The Good News in Cleveland

To our supporters, We are grateful. Thank you for being used of God to make our 2020 ministries possible.  Update: It was a wild summer. With all of the parks and gyms in the city closing, there was an unprecedented amount of activity in the parking lot next to our house. COVID restrictions necessitated creativity in how we engaged with our neighborhood. Some highlights included apple picking, art projects, baking, playing cards, and reading together. We’ve also been able to do food distributions multiple times a week. Caleb has worked on several worship arts projects this year with people from the church community. These songs can be viewed in previous posts on this blog. In other news, the church is fully moved into our new space at East 13 th and Superior Ave. This location is central for our people right downtown. It’s 5,000 square feet, and our lease is for 5 years. While the building allows us to centralize our ministries, COVID has had a decentralizing effect. Whereas

I spent a portion of the last 24 hours sorting, wrapping, and delivering gifts to kids we know around the city, many of whom will receive little to nothing else this Christmas season. This work, made possible by so many friends’ and strangers’ generosity, leaves me humbled. The extra time allows me to reflect and pray. The heaviness of life, the pervasiveness of poverty compounded by the pandemic, and general hopelessness they experience brings me close to despair. This year has been wearisome, but I believe I would pen these words even if COVID-19, lockdowns, political division, etc. did not exist.   Our community has seen more hurt and despair than imaginable this year. Young children, gone “before their time.” Houses turned to silent funeral homes; grief intensified by social isolation. A local teen and key community member declared guilty before ever seeing trial. His life devalued by those who cowardly type hate from the safety of their own homes. Disruption, violence, abuse, trau

This is a project that I have been working on with Bernice from church. She is a powerful testimony!

With Cleveland schools going virtual this fall, we have begun to host all-day, socially-distanced tutoring on Thursdays to help our students. We have 10-15 teens coming out plus a few college-aged tutors from church. I wanted to share this window into what's happening here at CityView. We had fun making this beat and recording this song on the lunchbreak. Creating local arts can uniquely reflect our creative God in worship.   "They say nobody ever beat the grave but 500 people saw Him in a day Why does it matter that He rose again? From grave to glory’s proven who is Thank you Jesus for showing me the way Only a living God is worth a praise Life like a bird but Your love is the nest Still gives me hope when the world got me stressed"