and no one else. What team?

4. The Hall of Fame committee played a part in trying to rig a game in order for Coach Boone to get fired in order for Coach Yoast to be reinstated as head coach. This made me think, "Hmmm, I wonder if either of those NFL Conference Championship games were rigged."

5. Lastly, I never noticed subtleties in the following scenes of the movie.

Disgruntled football parent: He's not some walk-on scrub, Yoast. The boy's a player. He's a star. And he busted his butt for you. [Turns to Coach Boone] This is all your doing, you black---

Yoast: That is enough. It's my call.

Parent: Now listen.

Yoast: You just go on home now, Fred, before you do something that you're going to regret.

Doc: [Sighs] Yeah, well...I guess we won't be seeing much of him, huh?

Yoast: I will. He's on the deacon board with me.

Boone: [Laughs]

Gerry: I'm going to play basketball with Julius. Then we're going to come back here for dinner.

Mom: Gerry, if your father was still alive---

Gerry: Ma, would--just give him a chance. Just get to know him.

Mom: I don't want to get to know him. You are coming to church with your mother.

I never thought much about the underlined sentences when I saw this movie when I was younger, the irony of Gerry's mom being so committed to having her son come to church with her while wanting to keep black people out of her sight. Gerry was going to hang out with Julius, a black teammate whom she wanted nothing to do with. In the first scene, the disgruntled football parent's character doesn't quite match what you might expect in the deacon of a church either. Boone's laugh never made sense growing up until watching this movie again.

Unfortunately, this movie is still all too relevant today. Although segregation is illegal, in appearance it would seem that many people conduct their lives in a very segregated way. What might it be like if we had a Coach Boone forcing us to spend each day getting to know a brother of a different race, asking questions about their families, their likes and dislikes. There is too much hate, too much ignorance, too much talking and not enough listening.

What is discrimination like?

Zero fun, Sir.

That You May Abound In Hope

A crowd of people lined up outside. It was a chilly December morning, but they waited nonetheless. Too early for sunlight to sneak over the tall buildings of downtown Jacksonville, which made it even chillier. So many faces, stories, and expectations. Some may not have possessed home addresses, some may have been disappointed time and time again in the past, some had a criminal record, which in employers' eyes either taints or eliminates their chances. How could a job fair change the direction of one's life?

Last month, 2nd Mile partnered with the Better Together Job Fair, volunteering our time to help it run smoothly. I held a parking sign and waved it at traffic, directing them to an open field near where the fair was taking place. There were companies, businesses, lawyers, and counselors also giving their time to make sure that people were given the chance to either fill out applications, schedule interviews, or in some cases, be offered a job on the spot. Standing on the corner with my sign, I mostly just engaged with people that had yet to enter the job fair. On one occasion, a woman in a van pulled over to where I was, rolled down her window and explained with the biggest smile on her face, "I got a job!" I have friends and family that don't even look me in eyes with such familiarity and excitement, and I don't even know this woman. Oh yeah, she also won a bike in a raffle to help her get to and from work. Many others walked away from the fair, walking their bikes alongside them with newfound pride. Each one of those anticipatory faces early on, hopefully, got one step closer to the direction they were hoping. For those with a criminal record, many places of employment refuse to offer jobs, and in many cases, those released from prison end up right back in prison due to lack of opportunity for putting themselves on the right path. I commend these companies and businesses for taking chances and giving hope to people that may have been running low on any kind of hope. I've been encouraged by Roman 15:13 when hoping and praying for Max to be born which says, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, that you may abound in hope."

Connect Update

Learning about John 3:17, Christ came to save, not condemn

The new year has brought a little bit of change to our Connect Middle School Program. Firstly, I'm currently its director. Secondly, we'll be meeting every Monday and Thursday. More hours equals, hopefully, more time to help with school work and greater relationships among volunteers, students, and each other. I'm hoping to include leadership training from learning how to set up a projector to learning how to impact an entire community. Becoming servant leaders means having the right attitude, the right heart, and a right understanding of God. I hope to gain a better understanding directly from the students as to what topics they want to learn about, what questions they have about God, and how these things impact their lives outside of 2nd Mile. Thank you for those who donated Teen Study Bibles. The kids were grateful to have one to take home with them. I'm hoping this will lead to being able to do some program work outside of the program, getting them to read the word in their homes on their own.

Staff Retreat
At our annual staff retreat, we celebrated what God did in 2018 in Brentwood, as well as dreaming about the future of the ministry. With a vacancy at the permanent executive director position, we discussed what type of leader we would need to help reach our dreams of the future. Please pray as 2nd Mile navigates building a profile for the future Executive Director, searching for possible candidates, and filling the position.

Marshaun (4th grader) who attends two:fiftytwo, shooting a free throw. Check out that form!