How Homework helps the home work

Crosswind is a part of a group of organizations and ministries that help kids through school.  Our "Homework Club" is a service to children in the neighborhood that don't go to other programs (notably the Lighthouse, Boy's and Girls Club, Project Attention or the State after-school programs). With the help of the apartment owners (who have donated space for this ministry) and volunteers from the community, Crosswind helps children get their homework done. Also, we (with the parents permission) have access to their grades on-line, can follow their progress and be advocates with the parents for the children's success.

One of the side benefits of "Homework Club" is the relationships that are developed between the families and the volunteers.  The structured environment of State School is relaxed and this environment is more like home, in an apartment right next door to home.  And while the kids have to be respectful among other things in school, in a more relaxed atmosphere we help the children to see that these values are good for life, not just school. These values move over into home life and to catch our phrase make the 'home work'.

Additionally and most importantly, the spiritual development that cannot take place in a secular setting takes place at "Homework Club" as we care for the whole person especially the most important part, the only part that lives forever, the heart and soul.

Please take 2 minutes to get a glimpse of Homework that makes the home work.

I've got a friend I'd like you to meet

Crosswind helps folks... and in doing so we quickly learned that we didn't have all they needed.  We weren't lawyers, mental health professionals, policeman, parole officers, or bill collectors; we didn't have much money, we aren't an employment agency, we don't administer food stamps, and on and on. What we quickly realized is that we needed the community's help.  We needed relationships with people who run programs that will help us help others.  Much of our work is simply introducing people in need to people like you who can help them. "I've got a friend I'd like you to meet, maybe they can help you" is what we find ourselves saying more times than not.

More and more in my life as a believer I am finding this same principle to be true.  People want counsel or teaching or wisdom and I realize increasingly that I don't have what they need. Even being a good friend or a good husband or a dad, I just don't have the resources that the people I love need.  But, as with the practical resources above, I find myself saying over and again,  "I've got a friend I'd like you to meet, maybe they can help you". That friend's name is Jesus. He has everything I need, He is everything I need. What if being a missionary is nothing more than introducing our friends to THE friend? Isn't that what Jesus said when He commissioned us to "make disciples"? Go and tell people about a Friend who has all they need.

Gentry Parker is bringing a local missions conference to town on Friday, March the 1st.  It's free to any who attend. Come as long as you like, leave whenever you like. She is hosting it at Crosswind's ministry center here at 703 Tate. There will be a live feed with some of the most sought out speakers in the country like Francis Chan and David Platt as well as some of the best local missions practitioners and minds in the country like John Perkins, Jeff Vanderstelt and Alan Hirsch. It is for God's people who want to grow in what it means to be a missionary in their own town. It  is about how to make disciples of Jesus out of friends who need Jesus. It is for you.