Golf Marathon Update

Great news!

We just this morning confirmed our 8th and 9th players for our Golf Marathon. That is amazing! We still have spots open if you are available/interested! More = Merrier

To learn more about this annual fundraiser or to sponsor one of our current Long Beach golfers click HERE (if you don't know who is golfing for Long Beach, you can use 'Jim Schorr' as a default golfer name)

Our goal for this event here in Long Beach is to raise over $25k for our ongoing work. Part of this money will be used to hire an intern here in Long Beach for the next year so that we can have someone to help us administratively but also focus 1/2 of their time on creating an online database of Information and Opportunities for Involvement that exist around various other local causes than the ones that we are strategically involved in (Youth education, HIV/AIDS, Homelessness & Emergency Preparedness). Once this list is compiled it will really serve as a great resource for people and/or groups to get mobilized locally.

Know anyone looking for an 1 year (or so) internship in community development/city reaching!?

Mustard Seed Foundation is coming to town

On Tuesday, October 23rd, (the day after our Golf Marathon!) Kingdom Causes will be hosting a meeting for Brian Bakke from the Mustard Seed Foundation here in Long Beach. This foundation was the one that gave us our first grant to help us get things started with Kingdom Causes here in Long beach!

The are actively (did I mention ACTIVELY?) looking for local churches that are interested in applying for MSF matching grants. Come and hear about the possible options for the grants that are currently available for local churches only! They are encouraging each local church to bring 2-3 decision making people from any local ministry (and the senior pastor does not need to be one of them).

Details...

Time: 12:30 - 2:30 (they will stay until 3:00 to answer ?'s)
Location: Antioch Missionary Baptist Church (map)

We will need a rough head count so if you are interested in coming please email us at longbeach@kingdomcauses.org. We will also do our best to answer any additional questions that you might have but most of your questions could be best answered by checking out their web site.

See you there!

Well deserved recognition!

Bianca Sovich, our Kingdom Causes Emergency Preparedness Task Force leader, received an award last Sunday at the Good Neighbor festival in the 5th district where she lives. She got this award for ALL OF HER HARD WORK in her community from her local councilwoman, Gerrie Schipske. You and Peter are awesome!

Reminder: Our next task force meeting is next Tuesday eve from 7-9 PM at our offices. Come and learn how local congregations are being mobilized and how you might get involved!

Well done good and faithful servant

What do you say to thank someone for 40 years of selfless service in the inner city among gangsters and the homeless? On October 6th at 3:00 PM there will be a celebration honoring Fred Newkirk and the 40 years he has dedicated to ministry as a missionary in the heart of Long beach.

You are invited to help Long Beach Friends Church thank Fred & Mardella and recognize how God has worked through them. The celebration will be held at:

Long Beach Friends Church
850 Atlantic Ave
Long Beach, CA 90813

The celebration will include a service in which they will recognize Fred's ministry. Afterwards, dessert will be served and you can thank him in person! All are welcome and for those of you who have also been around a while (ahem, those that some us younger folks are standing on the shoulders of!) might want to come and/or pass along word of this special afternoon event to those that have had the pleasure of working with Fred over the years!

(for more information see Long Beach Friends Web Site)

I'm excited about what I've seen in the last weeks

Over the last weeks since hanging out with Brad, I've met, talked to and observed so many young people with vision, purpose and energy to see God's Kingdom established in their cities. I had opportunity to be at the meeting at CSULB Wednesday eve and saw young people from various campus ministries gathered together to worship the same Lord I do. I met two of the young people and we prayed for each other. My prayer request was for this week-end when I will be with my daughter in her journey toward sobriety and H wanted to pray for me and wound up telling me of her journey with her alcoholic father. I had dinner with a young woman who lives in the City near a rest home and wants to have a prom for the residents to bless them! I met a young man with a totally God-inspired plan for a business venture to serve the Kingdom like I've never heard before! I was at a meeting where I heard from a high ranking LB police officer speak of his heart for the pain gang violence between the Rollin 20 Crips and the Insane Crips (please forgive me if the names are wrong) in Long Beach is causing the innocent and also the gang members themselves. I heard his love for his city and the people in it. I saw young church planters being connected with older church "fathers" and encouraged in their vision. I talked to a young man and heard his vision for a small church in our City and his journey to get there. Then last night I heard from the wife of a pastor who runs a recovery house for women in the city. I heard her journey and how God has met and is meeting her and using all the things meant to destroy her and turning them into gold to use for His kingdom.
My vision is to somehow broker prayer for the City in a way that will invite the Kingdom and pave the way for revival. He is at work! and I want to join with others to pray HIS vision and plan for Long Beach into completion.
One of the ways I want to do this is to pray with people in their established meetings and also to publish the places prayer is happening around the City. If you have a prayer meeting that is open to everyone would you let me know at longbeach@kingdomcauses.org? If it isn't open to the public I would still love to know about it and what your focus is so I and my friends can pray for you. Let me know at the same address.
My life took a radical left turn about 10 years ago and I am feeling alive and hopeful for the first time since then. Take heart all of you who have suffered severe disappointment and loss!
God redeems everything in His own time!

Long Beach Rescue Mission Celebration

Tonight is the night where we get to celebrate one of the MANY great organizations that we have here in our city. This one has actually been around for a while now! I am excited to be going out to support this organization as they share their vision with the broader Church of the city and also raise needed funds to advance their work. I am privileged to be able to offer the closing prayer this evening to wrap things up!

Here is a Press-Telegram article about the banquet and the new Executive Director (Jim Lewis) that came on board there about a year ago. He is a great guy with a great heart and is bringing a wealth of expertise to the growing ministry team there. He is also working with his team to create a positive image in the surrounding community for both the mission and for those that are served through the mission. As you can imagine, this is not always an easy task for an organization that ministers in such a field! Pray for them.

We actively work with the rescue mission staff on our homeless task force and we are grateful to have such a great group and a great work here in our city! They are a key piece for bringing hope to many that are currently not feeling very hopeful. We trust that they will be encouraged by this evenings banquet and feel supported by the greater faith community. If you are unable to attend but would still like to support their work in any number of ways you can go to their web site here.

Rivive!

John Lockmer and the collaborative campus ministry known as Christian Students Unite (csulb.net) is hosting a Unity Prayer meeting this evening at CSULB. We have some people going and will be documenting the momentum that is happening on campus there in our October E-Newsletter (sign up here if you are not on our "opt-in" mailing list yet!!). It is another one of those stories that you have just got to hear about!! God is doing a wonderful thing on the CSULB campus by bringing many of the various campus ministries together to pray. Could these students be living out God's heart for the broader city at-large!?

See the web link above for more details about the gathering!

Thanks for the encouragement!

A quick shout out to a few great friends (Brittney & Mike) here in the city who said that we really should make more contributions to this blog because they actually check in and would love to have us share stories about how God is on the move in Long Beach. You never know who is actually reading blogs so we were very encouraged.

The dream was to have this blog be a place that stories of hope and transformation from our city could be posted, by those connected with Kingdom Causes in various ways, and serve as a daily place for people to check in on and see what God is doing in parts or arenas of our city that some may not be as familiar with.

Having been encouraged, a new story will be posted now...

PS - This is also a test to see if they really do check the blog :)