Okay, HNB Thrift, Here we go!!!

Yesterday, i received the keys to our potential new thrift store on garden street. We are drawing up the lease now and we agree in principle on the terms. We are awaiting the city's approval as well as to the location. So you can pray for that!

Our Board of Directors met on monday night to discuss if we should pursue opening the store. We discussed the pros and cons and felt as if God had opened some doors for us to pursue this venture. We are grateful for the harvest of merchandise he has supplied already, particularly through the Estate Liquidators. We are also grateful for Kristy Sacik and God leading her to us to run the facility, for we prayed that God would lead someone to have a passion to run it and she has been wonderful.

The owner of the building, Tracy Rendina, was very accommodating to our offer and we feel like she will be great to work with as well. We have a great location. great staff and great stuff to sell. We pray that God will multiple all that we do for his kingdom work.

We are planning a painting party this Saturday, Oct. 17th from 8-4pm, so if you want to join us as we start this new venture, please do!

Thank you God!

Today was one of those days, that you are just amazed at what God is doing. A day of gladness, a day of good news! One that i want to pass on to you.

My morning, started off with a meeting with Rev. Glenn Dames, the senior pastor at St. James AME. We met for almost two hours talking about our shared passion for youth and families. I had been praying particularly for an African-American pastor to link arms with, for we desire to do gospel-centered community, which very much includes multiple races if I am reading Revelation right! We also believe that their is work to be done in our town when it comes to racial reconciliation and it is to our shame that Sunday is the most segregated day of the week.
Anyways, i was very encouraged by his enthusiasm and desire to work together. i pray that God will continue to develop that relationship.

Right after that i got a call from Kristy Sacik about our thrift store venture. We had asked her to go on a info gathering mission so we could make a wise decision as to if the thrift store really is a via income producing option for HNB. She came into the office and she was glowing with excitement. The first thing she asked me was, "what do you think the SPCA thrift store sells a month at their old location (which is where we are considering moving to)?? I said, my prayer is that it would be more than $5,000 a month for it probably wouldn't be worth all the work if it is not that high! She grins and says, they sold between $35,000-$50,000 a month in gross sales- can u believe that? I had no idea that a thrift store could produce that kind of income, but if that is really possible, do you know how much ministry we could be doing with that kind of income? That is just awesome!!!

This news coming on the heels, that we now have our 2nd estate sale pick-up this weekend, which is a very high end sale. God has already supplied a garage full of items from another quality sale and now we have another one and we haven't even made a phone call yet. We don't even have a store. we haven't even asked all the partners and churches that we know, that would be interested in donating items to our cause to give. I am just blow away.

It gets better. After that i got an email back from the mayor saying he would like to meet. He came to our pastor's prayer meeting, which is amazing that he sought us out and not the other way around. I introduced myself at that meeting and he told me to email him, but i was skeptical if he would email me back or be interested in meeting about HNB. In fact, after that i call another call from the city, that they would like to schedule a meeting next week to talk about possible partnerships with some other interested parties for a youth community center. I had been trying to work my way up the chain of city employees to talk about how the city could help us with acquiring a youth center and hadn't really gotten very far. Now, i am asked to attend a meeting that is two steps up the chain from where i was working, and they are the ones calling me.
Not every day is a day of soaring on wings like eagles, but today surely was...
Thank you God! I needed that!
I pray that it encourages you as well.
trey <><

Future HNB Thrift Store??

So we are considering making a run at opening our very own HNB Thrift Store, for God has opened some doors to make it happen. We are now asking for wisdom as to when and if we should walk through them, and make a go of it. God has provide a pipeline of thrift donations through supporters that run an estate liquidation company, as well as leaders such as, Kristy Sacik who would like to manage the store. We have a target location (pictured) on garden street where the old SPCA thrift store was, and there are some benefits to having it at that location such as: price, good donation drop off area, location on the north end of town, & the fact that people still drop things off at that location.

Please pray for the Board of Directors as we discuss this option, and if you have interest in being a part of this arm of HNB please let us know. The goal of the thrift store would be to help raise funds for the ministries of HNB, with the possibility of moving the thrift store into the future outreach center as a way to offset the center's expenses.

Our Project Home: week 2

last month we gutted an elderly man's home in cooperation with the city of titusville, which is going to replace his roof. This past saturday, we came together again to paint the inside of his house. The roof was suppose to be done, but the city was delayed due to a paperwork problem.

One encouraging note, was that one of the local neighbors was encouraged by the students work a couple weeks ago, so they decided to paint the outside of Mr. Shank's home (pictured). We were planning to do that, but it is exciting to see our work stimulate others into action as well.

We had over 30 adults and students come out for this project, so it was standing room only inside of the house at times. Thank you to: IRC Methodist, Park Ave. Baptist, Crosswalk Community, Crossroads Community, Christ Community, and Redeemer Presbyterian for coming out to help. Special thanks to IRC for providing the paint from a local paint contractor who donated it. We were able to use our "project titusville" paint supplies that we have collected from our past projects, so that was a blessing. It looks as though we are ready to serve our local community. Jesus said, "Love your neighbor as yourself" and we are working on putting those words into action.

We hope to see the roof completed in the next week and continue our repairs of Mr. Shank's home. I am also still looking for a 3-wheeled bike for Mr. Shank to ride, though it will take a miracle for me to convince him that he needs such a thing.

Our friends in Mexico

While i was in Oaxaca, Mexico we not only dedicated the building and all of the new high school students enrolled in Armonia's program, but we also got to see some of the students that we worked alongside two years ago, who are now in Mexico City, pursuing college educations. Through the help of Armonia and U.S. churches, some of these students are the 1st students of their tribe's history to ever attend college. We really do take for granted all of the opportunities we have in the U.S. and it is great to be a part of serving a ministry that desires "justice for the oppressed" and to "make things right" in honor of our redemptive King.

We did also plan our next summer missions trip back to Oaxaca, which now thanks to the student residence hall that we helped build, we can now take up to 60 adults and students next summer. Our goal is to have several churches from Titusville join us, as we look to build either another residence hall or a community center in Oaxaca. The dates for the trip are June 17-26th 2010, so mark it down if you are interested.

Mexico: one building complete

I just got back from a 7 day trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, which was a medical/construction trip dedicated to serving a ministry called "Armonia" which is where I took a team 2 summers ago to work on the foundation of the building shown. I was very excited to see it completed and I am sure my students would be excited to see it as well. Armonia is a ministry to the poor of Mexico, which has had a great influence on my understanding of how to care for the poor as well as my desire to build community here in Titusville.

The building shown houses 48 high school students of indigenous indians of different tribes within Mexico. You may not know that Mexico is the most diverse country in the world, with over 340 different languages spoken outside of Spanish. With that comes severe discrimination of the indians within their own country. Armonia's goal is to offer these students a chance to be able to go to high school and onto college as well, with the goal of changing their culture from the inside out. It is very exciting redemptive work and we are glad to be a part of it.

Youth Pastors prepping for SYATP

September marks one big event that local youth pastor work together on and this year is no exception. See You At The Pole (SYATP) is a national day of public prayer in schools and our local yp network helps to put on a local youth rally as well. this year SYATP is wednesday, sept. 23rd and this year's rally is going to be held at Park Ave. Baptist Church at 7pm. So far, we have these churches committed to attending: Park Ave, IRC Methodist, Crosswalk Community, New Venture, Christ Community, Crossroads Community, 1st Baptist downtown, St. Gabriel's Episcopal and Redeemer Presbyterian. We are hoping for several others and we are excited to come together for a night of worship, prayer and encouragement. We long to see some great things happen on our local campuses and our prayer is that SYATP will be a launching pad for that very thing!!!

Our YP network meets the 2nd & 4th friday of every month at Sunrise Bread Company at 8:30-10am. One of my goals is to help local ministries thrive, as well as help them work together for the benefit of the kingdom work here in Titusville.