I’ve taped a few explanations of our current programs.  Wanna get the scoop?  Click on the inks below.

The scoop on GPS Tulsa!

The scoop on Tulsa Link Year!

GPS Tulsa just finished up our last service rotation at Cooper Elementary here in east Tulsa.  Its spring break as I write, and it seems as if most folks are refocusing after a very disjointed beginning to the spring semester.

We moved our office and meeting space over to the Green Country Events Center on 31st street, right in the heart of the most ethnically diverse urban area in Tulsa or any city between Kansas City, Dallas and  Nashville for that matter.  I will discuss our neighborhood in a future entry, but needless to say- we are excited to be here and our interaction with the “locals” have been life giving.

Sitting down for after school snacks before we go to our art program with the kids at Cooper, I find myself the only person at my table who knows only one language.  My joke with the 2nd and 3rd graders who were with me was that the kids who knew 2 languages were twice as smart as me, and those who knew 3 were 3 times as smart!  We would spend snack time with them teaching me words in Spanish and Mong dialects.  I would say the word for “milk”, or “muscles”, or ” tasty” in their language and as soon as I got it sounding right, they would give me another one, which meant I forgot the first words…

GPS students reflects on our time with the Cooper kids with some words of their own around our weekly meal:

• Fun, Exciting
• Interesting, Different, Entertaining
• Creative, Energetic
• Awesome, productive.
• Ms. Libby (our art teacher from the Arts and Humanities Council that a couple of the guys had a crush on….)
• Three eyed monkeys and 5 eyed walrus (the clay project of one Marcus Lord, a boy we will not soon forget.)
• “How do I do this?”
• Messy

The theme “Made to Create” was driven home by all the different ways in which our elementary friends produced cool stuff that hadn’t existed before.

An observation I had that our students agreed with was how well behaved, friendly, and attentive the children were from this neighborhood- and from our discussions with friends at the school there were several factors contributing to this, such as the “community school” focus, the culture built in the school, and also just the presence of 6 very interested young adults in an active learning environment.

We know the kids loved it that we were there, and many of them believe they matter- because of what they can do and create, and that someone is interested in them.  This is life giving stuff.  Our discussion around the dinner table gets into our value, and what we think of others, and what God thinks of us.  I believe all of us get changed when we do what we were made to do, and we invest in people who learn to invest in others.

Here’s some comments from the children of Cooper Elementary:

“I cried when I had to miss Art class.”

“Our teacher is really nice.”

‘I’ve started painting dishes and designing t shirts at home.”

“This is awesome and I really like it here.”

“I love this school.”

“I learned all it takes to be creative to make cool stuff.”

“I liked everyone who helped me.  I will always remember them.  I feel special that I get to do this.”

“The people who came, I wish they’d come back, especially the curly haired man.”  (that must be Conner Fields...)

“Thank you God for creating me.”

“I will remember making totem poles and animals out of clay.”

“I learned that you can be so creative!”

“I will remember the teacher and Grant.”

Cooper kids- we will remember you too!  We hope to see you at our Community Summer Camp that we’ll help Garnett Church of Christ put on in June.

ck

GPS has had a great couple of sessions this semester.  However- we were supposed to have met 4 times so far and be into our service project- a great afterschool art program at Cooper Elementary.  But, because of snow-smockolypse (which I have honestly loved, even without four wheel drive), we’ve had to adjust.  Adjusting, flexibility…. its all good!  Since the kids wouldn’t be at school today- Counselor Rita gave us printouts of the students’ goals and aspirations which we read and got to “know” them at bit.  Some of the highlights included the fact that this elementary school will be producing an incredibly high per-capita rate of future veterinarians, many of whom will be holding down jobs as teachers and doctors as well.  One student who we are sure to love stated that his goals were to learn to read weird symbols, and (sort of a footnote…) he wanted to live forever.  Cool.

After our “one way get to know you session”- we went over to Cooper and shoveled off their bus waiting area which was full of old snow/ice and there wasn’t anyone available to clear it .  It went fast, and the 0 degree windchill was almost fun.  Here are some pictures below.  Our theme for February is “Made to Create” and that will fit in quite nicely with the 21 excellent elementary students we get to walk beside for the next several weeks.

A big thanks to the Nathan Weber family for their support in monthly meals, and to our friends at Buffalo Wild Wings on West 71st St for their support of the work of GPS.

ck

Where will we serve?

Will it be a good thing for our students to choose their own service sites?

Where are we each on our journey- after last semester started with our analogy at the Route 66 Diner?

Will there be Buffalo Wild Wings again?

How will it be meeting at the Green Country Events Center?  (one thing is that there is much more room for risk free frisbee throwing…)

Will Paula come on Tuesday ever, now that she’s a married woman?

What will we learn that will make this semester more powerful?

Will we still like each other like last semester?

Will we get college credit for GPS?

Are there new GPSers coming?

Will GPS be involved in creating and running the first East Tulsa Community Kid’s Day Camp coming in June?

Will we zip again?

Will anyone get fired from volunteering this time?

Will Grant continue to be a shotgun gaper?

We start finding out the answers to these questions and much more starting tomorrow.  Join us!!

ck

I stayed up late last night writing little notes on our year-end letter we are sending out to contributors to CQ Missional.  And, while we are  really a little operation, there were at least 35 contributors to this ministry last year, not including the support different people provided with their prayer, counsel, volunteering, and joining us as clients.

That is a humbling thought, and I looked out the window at my back yard on this cold day and said Thank You to God, who is the creator and giver of all good things.  We working at CQM say thank you also, to all of you who join us in this desire to help young adults discover their unique purpose, and to all our partners who believe that engaging service to our neighbor is something we were all made to do.

Our open house is coming up Tuesday, and I also got great news this week that we can pursue becoming the urban ministry site for John Brown University’s Link Year Program.  We are growing.

Below is a copy of our year end letter to contributors and to those interested in this work.  Please don’t hesitate to contact me if we can be of any service or support to you.

Dear Friends:

With 2010 coming to a close, I wanted to thank everyone who has helped CQ Missional invest in many lives this year. In our first year alone, we were involved in coaching and counseling relationships with around 10 young ministry leaders on a regular basis, and saw the successful completion of our first session of the Certificate in Missional Leadership (our 10-month internship program) & GPS Tulsa (for recent high school grads).  I have included some thoughts and comments I’ve received recently from GPS students at the end of this letter.  Please pray for them, and the new students who will join us this spring.

New things for 2011 include:

• • Starting our own 501c3 non profit, making us grant-worthy for our community service work, and creating better communication avenues between supporters and our team. This will mean  contributors can give directly to CQ Missional, and we will connect with folks directly from our office here in Tulsa.
  • More GPS groups, a new CML internship program at Camp Loughridge that we run, and being an urban ministry site for The John Brown University Link Year Program  starting this coming fall.
  • Official partnerships with Camp Loughridge and Garnett Church of Christ, opening the door to new opportunities to invest in the lives of young people.
  • Adding more team members who offer vocational coaching and pastoral counseling for young adults-increasing our capacity to offer more of those services.
  • Continuing to enjoy the work we do!

All that is to say, as our year ends:

• Thank you for your support and friendship!
• Please pray for our work- that we might hear God’s voice and join Him in blessing people.
• Please consider making a year-end tax deductible contribution as much of our regular contributions are also being used to pay insurance, legal, and other costs of doing business.  Our goal this year is to get full funding for the Director Position, and provide funds for administrative assistant work.  We are at 50% at this time.
• Lastly- consider paying it forward by sharing what we do to other potential clients and contributors who may join us in this work..

We are doing our part to invest in lives, and help young people invest in more lives…
Some words about investment from 2 Corinthians:

He throws caution to the winds,giving to the needy in reckless abandon. His right-living, right-giving ways never run out, never wear out.

This, I believe, is supposed to be a defining characteristic of our story. We were created to contribute.  Thanks to all of you for working with us to contribute and see how God’s giving doesn’t run out.

You can send your year end tax deductible contributions directly to:
CQ Missional
1212 W Albuquerque Pl
Broken Arrow, OK 74011

God bless each of you.

Chris King
Director, CQ Missional

GPS Tulsa has proven to be a valuable experience for everyone involved-students, leaders, and their parents as well. GPS is about helping people discover the purpose they were made to live. Here’s some short  reflections from  our first students:

“Sometimes we might feel useless and unpurposeful but we are making a difference in peoples live whether we see it or not…sometimes we don’t see it though. All we think about is ourselves, we walk through our day thinking about the next thing we have to get done, the next place we have to go to, the next meal we are going to have…or how we are going to finance the next meal. We don’t realize the homeless people sitting on the side of the road-They have a life too. we are not the only ones on earth…

God put us all together to compliment and help each other.  to fit together as puzzle pieces, to help create one big beautiful masterpiece.  when we all come to this point of asking ourselves “is our existence necessary?” we should all ask ourselves “can one mosquito make a difference in a tent of sleeping people?”

“I graduated from a small highschool (TSAS), and alot of my friends moved away. Even the friends that stayed and went to TCC became more distant because we didn’t choose similar classes. College is so unstructured that it’s hard to make new friends in your classes (especially lecture based classes). Making new friends is something I’m not skilled at anyway. I feel like I have friendship (or at least something incredibly similar, perhaps community) through GPS.”

One seemingly “directionless” 17 year old closes our last one on one with this question:  “Am I doing OK?  How can I get better?  Do you think my path is a good one?”

“I don’t think we could make the impact, learn as much, or become the group we have become without the time that GPS gives us. GPS has helped me see God loves all people, and maybe I can try to do that too.”

“I love all of it.  Especially the people.  I would have never figured that this group of people would become good friends and trust each other.  I guess thats possible in other places as well.”

We asked the GPS folks to share a little about what they are learning by being with us. We thought you’d be interested to see what they said.

This reflection is from Justin:

I think God is trying to tell me that right now I’m not being the full me.  I’m holding back and he is trying to give me all these opportunities to go all out and I need to start using them.

We asked the GPS folks to share a little about what they are learning by being with us. We thought you’d be interested to see what they said.

This first reflection is from Lindsay:

What I’m learning about myself is that I am able to adapt to different types of people and different circumstances.  I figured out I like being challenged and being put in hard situations.

I found that when Im interacting with others that it doesn’t matter if they’re exactly like me or in anyway like me at all.  I found that it is almost easier to be myself when I’m around people who I know aren’t there to judge me and who I know are going to accept me no matter what.

Before our hike to Big Bluff on the Buffalo River

I think the phrase above means it is something that is difficult to do.  Not sure.  However, one thing I am sure of is that it is a difficult thing to measure growth and positive change when you’re in the moment.  Most of our “learns” and our ways of articulating “what God taught me” or “what I figured out” are retrospective.  Most of the time for most of us our ability to get our minds around something that has changed in us sounds like:  ”I didn’t know it then, but now I see that_____________.”  Or “I lived like I believed this thing was true, and now looking back I see that I was changing, that perhaps God was changing me.”

Working with young people (our GPS group is ages 17-20) who are in the midst of a personal and directional upheaval is great fun, and meaningful for me.  It is also hard to measure progress outside of the increased open-ness, overall level of smiles and laughter, and occasional new insights that our people bring at the times you least expect it.  We are a group of very different people- who are growing to like each other very much- that is evident.

But regarding growth, effectiveness for our people, I wish they would give me more.  Right now.  I want to force the learning.  I want to force the change.  I want to be the Holy Spirit and get inside people’s heads and hearts and help them to see truth to the point of complete “ah ha!” moment.

I am not good at this techinque.  As a matter of fact, even though I try to force the change in people here- I resent it when I see others do it somewhere else.  It bugs me when we give tons of energy to creating “God moments” rather than gathering and celebrating the ones that are happening all over us all the time.   I suspect the people I judge for being in the God business, who seem to be forcing change and shoving stuff down people’s throats would judge me too, when I try to manipulate people through other means to get them to change.  Actually, I bet they would laugh, because the attempt is feeble.

On my good days, however, I just help our people help others, and ask them a few good questions.  I share a scripture, quote, and/or story, and expose them to other people who understand their place in the world.  When we do this, great things happen- and I don’t always get to see it, and I am sure many who experience those great things will not even know how to articulate what has happened until after the fact.  Sometimes it will take years.  I am ok with that.    (More and more every day!)

What does all of this have to do with “catching lightning in a bottle?”  Well, I have comitted that we will do our work, and give students a chance to reflect, and be good with whatever they reflect back to us.  If they don’t give us a bunch to work with regarding a verbal or written reflection of “growth” or “change”- its all good.  We still love our people, and do our work.  God is big enough to use it all- and we trust that.  Some of our people love to work out what they’re learning in discussion and writing.  Some of them tend to shut down when asked these types (What are you learning?) of questions in an organized fashion.  Yet, you get them one on one the change is obvious and they share all kinds of good stuff that is honest, real, and reflects growth.

Their growth is also reflected in just how they approach people and situations on a practical level.  We can see it- sometimes they can’t- just yet.

So, with all that being said- I’m going to share some November thoughts from students over the next few days.  They might be things they wrote down, or things I heard someone say.

I can’t change people.  We can’t catch lightning in a bottle.  We can provide people with a space where change can occur, and is occurring whether we know it now or not.

We appreciate your support and are looking forward to finishing up well this fall, and hoping for more groups in the spring.

ck

gather round the coffee table for the "informal" learning circle!

Today we go on our first GPS Tulsa fall retreat- a trip intended to involve camping, but may in fact involve cabins (more on that after we return) because we are experiencing our first freeze warning of the fall.  I’ve heard that all the best families camp.  Its because when you camp, nothing ever goes as planned.  There’s not enough space for all your stuff, the weather isn’t what you expected, dad snores, and sometimes you wake up looking a skunk in the eye about 2 feet away (this happened to me back in the day- spent the rest of the night sleeping on top of a state campground picnic table).

Really what happens is a great opportunity for adventure, and all the possibilities that can be birthed from it.  A retreat that has elements of adventure (meaning- we’re going to do this thing, and we’re not exactly sure how its going to turn out, lets try it!)- is a great chance for a group of people to put to test a great quote from our friend Parker Palmer:  ”If you can’t get out of it, get into it.”

Stuck out on the trail, stuck in a car with people you don’t know that well, stuck on that zipline, stuck overlooking that beautiful valley, stuck believing its time to tell the truth because you trust these people, faced with a choice to “live in the light”  as John says in the Bible…. well, it doesn’t all sound difficult or terrible.  But, when we create space to engage our identities as image bearers of God- and live out as creators and contributors with a group of people trying to do the same thing, something great happens.  We face points of choice.  We see God and each other in new ways.  We tell the truth, and hear truth with more mercy than is normal when we are engaged in our self absorbed busy life.

This is the beauty of retreat.  This is the beauty of committing to a group of people over time.  This is stuff God uses to alter our direction, and create memories that influence our future.  This is stuff worth getting into.  (cause once you’ve signed up for it, you can’t get out of it.)

(Kinda like life.)

Here’s a few learns from our recent experience.

• Service makes us feel like saviors who rescue the broken, while Justice means God does the rescuing, but often he works through the united power of his great and diverse community to do it.
• The goal of service is to help others, but the goal of Justice is to remove barriers so others can help themselves, and look to a Savior with little obstruction.
• Everybody is normal till you get to know them.
• Our group would never choose to hang out together on their own merit- but now their gathering produces more laughter and goodness than I would have imagined 2 months ago.
• 3600 lbs of bikes to the metel recycler is a lot of jacked up bikes.  They get heavy.
• Our past influences us greatly- and every part of it can be used by God to make something great in us.
• Grant wants to work at the zoo.
• People older than us have something to teach us.
• Conner needs a compass (or hard wired GPS in his body.)
• Its fun helping people, together.  The people we help have something to teach us as well.
• There is great value in commitment.
• Everybody has a kite they’re carrying around, that is your gifts and experiences.  When you use your gifts that kite tends to take off, and everyone around gets to see and enjoy the flight of it.  When you keep them to yourself, carrying that kite gets a bit awkward and cumbersome.
• Imran plays a mean version of “Sweet Child of Mine.”
• Dinner together is important.
• People are very helpful when you are trying to find a lost teenager deep in the city.

Please continue to pray for us- that our students and all the people we work with come to believe and live out the mission they were created to live.

Cause- if you can’t get out of it- you gotta get into it!

ck