Planned Parenthood and Abortion Trends in Arizona and Texas

Here is an article worth reading re: abortions in Texas and Arizona. My favorite quote: "If Planned Parenthood truly cared about what's best for women, they wouldn't be repeatedly going to court around the nation to stop laws that allow women to make fully informed choices." This is exactly right. If abortions are a responsible choice, why does Planned Parenthood fight laws requiring pregnant mothers to hear their baby's heartbeat, see a sonogram, or find out how developed their unborn baby is? Planned Parenthood does not want mothers making their own decisions because they know that 98% of abortion minded mothers keep their babies once they see the sonogram. Planned Parenthood can't generate the revenue they need as a business if they only get to kill 2% of the babies.

Take a moment to read the article. Thank the Lord for the progress in the abortion arena. Pray for more mothers and our society in general to regain the value of human life. They are after our babies. Then they will go after the elderly who are viewed as a non-contributing drain on society's resources. Then they will go after those with physical and mental handicaps. Don't believe me? Read about world history. May the Kingdom of God prevail.

Farrington Mission's 1 Year Anniversary

Happy birthday, Farrington Mission. One year ago today, 6.21.10, NEHBC launched our physical needs mission in Houston's 5th Ward. We named the mission after Farrington Baptist Church who owned the property for 66 years before giving it to us, so that we could honor their long and rich legacy.
During our first year, we gave 1,455 families a weeks worth of food, clothed 1,091 families, taught ESL to 84 students, played basketball with 1,007 men, and met with 231 clients at the Pregnancy Medical Clinic. We fed hundreds of people a hot, Thanksgiving dinner and knocked on 100s of doors in the surrounding neighborhoods to share the gospel and publicize the mission. We also spent $150,000 and thousands of man hours improving the buildings and property. What an incredible first year...praise the Lord. All of this was done by volunteers--men and women of God living on mission. Glory to God.

When I think of our mission, I think of the second greatest commandment--that we love our neighbor like we love ourselves. That is, that we are as committed to our neighbor's well being as we are our own. That is almost as difficult to do as the first commandment. It requires practice and time to get to where we are able to love everyone we see like we love ourselves. With that in mind, I really believe the mission was given to us by God as much for NEHBC as the people of 5th Ward—to teach us how to love. The mission is our school of love. Our teacher is the Lord Jesus and our classroom, the mission. The degree program is not easy—it challenges all who enter it by forcing us to do things we don’t want to do, to see things we don’t want to see, to feel things we don’t want to feel. Feelings of helplessness, passing thoughts of hopelessness, and anger toward those who don’t have the passion you will develop in the program are common. It forces us to take a hard look at our own lives. It repeatedly asks the question of whether we truly love people until we get to the point that we know that we do. Those who graduate from this school of love will be able to go anywhere in the world and live in obedience to Jesus Christ by loving people like we love ourselves. Enroll in school.

Farrington Mission 1 Year Celebration

I am very much looking forward to the last Sunday of this month, June 26, when we will celebrate the one year anniversary of our physical needs mission in Houston. Here are some numbers from the last twelve months:

• Total families fed: 1,455
• Total families clothed: 1,091
• Total individuals in ESL: 84
• Total clients at Pregnancy Medical Clinic: 231
• Total men at basketball: 1,007

We have had a great first year and much to celebrate on June 26. Farrington Baptist Church, who gave us their church campus which we've turned into the mission will be joining us and we will honor them in the services. The Source for Women and representatives from partner churches will also be joining us. It's going to be a special time. Make plans to be in worship on 6.26.

Feed the Fifth Recap

I was very pleased with the way things went tonight. We have the names and info of ten people who prayed to receive Christ at the dinner tables in the gym and many more heard a full gospel presentation. Dinner guests were given printed invitations to the three local churches that worship at Farrington Mission as well as the regular weekly ministries. Countless stories of divine appointments are surfacing. On top of all that we fed about 500 people a hot meal for Thanksgiving. NEHBCers were everywhere loving people unlike them and serving dinner guests any way they could. A bunch of our teenagers were there directly engaging dinner guests. I thought the logistics ran much better than last year; the excellence level was certainly better. What a great night for the Kingdom of God. Glory to God. I'm proud of you, NEHBC.

To be sure, I was hoping we'd have many more dinner guests. We had less than last year. But, I'm confident it can be easily remedied in 2011. In 2009, we had a team blitzing the neighborhood during the event reminding folks the event was taking place. Next year, that team will be back.

Kudos to the team leaders for the prayer team, welcome team, cook team, food service team, and evangelism team. Kudos to the men and women who took a day's vacation yesterday or today to help set up for the event. Kudos to the prayer team who literally prayed us through the event for two hours straight. Kudos to the NEHBC police officer who showed up in uniform to protect the cars of NEHBCers during the event. His ministry was as valuable as any other. What a great night.

Feed the 5th

It's heavy on my mind today for obvious reasons. The NEHBC family coming together to play different roles all for the ultimate purpose...helping people feel and understand the love of the one true, living God who sent His one and only Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Whether it's the welcome team, the food service team, the cook team, the prayer team, the parking team, or the evangelism team, every component of the machine has to bring their A-game so that collectively the machine can make disciples tonight. I'm pumped. Last I heard we have around 120 smoked or fried turkeys besides 1200 giant links of sausage and all the sides and desserts. Everyone who signed up to serve has been organized into two shifts: 5:30-6:45pm and 6:45-8pm. Lord, we are going to lift up Your Name, would You draw all men unto Yourself as You promised?

Farrington Mission

Pray for the ministries at our Farrington Mission tonight, 6pm: ESL, clothing closet, and food pantry. Pray for volunteers to serve and pray for clients to come. Pray most of all for people to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

This morning at 10:00, folks will gather at FM to sort clothes. You are invited to join them.

Farrington Mission

I've seen reports from the food pantry and ESL ministry from this Monday night and our ministry to Houston's underpriveleged continues in the name of Christ.

The number of clients at the food pantry is rapidly growing. If you remember, prior to NEHBC taking over Farrington Baptist Church's property, their church ran a food pantry that had never serviced 100 family units in a month. With the current trend of the relaunched food pantry, we fed over 100 family units in August and this month or next month we will hit the 200 family unit mark. When you consider these numbers are family units and not individuals, we are feeding a lot of people.

This growth means we need more food. Right now we need dry beans, rice, peanut butter, and jelly. You can drop off inventory in the NEHBC lobby bin.

Our ESL ministry has up and down weeks, attendance-wise, but is trending upwards. Last week the childcare room was completely full. It's a matter of time before ESL needs more space and workers.

Most importantly, our plan to pave the way for gospel advancement is working. Christ followers are intentionally sharing their faith with those who come for food, clothes, ESL, dance, and basketball. Last week a man accepted Jesus as His Lord and Savior. Not only that, but other churches are getting involved; to my knowledge, Faith Family and two hispanic congregations from other parts of the city are now faithfully serving at FM also. This is part of the vision--for other churches to get involved in advancing the gospel through FM.

NEHBCers, the Lord is increasing His use of our church family to make His Name holy among humanity. What a privelege to be used by the Messiah to building the Kingdom of God, one life at a time. Glory to God!

Farrington Mission Fruit

Our model at Farrington Mission is to gain access to people's lives through meeting their physical needs so that we can win them to Christ and get them plugged into local churches to be discipled. Here's a story I received from Monday night:

"A woman who had been coming to the mission several times returned again last night. Stacy and Peggy both know her and had been trying to plug her into a church and had shared the gospel with her several times. She had repeatedly rejected it and seemed very much caught up in the “street” life. Monday night she came to the mission and went straight to the two of them excited to tell them that she had begun going to her sister’s church and thank them for praying for her and having the courage to share with her."

NEHBC Parents Making Disciples of Their Own Children

Here's a story I received about NEHBCers at Farrington Mission Monday night: Stacey took her son, Landon (9) down to teach him how to share his faith and disciple him. She made him walk around and try to talk to people but he was having a hard time because so many speak Spanish. He was very bold though and tried to engage in conversation with a lot of people. Later that night, being discouraged, Stacey told him about a little boy that was outside but did not have a Bible because they were very poor. His mother had just told the adults inside that she had one but could not afford to buy one for her son. Landon went straight for him and began talking to him. As they were walking out Landon chose to give the little boy his bible and the boy gave him a big hug and thanked him. The bible was significant to Landon as it had been a gift by Stacy a few years ago and had been Stacey’s childhood Bible as well. He shared the gospel with the little boy also. Glory to God.

Farrington Mission Week 2

The trickle of people started tonight. Word is getting out. It will soon be a raging river of activity. Tonight as I walked around I saw three things from the NEHBCers serving: excellence, kindness, and disciple making. When we acquired the mission and talked about the path forward, I asked NEHBC for three things at the mission: excellence, kindness, and disciple making. I’m please with how things are playing out.

The crisis pregnancy center remodel is coming along nicely. Numerous people have worked on it; 5 or 6 people are logging hours that only heaven knows about. I’ve heard that midnight and even 2am are how late these faithful few are working during the week to get the CPC ready for launch. Why? Projections are that 2,500 babies will be saved at our CPC each year; that’s 200+/month. Every day counts in the race to get the CPC up and running. At the current rate, we are probably still an aggressive 6-8 weeks from launching. The walls have been demolished and the studs for the new walls are up. Electricians will run the power this week. We still have to run plumbing and hvac. Then we have to hang sheet rock and insulation. Then we have to tape and float. Then we have to paint. Then the CPC will need approximately 14 days to move in, set up, and open for business. If you have time on a weekday evening or weekend to help with the CPC remodel, please email jaimedouglas@comcast.net. Unborn babies are counting on NEHBC!

Basketball Ministry Launches Tonight at Farrington Mission

Tonight we launch the new basketball ministry at Farrington. Previously, NEHBC men helped Farrington Baptist Church run their basketball league. It was an honor to serve another church by assisting FBC in that way.

Tonight, we debut basketball a la NEHBC. I'm already hearing rumors about FM being a registered site for the national Gillette 3-on-3 basketball tournament that takes place each February. Winners from our site will get to go to a regional location to play winners of other local sites with the possibility of advancing to play the other regional winners from around the country. Very exciting.

More exciting than that is the opportunity to build relationships with young men who have no gospel witness in their lives. Sports can often provide communication channels into people's lives. The vision for the basketball league is to see it become a conduit for the proclaiming of the gospel. May it be so.

Food Pantry Passes Inspection

Good news: yesterday the pantry at Farrington Mission passed inspection by the city of Houston. Praise the Lord.

Video Recap: Farrington Mission Launch Night

Farrington Mission Work Continues

I just received word from the mission that we have a good crew of NEHBCers working today on the remodel and renovations. I can't wait to get down there and see the changes. The Lord is truly gracious to work through these NEHBCers to prepare a place for Houstonians to be introduced to Him. Many lives are going to be changed at the mission!

I can't fully explain how God moves in people's lives

We prayed for God to call many from the NEHBC to devote one Saturday, June 5, to swarm the mission and make a dent in the massive amount of work needed to fix up the place. God answered that prayer.

We also prayed for God to raise up a group of NEHBCers who would be driven to put in the many thankless, but necessary hours of physical labor necessary to get the job done. A labor of love for God and Houston to be sure, but long hard hours nonetheless. And God is answering that prayer also. We have a group of men and women putting in serious hours at the mission--giving their evenings, taking off half days from work, and taking off full days from work to do strenuous physical labor at the mission.

I can't explain how God takes people to a point in their lives where they will work like this for the Kingdom. It can't be understood or explained with human logic. It is the work of God in their lives. It is God putting His glory on display through their lives. Through their hard work, God is announcing to the community that He is moving again in and through the mission.

I am deeply grateful for those who are getting it done down at the mission.

By the way, tomorrow and next Saturday, 8am-5pm, come and go, work days down at the mission. If you have 2-3 hours, a half day, or a full day to serve, go on down to the mission and you will be put to work. We need you.

Meeting With Tenant Churches

To those who prayed for our meeting this evening with the pastors whose churches meet in Farrington Mission, thank you. God was gracious and the meeting went very well. There was a good spirit. We were able to communicate NEHBC's vision for the mission as well as our desire to see their churches flourish. We had good Q&A. Our launch of Farrington Mission with so many ministries has meant reallocating the space of the building and that has meant major changes for the tenant churches. While change is never easy and inheriting a new landlord always creates a little uncertainty, the pastors were very understanding and I believe we are all on the same page about our mission's system of operations. The missions pastor from Sagemont Church was present for the meeting and expressed great support for NEHBC's vision and the changes we are making at Farrington Mission. To quote him, "NEHBC is the answer to ten years of prayer." All in all, I was pleased with the way the meeting went.

Tenant Churches

When we received Farrington Mission, we inherited two Farrington Baptist Church church plants that meet in the mission. This evening, Pastor Sonny and I are set to meet for the first time with the pastors of these two churches. We are looking forward to getting to know these men and hearing their hearts. We are also excited to share NEHBC's vision for Farrington Mission and to help them get on the same page with us re: the mission's future.

As NEHBC knows, our vision is for churches like these two to be birthed in Farrington Mission and develop until they can find a facility of their own at which time they will move out of the mission and we will start new churches. The ultimate end of the mission is to make disciples through church planting. So, in a sense, the church plants are tenants in our mission and NEHBC is their landlord.

The model for church planting through our mission is to create open doors into the mission that will give us access to the lives of lost people. The open doors are our ministries: food pantry, clothing closet, ESL classes, the crisis pregnancy center, basketball, dance, etc. We hope to bring the lost in through these open doors, lead them to faith in Christ, and funnel them right into the church plants meeting in the mission where they can be discipled and transformed into disciple making disciples.

We have bathed tonight's meeting in prayer and we desire for it to bring glory to Jesus Christ.

Farrington Mission (FM) Workday Recap

Today, NEHBC loved on our city by getting our mission ready for launch. A few people remarked during the workday that we are doing Extreme Makeover Farrington Edition and I suppose we are. So much work needs to be done on the mission. The Lord has given us a great facility at a great location, but like any fixer upper, much work is needed and today we made a big dent. We far exceeded our goal of 100 volunteers. Faith Family Baptist Church brought a contingency of people. I met colleagues and neighbors of NEHBCers. Thank you to all who gave today to advance the Kingdom of God. NEHBC's love for our city is strong. When the dust settles after today, we'll reassess where we are at the mission and determine the next step. In the meantime, here is a taste of what happened today:

your prayers for the mission are working

In anticipation of our big work day this coming Saturday, we had to get all kinds of work permits from the city of Houston--electrical, water, etc. When our church administrator went down to get the permits, a higher up had arranged for the heads of seven major departments to be in the room at the same time. Bill Campbell simply told them what we are doing at Farrington Mission and he was promptly issued all the necessary permits. Three weeks of permitting took less than an hour. A big thanks to the city of Houston. To those who are praying faithfully for the mission, this is an answer to your prayers. I just wanted to show you some fruit from your prayers to encourage you to keep it up...your prayers are working.

Farrington Mission Launch Update

We continue to march toward the mid-June launch of our mission in the 5th Ward. Our ministry team leaders have been selected and have their first meeting Monday night where they will be given the roster of people who signed up for each ministry. This week, team leaders will be contacting their teams re: initial meetings.

The next thirty days will be dedicated to visiting successful ministries in the city to see what makes them successful and planning and preparing for our launch.

Once determined, the weekly schedules for the various ministries at Farrington Mission will be published so that those who can't commit to weekly participation, but want to participate as they are able, can know when and where to go and whom to contact.

Don't forget these two key dates: Saturday June 5, 9am-2pm: work day. We want to make the property and facilities look like they belong to God. Saturday, June 26: Farrington Mission dedication. We plan to invite the church plants meeting in our mission as well as city dignitaries as we set aside the campus for the work of the Lord.