After a much need weekend escape to WV I hit Raleigh running this week. It has been perhaps one of the most stressful weeks of my ministry. It has involved fighting evictions, working with Social Services, temporarily shutting down the food pantry, finding a new home for MR ministries, trying to plan for the life after summer and of course a normal hectic summer week.
God has been faithful (as if there were any question). I am taking Pastor Joe to see a great location for MR. It has the potential to be a big step for MR. Closer to our people a chance for expanding the ministry including starting a counseling ministry that Kristi and I have always dreamed of having with MR.
Thank you to all who have prayed and by no means stop. the next few days and next week are going to be critical.

Last week I had one of those moments. A moment of clarity! Summer is winding down and I decide to go to Raleigh North Youth Nite. I had not been in 4 weeks so that I could be out with the teams.

I was sitting in the community center, after beasting at Candy Land, and leading 15 inner city youth in a study on Revelation. We were studying Chapter 4 and they were listening and engaged and it was just AMAZING. Then in that moment of clarity I heard God whisper, “Do you get it?” and I answered, “Yes sir.”

See teams and summer staffs are great. They help us find more kids, youth and adults to point to Jesus, but that’s not the real Mission Raleigh. The real Mission Raleigh is sitting in a community that you love and forming relationships that reflect Jesus and the relationship that He wants to have with them. It is laughing and crying with people. It is heartbreaking and rewarding at the same time. Some days it is just too easy, then some days it is just to hard. But it is what you do and you love what you do.

Thank you Jesus for The Call

The early church was married to poverty, prisons and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity.” – L. Ravenhill

GOOD STUFF

We have closed down several Mission Points over the past year and half. God has showed me clearly the results of shutting down Mission Points this past week. I am unable to really communicate the heartbreak that I feel when we have to look at the people of a community and say, “We can’t bring the Gospel to you.” It is ten times harder to look at them and say, “We must stop bringing the Gospel to you.” There is one community in Raleigh with over 300 units that we have been involved in since the second year of Mission Raleigh. While it has not been officially shut down it has only been be on one leg the past year trying to serve there.
We had a week long Kid’s Club there this past week. I had to break up fights every day as the kids were trying to impress the thugs hanging around during the club. One day I had to break up three fights in four minutes. I had to take steel pipes from youth and was even threatened by one of the youth with a steel pipe. Tears fell from my eyes as I realized that we had surrendered the ground that Christ had won there over the years. Some had to quit because there education and finished up, others had to leave because of family, some stop going out of fear, and I had not been a factor because of health. Our enemy quickly retook this precious ground and has reinforced his hold on the community. Makes me think of Matthew 12

Please pray that God will send reinforcements so that we can go reclaim that community in the precious time we have left.
Contact me at scotty@missionraleigh.org if you want more information on this subject.