Summer is here. Long days and long nights. Full weeks of leading youth groups on short-term mission trips. Exhausting and exhilarating. Sharing and caring. Praying and staying. Loving and serving. What more could you ask for?

It's probably a cliche but I really do love this job. Because you faithfully give to support this ministry we're able to help our ministry partners around the country connect with short-term CityConnexx mission groups to serve in at-risk communities. I love it. Your gift this month helped us continue with our mission to equip, encourage, and empower our partners with volunteers, supplies, resources, and critical summer programming.

Over the past couple of weeks I've had the opportunity of taking groups on mission trips to some new places. We took a group of 50 kids from Denver to serve in Salt Lake City. It was a great week of serving neighborhood churches and ministry outreaches. We prepared food for the homeless, gave out water bottles in the park, met homeless teens and took 36 of them to the water park with our group for a day of fellowship and fun. One girl who is a talented swimmer bought 10 swim suits for the homeless girls when she found out they couldn't come because they didn't have a suit.

Salt Lake City is a new city for us so it was great to work with our new ministry partners there and see first hand the great work they are doing. We worked with children in a local school summer program. We cleaned out freezers at the homeless shelter. We spent one day working on a real ranch where they raise meat to feed the homeless every Sunday morning for the past 25 years. Everyone was blessed by the work, the worship, and 19 kids gave their life to Christ or rededicated their lives on this trip. When they returned home, 12 were baptized. Missions really do make a difference in their lives and ours.
 
Right after this trip, I went down to Colorado Springs to help with a group that served locally at another new ministry partner. This was a unique group of families who have bible studies together and wanted to do a mission project. I spoke at their Christian High School in Chapel last fall so they took the challenge to get outside their comfort zone and serve in the city. We did a lot of light construction and clean up work for some single moms who were working full time to support their children and didn't have time to do repairs or yard work.

We helped one mother spread dump truck loads of topsoil for a new lawn while her husband is away serving in Iraq. It was a real blessing for us to be able to help out this military family who is sacrificing so much for the freedoms we enjoy. The end of our trip was spent helping out at the Crisis Pregnancy Center and praying over the abortion clinic across the street. That was a powerful morning and what a contrast. People were honking as we prayed. We weren't sure if they were supporting us or not but we felt the spirit of the Lord while praying for young women faced with difficult decisions.

But the summer isn't over yet. We still have lots of groups going on trips to many cities and Native American reservations across the nation. Please continue to pray for their safety and God's spirit to lead and guide them.

Check out the recent video and photos on our CityConnexx.org website, youtube, and Facebook page.

For Him and them,

Dean Cowles
YouthPartnersNET & CityConnexx
Founder

One of the true joys of my job is getting the opportunity to take folks on site tours of our ministry partners to see the great work they are doing at the grassroots level. Your gift helps us keep those partnerships and relationships going month after month, all year long.

One of those special guests came to town recently. His name is Bobby Polito and I first met him in Washington DC at the beginning of the Bush Administration. Bobby was asked to be the first Director of the Faith Based Office at the US Department of Health and Human Services. Bobby designed and launched the Compassion Capitol Fund which delivered hundreds of millions of dollars directly to faith-based programs.

I was in DC as one of the first grant reviewers. It was a great new approach as the Federal government moved in a significant direction to level the playing field for faith-based organizations to get access to federal funds without all the strings attached that kept our partners from getting Federal grants in the past.

Over these past 10 years, I have been active as a grant reviewer and chairman of review panels. So to get to spend the day with Bobby showing him around Denver was an honor. He was amazed at the great work these ministries are doing with very limited resources.

One ministry we visited gave out food and clothing to 44 families that morning.  They employ five full time staff, one Americorp volunteer, several part-time staff and hundreds of volunteers. They serve hundreds of families every month and hundreds of children and youth in their after school and summer programs. They do this and much, much more on an annual budget of just $200,000. We visited another one of our partners whose budget is $96,000. We toured a ministry that provides transitional housing from 9-18 months for homeless families in an old converted hotel. Churches adopt one of the former hotel rooms and fix it up to be a place of hope and healing.
 
At the end of the day, Bobby was really impressed by what he saw and experienced. He was really surprised by how well our Denver ministries work together and support one another. Pray for all of us as we explore more ways to work together and see what God can do when the body of Christ comes together and stays united.

If you happen to come through Denver or Colorado, I'd love to take you on an urban tour. Better yet, sign up your church or group for a CityConnexx short-term mission trip and stay and serve in a community near you and develop a long-term relationship with the ministry staff and those they serve.

For Him and them,

Dean Cowles
YouthPartnersNET & CityConnexx
Founder

LIVE COMPASSION!

Your Donations at Work (1):

Pine Ridge Ministries joined our network in January 2010.  Their primary focus is with the six Native communities near Wagner, SD.  This grant will go toward their All Tribes Fellowship Youth Program which provides after-school and summer programs for 20-45 children/youth two days per week.  The staff, children and youth together determined they would like the facility to be open three days per week and have more games and activities available to them.
This grant was funded through our Native American/Rich Mullins Fund.

Prayer Request:

Ezra’s mom committed suicide when she was small and her father is in prison.  She has been raised by her grandmother and very involved in the Pine Ridge programs.  Her grandmother was recently diagnosed with cancer.  Ezra is very concerned as she has no one except her grandmother.  The staff at Pine Ridge has told her grandmother that they will make sure she is cared for.  Please pray for Ezra and her grandmother.

Your Donations at Work (2):

Rehoboth Christian School was founded in 1903 as a ministry to the Native American peoples of the Four Corners region. They serve children living in America’s 3rd poorest county, nearly 50% of the students come from low-income and poverty-level income families. A Rehoboth education helps students develop confidence, competence, and compassion. Rehoboth is committed to building students up not only intellectually, but also spiritually and emotionally, helping them grow into mature Christians who approach the world with a healthy perspective and the skills necessary for living in it.

YPN is honored to provide another grant from our Native American/Rich Mullins Fund to Rehoboth Christian School for their Tuition Assistance Program which serves the students with the greatest financial needs. This year, 72% of the students need financial assistance due to the economy and soaring unemployment.  Their family members contribute the remainder of tuition costs, often at great sacrifice.  This grant was funded through our Native American/Rich Mullins Fund.

Prayer Request:

The day after his 18th birthday, Jacob was acting strange and was taken to the hospital and released.  A month ago, while waiting for the bus, he stumbled down the road.  He had a stroke each time caused by irregular shaped vertebrae.  He is still in the hospital in Phoenix recovering and working on physical therapy.  They are waiting for him to become stable before performing surgery on his spine.  Please pray for Jacob, his surgeons and his family that are unable to be with him.  During this time of worry and doubt and with no insurance, please pray that they will experience God’s peace and they will be surrounded in love. 

 

Are you planning your summer vacation? Well we are too but it's not just planning for the five of us. Try planning for 690!

May is turning out to be a very busy month for all of us here at YPN and CityConnexx as we gear up to host at present 690 youth and adults who will be going on mission trips with us this summer. Our staff and ministry site coordinators are working hard to get all the schedules and details finalized before the groups arrive. It's a huge task.

So, your recent gift of love is a big help. I'm sure you can imagine all the work that goes into planning these trips and coordinating all the details. We just want you to know that your faithful support over the years allows us to focus on serving our partners and making these urban and Native American mission trips custom designed and highly impactful.

Like my family, you probably say a prayer in the car before departing on the road trip to far away places. Would you join us in praying for groups as they leave their cities to drive hours and sometimes days across the country to serve in far away places? Most groups leave on Saturday or Sunday. Maybe that can be part of your family prayer time to pray for our groups.

One group I spoke to in North Carolina will be traveling 3 days to drive to Denver Colorado to serve our urban partners here. When I arrived to speak at this small country church I was amazed that they had a strong enough youth group to send 30 teens and adults on an 1800 mile journey just to spend a week of their summer serving the poor. Before I spoke to the full congregation, I met with the teens and their leaders in a basement that had been dug out by hand before the Civil War. It was awesome to see their excitement about taking this mission road trip. Most of these youth hadn't even been outside North Carolina so they were excited about this new adventure.
 
That's part of the joy of missions. My wife and I were able to spend two years of our lives as missionaries to rural Kenya Africa. It was a long 4 day trip flying across three continents. But we look back on this "two year mission trip" as one of the highlights of our life. So, as these youth spend a week or more traveling and serving on their mission trip, I hope you will join us in prayer for their safety and most of all the impact they will have serving others in need to show them the love of Jesus in very difficult and depressing situations.

God bless you for giving this month and praying for our CityConnexx teams. And when you do plan your summer vacation, just be thankful you're not planning for 690 wild, crazy teenagers!

For Him and them,

Dean Cowles
YouthPartnersNET & CityConnexx
Founder

You may have seen the Academy Award winning movie "Blind Side". If not, surely you've heard the story. Michael Oher grew up in the projects of Memphis and overcame the odds to become an NFL starting lineman for the Baltimore Ravens. When my wife and I saw it, we both were using our sleeves as Kleenex. It's one of those rare, true stories that touch our hearts.

Well, last month I had the chance to visit and serve in the area where he grew up. 64 Texas College Life students spent their spring break serving the poor in the hood rather than surfing on the beach as part of our CityConnexx program. We were overwhelmed by the needs, the poverty and yet the seeds of hope growing in this at-risk community in Memphis. Memphis according to USA Today has the highest percentage of people who go hungry every day in America. Most of them are children.

Rev. Joann Ballard, the founder of our partner in Memphis, told us how Michael, his mom and her 13 children grew up in the neighborhood and often used the compassionate ministry services offered by this amazing faith-based ministry. Rev. Ballard even helped his mom deliver one of her babies in her tiny HUD apartment. Michael's mom still comes by from time to time to receive help and assistance. She told us that although all 13 children have been adopted, they all have graduated from high school and many from college. They are doing well and living proof that loving care and dedication can overcome the perils of poverty.

Your gift this month helps us help our partners by sending CityConnexx groups like these college students and funding to grow their programs. This one group alone provided $7,680 direct assistance along with $91,854 worth of volunteer labor. The local TV channels and newspaper heard about this spring break mission trip and featured it on the news.

2 minute news report available = http://www.youtube.com/user/CityConnexx#p/a/u/0/xB45od6zrfg
 
So in this season of Easter, it is refreshing to be part of "urban missions" that is watching rebirth and resurrection in communities and churches left neglected for far too long. Thanks for supporting us and being part of our compassionate team.

Because He Lives and loves the least of these,

Dean Cowles
YouthPartnersNET & CityConnexx
Founder

LIVE COMPASSION!

Your Donations at Work:

Christ Community Baptist Ministries serves the University Avenue area of Flint, MI. This high-risk community is filled with violence, drug and alcohol use and distribution, high domestic abuse and a high rate of mobility change. Its neighborhoods are filled with condemned or empty buildings that have become crack houses and havens for drug dealers.

The Summer Safety Net Program is designed to target young people between the age of 5 and 13 who live in this area. Many of the young people are disadvantaged, living in homes that are victims of persistent violence and pervasive poverty. This program provides a caring, loving and safe place for the youth to gather during the summer evenings, a nutritious dinner, and skills that will help them live a positive and productive Christ-centered life.  Their goal is to have 70 young people enrolled throughout the summer.

Prayer Request:

Pray for Uniqua, a 17 year old girl in our church who was hit by a car several months ago and experiences serious pain on a recurring basis.

Pray for Destiney, who is 17, and has been in their programs for several years along with her five sisters.  Her family life is difficult, her mother doesn’t want her around but is unwilling to let her go officially.  Pray that God softens her heart and that she will receive the Lord and be willing to move forward with school and job training so she can become independent of this difficult situation.

Pray for Dennis Jr, 15, who participates in our programs and is a great kid with great potential.  He has an awkward family situation and needs help in school.  Pray that God uses him to excel in school and more importantly in his love of the Lord.  Pray that he is able to escape the cycle of joblessness and low income his family has been in for generations.

 

March - "In like a lion, out like a lamb" or is it the other way around? I can never remember.  Either way it doesn't really matter for us here at YouthPartnersNET because here's the good news.  As the scripture promises us in Isaiah 11:6 and 65:25 "The Lion and the Lamb shall live and eat together".  Your gift this month is helping us and our partners do just that.  Let me explain.

March marks the beginning of our 2010 youth and college age CityConnexx mission teams who are traveling around the country and even up into Vancouver BC to serve the poor during their spring breaks. 

CityConnexx is designed to bring young people and adults into some of our nations most at-risk communities. Places indeed where Satan roams around like a "lion" ready to stead, kill, and destroy God's precious lambs who are so vulnerable, children living in poverty.

So, the goal of our teams is to live, eat, sleep, pray and pray, work and worship together in the most unlikely places.  College students from Illinois will be sleeping in tents on the roof of a ministry on skid row in LA because all the spare rooms are filled with homeless families. But they don't mind, it's kind of like their dorms. Other college students from Idaho will be removing graffiti and cleaning streets full of discarded bottles and needles on the Eastside of Vancouver BC because the authorities have forced all the homeless and drug users to that side of town to be "out of sight, out of mind" for the tourists who came to watch the Olympics. Several groups are coming to Denver to serve meals, play with kids, tutor Hispanic children who are just learning English. And a group of 50 College Life students from Texas has chosen to spend their spring break serving in Memphis rather than Daytona Beach.

We pray that by acts of kindness and compassion, the walls of separation and isolation will come crumbling down. We pray that God's people will cross over cultural and color barriers as we seek to serve those who are most at-risk. 
Yes, we believe former gang members can find salvation and transformation through God's love to lead devotions in urban ministries. Yes, we will see former crack addicted mothers who will be leading these groups on prayer walks through the projects where she lives and now is the Director of Family Services at the ministry. Former lions and lambs can live, eat, work, worship and love each other.

It has something to do with the Kingdom displayed and represented on earth as it is in Heaven.

Come join us in this Kingdom work. There's still time for you and your church to take a team on a mission trip this summer. (See www.CityConnexx.org for more info).  Just give us a call we'll be sure to prepare a place for you at the table of God's amazing banquet feast. 

And if you are not able to attend this year, please keep our staff, sites and teams in your prayers as they are used by God to make a difference in these communities and with the at-risk kids and families they will serve.

For Him and them,

Dean Cowles
YouthPartnersNET & CityConnexx
Founder