THE LEHMANNS IN MISSIONS

HALF-WAY through SUMMER DAY CAMP!

2010-07-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

I don't know where the time goes, but it is sure going by in a hurry! As I sit here and type, I can not believe that we have three weeks of Summer Day Camp under our belt... with 3 more to go! Needless-to-say, our days are full and we are keeping busy with the kids! From crazy games to crafts and small groups to reading, we are having a great time and truly imparting into these kids lives.

This past week, we made a trip out to the San Francisco Zoo! With it being the first Wednesday of the month, we were able to get everyone in for FREE because all San Francisco residents can get into the zoo for free on the first Wednesday of the month. The kids had an awesome time and LOVED seeing all the cool animals. We even got to take one little girl for her very first time... how special it was!

In other news, David has been working hard to break into the 'gang' above our house. He has been up there twice in the last week to take some of the guys food and to play basketball. It has been a slow go with the guys not really sticking around to 'hang out'. Please be praying for David and his team as they continue to work on building relationship with these guys. It is very challenging and can be disheartening at times, but we continue to have faith in our Lord and that He is able to do the impossible!

We are also looking at having a staff member move into the first floor of our house by the end of the summer. We are excited to see staff come on board! There is the possibility of having two other young ladies join us this fall. One my be here as early as August, with the other arriving in September.

With the close of summer coming up quickly, we are praying about starting a "Kid's Klub" and "Youth Group" as a continuation of Summer Day Camp. We want to provide a platform to continue to build relationship with the kids and youth, as well as, sow into their lives. We are not sure what this will look like, but are seeking the Lord about His plans for the fall.

***Be sure to check out the videos from this past week at camp!

Blessings to you all! Thanks for stopping in... we'll see you later!

SUMMER DAY CAMP has begun!!!

2010-06-27T11:48:00.000-07:00

Please keep Summer Day Camp, the kids, the team from Oregon and us in your prayers over the next 5 weeks! We've had an awesome start and pray that the Lord will continue to watch over us as we minister to these kids.

YOU'RE TAKING US FORWARD!!!

2010-03-26T16:35:00.000-07:00

READ ABOUT ARREST OF GANG MEMBERS MADE IN HUNTERS POINT...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/02/BAC31C977A.DTL

WHAT DO YOU MEAN, JESUS CAME BACK TO LIFE?

As David picked me up from my evening class on Tuesday night, there were two small boys hiding in the back seat of our car (our next door neighbors). I jumped in, exhausted from my day and 'pretended' not to know they were in the car. As we drove out of the parking lot, they of course, jumped out to scare me. I, in turn acted terrified and confused on how they got in the car. As we headed back home, we began to tell them that we were going to be gone for the next week visiting David's family in Hawaii. This lead us to talking about the Easter holiday coming up! Of course, they were excited because this meant CANDY, but I said, "Yes, we get candy, but you know it's also about Jesus coming back to life." The oldest brother continued talking, but was interrupted by his younger brother saying, "Wait a minute Kim, tell me what you mean about Jesus coming back to life." With a smile on my face and began sharing the amazing news of Jesus' resurrection!

It's so amazing to me the grace God gives us despite our crazy schedules! I had been up since 5:15AM that morning, going non-stop, but God allowed me to share the good news of our Savior's resurrection! I am so thankful in my heart for my two little boys next door. I continue to pray for their salvation and that they will grow up to be strong men of God!

Evangelism team going out...

2010-02-25T07:24:00.000-08:00

Our Goals for 2010...

2010-01-31T14:03:00.000-08:00

Evangelism Street Team

Goal Start Date- January 28th ( Weekly)

Purpose- To spread the gospel to the youth who hang out on the streets, gang members. Use as an invitational tool to start future Discipleship group.

Progress-We have 3 people on the team so far from the neighborhood.

13 Letter Discipleship Group

Goal Start Date- March 2nd at Oakdale House.( Weekly)

Purpose- To build relationship and deliberitly disciple at risk youth in Hunters Point. We will be going through a hip hop curriculum thats goes through Paul’s Letters.

Youth Basketball Team

Goal Start Date- February or March depending on when the league starts.

Purpose- I will be entering a team into a church league; getting together young

high-school, neighborhood kids with church members to serve as a evangelistic and relationship building tool.

Summer Day Camp

Goal Start Date- June 21st-July 30th ( M-F 6 week duration)

Purpose- To teach younger, at-risk children ages 6-12 about Jesus, as well as, develop reading levels of children. Hunters Point has one of the worst scoring levels in the nation. We will partner with New Home Missionary Baptist Church and a church from Oregon to run this program for 6 weeks.

After School Children’s Group

Goal Start Date- September 2nd ( Weekly) Ages 6-12

Purpose- Continue relationship with kids from Summer Day Camp as they grow up, as well as, helping academically and spiritually!

Neighborhood Internship

Goal Start Date- (September- November)

Purpose - To recruit more staff to work with us here in the neighborhood. Our prayer is to have 2 students come and live with us and to work with us for 3 months in the different areas of the neighborhood to help develop some of these programs and hopefully stay long term.

WELCOME TO THE WILD, WILD WEST...

2010-01-07T15:38:00.000-08:00

We got to speak at a youth retreat in North Carolina while we were home for the holidays! There were over 100 young people there for the week with the theme being WANTED (a western theme). We spoke for 6 sessions on different aspects of our lives that God wants... YOU, YOUR FREEDOM, YOUR RELATIONSHIP, YOUR LIFE, YOUR SERVICE, and YOUR WITNESS.

Instead of us telling you what God did at Youth Tremors, here are a few testimonies from the youth themselves of what God is doing in their lives...

"I just wanted to say how much I appreciated you and your husband speaking at Tremors! You guys were amazing and I felt truly blessed and touched by God. I feel so close to Him now and I know it is because God spoke to me through you and your husband. I really enjoyed listening and seeing how God has worked in your life. Thanks so much!"

"I just wanted to thank you and David for speaking at Tremors this week. You both helped me grow so much closer to God, and you two helped me find ways to keep on a straight path with Him."

"I've never heard so many positive comments from the kids about how they loved the speakers. Y'all were just great and really spoke to a lot of their hearts, including mine. I'm happy to say that a week into the new year my walk with God seems so much stronger."

MERRY CHRISTMAS from NORTH CAROLINA...

2009-12-22T08:18:00.000-08:00

David and I have arrived safely in North Carolina after a crazy day of flying and barely catching our flight out of San Francisco. If you've ever seen the movie 'Home Alone' where the family is running through the airport to catch their flight... we'll that was us almost a week ago! Thankfully, we got to our plane with 5 minutes to spare!

Since arriving, we have had lots of time with my (Kim's) family. We enjoyed the Christmas Cantata at church Sunday morning and seeing many wonderful friends! Now, we are gearing up for the holiday festivities this week!

Please keep us in your prayers as we will be speaking next week at Youth Tremors, a Youth Conference held by the North Carolina Yearly Meeting of Friends. There will be approximately 130 young people, ages 12-18, that we get to impart to and impact with the life changing message of Jesus and the life He desires for them!

We will be sure to update you, as soon as we can, but until then we will be busy eating, visiting, and celebrating our Lord's birth.

Merry Christmas with all our love!
David and Kim

IMPACTING LIVES AND SOULS GETTING SAVED...

2009-11-24T19:28:00.001-08:00

Jesus had a strategy while on Earth. He had to figure out what was the best and most effective way to get His message to the world and have it continue to be spread after He left. If we look at Jesus’ life, He focused the majority of His time with the Twelve Disciples. He knew that training up and inspiring twelve ‘on fire’ witnesses would have a longer lasting effect as they multiplied themselves than would 5,000 ‘lukewarm’ people. So, He trained, discipled, and sent them out.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of speaking to 14 students at the YWAM- San Francisco’s Discipleship Training School to inspire and equip them to do Evangelism. Their ages ranged from 18- 34. At the beginning of the week, most of the students definitely had their barriers to overcome when it came to sharing their faith. The barriers ranged from fear to lack of knowledge or even approach to methods. In all, I taught for 14 hours, equipping and inspiring these students to have a heart for the lost. It was a very fruitful week. We went on an outreach to Berkeley University Thursday afternoon and shared the gospel with the college students there. We definitely planted seeds that day, but on the Friday night, as the DTS went out to evangelize in their neighborhood, they saw two people give their lives to Christ! One man even commented, “ You guys saved my life tonight!” It was encouraging because throughout the whole school the students would go out and do evangelism in their neighborhood, but after this week of teaching, they went out with a renewed PASSION and saw two souls find their Saviour in Christ Jesus! In a city of 1 million people, two people is not that much, but in God’s eyes two of His children were reconciled to Him.

We also had one student in the DTS express interest in joining us in ministry here in our neighborhood next year- which is what we have been praying for!

David Speaking on DTS...

2009-11-09T20:44:00.000-08:00

SMALL BLESSINGS LEAD TO GREAT FAITH...

As some of you may know, when we moved to San Francisco we were both very excited to be setting out on a new journey. Over the past 5 months, we have seen our share of challenges and battles, but in the midst of the storm we have seen God provide for us in incredible ways!

One of my concerns with the winter season coming up around the corner is the fact that we have lived in TROPICAL Australia for the past 4 years, leaving us with very few winter clothes. I have been asking God to provide for us the necessities for the colder weather. Well, just this past week, we were each given a winter coat! They were exactly what we liked and had been looking at in the local shops. They are SO nice and such a blessing to us! David even got a great coat that he will be able to wear even if it’s raining outside in the winter time- so there is no stopping him from getting out on the streets to share the gospel!

One other desire of ours, as many of you already know, is that we want to turn our garage into a youth room. Well, part of that vision entails us setting up an X-Box in there for teenagers to come hangout and play. David was given an X-Box for his birthday this year and we have two controllers, but were wanting to get two more so that more people could play. Well, this week we randomly got TWO X-BOX CONTROLLERS in the mail! We were so stoked and can’t wait for God to provide us with a TV so that we can set it all up downstairs! Although, our Hispanic neighbors (two boys ages 11 and 9) are already enjoying the gift!

(So, THANK YOU to the people that God used this week to bless us and remind us of His faithfulness! We are SO grateful!!!)

We pray that God may take these stories and encourage your spirit with the fact that He IS good and He IS a provider. No matter how dark the clouds may look, it doesn’t change WHO He IS.... He promises to never leave us or forsake us. Even when the road gets bumpy, He still sees us and longs to lavish His great love on us! Be blessed this week in knowing that no matter what breakthrough you are needing to see in your life, God IS big enough to handle it!

PRAISE REPORT...

2009-11-02T18:15:00.001-08:00

This week we had a praise report as we received a phone call from a Youth Pastor in Oregon...

In the past, the Oakdale Youth House has served the Bayview Hunters Point community with a 6 week Summer Day Camp. We have been eager to plan a camp for the Summer of 2010, but with little help, resources, and support, have found it difficult to look that far ahead.

The Youth Pastor who phoned us has been involved with the ministry in our neighborhood for several years now in bringing teams down to help out and is keen to bring a team of 5-6 college students down for the summer to run the Summer Day Camp! We were floored when we heard the news because it will provide more ‘workers’ and added hands in the labor. They are keen to help plan and carry out lessons, games, etc... Now, all we need to do is meet with the pastor’s of our community to locate a venue and begin networking with the churches to see this happen! Praise the Lord for His faithfulness even has we can’t fully see the big picture!

Possibilities for 2010...

2009-11-02T14:17:00.000-08:00

Basketball breaking barriers!

2009-10-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

When we first moved to the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood, I would walk around the streets trying to get to know my way around and meet people. Being one of the few white people out and around, I quickly realized that people thought I was an under-cover police officer. I mean, why else would would a young, white guy be walking through the projects or down by the liquor stores?

One day, I was walking down to one of the many liquor stores we have in our community to buy a drink (a coke of course). As I was walking back home, one of the guys on the streets starts yelling at me. He’s yelling, “Stop following me! I ain’t selling nothing. I’m like, “I’m not following you!” “What are you parked up there and following me?” he said. I quickly realized that he thought I was a cop and responded that, “I’m not a cop. I live up that street.” He then apologized, “Sorry, we ain’t used to you people around here.”

I quickly realized that there is huge lack of trust when gang members or drug dealers see me on the street. I needed to find a way to break the barriers and break through to our neighbors. Luckily, I always dreamed of playing basketball professionally, which led me to practice for hours and hours on the courts as a teenager. It has been a huge blessing here with the young men in our community.

I started off going down to the local recreation center some evenings to check things out. At first, nobody would even let me in the games. Finally, I got into one game, dominated, and then became respected and known among the guys down there. This has led me to build relationships and connect with a handful of young people around the streets of my house.

We have two gangs on either side of our street who run the drug deals on their blocks. Through basketball, I have been able to make friends and build trust with both groups. I have also been asked to form a basketball team for a Men’s Church League starting in January. Hopefully, I will be able to invite the guys I’ve met who run the streets to join the team. As apart of them joining the team, I’ll ask them to become apart of “our church” by inviting them over to our house, telling them about Jesus, and discipling them.

Another young man to keep in your prayers is a boy named Chaz. He’s 17 years old and doesn’t go to school. He is usually roaming the streets all day with his friends and most likely up to no good. God has given me a word for this young man that he is going to be a leader in this community. I want to focus on spending as much time as I can with him in the next few weeks. I want to see him come to know Christ! I know if he finds Christ then he will lead the rest of his friends to Christ, as well. We will keep you updated on Chaz in the weeks to come.

We have also included a video of our ministry house here in Hunters Point. Hope you enjoy!

We've become BLOGGERS!!!

2009-10-20T14:02:00.000-07:00

Well, friends and family, the day has finally arrived! The Lehmanns have created a BLOG SPOT! In case you miss us on Facebook, G-mail, or our tri-monthly updates, here is another way for you to stay in touch with us. We want to make sure you are apart of our lives. While we may be miles (and even oceans) apart, we still love and care for you very much and want to include you in what God is doing in our lives.

On here, you will be able to read weekly posts on how we are doing, what we are working on, and the daily walk we share with each other and the people around us. Feel free to let us know what you think! We love hearing from you, so drop us a line any time!

And with that- welcome to our BLOG SPOT!