Neighborhood Ministries lives on a campus where there is much activity all week long. Committed to community development, it is our heart beat to see transformation happen in lives, in the neighborhood and in the systems that keep people poor in Phoenix. This desire is lived out by many Christians in many cities in the U.S. We share many core values and meet together annually (www.ccda.org) to continue equipping each other for the work of the kingdom in our cities.

There are two reasons I am sharing this with you. One is because there is a great deal of interest in community transformation these days. Much is happening in our city to stir the church to action, responding to the chronic needs of the poor here. Phoenix and Arizona can be found at the bottom of the statistical measures of well-being for kids, youth and families. We have been for years, 50th (last) in high school drop-outs, 48th in teen pregnancies, 49th or worse in per-capita spending for students in public school, at the bottom for health care, juvenile homicides, and numbers of teen-agers who are neither in school or working. One of every four children in our state goes to bed hungry. Loving communities like these in Jesus’ name, where these stats describe the trouble so many face, requires a response that is both holistic and responsible. Good News! Training for our churches is available.

The other reason is to invite you to join us for an OPEN HOUSE on November 14, to experience a day in the life of our model of Christian Community Development. Like most CCD works, we are holistic. There are many expressions of the love of God here at The Neighborhood Center. St. Francis is often quoted as saying “preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary use words”. Jesus said, when you clothed, fed, visited those least of these, you did it to me.

Neighborhood Ministries serves more than 600 kids and youth weekly. We have an aggressive programmatic track that keeps kids in school, beginning with our pre-school and marching forward through college. In fact, we have a college scholarship program for our own achieving youth. We have a jobs and job readiness program matching youth and adults with employment. We have a teen-mom program that helps young moms become great moms; have a food bank, health clinic, soccer teams, an amazing home for young women and their children and there we have a community garden, and we also have a skills development workshop – featuring a bike shop; there is a HeadStart pre-school classroom, parent volunteer program (an in house barter system that puts the parents of our young people to work at TNC), Mi Nana’s Tamales -- a Neighborhood micro-enterprise and more volunteers than you can count. Every one of these efforts will have an interactive stop along the “Neighborhood Miracles Tour”.

I hope you will consider attending these events. And I hope you will remember that your own personal call to Christian Community Development in this city, by its very nature, has bonded you with a family that takes your heart and your work seriously. Come see us at both events for that reason alone. We want to greet you and get to know you better.

God bless you,