This past weekend I played at an event supporting The Bridge in Lubbock, TX. I was so encouraged by what they are doing that I wanted to share some of it with you. They bought an old school building in East Lubbock, in the middle of a struggling part of town. Their mission statement is “With God’s guidance and grace, our mission is to RESTORE the foundation of hope, body, soul, and spirit, to our community, to bring community agencies and ministries together under one roof, to promote sharing resources to more efficiently meet the needs of those we serve.” And so they have many ministries inside this one building. Seasoned With Love feeds a couple hundred homeless three days a week. Tammie’s Closet provides clothing a couple of days a month. A side ministry of the clothes closet is a prom dress ministry. They take lightly used dresses and provide a girl with the opportunity to have a beautiful gown for prom. But the heartbeat of the Bridge is called Bridge 2 Success, where they enable and empower at-risk teens. In their own words…, “Bridge 2 Success (B2S) is a free Christian mentoring program for at-risk students in the 6th grade and higher. The goals of B2S are to mold students into future leaders through the development of their minds, bodies, and souls as well as to empower students to make better choices so they can become healthy, productive members of our community. We strive to give students the tools they need to recognize opportunities that lead to future success.” B2S is a two-days-a-week after school program and also puts on a four week summer camp. One of my favorite parts of talking with the students was to hear them talk about college. It was so encouraging to hear a student from a difficult background talk about their hopes and plans for the future and to believe that they were possible. You can find out more about this ministry at www.bridgeoflubbock.org. There are many ways to be a part. You can sponsor a kid to camp, donate a meal, be a camp counselor, mentor a student, donate clothing, take some of your time to volunteer. Or maybe their story will spur you to do something in your city, with a vision God has given you.
Thoughts?
Todd
Thanks, Todd for coming to Lubbock. I always have felt like I couldn’t make a difference for those in poverty because I couldn’t relate with them. However, your stories inspired me that that doesn’t matter. They don’t need so much what I have in things to give, but in how much time I am willing to give. Andthat I have more than enough of. All that takes is sacrificing some of the things I wish I could have and giving it to those that need it. Thank you again. And God bles you, Indeed.
What a great ministry! I had a similar dream several years ago to transform an old school building in my area into a shelter for homeless women in one wing and house an assortment of non-profit agencies to provide free or low-cost health services, crisis pregnancy services, counseling, and a clothing/household closet in the other wing. Unfortunately, my community didn’t support this idea enough to provide adequate financial support. The sad part was that there were plenty of well-to-do churches in the area who could have worked together to make this dream a reality, but they chose to spend their resources on bigger buildings and cutting edge programs for themselves. This type of ministry is desperately needed, and there is no reason that God’s people in EVERY community couldn’t join together to meet the needs in their area in a similar way. So I heartily applaud The Bridge for all they are doing, especially mentoring teens, and pray for others to come alongside to help them or start a similar ministry wherever they call home.