Project Love

It’s hard to believe we’re at the end of another year, of life, of knowing Christ, of doing Project Love.

When Project Love starts back on Jan. 17, 2009, it will be a momentous occasion — marking five years since North Side volunteers opened the doors of the Emerald Center gym to children between the ages of 6 and 12. We’ve ministered to hundreds of children, experienced numerous children come to know Jesus and it has been done alongside many members of the North Side family.

More about that shortly, but first I want to talk about the upcoming training event for Project Love volunteers on Jan. 11, 2009. Immediately following the 11:15 a.m. worship service that day, lunch will be provided to all who attend in conjunction with the Connect event in the Fellowship Hall.

After we eat, we’ll adjourn to the chapel for about an hour’s worth of training that should be beneficial not only to the volunteers, but also to the children in the way we carry out the ministry.

Too many times, people wander into the Family Life Center wanting to help at Project Love and get lost in the shuffle as the program is carried out. The training on Jan. 11, I hope, will give people a nuts and bolts look at how Project Love works each week and what is required to carry it out.

There are no limitations on who can attend — former volunteers, current volunteers or those who desire to be a volunteer in the coming weeks and months are welcome to have lunch with us and attend the training — the program won’t last more than an hour and we’ll adjourn at 2 p.m.

I encourage you to come — attendance can’t be termed “mandatory” in that we’re dealing with volunteers and make no mistake, volunteers led by the Spirit of God are at the heart and soul of this ministry.

We just need to know ahead of time if you plan to come. You can call the church at 229-6010 and let Norma Jean know, you can call me at 980-2911 or e-mail me at rickh@northsidebc.org

We need to have a count by the middle of next week if possible, so the sooner you let us know, the better.

As for the 5-year anniversary celebration, I encourage any and everyone who has been part of Project Love to attend that day. We’ll celebrate the Glory of God and His provision during the past five years and we want members of the NSBC congregation to join us in full force.

If you’ve prayed for a Project Love child, prayed for the ministry, picked up a stocking and filled it for Christmas, gave a Christmas gift sponsorship, volunteered your time or made it possible for someone else to do so, I earnestly ask you to join us on Jan. 17.

This event will not be intended to praise anyone other than Jesus, who has made such an impact on the lives of these children and their families.

Join us on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009 from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in the Family Life Center. You’ll be glad you did.

Happy New Year!

Rick Hendricks

Feeding children at Project Love Christmas Bash

Miss Marilyn teaches lesson during Bash

Pastor Jeff spoke to children and their parents

Parents joined the children's service to hear the message

Mr. Rick, Miss Joyce and Miss Elaine distribute gifts and stockings to children

The gifts and stockings keep coming

Pictures, they say, are worth a thousand words and that was never truer this past Saturday as the fifth Project Love Christmas Bash took place.

I don’t know how many people I’ve heard comment about the looks on the kids’ faces amid what some might have viewed as utter chaos, but to those of us who minister to those children and their families on a regular basis, it was comparable to what the harps of heaven must sound like.

Joyce and I asked God to show up big last Saturday, as if there was any doubt He would. From Doug and Nate on the grill to Emalie signing in parents for our adult program in the Fellowship Hall to everyone gathering in the FLC to hear a lesson on receiving the gift and on and on, God worked in a mighty way.

When you have an event of this size, to single anyone out is risky, but there are a few folks who I would like to publicly thank — Gina Wagoner for her tireless efforts in handing out stockings, collecting them and signing up people for gift sponsorships, to my wife Joyce for her commitment to making sure Project Love, and in particular the Christmas Bash, goes off as organized and well-run as possible, to Jeff Lethco for his backing of this ministry and participation in what’s being done, to Doug and Kim Pierce for committing themselves to feeding the kids every week — even when we’re expecting 200 people! And then there are those in the trenches who simply just do what the Lord is leading them to do and that’s serve — Marilyn Amick, Anne Brewer, Elaine Davis and Kay DeBlaey certainly fall into that category. And then there are our new friends and partners in ministry — Brian and Carmen Rackley, who assisted with putting the gift bags together Wednesday, decorating the FLC Friday night and doing whatever was necessary on Saturday. The young people of our church have seemed to catch the vision of Project Love in recent months and their willingness to show up and hang out with the kids on Saturdays has been amazing to watch.

I’d also like to again offer a word of thanks to Rick Brewer, Dennis, Robert, Gay and Ricky Horne for setting things up for us and cleaning up after us. It would be difficult to pull off this ministry without their support.

I guess you could say it takes a small Army to make Project Love come off every week and it’s incredible to see how God works through this ministry in so many ways.

We’re off until Jan. 17, when we’ll mark the fifth anniversary of Project Love — watch in the coming days for more information about that and other plans we have for the New Year.

Rick Hendricks

Christmas Bash is near

Perhaps my greatest joy as a Jesus follower, other than the fact that one day, I’ll spend eternity with my heavenly Father, is watching Him work while we lowly believers think we’re actually doing something for Him.

I’ve learned, time and again, I’m afraid, that God doesn’t need me — He doesn’t need anyone to accomplish His purposes and His divine plan. And yet, He allows us to play a role in His work, even though we’re not worthy of the price He paid for us on the Cross.

But He doesn’t care about that — we can’t outgive God, as they say, but we can make a good run at putting someone else before ourselves, particularly during the Christmas season.

That’s what Project Love has been leading our congregation to do over the last several weeks and my goodness, our people have responded in a big way!

Several weeks ago, we made stockings available for people to take and fill up with items for the Project Love children. All the stockings were gone that first Sunday and they are being returned filled to the seams and more. The deadline for turning in those stockings, by the way, is this Sunday, Dec. 7.

If you can’t get to church Sunday, but want to turn in your stocking before the Christmas Bash, bring it to the church office on Monday. The office is open from 8-5.

We’ve also given the people the opportunity to take an ornament from a tree, pray for the child listed on that ornament and make a contribution toward a gift for a Project Love child.

Your response, I believe, would make Jesus smile as our goal of 200 gift sponsorships is about 16 sponsorships short of being a reality. I know God will make it happen.

We’re expecting well over 100 children at the Christmas Bash and we know that about 60 people have signed up for the parent/guardian program that we’ll be having at the same time. We’re going to need lots of volunteers that day — the program will be extended to 11-1 to allow us to get everything in.

We’ll also be in need of prayer leading up to that day. Please pray that God will begin to stir the hearts of those who will be in attendance that day, for strength and patience for our volunteers and that the love of Jesus will be shared with all who come into our midst.

On behalf of the children and their communities, Joyce and I thank you for caring. Thanks for being the church during this period of celebration of Christ’s birth.

Rick Hendricks

Behind the scenes

As we near this Christmas season and Project Love winds down for the year, I want to take just a moment to reflect on what continues to make this ministry strong.

Certainly God and His provision for anything we’ve needed over the past five years, plus the “Love” part of the ministry’s name that is shared with the children week after week.

What might get neglected sometimes — I’m as guilty of it as anyone else — is how important volunteers are in the life of this ministry. There are those who are regular participants in the main program and take an active role in being “in front” of the kids.

But there are just as many, if not more, who are involved in the “grunt” work of the ministry, who ride buses, who fix food, who serve food, who register the children, who visit their families during the week, who arrange for volunteers and participants in the program, who prepare the A/V slides, who run the A/V equipment and make sure the right music or playing or right words are displayed or that the correct slide for the Life Story is on the screen for the person who’s telling it.

I could go on and on, but that gives you a thumbnail view of the different people in the background of Project Love who will never get any recognition because they don’t want any. These types folks, to me, are the backbone of the ministry and closest to the heart of Jesus.

Jesus didn’t want recognition — what He desired and what He worked toward every day of His ministry was for people to seek the kingdom of God, to heed His words and turn away from the ways of the world and follow His example. He didn’t hang around the scribes and Pharisees, who sought out those who had gone astray — prostitutes, tax collectors, adulterers, murderers, thieves.

Most of our Project Love volunteers aren’t after recognition either, but rather desire to give of themselves to someone else.

And here, less than a week before Thanksgiving, I want to take the opportunity to thank the many volunteers who help Project Love happen Saturday after Saturday. I don’t get to talk to everyone who shows up from week to week, I regret to say, but I make a point of trying to meet everyone when they first walk through the doors.

Many might see Project Love as a thankless task — I don’t view it that way — I think we can give thanks to God every time He allows us to partner with Him to grow the kingdom and we can be thankful for the many blessings He has poured out on us because we’ve remained faithful.

We can also be thankful for each other — how we use our individual gifts to glorify God through Project Love.

Our lesson this week is about “Giving Thanks to the Lord,” and I pray that we can model grateful hearts for the children on Saturday.

A Project Love Christmas

The event that our kids most look forward to, as most kids do once Thanksgiving rolls around, is the annual Christmas Bash. Our attendance numbers show it as last year we had 175 children for our Saturday Christmas program!

Typically, we have between 80 and 100 children on Saturdays, but the Christmas Bash is an event all to itself.

But it’s more than a Christmas party where we hand out stockings and gifts provided by the generosity of NSBC congregation members, although it certainly is that.

With the Christmas Bash, we have the opportunity to reach more kids with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which we certainly will do with our lesson “Receive the Gift.”

The Project Love Christmas Bash provides an opportunity for our entire church to be part of something bigger than ourselves. 

Over the next several weeks, Project Love volunteers will be in the lobbies of the Worship Center and the Chapel with stockings and gift sponsorship opportunities.

We’re doing things a bit differently this year, placing ornaments on Christmas trees with children’s names on them and the opportunities for giving on the reverse side. We’re asking that even if you can’t afford to fill a stocking or sponsor a gift, that you would pray for these children with us — that’s a gift that provides for that child every single day of the year.

Jeff is planning to say something about the stocking and gift sponsorship opportunities available this Sunday, but be on the lookout for our displays over the next four weeks. We’ll be giving away and collecting stockings and gift sponsorships through Dec. 7 — the Christmas Bash is scheduled for Dec. 13 from 11-1 and trust me when I tell you that we will have a bigger than usual need for volunteers that day.

One more thing, an addition to the Christmas Bash this year is a separate program for parents that will be going on during the first 45 minutes of the Bash — the parents will eat and learn more about NSBC from Jeff, then will join the kids in the FLC for the program and gift distribution.

We’ll be giving parents a gift as well and need sponsorships for those also.

We want you to be involved in this Project Love Christmas, one way or another. The smiles on those children’s faces will truly show you what sharing the love of Jesus with others can mean to your own life.

If you have questions about the Bash, just call me or e-mail me any time.

Rick Hendricks

Reagan Grace

Our Project Love theme this week is “Everyone Needs to Hear the Word of God.” In this lesson, we teach about the importance of telling others about God and how much He loves them.

While this is a lesson that the Project Love children certainly need to hear, a lesson that God is teaching me and a lesson that all of us who have a relationship with our Lord and Savior need to learn and to practice daily. This week’s Project Love lesson reminds us that “One word from God can change someone’s life.” And the joy and awesome responsibility of Christians is that we be willing to be the vessel or as our worship pastor used to say…”the donkey”…that carries Jesus to everyone we meet.

I have all but threatened Rick (just kidding, darling) not to make the Project Love blog about our grandchildren who we love so dearly. But it was one of those grandchildren, our precious 2-year-old Reagan, that God used to remind me how He wants us to bubble over with joy for no other reason than because we have a relationship with the God who created the universe and saved us from eternal death.

This precious 2-year-old bubbles over with joy from the moment she wakes up in the morning until she lays down at night. Driving to Waterloo with her early this morning after a night spent with nana and papa put me in the most wonderful joyful mood! Just driving along the same bridges across Lake Greenwood time and time again bring her amazing joy as she exclaims, “Look, water, nana! Hey, water. Bye, water!”

Listening to silly songs on her CD causes waves of laughter and joy as she sings a word or two here and there that she remembers and is able to say. And sometimes, for what seems like no reason at all, she just beams and bursts into laughter.

After safely delivering this bundle of joy to her mama at our meeting point in Waterloo, I drove home with tears of joy rolling down my face at the awesome blessing God has given me.

With Reagan out of the car, I took out the silly songs CD and replaced it with the new North Side CD, punched the buttons to get to song number 12 and listened to the amazing song written by our own John Kennerly…”May Your Life Be”…I love this song, I love its message, I love the way John and Angela sing it.

And once again as I sang my heart out to God, He reminded me that He wants me to be like Reagan…to see the wonder in all He is doing…to reflect that kind of joy because I am redeemed and loved by the God of all creation…to let His presence shine through me just because…

Pray that the wonderful group of Project Love volunteers we have will reflect such joy in loving on the children and teaching them tomorrow and each Saturday that God loves them and God wants to use them to tell others about Him.

Week after week I am so overwhelmed that my Lord would allow such a broken vessel as me to share His love with such precious children.

What an awesome God we serve!

 Joyce Hendricks

It is so cool to see God’s hand at work and it never ceases to amaze me how He does it. Of course, we mortals have the nerve to be surprised.

I expect that will be the case once again as North Side puts on its annual Fall Festival Friday night in the Family Center from 6-8 p.m. 

We’re doing a little experiment this year — rather than doing a separate Fall Festival on Saturday for the Project Love kids, we decided to combine our efforts with the church and invited Project Love children and their parents/guardians to the Friday event, which is designed as a community outreach event anyway.

We’re not providing transportation for them, however, so it remains to be seen just how many of those kids will be able to get to NSBC. Whether it’s 1 or 100, though, the opportunity is being afforded to them and my prayer is that through this event, someone’s life will be changed.

I know what you’re saying — “Rick, it’s just a Fall Festival. The only thing that’s going to change is Jeff’s body temperature when he sits in the dunking booth!”

While that may be true enough, I also know that God works in places where we least expect Him to, when the focus is not particularly on Him.

I would like to offer a word to thanks to Heather, Hannah, Rick B., Dennis, Robert and Gaye for the hard work that’s been done to pull this off. Thanks also to the many volunteers who will turn out to run games, fix hot dogs, etc. This event is truly one where our North Side family is coming together to make it happen, so Joyce and I will see you at the greeting table Friday night.

There will be no Project Love on Saturday, Nov. 1, but will return on Saturday, Nov. 8.

On a side note, Joyce and I, Marilyn Amick and Anne Brewer went to Siloam Baptist to help with their children’s revival last Sunday night. It went very well and we were well-received. Doesn’t it make sense for churches to work together more like that? Sure does to me and I think you’ll be hearing more about these partnerships in the near future.

Rick Hendricks

When you’re in ministry, it’s important to recognize who the boss is and that He had a perfect plan designed long before you ever started “working for God” and helping Him accomplish His purposes.

It’s also important to remember that all of us, those who call Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, are members of the Body of Christ and that body consists of many different parts.

For us to do Project Love on a weekly basis requires nothing more than faith — faith that God is always working, that He is in the business of transforming lives and that He’s going to do what He says He’s going to do.

But we’re also naive if we think we’re the only ones reaching out to children in the inner city and all over Greenwood. There are many churches, in one fashion or another, that are ministering to children and their families, whether its financially through Greenwood United Ministries, with backyard Bible schools, Soup Kitchens, afterschool programs, etc.

Project Love has used Biblical truth as its foundation and will continue to use that as its foundation with the end goal being that children are won to Christ and begin to experience a transformed life as a result. But we also offer recreation, lunch and small group time.

Just as we don’t minister to the children in just one way, nor do churches all over Greenwood. Wouldn’t it make sense for us to partner with other churches in those efforts and for them to partner with us in doing Project Love?

Jeff and I have been discussing in recent weeks getting other association churches involved in Project Love — it could only make the ministry better. 

I don’t believe for one minute that Jesus intends for North Side to get the glory for lives that have been changed through this ministry or this church (mine is one of those) — no, God gets that glory and it seems we would all benefit from working together to grow God’s Kingdom.

We’re seeing some of that starting to happen and it is my prayer that it happens more and more in the weeks and months to come.

Whose child is Sedarius (pictured above)? He’s God’s child and God’s people need to do whatever it takes, combining resources in this tough economic time if necessary, to reach him.

Rick Hendricks

What’s missing from the above picture?

Most of the men from North Side Baptist Church.

This is a photo from last Saturday’s Project Love gathering in the Family Life Center at NSBC.

Oh, we all have valid reasons why we can’t take a couple of hours out of our Saturday to minister to these children — “Children aren’t my thing,” “I don’t feel comfortable around those kids,” etc. Heck, there are many Saturdays that it would suit my tired old bones just fine to sit on the couch and veg out all day. But Christ compels me to reach out, to give myself to others instead of being focused on my own needs.

I wouldn’t make such a big deal about it, but part of the reason we minister to these children is because many of the boys, in particular, have no male role model at home. That’s part of the reason we see them acting out, angry, just generally unhappy.

But at Project Love, for the brief moment during their week, we try to emphasize the Good News of the Gospel, that Jesus loves them no matter what their circumstances.

I had my own father issues well into my adult life and it wasn’t until I met Jesus that I was able to put many of those issues aside. When I discovered that I had a Heavenly Father who was perfect and that my earthly dad would never have measured up, I forgave my dad and experienced a peace inside that I’d never felt before.

As Jeff has said time and again from the pulpit, we men are called — commanded — to be the spiritual leaders of our homes. While a big part of that is loving our wives and children (and grandchildren in my case) and leading them in their walk with Christ, part of being the spiritual leader is telling others about Jesus. 

Whether it’s in the workplace, in our neighborhoods, or wherever we go, or maybe participating in Project Love, we are called to reach out to the “least of these.”

Project Love has never been an easy ministry to be part of or to lead, for that matter. But those of us who have persevered have done so with our eyes on the big picture, such as when kids give their lives to Christ and are baptized into the Christian family.

There is a vision for Project Love to be about more than North Side, for us to invite other association churches to partner with us in reaching out to these kids.

And it needs to start with us, with the men of our congregation, to minister to these children.

They desperately need Jesus, no doubt, but they also need me, and you, and you…

Most of them just need to hear someone tell them that they love them.

How much does that cost any of us — those who claim to follow Jesus?

Call me at (864) 379-8783 at Erskine, at (864) 828-0619 (cell) or (864) 229-6163 (home) to see how you can become involved in this ministry.

Rick Hendricks

Since the inception of Project Love, we have operated a ministry within a ministry — a transportation ministry that is vital to the operation of the overall ministry.

If we didn’t have transportation for the children, who come from all over Greenwood, many of them would have no way to travel to North Side on Saturday mornings.

Our transportation ministry has taken many forms through the years and now is accomplished through a continued partnership with the Burton Center. They provide buses and drivers, while we provide riders to round up and watch out for the children.

We have a few faithful riders, but our numbers have dwindled and when our regulars are out, it creates an even larger burden. Yet it is the most important aspect of our ministry outside of the spiritual realm. If we don’t bring the children to Project Love, they might not hear about Jesus.

I urge you to prayerfully consider a role in Project Love’s transportation ministry — it not only allows you to aid in the process of getting the kids to Project Love, but gives you insight about where some of our children come from and the conditions in which they live.

Secondly, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, Project Love is joining in with North Side’s Fall Festival this year rather than having our own. The festival is set for 6-8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 31. We’re encouraging Project Love children and their parents to attend the churchwide festival, but there will be no buses running that night and they must provide their own transportation.

There will be no Project Love on Saturday, Nov. 1.

Tomorrow’s theme at Project Love is “Be Careful What You Say,” a lesson that is sure to have an impact on the children as it speaks to an issue we deal with almost on a weekly basis not just in our ministry, but in our society.

How difficult is it to say a word of encouragement to someone, rather than saying something negative?

We adults can be as guilty of that as children and we must remember that we set the example.

Join us Saturday for Project Love.

Rick Hendricks