Right now we have requests from approximately 170 households to provide a Thanksgiving meal. This includes 27 homeless men and women.  

Large roasting throw away pans

Boxes of stuffing and instant potatoes;

Large cans of green beans, corn, or carrots

Cans of mushroom soup

French fried onions

Cake mixes

Cake frostings

Our friends at CAM,Inc (Coordinated Assistance Ministries) have launched their new website. We are placing a permanent link on our page so you can get involved. (http://caminchopeforhomeless.org/home)

The Mission of Coordinated Assistance Ministries is to unify the assistance ministries of the religious community, show God’s love, meet needs not being met by community agencies, and cooperate with social service agencies in meeting the needs of our community.

CAM, Inc. exists through generous donations of churches, organizations, and individuals of our wonderful community. Their service area includes Howard, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Miami and Tipton Counties.

Each year CAM serves over a thousand individuals and families. Their doors are open each week day as a Day Shelter. Those in need may come in for a cup of coffee, a donut and fellowship. Clients needing help can see the Supervisor who assesses their needs and helps them in accessing government and private assistance programs

SIL works with CAM, Inc. in many outreaches including the Transportation Outreach and Jobs Task Force. We are placing a permanent link on the our page so you can get involved.

CAM, Inc. fills a very critical niche. Some of the reasons a person would need CAM include:

Keeping family housing
Finding place to live
Finding jobs that sustain families (Jobs Program link on this site)
Phones and Message center for receiving phone calls for work or housing
Providing a Safe address
Payee assistance
Transportation
Help filling out papers
Lost ID
Hygiene kits
Bicycles for a job
Waiting for appointments with other agencies
Medicine and Nursing assistance
Help with drug & alcohol addictions
Supporting persons in jail or hospital without any family….and much more.

We are lifted up when people show God’s love in a practical way.

Serving in Love is providing support for the “Taking Care of Ourselves and Each Other: Mammogram Screening and African American Women” this Saturday at Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church. 

The purpose of this program is to add to your knowledge new education about the importance of breast cancer screening among African American women.  Health Care Professionals will be present to provide infromation and discuss the importance of screening.

SIL is participating by providing free refreshments for participants.   We are looking forward to more opportunities to work with our friends at Mt. Pisgah.

You Serving In Love (SIL) Team has a busy fall calendar. We are beginning the season by scattering seeds (not literally) and passing out free Tulip Bulbs.

 Team members will be at Zumba Classes at the Connection every week in October passing out Gift Kits to scatter more “seeds”.  We also have posted a video to remind us that we need to be the right soil for all these seeds.

We are also preparing to deliver 100 Thanksgiving Dinners on November 21st.   We are asking our neighbors to click on the email links to let us know of families who would appreciate the dinner.  We also are providing Thanksgiving Dinner for the CAM Center.  We’ll publish a list so you can donate, so keep coming back.

So feel free to stop by or stop in and see how you can become “Dirt” for all this seeding.

Meanwhile, the commuters and Jobs Vans have logged over 10,000 miles and more than 100 people have gotten jobs.  See the Transportation Link…

Our Global Missions Team left for Haiti today….Lift them up….Pray for them.

See you Sunday…

The Gas Blast was…well, a BLAST!  We will post pictures shortly, but we gave away over 1000 gallons of gas priced at less than $2/gallon last Friday…..just in time for the Labor Day Weekend.  Now were ready for what’s next……

Beginning September 13th and continuing throughout the month, your SIL team is focusing on “Planting”.  We hope that as we sow the seeds many will come to share the joy of “Showing God’s love in a practical way.”   We know that sowing is important, and so is “Dirt”.  The type of soil – dirt – makes all the difference.  Click here to see…….Dirt a video from our friends at Northstar Church.

Sometimes planting requires more than seeds, as we know, it depends on the soil.  We will give away free Tulip bulbs at MCS on the 13th and at KMart on September 26th.  We pray that we give good soil with each bulb.

Remember that one back in winter?  Traffic backed up to get to the pumps…….

We will once again give away 1000 gallons of gas (at a $.50 cent discount).  What a blast!!  

Hundreds of people are served every time we do this.  We not only reduce the gas price, we pump it for the customers and do windshields as well. 

Well, it’s time for another one……Showing God’s Love in a Practical Way.  Our neighbors in Darrough will get a “heads up” so they can be first in line…..but everyone is welcome!! 

Remember….It’s not about us

Although Darrough Elementary is no longer an elementary school, the Serving in Love CERTIFIED tutors and mentors wil be available to help again this year.  Our partnership with Anderson University is populating 22 School districts this year with mentors and tutors.  

We are ready to start another year of our tutoring and mentoring outreach.  Last year over 250 SIL tutors and mentors began the process and were assigned to area schools.

Morning Star certified mentors and tutors will still be available this school year, and we are encouraging our former Darrough tutors (Mentors should follow thier assigned children) to consider serving at the MSC Christian Children’s Acadamy, a preschool to 4th grade program at MSC.  We have a community-based need there and can continue our support.  Of course, we are now in 7 counties – in fact, if you live outside Kokomo-Center Schools, we probably have a program for your school.

Local churches can use our friends at Bridges to direct tutors in Kokomo-Center and in some area schools.  And there are others who would like to send resources into our schools to offer mentoring and tutoring.  Going into the schools with good intentions is admirable, but there is much about the process that you cannot anticipate or prepare for.  Many of these efforts tend to run into problems or issues that prevent them from becoming permanent, reliable, and integrated with the school system.  A few have overcome the issues, but none of the area programs are certified by the school systems.  Through a series of community meetings, there is a way for your organization or group to become certified to mentor and tutor in the local schools.

Providers and School system administrators have agreed the the proper model to follow was the “Morning Star Model” – our program at Darrough Elementary through the Kokomo School System.   It is a 6 year old program that has resulted in thousands of hours of tutoring and mentoring as we work with teachers and administrators.  The model has been recognized by state and local entities (Governor, State Superintendent, Mayor, legislators, area churches, schools, parents, the list goes on) for the effectiveness and impact we have on the lives of everyone connected to Darrough…..but it is not about us. 

SIL is an outreach of Morning Star Church with our program focused on our neighborhood school (Darrough), so we had no “community-wide” base from which to offer our program to the area.  Also, we  are very limited by our funding creed – we do not accept donations in most cases….we used to believe God would provide – after 6 years we KNOW God will provide.  He has provided our every need.  Our limited “seed” funds are donated and tithed to MSC and provded to us.   Now we  feel God is growing this model.  It is a great model for one neighborhood, but as good stewards, we needed to plan for a larger calling. 

So we needed an entity that could “seed” donations to a larger community program so we could create relationships between local groups and area schools using our training and experience assets.  (See Community) 

Through the efforts of our interns at Anderson University Serving In Love (SIL) is now faciltating our elementary school Mentoring and Tutoring Outreach .  This provides SIL an immediate organization (Board, Management and the ability to receive support) and establishes the “Morning Star Model” as the recognized program for other faith-based organizations (FBO) to become involved in tutoring and mentoring in our local school systems.

We have trained 8 area FBO’s to facilitate training to deliver learning resulting in a portable certification recognized by national, state and local school entities as THE prerequsite for entering into a school to provide these services.  We just learned we will have 5  more area  churches for training this January.   If your FBO would like to begin to tutor and mentor, there are still spaces available and upon successful completion, you WILL receive the certification ( and a Certificate suitable for framing) accreditated by and recognized by our School Systems.

It is not a simple process and you will need some help to begin an “in school” tutoring/mentoring program at your FBO.  We have sessions with school officials about the way to integrate into the system, the legal and background  requirements, the methods and standards, and a wealth of information about the way schools operate, facilitate and deliver required and optional programming.  Our training lays out the path and simplifies the exectations for your FBO.  They also provide information about programs that are “transparent” to  outsiders (security, social, and special needs).

The simple fact is, many programs have failed because they were poorly prepared or failed to understand the requirements.  We train and certify that your are ready.

Next  we provide expert training from our Faith-Based experts.  The FBO learning component allows you to understand your mission from a Faith-Based perspective.  We deal  with several issues that will inevitable come up and can cause issues.  ”What to do when…..”  “Can we pray?”  “How to report a problem” “Can we  approach the Family”.  Without proper guidance and training, it is very difficult if not impossible to succeed.  Your FBO will receive training that teaches you how to reflect your faith as you intervene into the lives of our children.  Pastors, mentors, tutors, and program directors with years of successful experience will be on hand to help you become certified.

Sound interesting for your FBO, small group,or church?  Contact SIL for more details and to enroll.

The Serving in Love Team will be at the Samaritan Caregivers – 2009 Duck Derby, July 30 from 5-9, at the Kokomo Beach Family Aquatic Center. We will have free popcorn as usual.  All proceeds benefit Samaritan Caregivers. For more information see their website: www.samaritancaregivers.org.  Tickets are $5.00 (1 adult & 1 child under 12 or 2 children under 12) Kids games, Papa John’s Pizza, Coca Cola, Swimming, duck races!!  Tickets on sale at:
Samaritan Caregivers, Kokomo National City Locations, Wood’s Locations
Alto Express, and Kokomo Beach. 

 We’ll see you there!!!!

Only one more chance to see the concert in the Park!!!

In the news…..Front Page  of the Kokomo Tribune July 10, 2009……

Thank you to our friends at Coke and to our volunteers…for the fifth year..SIL will be in Highland Park a couple of hours ahead of the concert, so you can enjoy cold coke products and fresh popcorn.   If you haven’t brought your family down or if you are a returning friend…Don’t miss this genuine Kokomo event. 

We are so blessed  to be a part of these evenings…so come out and enjoy outstanding musicians and music in the open air at Highland Park.
Click on Dates to view Concert Programs 
 

2009 Summer Concert Programs

July 29 - “See The U.S.A.”
John Huntoon, Trombone Soloist
featuring The Retired Rum-Runners Dixieland Jazz Band