The Lovewell Center

LOVEWELL CENTER NEWS:

We are so excited to be writing this email to you, as we have INCREDIBLE news to share with you, our volunteer family:

Over the last 60 days we have been raising funds for The Lovewell Project.

Our goal was to raise $100,000.00 in 60 days!

As we began 60 days ago, we prayed that a GOD SIZED thing would happen for The Lovewell Project in our city and that we would be able to give ALL glory to Him, no matter what the outcome!

We are excited to announce that the grand total of The Lovewell Project was $120,000.00!!!

This is an amazing thing that God has done!! We are so blown away by His provision and by your involvement in helping this all come true.

We want to thank recording artist Mercy Me for being the encouragement we needed and for supporting The Hub through this project! We also want to thank EVERY SINGLE PERSON who gave towards the project. No matter what amount you gave, you will forever be a part of changing our city and will be a part of The Lovewell Center’s story. God used your giving and your excitement to do something we never imagined possible! Glory to Him for EVERYTHING that He has done for the “least of these”.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU if you gave, promoted, retweeted or passed along this project! We will never be able to communicate our gratitude and excitement!

We will keep you updated on news about The Lovewell Center. We will begin the process of purchasing the property over the next few weeks and would GREATLY APPRECIATE your prayers!

We are beginning our process of remodeling this month. If you are in the construction business or know people who are and would like to donate your time or services, PLEASE let us know! We are also still raising money to pay for the remodeling!

God is good. We give him all of the glory for what He has done.

Cassie Hammett
The Hub: urban ministries

photo

Broadmoor Students standing at intersection raising money for the Lovewell Center!

THANKSGIVING IN THE BOTTOMS

This Thanksgiving we have decided to move our festivities to an area of the city known as “The Bottoms”. This neighborhood is suffering and in need of so much! There is extreme generational poverty happening there, and for the most part, this neighborhood is overlooked.

We have decided to begin pouring into this neighborhood, STARTING WITH THANKSGIVING!!

We will first of all be looking for volunteers to come and love on this neighborhood with us.  As a volunteer you will be able to help serve the food, pass out donations and have one on one conversations with those who attend.

We are going to be in need of A TON of food! We are allowing you to be a part of providing a home cooked Thanksgiving meal for the people of The Bottoms.

Here is the food list that we are needing for our Thanksgiving Meal:

200 servings of :

meat (turkey, ham)
veggies (your choice)
bread
dessert

For each category of food, you can choose what specific food you prepare.  For meat you can bring turkey or ham, for veggies you can bring any choice of a vegetable and for bread you can bring any type, rolls, sliced bread, french bread…etc.  All we need to know is how many servings of each you are able to bring!

You do not have to sign up to provide for the full 200 servings. You can sign up to provide as many as you like of whatever food you are comfortable with.

The food needs to arrive cooked and still hot if possible.  You can bring it in whatever container you need to and we will pour it into our foil pans.

There will be a drop off time on the day of the event that we will make you aware of in the next few weeks.

We greatly appreciate all of you who have helped us serve holiday meals each year. A home cooked meal is such a big deal to a family who hasn’t had one in a long time.

Click on the link below to sign up to serve or to prepare food:

https://thehuburbanministries.wufoo.com/forms/thanksgiving-in-the-bottoms/

If you have any questions about this event or providing what’s needed, please feel free to email us at serve@thehubministry.com.

Thanks for being an incredible family of volunteers!

Cassie Hammett
The Hub: urban ministries
www.thehubministry.com

STORIES

From the beginning of time God has used stories to teach, encourage and challenge.

Reading through His word you see one amazing story after another:  God sends His son to earth to save us from sin, the woman caught in adultery, the story of Martha and Mary, Jonah and the whale, Adam and Eve… this list goes on and on.

But the coolest thing about stories is….we all have one.  Each of us has a story as epic as Jonah and the whale.  If we know Jesus, then we have a story to tell.

I was reminded of the importance of this this week when working with our downtown friends.  Giving out food, clothing and necessary items does not quench each of their desire to be heard and listened to.

Often times when working in poverty we get the mentality that the people we serve will always be the way that they are.  Maybe we assign that story to them.  I believe that we often are overlooking a person’s potential for a GREATER STORY.

God has a plan for the homeless and the poor in our city.  His plan may include feeding them, clothing them and providing for their needs…but more than that it includes them knowing God’s story for their lives.

The poor can be set free, they can be redeemed, and THEIR STORY CAN BE USED by God to bring others into the kingdom.

The challenge is to change our way of thinking.  A person is not a project or a mission or a check on our list…they are a person that God has designed and knows!

The Bible is full of people who came from darkness and became used by God.  God is in the buisness of using the broken for His kingdom.  That’s the story of His people.

Next time you encounter someone who is broken, in need, poor, hungry and lost…

LISTEN…they have a story to tell.

We want to hear your stories of serving!  What have you learned from working with the poor!!  What has suprised you?  What have the poor taught you?

https://thehuburbanministries.wufoo.com/forms/we-want-to-hear-your-stories/

We want to hear how God is moving!

Cassie Hammett
The Hub: urban ministries

TWO OPPORTUNITIES TO GIVE in a BIG WAY!

The Hub has two very important and very necessary ways that you can get involved over the next two months.
As a staff we prayed and talked over whether we should do two big things at one time, to which we decided that it is better to put all of the cards on the table with you, our volunteers, and our community, so that if God is moving in you to give, you will know how.

We battle with not wanting to ask too much from donors and worry about seeming like we’re begging…but God has taught us that He provides and works through His body and in order for HIm to do that we have to tell you our needs!

So here goes.

Our 2nd Annual Puttin for the Poor tournament is coming up on Saturday, October 8th at Shreveport Country Club.   It is our only annual fundraiser.  Through that fundraiser we are allowed to continue our events and programming and are allowed to grow!  We have ALWAYS had a blast at this tournament and God always provides through His people.

We are wanting to DOUBLE what we raised last year.

We need your help!!  We need golfers, sponsors and people to spread the word!

Here is a link to an online form, it’s a quick easy way to see the info about the tournament and to get signed up and payed on line!

https://thehuburbanministries.wufoo.com/forms/puttin-for-the-poor-2011/

This will give you all of the information that you need.

This tournament is VERY important to the growth and stability of our ministry!  We hope you can be a part.

The second opportunity to give and be a part of seeing God chang our ministry is through

THE LOVEWELL PROJECT

The LOVEWELL PROJECT is a project for The Hub in partnership with Christian recording artists, Mercy Me.

What an amazing opportunity this fundraiser is for us, the people we serve and for you, our volunteers.

The project is to help us purchase a larger space in downtown Shreveport to run our day shelter, pantry program, laundry facility and tutoring out of.

The craziest part is that we are trying to raise $100,000.00 in 60 days.

Here is a link to the fundraising site:

http://www.indiegogo.com/lovewell

Check out the site and BE A PART OF GIVING!

The LOVEWELL PROJECT is about loving the poor and LOVING THEM WELL!!

In order to raise such a HUGE amount of money, we are all going to have to be a part!  We ask you to give up something this month to give towards the LOVEWELL PROJECT….a meal at a restraunt, a Starbucks coffee, a shopping trip… whatever it is…we ask you to give towards what we feel is God’s next big thing for our city!

Thank you for being a group of obedient followers of Christ who are not afraid or offended when a need is brought to the table!

Cassie Hammett
The Hub: urban ministries

Community

We are overwhelmed with love for the people that God allows us to serve in the inner city.  Because of our love for them we are constantly praying and asking God to reveal what our people need….what they TRULY NEED.

God has renewed our vision for the inner city over the last few months.  We as a staff and a ministry are constantly asking the Lord what He wants us to do.  We never want to be a ministry run by our own thoughts and ideas.  We want what God wants for our city, because we know that it is GOOD and that God’s plan will bring restoration, healing and true life change.

We are so excited for the new direction that God is taking us for the fall.  He has laid out in front of us the idea of COMMUNITY.  It is a constant in our conversations, our prayers and our visions for the poor.

We feel that God is calling us to teach the poor what biblical community truly is.

Over the next few months we will begin community groups in the inner city.  They will be located in strategic places and will be led by you, our volunteers.

To understand why this is important for our ministry, let’s look at what BIBLICAL COMMUNITY truly is:

1.  LOVE.  True community is an expression of Love.  When people are in community together, they are living life together, loving each other through the high times and the low times.  It is a different kind of relationship.  It is no longer the rich serving the poor, or the “fixed” teaching the broken…it is the broken ALL seeking together the One who can heal them.  There is a sense of equality in the love and affection.

2. CONSISTENCY.  People in community with each other are consistently loving and encouraging.

3.  WORSHIP.  Biblical community is centered on chasing after the scriptures, learning about God’s heart and character and worshipping him through both the teaching of the word and singing.

4. AUTHENTICITY.  People who gather together and yet do not truly know each other cannot  rightly be called a community. The Bible commands the confession of sin, struggles and praises, which is evidence of a life of transparency.

(portions taken from the vision statement of The Village Church in Dallas, TX)

So how does this all apply to The Hub and God’s vision for the poor!!

LOVE
Through our community groups we want to foster a deeper and more God-like sense of love between the poor and the volunteers, and among the poor in their own culture.  One of the main problems on the street is acts of hate against each other, we want to see God change that.  We also want our people to experience friendship with you, our volunteers.  We want our people to know the LOVE of God and to experience that LOVE played out through community.

CONSISTENCY
People in poverty are not accustomed to consistency.  They rarely have it in their day to day lives, they travel from place to place, sleep in different places every night and meet hundreds of people they will never truly know.  We want to introduce to them something that is CONSISTENT.  A weekly gathering that they can count on being a part of their lives.  We also hope to see them learn the importance of consistency and show them that in the context of community, their participation matters!!  We want them to feel missed when they aren’t there!!

WORSHIP
Our community groups will be centered on the reading and teaching of the Word and regular gatherings for worship!  We are not building our community groups to be “need-meeting” groups.  These groups are designed to bring truth into the lives of the poor.  Each group will go through the scriptures together each week and will learn how to apply the truths that they are learning.

AUTHENTICITY
The Hub’s community groups will be a safe place for attenders to be themselves and be transparent.  For people in poverty it is very rare to be able to let your guard down.  Most have to keep a certain facade in order to survive.  This causes them to live in realities that aren’t true, and most don’t even know themselves.  We want the Lord to create a place where they are exposed before Him, and honest with each other and themselves.

We truly believe that COMMUNITY is going to be the context for life change in our city.  Our dream is to see people become whole as they are introduced to Jesus and as He begins to radically shape and change their lives.  We dream to see addicts set free, single moms given strength to continue, prostitutes leave the business, the spiritually hungry be fed, the lonely have friends….we want to see TRUE LIFE CHANGE.

The greatest prayer we have for our folks is that God radically changes them, restores them and USES them to change others lives.  How amazing that the God we serve is in the business of using broken vessels.

Through these groups we hope to see people:

Love one another (John13:34, 15:12)

Outdo one another in showing honor (Romans 12:10)

Live in harmony with one another (Romans 12:16)

Comfort and agree with one another (2 Corinthians 13:11)

Serve one another (John 13:1-20; Galatians 5:13)

Bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2)

Forgive one another (Ephesians 4:32)

Be honest with one another (Colossians 3:9)

Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

Confess to one another (James 5:16)

- Pray for one another (James 5:16)

Please be in prayer for us as we begin to flesh out what this looks like in action!  Please pray for continued vision and discernment from the Lord.

Community is a hard thing in practice, especially among people that it is foreign to.  Pray for open hearts and minds, pray for radical life change, pray for COMMUNITY in our inner city.

We are aiming to begin these groups in October or November.  We will be sending out emails with info about how to be a part of this amazing opportunity!  If you know already that you are interested, send us an email at serve@thehubministry.com.

To God be the glory for all that He is going to do.  We only hope to be empty vessels that He can fill and pour out.

Cassie Hammett
The Hub: urban ministries
www.thehubministry.com

3rd ANNUAL PUTTIN’ FOR THE POOR TOURNAMENT

It’s time to start signing up and gearing up for our annual Puttin’ for the Poor golf tournament!!

We are SO excited for this year’s tournament and can’t wait to see what God is going to do.  The tournament has been such a blast the last few years.  It is a great time to come together, have fun and raise money for
an amazing cause!

This year we are raising money to go towards a new building in downtown Shreveport.  We have completely run out of space in our current building on Texas St.  We have found a property on Cotton St. that is absolutely
perfect for our ministry!  Every dollar raised in this tournament will go towards making that dream a reality.

We will use the building for a bigger day shelter, more tutoring space for kids during the school year, a free laundry mat for the community, more showers for the homeless and office space for our staff!!

So this tournament is VERY IMPORTANT to our ministry!  We hope that you pass along the information and spread the word to get folks involved.  We want to double the amount we raised last year!

Click on the link below for tournament info and a registration online form:

https://thehuburbanministries.wufoo.com/forms/puttin-for-the-poor-2011/

The online form is a really easy way to register!  All of the details are on
that form!

We are really excited about this tournament and are asking all of you to pass
along this golf tournament info!!

Cassie
Hammett
The Hub: urban ministries
www.thehubministry.com

The poor will not always be with us.

Over the past month or so we have had the joy and priviledge of helping our people in a new way.  We have been a part of many going through rehab, getting into job programs, being set free from addicition to gambling and alcohol, finding a family through our volunteers, laughing when they haven’t laughed in a long time…  the poor in our city are beginning to live again.

This living is not dependent on their housing, their financial status or their role in society…they are beginning to live again because they have a community that believes in them.  They are beginning to live again because they have heard and responded to the Gospel.

God is beginning a new season in our ministry.  We have hit a new level.  We never imagined that we would get to walk with so many of our precious people into a new way of life.

It brings up a new hope in us that, in fact, the homeless can be restored.   It brings us a new peace that God has a plan for their lives beyond the darkness they now live in.  We see each person who comes into our ministry through new eyes.

They are not too far from God’s grasp.  They are not too far from recovery.

All they need is consistent friends, encouragement and accountability.  They need the church now more than ever before.  They need to hear the truth and they need to see the truth lived out.

Through The Hub, those in poverty that we reach are learning what it is like to live in community.

We currently are in the process of getting 8 people housing.  We know that that isn’t a HUGE number, but for us it is a GIGANTIC victory.  Not only are they getting housing, but they sign a covenant with us to attend recovery meetings, Christian counseling, to serve hours giving back and to attend classes and trainings that will help them build their future.

It is an amazing thing.

Thank you to all of you for sticking it out with us!!  Thank you for all of your prayers and for all of the time and energy that you pour into our events and the individuals we serve.

We found a website that further fueled our fire to see POVERTY ENDED in our city!!  We know that it is a big task to ask God to do, but we also know that with God, ALL THINGS are possible.

Check out this link:

http://notalways.live58.org/

God is on the move in our world and in our city.

We encourage you to jump in and play a part of Him setting our city free from poverty, both physically and spiritually!

Cassie Hammett
The Hub: urban ministries

Inconvenient.

I have learned that if we want to live like Jesus, truly live like him, it’s going to take some hard work.  It is not an easy task to love the way that Jesus would love.

Something that God has shown me is that living life with broken people is never going to feel natural… the phone calls are never at the right time of day, the situations are never easy to wade through, the timing is NEVER convenient…etc.

Being available to be used means that you are opening yourself up to being inconvenienced.

Sometimes we miss being used by God to do something miraculous because we don’t allow for interruptions and inconveniences.

Jesus Raises a Dead Girl and Heals a Sick Woman

²¹ When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. ²² Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. ²³ He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” ²⁴So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. ²⁵ And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. ²⁷ When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸ because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

³⁰At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

³¹“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

³² But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³ Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

³⁵While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”

³⁶ Overhearing^[c]what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

³⁷ He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. ³⁸ When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. ³⁹ He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” ⁴⁰But they laughed at him.

After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. ⁴¹ He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). ⁴² Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. ⁴³ He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.”

Mark 5:21-43

Jesus did not become annoyed or anxious about the request of the woman to be healed in the midst of his path…he knew that Jairus’s daughter’s life was at stake…. but He also knew that He had the ability to both heal and save a life.

We need to learn to surrender our schedules, our energies and our abilities over to Jesus.  He wants to use us in the lives of those around us.  Sometimes we don’t see that because we avoid at all costs getting distracted from our to do lists or being interrupted.

Jesus is able to redeem all that we have and accomplish all that needs to be done if we will only surrender it all to him.

So, while loving the broken is rough at times, tiring (emotionally and physically), uncomfortable and inconvienient…it is what God has wired and designed us to do.  Done in the power of Him, it is down right exhilarating.

WHAT IS POVERTY?

Some of you may have seen this video before but we wanted to share it with you guys again!  We love this message because it speaks to what we believe the truth is about poverty!

Poverty is not only defined as a lack of financial or physical resources.  A person is poor when they have no one, when no one notices them or cares for them.  The people we serve in our inner city are in need of friendship and community before anything else.  They need to know that they are loved and that someone believes in them.

We found the following quote on a blog:

“The thing that I think I’m dreading the most about being homeless is not being hungry, dirty, tired, or broke. I really think the thing I’m dreading the most is the loneliness. I assume it will be very lonely since no one ever looks a homeless person in the eye if they can avoid it, much less do people talk to the homeless.
I’m a very social person, and the thought of going days or weeks or, God forbid, months without having a real conversation with someone is worse to me than any other part of homeless life I can imagine. Being hungry, dirty, tired, and broke wont make me go crazy, but not having human contact just might.”  –anonymous blogger

What a glimpse into what poverty really is.  Without friends and family, housing, a job and other “successful” things seem empty.

This concept of being known makes me think of the story of Hagar in the bible. 

The story goes that Abraham and Sarai had been told by the Lord that they would be parents to many descendants…but both had reached a very old age…it seemed impossible.  So like most of us do when we feel that God is taking too long, Abraham and Sarai took matters into their own hands.

Hagar was an egyptian slave in the house of Abraham and Sarai.  Abraham conceives a child through her at the request of his wife Sarai.  They saw no other way to have descendants than through someone else.   After Hagar concieves, bitterness begins to form between Sarai and Hagar.  Sarai asks Abraham to take care of the problem, to which Abraham says “Your slave is in your hands, do with her whatever you see fit.”   The Bible then says “Then Sarai mistreated Hagar so she fled from her.”

Let’s read starting here:

The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

   “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

 Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” ¹⁰The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”

 The angel of the LORD also said to her:

   “You are now pregnant
   and you will give birth to a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
   for the LORD has heard of your misery. 
He will be a wild donkey of a man;
   his hand will be against everyone
   and everyone’s hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
   toward all his brothers.”

 She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”  That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.”

This is the first time in scripture that God is named. (NOTE: by an egyptian slave girl…not a shiny religious person who had it all together…God is named first by someone who is broken, alone and at the end of her rope)

  He was the “God who sees” to Hagar and He is the God who sees to us and the people we serve.

For Hagar, it was life changing that God’s eyes were on her and saw her, that He cared about her situation and that He had a purpose for her.

God sees the poor and the lonely.   He sees the broken and the homeless.   He cares about their lives and has a purpose for each one.

He is asking us to see people…truly see people. 

The poor need to know that they are seen by God and by us who love God.  Ask the Lord to break your heart for the broken and ask Him to see how he sees!

We encourage you to be a friend to someone in need this week.  Don’t be overwhelmed by their physical need and what needs to be done to fill it.  Be their support system.  Pray and encourage them.  Let them know that they are seen by you…that you notice them.

Thank you for your constant support and encouragement!

Cassie Hammett
The Hub: urban ministries
Director