Community Evaluation - Beaver Falls, PA

I surveyed Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania - Home of Geneva (Bible) College. Beaver Falls is an outskirt of Pittsburgh, right off of the Ohio river it is about 40 minutes North-West from Downtown, Pittsburgh and just 15 minutes East from the boarder of Ohio. This Community once rich with history, once filled with jobs, factories, communities, and wholesome families is not all of what it used to be. Although still a decent community and not too crime ridden, the poverty, unemployment, housing projects, low-income families and housing, and poor education are increasing. However, Geneva College is a light in the community offering great students studying ministry, education, business, human services and more to come into the hospitals, schools, after-school programs, community centers, clinics and more to help out! My sister graduated from Geneva with a double major in student ministries and human services and her husband graduated with a degree in the same field. Throughout her time at Geneva, Emily was able to volunteer/intern at after-school programs and an adoption center.
I surveyed students who have been living in Beaver Falls for a year or more and here is what I learned. The students nominated Beaver Mental Health Association as a great charitable/non-profit. As far as recreation, the students said that the popular things to do are go to the basketball courts or take a walk (obviously not doing much to keep the youth entertained and out of trouble). Beaver Falls Coffee and Tea (BFCAT) and Ignite were chosen as the businesses that give back. These businesses work closely with Geneva Students. The best non-profits are "Tiger Pause" (an after-school program) and "Habitat For Humanity." BFCAT was nominated as the best coffee shop as well and as a place to hang out. The top ten pressures that pose the biggest challenge in their community are:
-resources for low-income families
-sense of commuity
-teen resources
-single parent resources
-cultural tolerance (not just race either)
-crime/violence
-loneliness
-financial pressure
-substance abuse
-education
Students mentioned that resources such as an affordable grocery store would be very helpful. There is a Walmart in the next town over but it is pricey and not within walking distance.
"I am concerned about what is going to happen in the future with all the lower income families who are losing jobs with the economy in our area sucking." - Geneva Student

Linda Evers

Linda Evers was our wonderful guest on Tuesday, April 20. Linda is an attorney! Linda is employed by Stevens & Lee. She is a shareholder or attorney dealing with Energy Law - energy, regulatory, and public utilities. Stevens and Lee have offices in Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and Reading. Linda Works in Harrisburg. What makes Linda so awesome (outside her carrer) is her love and passion for Jesus and her servants heart. Linda is a member of Glad Tidings Assembly of God in Reading, PA. she works with reading to provide 'pro-bono' services for people in need. She is not only working with the legal project there, but helping to organize the counseling and coaching center (legal and financial counseling), the adult literacy center, and the health clinic in the making! It was great for us future church leaders to hear from linda because legal advice and life coaching is a great resource and ministry that all churches should try to get their hands on!

Jason Lamer and Youth Alive

Jason's heart and passion for youth was sparked at a young age. People were impressed with his youth and their passion to worship. Jason began to recognize that God has big plans for him in Youth Ministry. Jason now heads up Youth Alive in the Penndel district of the Assemblies of God and brings teams and assemblies into public schools to reach the kids for Christ. The team goes and does the 7 project. The idea is that the seventh step is accepting Christ. The team brings basketball stunts and skate shows to catch the attention of the youth. The performers share their testimonies and the school assemblies are based on 'doing the right thing.' The school assembly is followed up by inviting all the youth to an evening event where they can present the gospel. The different ministries of Youth alive are:
1. Prayer (prayer zone partners)
2. Campus ministries - raise up students that are challenged and resourced to share their faith.
3. Campus clubs
4. seven project - school assembly
Jason gave us steps/advice for preparing a youth outreaches:
1. Network/ identify the team.
2. Serve/ identify the need(s).
3. Disciple/ identify the teens.
4. Plan/ identify the how to.
5. Evangelize/ identify the opportunities.
6. Resource/ identify the helps.
7. Grow/ identify the person (You).

The idea behind 7.0 is a 7.0 earthquake. Your ministry, your effort, how far does it reach and how long does it last?

Toy Trade & Give Away

I was not able to visit any Church Based Community Organizations, but the Toy Trade and Give Away at Christian Life Assembly of God in Camp Hill, PA sparked my interest. My church and the Network of Hope do 'Give A Gift' every year, but this depends on donations of new toys and is only for low income families. For this ministry, people from the church donate toys that their children do not use anymore, The toys are cleaned and made back into great if not perfect condition, all of the toys are organized by age and gender, and the event happens each year in December just in time for Christmas. Anyone can come and receive 5 tickets per child, however, Single parents and families in more need get to go first. This awesome ministry is focused on giving, and allows parents give presents to their children on Christmas morning, who otherwise would have nothing to give. This is a ministry I would definitely encourage churches to start. This costs next to nothing, they provide cookies and hot beverages, and a man from their church even donates batteries for the toys every year! With enough help and great donations, this event is an easy way to show Christ's love and spread loads of joy!

The Harris Family

The Harris family from Christian Life Assembly of God in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania visited our class on Tuesday, April 6. Curt and his wife Candace both work at the church. Candace is on staff as the Women's Pastor and Curt is the Missions Director. Two of their three children are students here at VFCC. Christian Life AG has about 3,000 regular attenders and more than two dozen ministries. Basically, any area of ministry that fits their congregations needs and passions, they have it. Curt is in charge of keeping his church missional, organizing overseas missions, and supporting career missionaries as a church. The Harris' are actually getting ready to send their daughter, Brittany to China as a Missionary Associate! Candace is in charge of so many projects as the Women's Pastor. Some of Christian Life AgGs ministries include The Crave Young Adult Ministry, Student Ministries, Family Ministry, Men's Ministry, Women's Ministry, Children's Ministry, Royal Rangers, MPact, Bible Quiz, Visitation, Life Groups, Counseling, Women's Softball, a scrap-booking group, Moments for Moms, Toy Trade & Give Away, Quilt 'n Share, Celebrate Recovery, Fine Arts (music, media, and drama), and Project Assist. The love of Christ and obedience to the call is so evident in this faithful family. It was such a blessing to hear from them.

Tim Siminski and Berks County Children and Youth

Child abuse happens, and sexual abuse to children is happening more and more. Tuesday, March 30, Tim Siminski was in our class to discuss this issue with us. Tim leads the Investigation of Child Maltreatment Team of Berks County Children and Youth Services. He works mainly with sexual abuse. I can't even imagine all of the stories and the toll this takes on Tim after working there for 22 years! Tim was discussing with us all of the issues and procedures for church's and ministries. Child sexual abuse happens in church, even though we don't like to think so, it does. However, out of all of the denominations and fellowships, Tim said that the evangelicals are the best equipped, easiest to work with, and first to admit an issue. Further than the Evangelicals Pentecostals specifically and even the Assemblies of God are the most aware and cooperative in dealing with this issue, this was good to hear. When leading a church or ministry we should obviously do everything we can to prevent this with the proper courses and clearances for our leaders, however we also should know the procedures to take if this should happen in our ministry. I was glad to learn a lot and feel it is important that we are equipped in this way.

Pastor KR Mele and Family Life Church

Tuesday, March 23 Pastor KR Mele joined us in our class to share about his ministry and what lead him to where he is today. KR grew up just outside of Pittsburgh, PA, not in a Christian home. He gave his life Christ at the age of 21. KR has his degree in Business and owned/managed a couple of businesses before coming on staff at Sarver Assembly of God in charge of children as well as administrating their Christian school. After some time there God called KR back to the State College area in Central Pennsylvania where he attended college at Penn State University. From there God called him to plant a church in that same area. Pastor KR has been at Family Life Church in Penns Valley, PA for the past six years. The church meets at the Penns Valley Intermediate School in Spring Mills. Pastor KR's current church has been involved with many cool ministries, however the coolest thing, a ministry KR began, is Light the Night. Light the Night is a ministry to reach out to our communities on Halloween rather than hide ourselves. KR's logic says, Why would we turn off all of the lights and hide in the basement on the one day of the year everyone in our neighborhood comes knocking on our door asking us for something. Light the Night is set up like a 'mini-fair' in a yard of someone form the church. A church can have as many sites as they can handle. The sites have food, games, candy, an introduction to the church, a gospel message for kids with puppets, and most importantly, plenty of light, as to not make it a dark scary place, but a warm, happy, welcoming environment. My church started doing Light the Night the year after KR thought of it and we have done it in my yard for the past five years, I love it. At first we received some disagreement from some of our church body about whether doing this outreach would just be justifying the celebration of halloween, but after the success and progress of the first year, mostly everyone came around to the idea. Light the Night is a great ministry, if you do not already participate, present the idea to your church!

Jack Belin Feeding The World

We were privileged to meet Jack Belin on Tuesday, March 16 an Assemblies of God missionary working with The Convoy of Hope. Jack grew up in the pentecostal church, he says he doesn't remember a time in his life when he wasn't serving God and received his call at the age of five years old! I can relate to Jack because my parents were very active in children's ministry and many other ministries in the church. I was at the church Sunday - Saturday, it was my second home. I grew up with the view that ministry is not an option, I feel so blessed to have grown up with such great parents who instilled a good foundation in me, I am sure Jack feels the same way. Jack is a graduate of Valley Forge Christian College, he attended the school back when it was Eastern Bible Institute. Jack married his wife, Georgia and they pastored in Pennsylvania before they served for a while as missionaries in Bolivia. God did a lot in Jacks hear at that time and changed His life. In Bolivia Jack worked with the unloved, with the hungry, disease, and prisoners, they even started a school for prisoner's kids as well as a ministry school for prisoners. Jack understands the worlds need in a greater way than most people. He is now the Director of the World Food Program with the Convoy of hope and travels all around the world providing food for the hungry, and of course providing them with the opportunity to know the Bread of Life and the Living Water. Jack doesn't view the church as a building, but as a body of believers, and says "Any church that does not lead people to Jesus has no right to call itself a church." His number one ministry is love, he talks about the kind of love in the Bible we know as agape, the way we should love unconditionally how Jesus does.

The Network of Hope

I have been blessed throughout my life with the friendship of Deana Leone. A close family friend from church, Deana is the Executive Director of the Network of Hope. Started in 2002 by Pastor Jeff Leake and Allison Park Church, The Network of Hope is an intra-church, community, non-profit organization reaching the city of Pittsburgh. Though started in 2002 and made known by their great assistance in the floods of 2005, NOH has grown, changed, and shaped into the organization that it is today. NOH is an intra-church foundation because they do not function individually. NOH currently partners with eight churches across Pittsburgh to reach their communities. By this I mean, NOH is not free standing, nor do they desire to be. The effectiveness of their ministry has been brought about by their desire to help churches reach out to the specific needs of their community in as many ways as possible. Primary hardships that NOH is actively bringing assistance to include addiction, low income, hunger and food insecurity, and lack of childcare. They are meeting these needs through, recovery groups and recovery homes, practical helps, food banks, and youth enrichment. NOH works to find solutions for problems and needs of the people in the community. Each of the eight churches partnering with NOH has a site director, someone who attends the church and is not on paid staff with NOH, but employed by their church. They like to consider all of their dedicated employees staff, not just the few paid ones. On the board of NOH there is the executive director, pastors, bankers, accountants, consultants, a lawyer, and a licensed counselor. NOH is a 501(c)3 and an approved member of United Way. They are also funded by tax-deductable donations, churches, businesses, fundraising events, grants, and gifts in kind. The churches often individually raise funds for events or ministries specific to their community. NOH is powered by dedicated volunteers, over 500 a year! Site coordinators for church partners are selected both by leaders of the church and by NOH, these leaders then go through a training for their position. The goal of the Network of Hope is to promote lasting change. Their website is full of great information and media, so please visit http://www.networkofhope.org/

Shining Stars - Therapeutic Riding Ministry.

Honestly, I was really scared, frustrated, and disappointed when I realized who are guest was in class on Tuesday, February 23. I hate horses. Okay, I understand that hate is a strong word, but I really don't like them. However, as Brandy Grago began talking about her Therapeutic Riding Ministry, I became captivated and amazed by all the amazing ways God is using her and the ministry. It was actually very comical and comforting for me when she mentioned a man from her church who won't go anywhere near the horses, but helps with the ministry, also the fact that she was accepting of him, even though he dislikes horses was comforting. God gave brandy a gift, riding and taking care of horses, then He came into her life and gave her a vision. Though the vision was vague, and seemed like a huge feat for her, she accepted the call and was obedient to God! Brandy has been blessed with so many gifts, along with being a woman of God, she is an entrepreneur. The ministry is called Shining Stars - therapeutic Riding Ministry, they meet at Freedom Valley Worship Center in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Ministry is non-profit and they do what they can to help out as many people as possible, all staff are volunteers! They raise funds by networking in the community and in the horse community. Funds are always tight especially with their planning to build an indoor facility to be able to serve in all seasons. Therapeutic riding is for disabled people of all ages. Research shows that the stimulation of the movement of the horse is healthy for them and helps that grow in advance in many areas! Shining Stars now serves 95 students! It is important to reach the disabled people. 95% of disabled people are unchurched, this is a way to reach them!

Pittsburgh City Outreach: Pastors Brian Bolt and Jonathan Schafer

On Tuesday, February 13, I was also able to catch up with some friends of mine, Pastor Brian and Pastor John. They are pastoring Church plants, planted by my home church, Allison Park Church. The Church Plants of Allison Park are near and dear to my heart because When I was 12 years old, My family transitioned out of APC to start Ridgewood Assembly of God, in my Neighborhood, West View. Over a year ago, Ridgewood was in need of a new Pastor and Chris Hezlep from another Church plant, Evangel AG came to join us along with most of his congregation, and left his church building and the rest of his congregation to Pittsburgh City Outreach, who were in need of a place to meet. This building on the North Side of Pittsburgh was in a great location for Brian's Ministry. This is where my connection with PCO started. I quickly found myself in love with both churches and actually attending both churches services sunday morning. I love helping out every summer with the kids camp at Pittsburgh City outreach. The ministry of PCO is to reach the lost hurting, poor, broken, and addicted people of Pittsburgh. Pastor John is now planting their second church in a part of Pittsburgh called Braddock, where he grew up. These churches don't jsut have a building where they have sunday morning services, they have a women's and Men's recovery homes, where drug and alcohol addicted people, or people who have had trouble with the law and typical family system can go and find refuge and restoration in Christ. It is so cool to have been able to witness first hand people set free from addictions and have restored relationship with family members including regaining custody of children! Brian and John both came from messed up situations, both former drug addicts, they are faithfully following God's call to reach out and help people who are in the same situations they used to be bound in.

New Jersey's Chaplain Daniel Schafer

On Tuesday, February 16, 2010 we had the honor of spending time with Chaplain Daniel Schafer from Jackson, New Jersey in class. Chaplain Schafer is the pastor at Calvary Assembly of God in Highstown, NJ in Jackson, New Jersey, but that is not all he does. He is a Chaplain for the Police and Fire department and he the President of Pres of Crisis intervention Intl. LLC. Chaplain Schafer received training for terrorist activity in New Mexico and is active in the National center for crisis management. If anyone knows how to minister through high stress situations and disaster, it is Pastor Daniel. He learned a lot of how to have an effective ministry to those in distress through reading the Bible. Pastor Daniel says that there is a lot of distress in the Bible and many examples of how God takes terrible situations and uses them for His glory. His church reaches people not only through crisis. They reach out to unique groups of people who typical churches wouldn't think to reach out to, such as bikers, nascar racers and fans, Police officers, and fireman as well as their families. He is asked to do many police and fireman funerals and always presents the Gospel. Chaplain Schaer served at Ground Zero in New York City for a year! There he had to minister to families and friends of fallen police officers, fire fighters, EMTS, and others who died in the 9/11 attack. He would perform on the spot funerals when bodies were found. Pastor Daniels ministry is so effective, and we have so much to learn from him because their is crisis everywhere, and as the Word tells us, this world will only get worse from here. I really learned a lot from pastor daniel. I think it would be great for the Pastoral Counseling majors to get to hear from him.

Phoenixville Area Community Services

Phoenixville Area Community Service or PACS was founded 35 years ago by a group of Clergy was Phoenixville. Although PACS is Federal and State funded, it was these clergymen who came together because of a need. The need was the people in their community who were hungry, sick, and poor. The People that PACS serves are the "working poor." All of these people have jobs, but they still do not always make enough money to fulfill basic human needs such as food and housing. The Mission of PACS is to “Connect People in the Phoenixville area with community resources and emergency assistance.” PACS has many programs including Community Information, Referral, Advocacy for clients, Food, Rental Assistance, Fuel Assistance, and Utility Assistance. They "Offer support, aid, and hope for residents in our community” through connecting people to the appropriate resources to meet their needs, providing emergency food, housing, utilities, and medical services, assisting people to achieve economic self-sufficiency, and linking community assets with community needs. Their 2 main function are emergency care (housing, utilities) and ongoing food. The food is provided by the state and provided once a month to each client. Although Federally and State funded, a lot of the money PACS relies on comes from donations. "Without PACS, local governments would need to provide services at taxpayer expense. Organizations like PACS are more efficient and economical.” Here are Some interesting statistics to help you understand the productiveness of this organization.
- An average of 150 households receive food assistance each month.
- Most people don’t receive food regularly, only occasionally, when in extreme need.
- In the last year, PACS provided $90,747 in food, 84% was donated by the community and $35,472 for emergency housing, heat, electricity, and medicine.
- PACS connected more than 5,000 people with other aid organizations last year.

PACS relies heavily on volunteers and has only 6 paid staff members, 4 with bachelors degrees and 2 with Masters degrees. When hiring PACS would be looking for a degree or experience in social work. When hiring volunteers they look for resourcefulness. Volunteers are needed to do secretarial work, publicity, and work in the food pantry.

This information is from pacsphx.org and from my interview with Sonja Patno. Sonja is a Junior at Valley Forge Christian College studying Social Work. She got involved volunteering with PACS her freshman year and is now fulfilling her internship there.

Otto Wegner and The City of Philadelphia

On Tuesday February 2, we had Pastor Otto Wegner come and share with us. Otto has pastored a number of different churches, his main passion is urban ministries. Otto has a philosophy that poor people are easier to reach than rich people. "Money buys isolation and Privacy. You can't tell a rich man what he needs, but a poor man will tell you what he needs," says Pastor Otto. He talked about planting churches and ministries where they are needed. He talked about the changes he has seen in rough neighborhoods where he has developed ministries and seen great improvements. He says, "Why go to a neighborhood where everything is already nice? Go where change is needed." If you Cater a ministry to the needs of the people and go where the people are, the ministry will be sustained. Otto says he uses the same philosophy as McDonald's, they go where the people are who will continue to buy their products. Otto has a umber of ideas that he believes which he calls shibboleth's, according to Judges chapter 12. Pastor Otto was talking about raising support for churches and it's difficulties. Otto and his wife PAt became Assemblies of God U.S. Missionaries and had to fund-raie all of their support. They also had to fix up both churches which otto is now pastoring, Highway Tabernacle Assembly of God Church and Resurrection Life Church in Philadelphia. Otto says, "Dogs bark, lions roar, fish swim, and Christians give." Another great idea from Pastor Otto about raising support is, "if you need something, you ask until you find the person who says yes and you don't worry about the 75 who say no." This was really encouraging for me because I know a a World Missionary at least 1 year out of every 5 years of my life will be spent asking people for money in order to live and fund my ministry. Asking people for money is not easy, but it is very humbling. The advice otto gives to young minsters is, "We teach what we believe we reproduce who we are. If you do not learn to control yourself, someone else will control you."

Pastor John Brown and the G-Team

On Tuesday 1/26/10 we had pastor John Bowman in our class. Pastor John is the children’s pastor at Calvary Assembly of God in Dover Delaware. Besides serving hundreds of “churched kids” on Sunday mornings in their church services. Pastor John has a ministry called the G-team (The God Team). This ministry reaches out during the week to 400-500 “unchurched kids” of the 10,00 plus children in the neighborhoods of Kent County(mostly low income and government housing neighborhoods). The G-team travels to parks or wherever they can park their Truck. They have special trucks that convert into a stage and they do programs for the children. A gospel message is always presented, since the attendance is very irregular, kids come and go. However, there is always games and music, something engaging. Even if the kids aren’t coming to hear about Jesus, they are coming because the G-team is there. These kids know that the G-team cares and will be there. This is a place where they can go and be safe and loved; hence, the kids will keep coming. There were two things that Pastor John said which I was not expecting, yet pleased to hear. The first is that the G-team does not go out under the churches name, they do not promote their church, they promote God. Another was that They gave one of their trucks to another church in the area, not affiliated with Pastor John’s church, in order for them to use it to minister to Children. The Vision of God Team is to reach children and bring them God’s love, they will do this in anyway they can and will encourage others to as well. For more information about This ministry or to support this ministry visit giveakidachance.com

Gerry Stoltzfoos - Freedom Valley Worship Center

This Tuesday 1/19/10 we had Pastor Gerry Stoltzfoos from Freedom Valley Worship Center in our class to share with us. The thing that really impressed me about Pastor Gerry, was that despite the hurt and trials in his past, he is serving God. Another thing that I noticed, regarding these events of the past, is that many people would completely walk away from God if some of these things happened to them, but God's hand on pastor Gerry's life is so evident. It was really neat to hear how he was divinely taken from place to place in order to fulfill God's plan on his life. His journey into the ministry he has today was not typical, not what I would expect. Another sign of Gods grace and anointing is that Gerry raised a great family and his children are serving God. He pastors a fairly large church, yet he is still a very down to earth guy. His stories were encouraging and good for me to hear because although the events leading me into my ministry have been smooth so far, I know I will hit rough spots, and I will be encouraged to keep faith. Pastor Gerry's Ministry is different because his call is to reach people who have given up on church, tough call, but Gerry is obedient. When Pastor Gerry first told pastors and other leaders about his vision, he was shut down told he was crazy, laughed at, but he was faithful. Pastor Gerry is a great example of a servant in our culture.

Matthew Barnett and the LA Dream Center

I had heard of this ministry prior to class on 1/12/10 however I did not know much about it at all.
Matthew Barnett Moved to Los Angeles as a young adult in obedience to where God was leading him. He had grown up in a suburban church, wealthy and primarily white. Los Angeles was a big change for him, but he was ready to take the city for Jesus. Matthew and his team had a lot of struggles and trails at first. Their style of ministry for their entire first year ended up being mostly unsuccessful and they revamped their approach. The LA Dream Center is celebrating it's 15th birthday, and it truly has taken them 15 years to get to where they are today. This helped me to realize that developing a ministry, especially something new and unheard of takes a lot of work and a lot of time.
To get to the point where his ministry would grow, God took Matthew to a very humbling place. God actually led him to a park and used that scene as a vision to show him what his ministry would be. The people he saw there were hungry, lost, lonely, homeless, drug addicted, uneducated, naked, hurt, poor, dirty, and without Christ. God told Matthew to, "die to the dream of being a success and live to the dream of being a blessing." These were the people God had chosen Matthew to minister to. He "stopped building a society where the unsaved would come and started building a society that would go to the unsaved." Matthew made this comment about his church, "If you reach the people that nobody wants, God will give you the people that everybody wants." God told Matthew to start a 24/7 church, a church that is literally open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. He made this dream a reality by miraculously providing the funds to buy an unused hospital building. In this church, this dream center, they are meeting the needs of those people that he saw in the park . . . they are providing food, security, family, homes, rehabilitation, education, clothes, hope, jobs, and Jesus.
The main ministry that ended up being successful in meeting people where they are is, Adopt A Block. This ministry "meets peoples physical needs first." This provides opportunity for trust and friendship to be established. With a group of people "adopting" and sticking to ONE block, this allows relationships and follow through to happen. A foundational verse of the Dream Center is Nehemiah 2:10, A man came to seek after the welfare of the people.
His advice for people starting in ministry is, "Stick it out and put your roots down, dedicate yourself to the welfare of that area."
And my favorite advice,
"Use words only if you have to."