Our New Home
It has been a long haul, but we have moved into our new facility, owned by our ministry partners Bridge St. Ministries. Bridge St. Ministries renovated a building just a block down the street that housed a liquor store, slum apartments and more, that exacerbated the brokenness of the neighborhood for many years.
Now it is a coffee shop in the morning, a teen center in the afternoon and a church on Sunday. Because our ministries are so closely aligned with the same goals they don't charge us a penny. We very much appreciate their partnership in the gospel. In the third picture you see the garage doors on the right side, which open into the meeting room, as needed.
The fact that this space is free to us allows us to keep overhead to a minimum, focusing our fundraising primarily to other ministry expenses.
After School Programs, etc.
This Spring has been a busy time between after school programs, neighborhood clean ups, after church lunches, and other neighborhood ministry.
Plant 616
The CrossWinds team has been working with pastors across different denominations to start Plant 616. The goal of Plant 616 is to start new churches among the urban poor in the 616 area code. We held our first conference in May, with over 50 attending. You are invited to follow the link and watch a short video explaining 616, professionally filmed through the generosity of our church planting team, the SEND network. Plant 616 Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/plant616 Plant 616 Video:
Adding Staff
Cole Popkin (center of photo) is joining our CrossWinds team. Cole focuses on sharing the gospel with neighborhood teens through the schools, youth programs and kids hanging out in the neighborhood. Pray for Cole as he is raising support for this position, even as he faithfully continues his work in the neighborhood.
Looking forward this Summer
June is going to be a busy month for ministry. Our team is partnering with Bridge Street Ministries with a program called Immersion. Immersion will take place over two different weeks, one for middle school and another high school. During this week, area teens will be learning the gospel, building relationships with our teams, and serving in the community. At the end of High School week a team of twenty or more students will be working with us to host a block party on my street. Pray for us as we build relationships and reach out to our community over June.
Thanks for taking a minute
Because of the financial limitations of the communities that CrossWinds serves, we very much appreciate those who are able to participate in our kingdom work. For you giving partners.
Thanks again for taking the time.
