Heart of A Generation Wrap-Up

I was told that I should go to a dinner tonight to help some kids raise money. I went to get spaghetti, but i left with a renewed sense of hope in our generation. The dinner was all about the heart of this generation of young people. Some call us the "Y" generation, some call us "post-modern", but I don't want to be known for war, iPods, and presidents. I want to be known for passion, love, acceptance, unity, diversity, justice, and most importantly hope.


This was a video that a girl made about hope. I hope you enjoy it.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj8sOwyeWdw

I challenge you to look into the heart of a generation, and see what we're really about.



Goodnight and god bless.

-Zane

Depressent Drug

I know some people in my high school that might need this.




http://www.break.com/tv-shows/onion-news-network/fda-approves-depressant-drug-for-the-annoyingly-cheerful-667654.html

Abortion

This girl has something to say.



Whats on your mind?



Thoughts?

Barack Fresh Prince?

This has nothing to do with my political beliefs, but I thought it was funny.




----------------------------------------------------
Now this is a story
All about how
I ascended to the seat of power
If you'll listen fora minute
Hear what I say
I'll tell you how I became President of the U. S. of A.

In west Honolulu, born and raised
In Jakarta, where I spent most of my days
Chillin' out in Chi-Town relaxin' all cool
Organizing communities like I was a fool
When a couple of guys
With a disdain for peace
Started making trouble in the Middle East
They started two little wars and we got scared
The people said "We need a president who isn't mentally impaired!"

I ran a perfect race, turned red states blue
Swept electoral votes, added Rham to my crew
With a mandate for change and Constitution in hand
I'll dance on the Colonnade singing "Yes we can!"

I got the White House about seven or eight
And I yelled to the Bushes "Yo holmes, smell ya later!"
Looked at my office
There were no corners there
Sitting at the Resolute Desk, signing universal health care.

Mission Year

Mission Year is a really cool program that I recently found out about. You should definitely check it out.

The Program

Mission Year is a year long program where Christian young people live in an urban neighborhood volunteering, worshiping, and loving their neighbors.

It’s in opportunity for anyone 18 and over, both single and married, to spend a year following Jesus' command to “Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself.” By partnering with a local church, volunteering at a service site, and spending time with neighbors, Mission Year Team Members effectively impact their communities while catching a deeper vision for what the Kingdom of God is like.

Relevant Info.

Our Mission Statement

As followers of Jesus, Mission Year Team Members work to advance the Kingdom of God by loving their neighbors.

Our Mission Question

In this moment, how can I best love both God and people?

Mission Year is About...

• Relationships: Building deep relationships based on trust and respect with your neighbors, seeking practical ways to show Christian love.
• Community Living: Sharing life in community with a supportive team of other Christians in an urban neighborhood.
• Community Service: Volunteering 25-30 hours a week at a social service agency that's providing vital resources to the poor.
• Discipleship: Drawing close to God by spending time deepening your own walk with Christ and developing spiritual disciplines.
• Church Partnership: Supporting God's work in the city by partnering with a dynamic local church that's engaging the community.
• Social Justice: Seeking justice by learning to identify disparities in power and working creatively to bring resolution.
• Simplicity: Living life without excess to better care for your neighbors and the environment around you.

The Vision of Mission Year

IMAGINE the city the way God wants it to be. No more poverty. No more injustice. Every person matters. Now imagine a handful of young people moving into a house in the city, working to make this a reality.

People who learn from their neighbors, listen to their needs, and pray with them over and over. People who work hard to love others the way Jesus loves. People who stay long enough to become true friends.

IMAGINE that house becoming a safe place in the neighborhood where people see the gospel lived out, alive and available to all.

IMAGINE each individual devoting each day to God, then going out to do what God says. Partnering with social service agencies and local churches who are working towards the same goal. Offering compassion and working for justice.

Can you see what happens? That household makes a difference in the neighborhood, and the neighborhood makes a difference in return. The living gospel transforms everything it touches. The Kingdom of God advances.

Now, finally, IMAGINE all of that a thousand times over, and you have the vision of Mission Year.

How Does It Work?

Mission Year recruits single and married Team Members, 18 to 29, to spend a year living in a neighborhood, following Jesus. From early September to early August Team Members are involved in the following aspects of Mission Year:

	TUES.	WED.	THUR.	FRI.	SAT.	SUN.	MON.
8-9am	Team and Personal Devotions						Sabbath
10-12am	Community Service/Justice				Neighborhood Prayer	Church
12-2pm					Chores
2-6pm					Neighborhood Outreach	Various
7-9pm	Team Dinner	Church Bible Study	Curriculum	Training	Open House Dinner	Citywide

Neighborhood Outreach

As far as Mission Year is concerned, neighborhood outreach simply means Team Members intentionally building relationships with their neighbors, in order to move them closer to whom and where God wants them to be. In the beginning that may just be two or three team members walking around the block, introducing themselves to people. Later on they may stop back to ask for prayer requests, to share opportunities, or just to hang out with new friends. Team Members try all kinds of things over the course of the year until they find effective ways of connecting with people.

The process is not always easy, and seldom moves as fast as we would like, but it almost always works out. Meaningful relationships develop over time, so that eventually our Team Members find themselves deeply involved with their neighbors' lives, helping to meet all kinds of practical needs, and sharing their faith in a very natural way.

Relevant Info.

Takes Place

Saturday and Weeknights

Community Service

Mission Year Team Members faithfully and enthusiastically volunteer at least 24 hours a week at one or more community service sites, aiming to strengthen the ministry or organization where you're volunteering, encouraging your co-workers, and serving the people there to the best of their ability.

Community Service gives Team Members the opportunity to serve the needs of their new neighborhood in Jesus' name. Sites may be neighborhood public schools, hospitals, parks, senior centers, homeless or women's shelters, housing agencies, community development corporations, or other locations, depending on Team Members' individual interests and abilities, as well as the needs and opportunities in the neighborhood.

In order to have their community service overlap with their neighborhood ministries, Team Members generally choose service sites near their apartment or house, starting their service before 10:00am and ending before 7:00pm. Team Members who choose to work at schools or other sites that dismiss early generally find an after-school or community program to volunteer for in the afternoon.

Relevant Info.

Takes Place

Tuesday through Friday, 10:00am to 6:00pm

Church Partnership

Team Members participate in Sunday morning service at a local church and also seek out some specific ministry where they can make a contribution within that church. They can join a weekly bible study, drama ministry, or prison outreach. While Team Members may or may not feel entirely at home in their church, their aim is to understand, appreciate, and encourage their church staff and fellow church members to the best of your ability. The main point here is for Team Members to become part of God's family in their new community and to establish a spiritual home base from which they can reach out to their neighbors as followers of Jesus.

Relevant Info.

Takes Place

Sundays and Weeknights

Justice

Mission Year Team Members faithfully spend time each week actively pursuing Biblical justice in their community. Their initial goal will be to identify and understand specific examples of individual, group, and systemic abuses of power which directly affect some or all of their neighbors. Later, Team Members will identify more experienced advocates who can enable them to responsibly help rescue, protect, or otherwise intervene on behalf of those neighbors, in areas of injustice.

Relevant Info.

Takes Place

Through out the year

Personal Discipleship

Mission Year Team Members pursue their own relationship with God through taking advantage of scheduled quiet times, weekly Sabbath days, Citywides (all city worship and teaching gatherings), Weekly Reflections, and training sessions. Their aim in all of these things should be to better understand and more closely follow the teachings of Jesus. One discipleship tool we will often encourage Team Members to use is our Mission Question: In this moment, how can I best love both God and people?

Growth in personal discipleship is one of our foremost concerns, rivaled only by our obsession with actually blessing our neighbors in significant and lasting ways. Simply stated, every aspect of Mission Year, in one way or another, is intended to help Team Members develop as a follower of Jesus. From the beginning of orientation all the way through the end of the closing retreat, our goal is to give Team Members a genuine opportunity to better understand themselves and the world around them, to pursue the disciplines of thought, prayer, worship, sacrifice, and service, and to draw closer to God by loving some of his most precious people.

Relevant Info.

Takes Place

24/7

Orientation

First 3 weeks of Mission Year.

Trainings

Bi-monthly.

Citywides

Bi-Monthly, (Time of worship for whole city).

Devotions

Every morning, 9:00am to 10:00am.

Community Living

Living in Christian community includes much more than sharing the same space and putting up with messy roommates. Christian community living involves intentionally putting into practice the “one anothers” of Scripture (praying for one another, encouraging one another, submitting to one another, serving one another, etc.).

Team Members participate in team devotions, family times, team dinners, curriculum, and team business meetings, pursuing the best possible relationship with each teammate.

Community living is likely to be the most challenging part of your Mission Year by far. After all, most teams are like most families...dysfunctional in at least a few areas. However, Mission Year is designed to provide you and your teammates with plenty of team building opportunities and lots of encouragement to learn how to love one another, because we know from experience that this will be a key to your success in ministry.

Whenever possible, we seek to have multi-ethnic/multi-cultural teams, in order to provide you and your neighborhood with a fuller expression of the Kingdom of God. Through Mission Year, God is inviting you to open yourself to the gifts that other Team Members offer and to embrace the growth that each Team Member provokes. As the Apostle John puts it:

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we should also love one another. No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God lives in us. His love is made complete in us.

1 John 4:11-12

Relevant Info.

Takes Place

24/7

How many people are on a Team?

Usually 5 to 6

Why are most teams co-ed?

For a couple of reasons. 1. Safety. 2. Cost; It's more cost-effective to have one house per team than two. 3. Diversity; Team Members get a well rounded experience in a co-ed house.

Curriculum

The Mission Year curriculum brings together a diverse collection of books, articles, movies, and taped messages that our Team Members read and discuss on a weekly basis throughout the year. The goal of our curriculum is to expose our Team Members to a variety of perspectives on a variety of subjects, ranging from interpersonal relationships to social justice to spiritual growth. Selections may include:

• Beyond Charity, by John Perkins
• Community and Growth, By Jean Vanier
• Freedom of Simplicity, by Richard Foster
• Jesus and the Disinherited, by Howard Thurman
• Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich
• Out of Solitude, by Henri Nouwen
• The Corner, by David Simon and Edward Burns
• The Irresistible Revolution, By Shane Claiborne
• The Ragamuffin Gospel, by Brennan Manning
• Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?, By Beverly Daniel Tatum

Relevant Info.

Takes Place

Thursday Night

Training

The important thing to remember as you wonder, “How will I do all these things?” is that you will be receiving lots of practical training throughout the year. Of course, to get you started, there is intensive orientation and training for at least three weeks and regular training sessions every two weeks thereafter.

Relevant Info.

Takes Place

Friday Night

Citywide

Citywides are designed to address the spiritual and emotional needs of Team Members for encouragement and fellowship. Every two weeks, teams come together from across your Mission Year city to participate in praise and worship, fun and games, testimonies, small groups, food, and guest speakers in an open and informal environment. These meetings are your City Director’s opportunity to introduce you to people and ideas he or she thinks are particularly timely and helpful. We may not always agree with everything our guest speakers say, but you can be sure we think they are well worth listening to.

Relevant Info.

Takes Place

Sunday Night

Sabbath

Mondays are your official Sabbath from normal Mission Year responsibilities. While you may not spend Mondays doing ministry, your plans for each Sabbath should, nevertheless, still flow from faithfully responding to the Mission Question: In this moment, how can I best love both God and people?

Sabbaths help us pace ourselves for the long haul, instead of the quick burnout, which is another way of saying we need to recharge our bodies and souls whether or not we feel like it. Given the desperate needs all around you in the city, it may be hard for you to step away from ministry in order to take care of yourself, but do your best to trust God’s wisdom in laying down the fourth commandment. Get out and away, do things that heal and energize you, and don’t forget to catch up on your sleep.

Relevant Info.

Takes Place

Mondays

Various Logistics

Sunday Afternoon

On a rotating basis, a few people go grocery shopping on Sunday. In addition to being a wonderful time to hang out with neighbors, Sundays are also good times for Team Members to do laundry, read curriculum, write your monthly support letters, call family or friends, and generally stay caught up with their lives.

Support Letters

Once a month Team Members write a letter that they send as an update to family and friends. This is an opportunity to let others know what they are experiencing and to invite their ongoing financial, emotional, and prayer support.

Cost

We ask all of our Team Members to raise $12,000 over their year. This covers the cost of housing, feeding and training our Team Members. We have a development department that works with each Team Member in the process of raising support.

So if you have any interest at all, check them out at www.missionyear.com


-Zane




"I am zane, and I am....rushing around."