Category Archives: NET4Christ News

Hope Ministries born out of a dream

Posted on by Lynda Stringer

August 23, 2016 | By LYNDA STRINGER

Hope Ministries 1

Contributed photo/HOPE MINISTRIES

 

 

Judy Capps poses with Hope Ministries residents Janet Reeves, left, and Maribel Rodriguez, right. Both earned their GEDs. Reeves has also graduated from the Mount Pleasant Police Academy, while Rodriguez is in the nursing program at Northeast Texas Community College.

 

Hope Ministries of Northeast Texas had its first crop of graduates go through the program earlier this year.  Among the 12 single moms it has helped transform practically and spiritually are a business owner, a police academy graduate, a bilingual teacher and a first in her family homeowner.

The women who apply for the two-year residential program come from all over the United States. They live in Hope Apartments behind the ministry’s offices on Ferguson Road. Under strict standards, they take part in parenting classes, finance classes, life coaching, Bible studies and mentoring while working and going to school.

The women have to be drug and alcohol-free and agree to stay single for two years.

“Sometimes, those are the things that trip us up and make us get caught in a cycle. I’m trying to create a place where they can just rest from the trauma,” said Hope Ministries Founder Judy Capps. The women work, pay their bills and go to school at Northeast Texas Community College.

“We are a hand up, not a handout. The girls have to pay a small rent and work part time. I believe the Lord honors us enough to make us work. We are worthy of work and I want them to have to buy into what they are doing,” said Capps, who shared that the vision for the ministry came from a literal dream she had one night when and her husband, Steve Capps, were out of town celebrating their 30th anniversary.

“In the dream, I saw women and children living in a place of peace,” Capps said. “I even saw the woman who became our executive director, Liz Robbins, in the dream. She is a Biblical counselor and she was teaching the girls. But, the main thing about the dream was Jesus was healing their hearts.”

Capps said the ministry is based on a verse in James, Chapter 1, which says, “Religion that God, our Father considers is pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.”

Even though the women technically aren’t widows and the children are not orphans, she said they are women and children who have been abandoned by men and fathers and by the world.

When she came home from that trip, she immediately received a phone call from Gordon Nelms, the director of the Salvation Army’s local chapter.

“He asked me if I would consider helping a woman who was living in her car with her three children,” Capps said. “I said, ‘Yes,’ and that started this journey.”

She began helping the woman find permanent housing, cleaning up her credit and she eventually became a restaurant manager. In 2012, the real test came. Elizabeth Robbins, the woman Capps had seen in her dream teaching women, moved from Houston to Mount Pleasant. She told her husband and he agreed that it was time buy a property to further her ministry efforts. After seeing an apartment complex that was on the market and knowing immediately that its dilapidated condition was not what God had in mind, she spoke with her friend and realtor, Diana Kennedy, sharing the dream with her.

“Diana Kennedy was the key,” Capps said.

Kennedy told her about an apartment complex that a member of North Ridge Church of Christ had donated to the church that they had just listed with her agency.

“My husband and I prayed about the apartments. They were asking a lot of money for them and he said I should write the church a letter, share my dream with them and ask them to sell me the apartments for half the listed price,” Capps said. “He said, ‘Let’s just trust God and ask.’”

She did and the church agreed.

“They prayed about it and told us they felt like this was what they were supposed to do,” she said.

It wasn’t until 2014 when they received their 501(c)3 nonprofit status that Hope Ministries was officially born, but during the two years after buying the apartments, they moved a family in as each apartment was renovated and supported the families themselves and with the help of community members who wanted to help whether or not they received a tax write-off.

The ministry also receives funding through renting venue space at its community event center, The Landing, located in its main building.

“We do a lot of practical things, but we also do a lot of ministry for healing of the heart. My goal is to get them off government assistance and into a dependence on God,” Capps said.

Once their hearts are healed, she said, they start seeing themselves as they truly are, as a nurse, a counselor, a teacher, a police officer, a businesswoman, a homeowner.

“These girls are so blessed that someone would believe in them,” Capps said. “God has a destiny for them to walk in and sometimes the circumstances of life will steal that destiny if they aren’t given a chance.”

To find out more about Hope Ministries, visit their website, HopeofNET.org.

Lynda Stringer is a Mount Pleasant, TX-based freelance writer and owner of Stringer Media. Contact her at Lynda.Stringer@outlook.com.

 

Food4kids needs support

Posted on by Lynda Stringer
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Photo by LYNDA STRINGER

 

 

A Food4kids recipient helps her mom load groceries they received from Titus County Cares Food Pantry.

July 15, 2016 | By LYNDA STRINGER

Many times, the food Titus County students receive in their backpacks on Fridays is the only food they have to eat for the weekend.

The Food4kids program, launched by Titus County Cares four years ago, has grown from serving 800 kids to 1,300 kids every week during the school year. To fund the program, TCC relies on community fundraisers and matching foundation grants to meet its $120,000 annual budget.

In July, TCC launched a support letter campaign to raise at least $15,000 in hopes of receiving a $15,000 matching grant from the Carl C. Anderson, Sr. and Marie Jo Anderson Charitable Foundation in Austin. The organization’s Claybuster Shoot held in April raised more than $35,000, which qualified them to receive a $30,000 matching grant from the Burt and Nancy Marans Charitable Fund.

It’s the third year they have applied for the Anderson Foundation grant but the first year they’ve raised the initial funding through a letter campaign. Previously the grant funds were tied to a fundraiser offering vintage aircraft rides to veterans through Mid America Flight Museum.

“We decided to go in a different direction because wanted to be able to able to include more people, to reach those who can give $10 or $25 as well as those who can give $500,” said TCC Executive Director Judy Lee.

She said a gift of $10 provides a sack of food for kids in 1st through 4th grades every Friday for one month. How important is that?

“It’s the difference in not having anything to eat over the weekend,” Lee said. “They need that extra food because ends don’t meet and they don’t have enough food.”

She shared the story of a single mom who works the evening shift at Pilgrim’s. She worried about her young daughter coming home to an empty house and having to feed herself.

“She was so happy to know that she would have something to eat on Friday night and she wouldn’t have to worry about her trying to cook something,” Lee said.

Each child in the family is eligible to receive the sacks filled with high-protein, healthy foods like pop-top canned meals, peanut butter crackers, cereal, powdered milk, cereal bars, beef sticks and juice boxes. The sacks are discreetly placed in the child’s backpack on Fridays. If a younger child has older siblings, they can bring home the sacks for their brothers and sisters in junior high and high school.

“They desperately need it, too,” Lee said. “So, we do it in a way so that no child gets made fun of or points out specific kids.”

The parents and the kids are appreciative of the hand up that helps them get through tough situations. A high school student who volunteered on the Tuesday night assembly line to pack the food bags told Lee he was there because he’d been a Food4kids recipient in the past when his dad lost his job.

“He said, ‘My brothers and I started getting these bags of food on the weekend and that really helped me so much,’” Lee said.

He told her when he heard about the weekly volunteer opportunity, he wanted to help so he could help do the same for another child.

“They know someone in this community cares about them.”

Lee has faith that the community will step up again to provide the funds needed to receive the grant for the 2016-2017 school year.

“The bottom line is God has provided every year and God will provide again,” she said.

To learn more about the program and to make a donation, go to TitusCountyCares.org.

Lynda Stringer is a Mount Pleasant-based freelance writer and owner of Stringer Media. Contact her at Lynda.Stringer@outlook.com.

 

Community prays for officers

Posted on by Lynda Stringer
July 10, 2016 | By LYNDA STRINGER

IMG_0131A hastily organized prayer vigil to support local law enforcement drew hundreds to downtown Mount Pleasant Sunday night.

Members of the local minister’s union, chaplain’s association and the Mount Pleasant NAACP organized the gathering at the Bell Tower across from the Titus County Courthouse in the wake of the tragic police shootings in Dallas last week.

“Everyone has come together here today to express solidarity and support of our local law enforcement,” Rev. Lenn Deloney, president of the Mount Pleasant Minister’s Union, said following the event. “God is bigger than the problems we have.”

Deloney, pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church, said he and his fellow pastors are committed to renewing a dialogue that will fulfill a hope of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that a man or woman is not judged by the color of their skin, but the nature of their character.

“Right now there are turbulent times in our country and we are glad to see these several hundred people coming together. That says that people care,” Deloney said.

Rev. David Anderson, pastor of Calvary Chapel and a police chaplain, said the focus of his prayer was healing and bringing the community together. He said since the tragic ambush that killed five police officers in Dallas, the major concern officers have communicated to him is that everyone is being lumped together and lines are being drawn.

“We can’t have lines being drawn in a country where we are supposed to serve one another,” Anderson said. “The idea behind this vigil was to break down some of those barriers and show that we are in this together.”

The ministers and the public prayed over and showed support for Mount Pleasant Police officers, Titus County Sheriff’s deputies and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, a gesture they were deeply grateful for.

“DPS Capt. Michael Scullin, who was at home Thursday night when he began getting word of the shootings, said tragedies like this one affect the whole law enforcement community.

“It’s very stressful because an attack on one is an attack on us all,” Scullin said. “It puts us all on a higher stress level with our families wondering if we’re coming home.”

He said the prayer vigil showed him and his fellow troopers, officers, deputies and agents that “evil will not win.”

“Good will triumph,” Scullin said.

Mount Pleasant Police Chief Wayne Isbell called the Dallas shootings disgusting, especially because they were protecting those protesting the recent police-involved

shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana. He said the shooter “ripped out the protest message, wadded it up and threw it away.”

 

He thanked the community for their show of support and praised the local chaplains who volunteer countless hours to minister to the officers entrusted as the peacekeepers and protectors of the community.

Mayor Pro Tem Robert Nance said the community must not respond to the national events by pointing fingers.

“We need to come together to solve the problem. It’s time to get back to our first love, to get back to God,” Nance said. “Taking guns off the street won’t make any difference until somebody has a change of heart. We need to start respecting our neighbors, our police, our schools and each other. We don’t love when we don’t respect.”

Titus County Judge Brian Lee said prayers spoken over Mount Pleasant at every level gives him comfort.

“Christ has provided a blanket over this community, especially over our law enforcement,” Lee said.

Sheriff Tim Ingram said his heart was broken over the senseless shootings and the vigil was the beginning of the healing process.

“What a powerful statement from Rev. Kirthell Roberts to say, ‘all lives matter,’” Ingram said. “It gives me a sense of peace and strength to know that we can conquer anything that happens here when you have that kind of support.”

Lynda Stringer is a Mount Pleasant-based freelance writer and owner of Stringer Media. Contact her at Lynda.Stringer@outlook.com.

 

Trinity lights up sky for 4th

Posted on by Lynda Stringer
June 30, 2016 | By LYNDA STRINGER

The Trinity Baptist Church campus in Mount Pleasant will be packed this Sunday night as thousands gather to watch the spectacular fireworks show the church has been hosting for two decades.

The event kicks off at 7 p.m. with free activities for kids, concessions available, live music and even George Washington will make an appearance.

“Our pastor, Mike Kessler started it with the community. This is our 20th anniversary,” said Trinity Worship Pastor Daniel Evans. “It’s an opportunity for Trinity to give back to the community and to show them the love of Christ and put on a free fireworks show and patriotic celebration.”

Evans said each year, the fireworks draw several thousand people in the area including those watching at Independence Day barbeques at homes in the surrounding neighborhoods and an estimated 3,000 that bring their lawn chairs and blankets to the Trinity grounds to watch the pyrotechnics bursting in air.

“We want everyone to just come out to our campus and have a good time,” he said.

Before the fuses are lit on the fireworks, there’s plenty for families to do. All the activities start at 7 p.m. with inflatable water slides and bounce houses, face painting, temporary tattoos and other games for kids.

Concessions will be available for purchase, but coolers are allowed.

“While all the activities are going on we’ll have the same band we had last year, The Argyles. They are an awesome cover band who will entertain the adults while the kids play,” Evans said.

At 8:30 p.m., the stage shifts to a patriotic program, including songs, a salute to the military and a special guest speaker.

“We will celebrate our country’s birthday and recognize each branch of the military, those who served and those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our country,” Evans said.

Justice Josh Morriss, chief justice of the Sixth Court of Appeals in Texarkana, will perform a monologue.

“He dresses up as George Washington and he’ll read one of Washington’s letters. It’s a pretty neat deal,” Evans said.

The Trinity Worship Ministry will sing a patriotic song set that paints a picture of God and country, Evans said.

“We will sing patriotic songs that mention our reliance on God as a country, so God is definitely intertwined within the night,” he said.

The fireworks begin at 9:30 p.m. and the show is expected to last 15 to 20 minutes.

Evans said with the current political and social climate, it is more important than ever to celebrate America’s founding with unity during the Independence Day holiday.

“Our country is pretty divided and this is a chance to unite together from different backgrounds, denominations, races and parts of the world to just celebrate the freedom we have to be different and honor those who fought for and stood up for that freedom,” Evans said.

Lynda Stringer is a Mount Pleasant-based freelance writer and the owner of Stringer Media. Contact her at Lynda.Stringer@outlook.com.

 

Softball tourney raises “Skylarships”

Posted on by Lynda Stringer

June 20, 2016 | By LYNDA STRINGER

 

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Contributed Photo/BECKY CARPENTER

 

 

Skylar Carpenter wasn’t that big on acing tests, so a co-ed softball tournament held in her memory raises money for scholarships that aren’t tied to grades, but to heart.

The 5th Annual Skylarship Foundation Benefit Softball Tournament is named for the Quitman High School student who was killed in a car accident in 2011 at age 15. The tournament will make its Mount Pleasant debut this Saturday at Heritage Park. It has been held in Quitman the past four years, but the family decided to move it to Mount Pleasant because they will be relocating to the area soon.

Skylar’s mom, Becky Carpenter, who founded One Day Closer Ministries following her daughter’s tragic death, said the co-ed slow pitch tournament has raised more than $28,000 in scholarships since it began.

“Of that amount, $25,000 has been East Texas scholarships and this year, we’ve given three international scholarships, two in Haiti and one in Honduras” Carpenter said. “In those countries, $1,200 funds a full year of university education.”

She said next year, the foundation plans to expand its scholarships to Guatemala and El Salvador.

That all depends on how much money is raised at the tournament, which has in the past drawn 15-18 co-ed slow pitch teams from highly competitive teams to church league teams.

The tournament will be held Saturday at Heritage Park in Mount Pleasant. The cost to enter is $200 per team. To register a team for the softball tournament, go to skylarshipfoundation.org or call Tournament Director Tammy Daniel, Skylar’s aunt, at 903-517-2725.

Carpenter said while her daughter wasn’t interested in getting a 4.0 grade point average like her sister Shelbi, who is now a teacher at Chapel Hill Elementary School, she did have aspirations of going to college.

“I was an educator and the one thing I got frustrated about as a high school teacher and principal was that just about every scholarship was tied to grades or athletics. Our scholarships are awarded based on the heart. I make them do an essay and tell me how they are going to make a positive impact on the world,” Carpenter said.

Because Skylar was so good with the elderly, Carpenter said she always thought her daughter would go into the medical field. After Skylar died, her daughter’s friends told her Skylar always said, “God has a plan for you and he’s gonna use you. I hope God can use me, too. I wanna change the world.”

“That was her thing and so many things like that came up that led us to starting this ministry,” Carpenter said. “The Skylarship Foundation was the first arm that we started immediately.”

Skylar played softball growing up and her cousins are big in the sport, so a benefit tournament was a natural first step for the ministry that now includes a communications arm led by Carpenter, who left her 25-year education career to launch the ministry. She is a Christian motivational speaker who takes her message to speaking events all over the country. There is a field missions arm that meets physical needs locally and around the world. There are also plans to build a Christian-focused retreat and conference center in the future.

Carpenter said she named the ministry after a prayer that got her through the dark days that followed Skylar’s death.

“After the wreck, it was really hard to function physically, so I leaned in on the Lord,” she said. “Every morning before my feet hit the floor I would say, ‘Lord, thank you for bringing me one day closer to that reunion with Skylar.’ The best advice I got was from a lady who also lost a child. She said, ‘Grieve. Grieve hard, but grieve forward.”

Since starting One Day Closer Ministries in 2014, Carpenter said she and her husband, David and daughter, Shelbi, have all learned surprising lessons from Skylar, whose Christian faith was unwavering and whose mission was to befriend and defend the outsiders.

One of the students who attended a candlelight vigil for her said, ‘Why Skylar? She’s the only one that was ever nice to me,’ Carpenter said.

Stories shared in a memory book her classmates made for their devastated principal included one of when Skylar was in elementary school.

“It told how she had punched a kid in the face, but that kid was a bully who had been making fun of a special needs kid,” Carpenter said.

Another student shared that his favorite memory of Skylar was when she hid in his locker and jumped out and threatened to continue every day until he agreed to come with her to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes meetings at school.

“He said he went and it was because of FCA that he came to know the Lord,” Carpenter said. “Those are the things that are embedded in me. It’s all about relationships. It has nothing to do with being behind stained glass windows inside a church building. She changed all of us.”

Lynda Stringer is a Mount Pleasant-based freelance writer and the owner of Stringer Media. Contact her at Lynda.Stringer@outlook.com.

 

First Cares4kids class graduates

Posted on by Lynda Stringer

June 7, 2016 | By LYNDA STRINGER

 

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Contributed Photo|TITUS COUNTY CARES

Cares4kids is Judy Lee’s baby.

 

She launched the local child sponsorship program in the fall of 2011 through her organization Titus County Cares.

The program matched 140 adult sponsors from the local community with 168 elementary school kids from Mount Pleasant, Harts Bluff and Winfield school  districts. The  $20 per month sponsorships provide school clothes, school  supplies with a backpack and letters from their sponsors throughout the year, as well as gifts for their birthdays, Christmas, Easter and Valentine’s Day.

The kids in the program, who remain matched with the same sponsor each year  they are eligible, are also automatically enrolled in Titus County Cares’ Empty Stocking program, which provides Christmas gifts and the Food4kids program, which sends them home at the end of the school week with a sack full of food.

This past school year, the program was open for students in first through fifth  grades, so that initial class of first-graders graduated  from the program, which was a bittersweet moment for Lee and her staff.

“I have attended most of the birthday parties and seen them grow. These  children are special to me, but it isn’t about me. I just happened to start the  program that God gave me a vision for,” Lee said.

Lee said the program plays an important part in Titus County Cares’ outreach efforts, and while most of the children won’t meet their sponsors, the impact they have made in their lives is immeasurable.

“They have made a difference in these kids’ lives. They love their sponsors. Somebody in our community cares for them, loves them, prays for them and provides for them,” Lee said. “That is a relationship that will stick with them for the rest of their lives.”

The lessons the students take away from the program as they age out are also life-changing.

“The quotes that we got from the kids says it all. When we started this program, it didn’t cross my mind that the kids would learn the lesson of how important it is to give back. But, several of them said when they grow up they want to give back and care for other people,” Lee said.

“I started seeing this several years ago and I realized that this is making a bigger difference than I had anticipated.”

Cares4kids Program Director Kim Hedges, who took over administration of the program two years ago, said it makes an impact on the sponsors as well.

“Many of the sponsors have been with the same child from the beginning and they really get attached.

It’s a neat opportunity for the sponsors to pray for the kids and write encouraging letters,” she said.

To sponsor a child for the 2016-2017 school year, contact Kim Hedges at Titus County Cares at 903-575-9157.

Lynda Stringer is a Mount Pleasant-based freelance writer and the owner of Stringer Media. Contact her at Lynda.Stringer@outlook.com.

Titus County Reads wraps up year

Posted on by Lynda Stringer

May 24, 2016 | By LYNDA STRINGER

 

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Contributed Photo|TITUS COUNTY CARES

 

 

Titus County Cares has closed the book on another successful Titus County Reads school year.

The program works a little differently than people might think about a reading program. The volunteers are paired up with a student for one-on-one reading time during the week. The kids read to the adults in most cases as a way to help them improve their reading skills.

“Volunteers enter the schools each week to read for 30 minutes with their first grade reading buddy,” said Mary Katherine Milam, Titus County Cares marketing director.

“The little girl I read to at Annie Simms, Natalia, loved to read to me, but sometimes she wanted to take turns, so I would read the left page and she would read the right page,” said Kim Crabb, who began volunteering with the program this year. “But, the boy I read to at E.C. Brice, Christian, he never read anything to me at all. He was so sweet, but he never said a thing to me all year. It kind of broke my heart, but on the other hand, Natalia talked plenty for him.”

Crabb said the little boy’s teacher said he was very shy, but very smart.

“She said, ‘He’s getting it, I promise,’” Crabb said. “I loved it, especially when you see them making progress.”

She said Natalia progressed through several reading levels.

“I wasn’t actually sure when I went into this how helpful it would be, but I was really impressed. I saw a lot of growth in her reading,” Crabb said.

More than 100 volunteers signed up for the program.

“Many special relationships have been formed while literacy was being promoted,” Milam said.

Crabb said she plans to volunteer again next year; she may even take on three students.

Every elementary student in Titus County received a new book and a book bag as the program wrapped up for the year.

“The books were taken to each elementary campus and laid out by grade level on tables in the lobby.  Each class came by and the children were able to choose which book they wanted to take home to keep and read,” said Titus County Cares Executive Director Judy Lee.

Milam said the most impressive part of the program is the community involvement. She said Judd Marshall, the superintendent of Mount Pleasant ISD has been a huge supporter.

“We owe much of our success of the program to his encouragement. At the first of the school year, he challenged all of his administrators to read with a student on a different campus from where they work.  It has been exciting to see these principals at different schools,” Milam said.

Milam said the children who get the one-on-one time with the same caring adult each week have been the biggest winners.

But, it has been pretty special for the grown-ups, too.

“Week after week the smile from my little buddy when he saw me made my day,” she said.

Lynda Stringer is a Mount Pleasant-based freelance writer and the owner of Stringer Media. Contact her at Lynda.Stringer@outlook.com.

 

Colonel donates Shields of Strength

Posted on by Lynda Stringer
May 20, 2016 | By LYNDA STRINGER

 

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Kellye Cooper displays a Shield of Strength| Photo by LYNDA STRINGER

 

 

 

Ministering Our Military received a surprise donation from a veteran who has been on a mission to “carry the load” for soldiers for many years.

U.S. Army (Ret.) Col. David Dodd recently learned about the Mount Pleasant-based organization and its efforts to support military troops and the Carry The Load National Relay, which makes its annual stop in Mount Pleasant on May 27.

M.O.M. hosts a rally and lunch for the Carry The Load team and invites active duty military, veterans, police officers, firefighters and first responders to a free lunch and the community to join them in the Mount Pleasant to Winfield leg of the Carry The Load Walk.

Dodd, who served in the military for more than 27 years, including two deployments to Iraq and one to Afghanistan, offered to donate “Shields of Strength” dog tag necklaces for the group to distribute to those who attend the rally. The necklaces come in a wide variety of styles and have Bible verses on the back.

Dodd will also walk with the Mount Pleasant team and will serve as the event’s keynote speaker.

Kellye Cooper, the co-founder of M.O.M. said Dodd contacted her saying he wanted to partner with the group and donate the dog tags for the rally, for Gold Star families and for every care package the group sends to military troops.

“I sent him an email that said, ‘This is great. I love the offer, but I don’t want to ask for too many’ and asked if they could give me an estimate of what I could ask for,” Cooper said. “Col. Dodd emailed me back and said, ‘We’re talking thousands. You ask and we’ll provide.’ He said that when they can no longer provide, God will find a way.”

Cooper said more than 1,000 people attended the rally last year at the Mount Pleasant/Titus County Chamber & Visitor’s Center. The rally starts at 10:30 a.m., with the national relay team will arriving at around 11 a.m.

“They are providing a Shield of Strength for every single person that attends. I have one for every first responder, one for every member of M.O.M. with the appropriate branch of service. and also, they sent folded flag Shields for every Gold Star family that attends.”

Cooper said she can’t put into words what the generous offer means to her group.

“I have probably cried more tears over this than anything in a long time. This is unbelievable to me,” she said. “I’m absolutely blown away.”

The Shields of Strength necklaces were created by Kenny Vaughan, the story of which is told in his book of the same name. Vaughan won the 1996 national championship in water-ski jumping after striving for the title for 15 years.

Dodd, a man of deep faith, came across Shields of Strength while serving in the Army. He found soldiers wearing the dog tags they had attached to their military issue tags. The Shields had the verse from Joshua 1:9 inscribed on them: “I will be strong and courageous. I will not be terrified or discouraged, for the Lord my God is with me wherever I go.”

While on active duty, Dodd handed out more than 10,000 Shields of Strength tags to members of the Armed Forces, military families and senior U.S. and international leaders.

He told Cooper that he’s never seen a ministry that changed lives the way the Shields of Strength ministry has.

“He said he could try to give people Bibles all day long and they wouldn’t accept them, but if he gave them that Shield, they would attach it to their dog tags and somewhere along the line, they’d read the scripture and come back later and ask about it,” Cooper said. “We always said this ministry was about God, that we wanted God to be foremost and what better way to present this than in a way that people will accept it.”

Dodd said he has a special request for those who receive a Shield at the rally.

“We will ask them to wear the Shield and when they see a member of the Armed Forces or a First Responder, to thank them for their service and give them their Shield of Strength.”

The idea ties perfectly into the mission of Carry The Load, which seeks to bring back the true meaning of Memorial Day and honors the military and those who serve their communities in first responder roles.

“The word picture created by Carry The Load is powerful on many levels. Warriors do carry heavy loads of combat gear and equipment. Often they carry heavy mental and emotional loads,” Dodd said. “They will carry the load as far and as long as they possibly can without asking for help. That is how they are wired, to carry the load for others.”

The Shields of Strength will be an additional gesture from a grateful community to a deserving few who take on the challenge to serve.

Lynda Stringer is a Mount Pleasant-based freelance writer and the owner of Stringer Media. Contact her at Lynda.Stringer@outlook.com.

 

Jo’s collects diapers for needy tushies

Posted on by Lynda Stringer
Caroline Blackard-Jos Diaper Drive

Caroline Blackard donates to Jo’s diaper drive.|Photo By LYNDA STRINGER

May 13, 2016 | By LYNDA STRINGER

The first thing a parent does when their baby is crying is check their diaper. But, what if it needs changing and there are no diapers left in the bag? That’s a dilemma many families in need face and when they turn to Titus County Cares for help, right now, they are being turned away.

“Titus County Cares has been out of diapers for two months,” said Caroline Blackard, the acting manager at Jo’s Coffee Shop, which launched a diaper drive Friday for the organization to help meet the need. Many of the staff have small children and understand what a huge issue it can be for parents. Blackard said Belle Baker, the mom of a 2-year-old boy, is the leading force behind the drive.

“Where she lived before there was a place where foster families could pick up things like that, so she has been involved with diaper drives before,” Blackard said.

The staff reached out to Titus County Cares to find out what their situation was with their stores of diapers. The organization said Kimberly Clark had donated seven pallets of diapers a little over a year ago, which lasted six months.

“Since then they have taken cash donations to buy diapers, but they haven’t had any children’s diapers to hand out at all for a few months now,” Blackard said.

Jo’s has set a goal of collecting 5,000 diapers during the campaign, which will run through June 18. That should provide a 10-week supply of diapers for the organization. Titus County Cares will distribute the diapers to parents who qualify for financial assistance and have been verified to have children three years of age or younger living in the home.

“This is something our employees decided to do to give back to the community,” Blackard said. “It’s something that is near and dear to their hearts.”

When donors brings in a box of 100 diapers, they will receive a free 12 ounce drink from the coffee bar. For a bag of diapers, customers will receive $2 off their purchase.

Blackard said the diaper drive is the latest community service project the coffee shop has been involved in. Jo’s, which part of Ark Ministries, just wrapped up a weeklong sale of blueberry muffins provided by Pearl’s Kitchen at the end of April. For each muffin sold, Jo’s donated $2 to CASA of Titus, Camp and Morris Counties. Jo’s had an anonymous matching donor as well.

“We had a goal to sell 250 muffins and we met that on the last day. With the matching donation, we were able to give CASA $1,000,” Blackard said.

The coffee shop is also planning a pet portrait day to raise money for the Mount Pleasant Animal Shelter.

 

MP observes National Day of Prayer

Posted on by Lynda Stringer

May 6, 2016 | By LYNDA STRINGER

Prayer-2

Photo by LYNDA STRINGER

 

Pictured from left, Daniel Evans, Dawna Land and Gustavo Caamal pray together on a bench outside the Titus County Courthouse for National Day of Prayer Thursday morning. 

Prayer gatherings sprouted up around Mount Pleasant on Thursday as the annual National Day of Prayer observance was held across the country.

The events were loosely organized in a come and go style at the Titus County Courthouse early in the morning and at noon and mid-morning at Heav’nly Foods using the national theme, “Wake Up America.”

On Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott proclaimed May 5 as the Texas National Day of Prayer at the state’s NDP breakfast in Austin. The date coincided with the national observance held every year on the first Thursday in May.

“These are trying times, and there is an urgent need to pray. America is at a time of crisis as some try to silence the faithful and purge God from the public square,” Abbott said at the prayer breakfast.

Karen Oakerson, Trinity Baptist Church Preschool Minister and Community Involvement Director, organized the Thursday morning prayer gathering at the courthouse.

“We wanted an opportunity for believers in our community from all different denominations to come together and pray in the Lord’s name and pray over our community, our nation and our state and also to take individual prayer requests,” Oakerson said.

Jeremy Thomas, Pastor of Center Church said the event was a great opportunity for the community and the different churches to come together.

“I noticed a lot of emphasis in praying for our city and for God to work in our city and our nation and I think that’s always important, especially in the times that we’re in,” Thomas said.

“It’s important to have unity of the believers in a town and in our country, so it’s a great way to do that.”Abbott said.  “We live in the greatest country in the history of the world, but we must also realize how our nation has become broken” and that “our nation was founded by the rule of law originally handed down by Moses. We have strayed from that law.”

He said Americans can use opportunities to be a witness for God’s grace not just on designated prayer days, but every day.

“We must do this if we are to steer America back on course,” Abbott said. 

“We must never be shaken. America must never be shaken. As long as we build our fortress on the rock of God, America will never be shaken.”

For the May 5th observances, Dr. Tony Evans, the 2016 Honorary Chairman, wrote a special prayer to be simultaneously read throughout the nation at noon.

Lynda Stringer is a Mount Pleasant, TX-based freelance writer and owner of Stringer Media. Contact her at Lynda.Stringer@outlook.com.