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."