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Making A MarkAt Oasis 2011, I challenged the students to not just “leave a mark” that could be erased but instead to make an impression that would last forever!

V2H NEWSMarch 2011

Mobil 2011Everyone’s Going Somewhere

OASIS CAMP 2011: GET REALFor the third year in a row, it has been

my privilege to be the guest speaker at

Oasis Camp for the South Florida Urban

Ministries (Branches) and KIX Ministry

through Youth For Christ. This year it was

held at Warren Willis Camp in Fruitland

Park, FL. The camp was a wonderful

facility for such an event!

With over 200 attending this year’s

camp, it was a REAL treat to be part of

such an event. The theme for the year was

REAL. This theme was chosen to help

students work through real issues in their

lives and to prepare them for REAL

Sacrifice, REAL Choices and REAL Life,

among other things.

There were many returning students

but a lot of new students just coming up

into the Branches and KIX ministries. After

a couple of sessions, I shared an invitation

and there were 15 students that stepped

forward to enter into a REAL relationship

with Jesus Chris! PRAISE GOD!

The 4 day camp allowed these

students from difficult home situations and

tough circumstances back home to have a

spiritual “oasis” where they could not only

be refreshed but poured into.

Students learned from other leaders

who shared their testimonies about poor

choices they made in the past as well as

from spending time in “family groups” with

others from their areas back home to

encourage one another.

I was deeply blessed to be part of

Oasis again this year and look forward to

continuing ministry with those students. I

will be taking some students from

Stockbridge, GA down to Miami next week

and we hope to continue to invest in the

lives of our friends from Oasis!

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New WAVESI cannot even begin to express the amount of

excitement and craziness that I feel about our

WAVE Teams right now! God has been growing

things like wildfire lately among our sign language

worship teams.

Stockbridge United Methodist Church

Under the direction of Trevor Jenkins, SUMC

launched its WAVE Team a few short weeks ago!

Advantage Academy WAVE Team

Under the direction of Shannon Wilson,

Advantage Academy is our first WAVE team at a

charter public middle/high school! We are very

excited about this team!

New Vision WAVE Freaks

The New Vision Team has only been signing

for about 9 months and yet they have exploded as

a ministry phenom! God has used them greatly

under the direction of Dee and Markie Love!

New Destiny WAVE Team

Another very exciting thing has happened

from our New Vision Freak Team! They were

asked to perform a couple of weeks ago at a

church called New Destiny. God used them so

greatly that the members of the church there

wanted to start a team immediately. So in less

than a week of that performance, New Destiny

was birthed!

That’s not all either! We still have a new team

at Morrow Presbyterian in Morrow GA under

the direction of Matt Hooten from the CCS Team

in Stockbridge, GA. We also have another recent

team that formed in Port Orange, FL with our

good friend and ministry partner Scott Kirschner

at Port Orange Presbyterian Church!

Continue to pray for the WAVE Team

Ministries and their locations and leaders.

Florida:

Miami, Kathi Gallo

Plant City, Shannon Wilson

Port Orange, Scott Kirschner

Georgia:

Madison, Annette Brackin

Stockbridge, Trevor Jenkins

Southside, Dee Love

New Vision, Markie Love

New Destiny, Caulette Brown

Morrow, Matt Hooten

Snellville, Amber Griffin

Tennessee:

Soddy, George Lockhart

Dayton, Terry Davis

FACES & PLACES

Random Pictures Me as “Billy Hill” during wacky tacky night at Oasis, standing with a student who made a profession of faith in Christ!

The Ministry Building where I may soon have an office!

The Southside Mission Team in Tavares with Jackie Overton, Principal.

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Why is a program like Elevate important?Skateboarding Facts

Each month 500,000 Skate Board Decks and 100,000 wheels are manufactured. One in 10 teenagers owns a skateboard  Source: BMX online 

Action Sports Foundations Reports:

- Skate Boarding is the third largest sport between the ages of 6-18. In 2001nearly 21 million people participated in action sports other than baseball, soccer, softball, volleyball, tennis, football.

- During the last 10 years, no sport had a larger increase in participation among users age 7 and older-106%. Skateboarding is the sixth largest participant sport in the United States

- More than 9.3 million skateboarders will take to the streets in the U.S. this year.

According to the US. Consumer Product Safety Commission skateboarders are less likely to require emergency medical care than participants of more traditional sports such as basketball, baseball, football, soccer & volleyball. Source: BMX on line

Skateboarding is a 3 Billion dollar a year industry. Skate parks are the #1 choice of teenagers when polled by Parks & Recreation departments.

             Source: The Skate Park Association of the United States (SPAUSA)

What is the average skateboarder like?

- Most skateboarders are between 7-16 years old.

- The average age of a skateboarder is 14.

- Art & Music are the favorite subjects in school for the average skateboarder.  

           Source: The Skate Park Association of the United States  (SPAUSA) 

Statistics

1. In 2007 there were over 13 million skateboarders in the U.S. 93.7% are younger than 24. When one considers that there are about 80 million people in the United States between the ages of 5 and 24, it suggests that 1 out of every 7 youth in the nation, or 12,997,000, are skateboarders.

2. In any given community, roughly 4.6% will be casual skateboarders and half of those will be weekly skaters

If we do not invest in such a ministry that reaches a wide variety of people and students, we are certainly missing the mark! Through a ministry like Elevate, not only can we curb things like violence and vandalism but we can also reach an entire teen sub-culture!

Pray as we plan to move into the building pictured above in May and begin to set up our outreach ministry for an August launch!

ElevateWe are celebrating a new venture for Elevate! A church plant called Awaken Church is going to let us use their building to house our skate ramps for an indoor park and other various ministry outreach projects! We praise God for how He is moving in V2H!

Elevate:

Rising In Service

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COMING SOON APRIL MAY JUNE JULY

Miami Tripworking with KIX and Branches kids. April 1-7

TavaresApril 8-10

Fund-raising concerts for Summer Mission Trips

El Salvador and Honduras

June 9-28, 2011

George Camps

MiamiNorth CarolinaGeorgia

Winter BreakDuring the Community Christian School winter break, I took several students from our Southside Sign Language team to Tavares, Fl with me to share in a Spiritual Emphasis Week at Adventure Christian Academy.

While there, the group did several performances for chapels and they shared their testimonies throughout the week.We worked with all ages from Pre-K to 10th grade and we shared in the middle school youth service on Wednesday night. During a couple of afternoons, the team spent time “weeding” the area around the church and trimming back trees as a service project.

It was a great time watching these student leaders serve on so many levels! There is no doubt that this team made a difference during their winter break.

Pray for this same group of students who will travel to Miami and then back to Tavares with me next week!

Spring Break TN: ELEVATE TRIP 2011

Last week, I spent time with my kids from TN, all of whom were on Spring Break. We decided to hit several skate parks and beaches as well as make a few ministry stops along the way.

We stopped first in Jacksonville, FL where the guys were able to skate at Ed Austin Park and then the next day at Kona Skate Park. Another skatepark on the docket was the Skate park of Tampa. The guys were able to do lots of skating and get some good “footie” for their videos they are working on. We also made stops in Tavares for a skate demo, Plant City and Port Orange, to work with the WAVE teams and we hit a few beaches along the way.

By the end of the week, we had traveled for countless hours and done well over a thousand miles!

We’d really like to thank Lora Darrisaw, Shannon Wilson, Jackie Overton, Ed Branch, The Gittners, and Scott Kirschner for helping us have a great week off!

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SHOCKWAVEFasting Forward

Making WAVES Around The

World

The funds that we raised for Fasting Forward have been distributed

to the students and they have all

communicated a great amount of gratitude to

everyone involved with Vision 2 Hear.

Dear George,

Yes, l have collected the funds you sent to day. lt is $1000 . Honestly l thank you personally and all those that contributed for it. My prayers is that the pockets where it has come would never run dry. l am very grateful indeed.

May the Good God reward you. Thanks once again.

Love from,Festus

I have also gotten word from Prince that he has received the funds ($1000 for himself and $50 for rosemary and $50 for Ike) with great joy and also distributed the funds to Rosemary and Ike as directed.

Here is a letter I got from Jorge concerning the funds we sent:

Today, March 8th of 2011 I have received a great gift from my V2H family and from deep inside of my heart I want to thank you all for believing in who I am and support me.

4 years ago I decided to take the privilege of joining V2H Internship program, and I don’t have the doubt that sharing time with each one of you changed my life. You all appear in the hardest time of my life; when my family was falling apart. Being there with you all and the support of George with the Internship program helped me to stay strong and don’t give up.So I truly want to thank you all for everything you have done and will do for me. Every hug, every conversation and time of gathering with you all helped me to form the new Jorge I am now.

It’s been 4 year now and March of 2011 I have called the time of a new rebirth. I am ready to take Gods plans for my life and to start working daily to see them real. This year I will focus on school; so I can serve the Lord completely with my career. In my silence retreat at the beginning of the month, when I went to give my Lord my new year of life, He told me in 1 Corinthians 9:22 through the words of Apostle Paul “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some” so I know I am in the right path, what we want to do is share the gospel to all in all the possible means.Once again thank you very much!

Thank you to all who contributed to meet the needs of those around the world and for helping make a difference now and in the future!

Sincerely,

George Lockhart

Prince

Festus serving at our site.

Ike

Rosemary

Jorge