Next Steps

I believe we are in a position to consider expanding. We know for sure we are expanding the Board of Directors. We are excited and pleased to have received a Grant from the Community Foundation to provide a non-profit coach that will help us to understand what we need to do next as an organization. Please be in prayer for us as we begin to discern what our next step will be. You can continue to help by partnering with us through giving.

Our Address is:

Kokomo Urban Outreach
P.O. Box 20122
Kokomo, IN 46904-0122

Presently we have a balance of $26, 428.88, of which $5,000 was given for the Crisis Child Care Center. We have 21,428.88 available to us. Our budget is about 51,000 for the year not including Crisis Child Care.

Cook-Outs Continue

groups that have repaired bikes, provided hygiene supplies, organized games and passed out sacks of groceries. Along with all of that Parish Nurses have provided residents with blood pressure checks. The cook-outs at Pine Valley are led by Mary Ingle with our friends at Alto United Methodist Church volunteering weekly. Pine Valley has had face painting and almost always have hamburgers along with hot dogs. The cook-outs are going well.

Sewing classes are still going on Tuesday's at 10:30 AM, as well as reading. Sidewalk Sunday School will continue on Thursday's and Friday's until the end of July when there will be about a six break.

Vacation Bible School will be provided by Grace UMC, July 16-19 from 6:30-8:15 PM at Trinity UMC.

We are still looking for used computers to start a computer class in the fall and we are gearing up for smoking cessation classes.

I will be working with two new churches and will continue to work with those already moving into their neighborhoods.

Thanks to all who are helping to transform our community.

Kid's Cafe

Menu

Week One

Pizza/fruit/desert

Hotdogs/Macorni and Cheese/Green Beans/Desert

Peanut Butter sandwiches/ corn/ fruit

Spaghetti/sauce/salad/desert

Left- over buffet

Week Two

Hamburger Helper/corn/desert

Grilled Cheese/Tomato Soup/desert

Pancakes/sausage/Fruit Cocktail

Chicken/rice/ veg/desert

Left-over buffet

Week Three

Pigs in blanket/Mac and cheese/desert

Tacos/fruit/desert

Hamburger sandwiches/ chips/ fruit/desert

Spaghetti/sauce/salad/desert

Left over buffet

Week Three(School Starts on Wednesday)

TBA

TBA

We Need

Salad in bag

Hamburger(40 pounds)

Shredded cheese(10 pounds)

2 five pound blocks of sliced cheese

Taco Shells(about 75)

Each Friday children will receive food to take home for weekend.

Backpacks

We will start collecting Back-to-School back packs. The back packs will be stuffed full of personal hygiene supplies. Things we need include:

Toothpaste(full size tube)
Toothbrush
Bar of Soap
Comb/pick
Wash cloth
Shampoo(full size bottle)
4 pack toilet tissue
Deodorant for older kids

And of course Back Packs

We would like everything by August 10th. If you or your group can help us please call me at 461-9618.

Sidewalk Sunday School July 2007

We just finished up with the first fruit: Love. WOW!!! I learned there are several types of Agape love. Agape love is more a "response" than a feeling. We respond to others the way Christ responds to us. We should be meeting people's needs, not just physical needs, but spiritual needs. God's command to us is to love as He loves. God demonstrated His love for us when His precious Son died on the cross. His blood was shed for you and me. We now have liberty (freedom)to live a life loving and serving Jesus and others. While Jesus was here on earth, He had an intimate relationship with His Heavenly Father. He showed "Agape love" (actions) by the way He responded to meeting the people's needs. Healings, deliverances, and building relationships with them.

I challenge all of you to read John 17. Read it several times and let the words soak in to your spirit. You will get a glimpse into the very intimate moment between Father and Son. The first five verses is Jesus praying for Himself. Verses 6-19, Jesus is praying for His disciples. The last set of verses, 20-26, Jesus is praying for the saints. (Us) Praise God, we all have an Intercessor.

In closing, please remember where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. We have the liberty (freedom) to share and show the love of Christ to all. You may be the only Jesus they may see. Agape love is patient, kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, not rude, not self-sought, not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil, but rejoices in truth, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres, and finally agape never fails.

Update on the Pine Valley Cookouts

The Lord is good!!! The cookouts are going great!!! We have an awesome team of volunteers that comes every week and helps us. We serve approx. 50+ kids and adults every Sunday. We grill 100+ hotdogs and we also grill 30+hamburgers. Plus we serve chips, cookies, and drinks. I play games with the kids and sometimes I get their parents involved with the games as well. We have a parent who does face painting for the kids. They love it!!! Their favorite game is when I bring out the big parachute and we play games with that. We have a great time of fellowship with the residents there. Alot of new friendships has developed through the cookouts. They know we are there to share Jesus with them and to let them know that we love them also. Please continue to keep ALL the Kokomo Housing residents in your prayers. Please pray that they will see Jesus in all of the changes that may be taking place. THANK YOU to St. Luke's VBS for their gifts for the kids, money for chips, and to all who have prayed,donated food, volunteered. Without all of you, this ministry would not be going. THANK YOU and God bless.

Summer SWSS Update

The kids are having a great time at SSWSS. We are teaching the kids the Beatitudes. We have a lesson, singing, prayer time, and a craft. Sometimes we play a game.They all get a snack to take home with them. We have approx. 15-20 kids from Garden Square on Thursday afternoons and 20 from Pine Valley on Friday afternoons.

We have 6 adults who helps me and I appreciate ALL they have done. I have had to miss a couple of weeks and they stepped up and did a great job. Again, I cannot thank God enough for ALL He has provided for Sidewalk Sunday School and the cookouts. We are so blessed to have this opportunity to spend time with the kids and to continually tell them about Jesus' love for them. These kids mean soo much too me and to the volunteers. Again ,THANK YOU to all who has supported SWSS. Please keep all of us, kids, and their parents in your prayers.

OPPORTUNITIES/PRAYER CONCERNS

Vacation Bible School "Quest for Truth" Grace & Trinity teaming up July 16th-20th

Time 6:30-8:15 at Trinity. Friday night (20th) " Block Party" in front of Garden Square

Community Center. Featuring Stephen Sherwood and Praise Team. Free food!!

Free Admission!!! Come and enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit. Don't forget your

lawn chair. There will be a training meeting July 9th @7:00 at Trinity.

Needs: Volunteers & Cookies

Cookouts: Anyone who would like to come and observed what we do at the

cookouts on Sundays are ALWAYS welcome. You may either come to Pine Valley

from 4:30-5:30 or Garden Square 5:00-6:00. You are truly missing out on being

blessed.

Prayer Concerns: Cookouts, VBS, Pastor Jeff and Miss Mary, all of our

volunteers, donors, ALL Kokomo Housing Residents, churches who are

stepping out and ministering to their neighborhoods, God continually blesses

and guides KUO/SWSS as we step out MORE in the neighborhoods in our

community and we will be accepted by them. They will see Jesus through our

love, caring, and sharing for them.

May God bless all of you as all of you are blessing God. Amen.

Miss Mary

Summer Intern

.....doing a great job as she works in Sidewalk Sunday School, coordinates loading of cook-out trucks, teaches Children's Sunday School, participates in worship, keeps the food pantry area clean and food stocked, plays with kids at cook-outs, passes out fliers and the list can go on and on. I will let her introduce herself to you:

My name is Melissa Zimmerman. I grew up in Greentown and attended Grace United Methodist my entire life. This fall I start my sophomore year at DePauw University where I double major in Spanish and Religious Studies. When I was twelve I first recieved my call to be an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, so I am working through the process I must
follow to achieve that goal. After Undergraduate School, I will go to seminary and continue through the steps to ordination. This internship gives me an opportunity to see what a pastor like Jeff does, and it shows me the importance of missions in our own backyard.

Keep Melissa in your prayers.

Give for the Good

the answer is YES!!!! Actually, on the Fourth we filled about 1/2 of it with about 2 1/2 tons of food and other supplies. The miracle happened on the 5th. We were unloading the semi into trucks when Deanna received a call on her cell phone from Tyson Transport of Wilmington, NC. They had a question for her....she asked them how they got her number. They said they did a search for food pantries in Logansport her number came up. As a side note Deanna is not associated with any food pantries anywhere. She does work for the Girl Scouts in Logansport. I came home and did the same search on several search engines and nothing came up at all. The question was could we take 79 cases of whole chickens. Cases were damaged, chickens were fresh and they had to give them away quickly. The 79 cases represented 790 whole chickens or 2 3/4 tons, of course we could not take them however, the Rescue Mission could take them. When the chickens were added to the other food collected there was more than a semi load of food. We estimate that we have 5 tons of food to giveaway because of Deanna's efforts(that is about 10,000 meals). Deanna recruited volunteers and promoted the event in a newspaper article and through some radio promotion, however, email was what did the trick. People emailing others. What a day!!!!! Thanks Deanna and volunteers along with Kroger who gave a portion of the parking lot for the day and Syndicate Sales for the use of the semi trailer. God is so Good!!!!

The Hallway after collection

Leadership Kokomo

a disaster trailer(we will be working on preparing item to put on trailer to respond to a disaster),
mobile Side Walk Sunday School trailer(pull into neighborhoods and put on SWSS in parks, etc. ) and a rolling food pantry. A special thanks to Kokomo Leadership Team Three for all that has been done and will be done.