Special ThanksTo all the partners who made Christmas 2008 the best ever. CCS, Bed Naz, Christ the King, PAC, CMHA, Burton Bell Carr, Councilwoman Cleveland, Lonnie Burton Rec., Coats for Kids, Payless, Burger King, NCO SAMS, Crestline Naz, Cleveland City Stars, Victory Naz, Bethany Baptist, Christian Assembly, Sandy and family & our team.

CrocodinhoIs a big hit as the Cleveland City Stars mascot spent the day on Heaventrain. The kids loved him, once they were sure that he would not eat them.

Over the past year we have been blessed to partner with the Cleveland City Stars on more than one occasion. This day Mark Geissbauer, the teams GM and Crocodinho the teams mascot came with t-shirts and hugs.

Christmas is a special time of the year, but often times the kids in our community get what is left over. A little boy told me “Santa does not come to the projects.” His statement is a observation that even with all the programs out there, the poor are often left to take leftovers. This year we were blessed to be able to share

our very best Christmas ever. The faces of the children told the story, the quality of our

giving showed them that they are so important to us and to so many others. Thank you, everyone

who helped us give our very best. The faces in the pictures tell the story, Merry Christmas.

z Heaventrain Christmas z

All the hard work of our Lighthouse board, staff, and volunteers paid off in an exciting few days. In total we fed over 5000 people a home cooked dinner. Gave away 1400 coats, 2000 gifts, and countless hugs.

CHRISTMAS IS A BIT BRIGHTER IN CENTRAL

A P U B L I C A T I O N O F L I G H T H O U S E I N C .

LIHGTHOUSE inc.z

Heaventrain Christmas z

What this all means, by Mike Crews

Christmas The totals number on kids on Saturday was over 1200. Temps were in the twenties. Our first trip to Glenville and 137 came on the bus. Coats etc.

We partnered with Lonnie Burton Rec., Coats for Kids and Councilwoman Cleveland to distribute 1400 coats.

SadnessWith everything that has happened to end the year we have been blessed, but there is a deep sadness as winter sets in.

Heaventrain is on break till April. As relationships take hold, it is a painful for our Children and for our Heaventrain team. Pray for us as we seek ways to stay connected during to down months.

HOLIDAY EVENT

SCHEDULE

NOV 20Holiday Dinner

Delivery

DEC 14Lighthouse staff dinner

DEC 20Heaventrain Christmas

DEC 22Coats, Hats, gloves, shoes.

Last saturday, we had our last Heaven Train of the year.With cold, still fingers, i helped pass out toys, bags, candy, you name it. I could really feel the love, u know? i always wanted to just belong to something; i wanted to have something to show for for when i passed on. I used to want to be a legend. But i've decided that ima live my life now and see what happens. This life isn't guaranteed to us; and its never easy when we loose somebody. So i did what i do best: help my fellow man. I live in the middle of this poverty thing and its real. I mean, some of the kids that showed up to heaven train didn't even have any coats on; when i saw this, i quickly took off mine and gave it to them. All of the staff on the Heaven Train is good to me; they make me feel welcome they don't discriminate against me because of my heritage or my skin color. God bless the child that got his own.... that what it says in the book. But our economy is so screwed up now, its extremely hard just live in this world livin in a world wit no money and no supplies?hope things get better soon. love all.-mike crews

A very special Thank you!For the first time ever, a local community prepared a special Thank You dinner for our Lighthouse team. Our staff, volunteers and board were treated to a Home Cookin, thank you dinner. The residents at Addison Square senior high rise and the PAC team lead by Mrs. Mary Braxton, put on a feast fit for a king. It

was a great time for everyone involved. Our community has been working hard for decades to serve their neighbors. We are proud that they see us as part of the neighborhood. God’s Kingdom is alive in Cleveland where he has removed walls of division and established a diverse group that is more of a family.

34 locations for Holiday dinners in 08.For a quarter century a Holiday tradition has been taking place in CMHA community rooms for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Home Cookin’ for the Holidays program was a great success this year thanks to the network of resident volunteers that ran the 34 site dinners. These dedicated community servants bring the community together around a special home cooked feast. Dinners are open to all residents and are home made, so everyone can get a home cooked dinner for the holidays. In total we served nearly 5000 people a tangible demonstration of Holiday cheer.

Poverty,God’s Kingdom and the Suburban Intern... Matt Barnes

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It has been quite some time it seems since last I wrote you. During this period of time much has happened in my life though I'm not completely sure what you all may be aware of. I finished up my time working with Lighthouse, Inc. for the summer and had to leave with sadness. To be honest I don't think I have even had the chance witness such a great movement by God, and I only regret that I cannot be a part of it while I'm off at school working ..ing my first degree. Those couple months were really educational for me, far more so than my 2 1/2 years of expensive college education have been. My position was a hard to explain, but basically I got to work with youth groups who would come in to the Central Community and experience what its like to live there while serving some of God's dearest children. I had the chance to see a little bit of everything that the suburban church can offer. In no particular order, so as to protect those involved, I saw youth groups who felt they were entitled, those who felt they were unworthy to be given such an honor, and those who simply were not sure why they had come at all. In all cases I believe the groups left changed for the better to at least some degree, but it was the first one I listed that really challenged me. A youth group who was under the leadership of someone who had obviously never quite learned humility came and joined in our efforts. No doubt this group was very productive in the work they were given, but the heart seemed to be lacking at times. It was as though this was just something to do to give a shot of self-righteousness to their systems, but of course this is an unfair generalization. To say that everyone involved acted this way would be completely wrong of me. Some things that stood out to me during this trip however: 1.) Its good enough for you, but not for ME!! -This was perhaps the most sickening thing that I encountered while one group was working with us. We serve the children of our tutoring program a free lunch that we are reimbursed by the government for each day. It usually consists of a ham and cheese sandwich, maybe some applesauce, a carton of milk, and a juice box, with a snack (chewy bar, cookie, etc.). When the youth groups would come to work with us we would give them the same lunch because it made for an easy process of ordering from the company that packages the food, because it was cost-efficient since the lunches were reasonably priced, because it was supporting a local business which meant local jobs, and simply because the food was being served to the kids the groups were serving. I would have thought these meals to be more than sufficient, certainly not ritzy or anything, but more than good enough for me to have a full belly and smiling face...this did not turn out to be the case for some people though. It was requested of me to stop ordering the lunches by one of the youth leaders because it just was not good enough for them and they felt getting food on their own would be better. I went along with their request seeing as it was our first year running the program and we knew no better in how to handle the situation, but I was left hearing, "Its good enough for your kids, but just not for us. We paid a lot of money to come here so we should get something better, not something others get for free." It stunned me that there were people who could come to serve others and yet spit in their face with a smile as they walked away from what those in the community would have been very happy to have.

2.) Housing. -Same deal here. We provided housing at a church in a really cool area close to our site called Tremont, which is a pretty artsy district. It wasn't anything fancy, but it fell in line with all my youth group experiences...actually it was better because when I did a mission trip to Mexico we slept on the floor and cock-roaches visited us. This place in Tremont was actually a really amazing old church, but again entitlement was an issue. We were told that a group felt that for the amount of money they were paying they should stay somewhere nice. What this meant was that they wanted to stay in one of the nicest hotels in Cleveland. Keep in mind that most of the people we serve in the Central community are staying in apartments that cost around $100/month, but this hotel was $4500/week. You do the math, but that's almost 4 years of rent for a family that this group spent so they could have a pool and hot tub, which I frequently heard teens fantasizing about outloud while they were working on homes in the community. Does it sicken you to hear this? It sure had me feeling disgusted at first, but it wasn't until later that I really wanted to lose my lunch...when I realized it had been me growing up. Sure maybe I wasn't as extreme during my years in youth group, but as I served those "less fortunate" than myself I always couldn't wait to have my days of fun that always accompany these sort of trips. With our experience in Cleveland we sent the youth groups to Cedar Point, Indians games, waterparks, etc. While I understand the value of these things as bonding moments amongst teens, I also think that to be focused on these aspects is disturbing, and I myself am guilty of having done so. Refer to my last paragraph. You'll see that I mentioned those we serve as less fortunate, but I placed it in quotation marks. The reason I did so was exactly was exactly what you might expect, but be in doubt of...I don't think the people in the Central community are less fortunate than those who serve them such as myself or the teen groups. Why is that? Sure the people in the community have struggles that the average suburbanite does not ever encounter such as wondering where the next meal will come from if at all, where to go at night for safety, or if they'll ever get a job, get past an addiction that isolates them from those they love, but numbs the pain for just a little while, but I can't say that they are worse off in other respects. The people I serve have hearts of gold. There is a man named James. You cannot help but love this man's heart. He comes to church as often as his body will allow him and he often struggles to walk without being helped by others who have to hold him up, but he can light up your day. He has this gift to make others smile. Its a gift I fear that I will spend the rest of my life trying to attain, but never aquire. If there were more guys like James in the world we'd be fine I'm convinced of it. The guy has very little, but he has Jesus flowing through every vein in his body and it shows, oh man does it show! My brother understands something that I don't know if I fully grasp even after a summer getting to know him. I think that he knows that although he has little, he has much in his Savior and to he who much is given, much is expected. James does not have a large amount of that which we sometimes value so highly, but he has what we more than most people I've ever met of that which we so desperately are in need of. At the end of the day I hold an almost envy-like admiration for James because if I can have my every need met with no real effort and still be bitter about life at times what hope do I have of being at peace and feeling God's blessings with as little as he can? I suppose that begins the part where I say that when you minister to others you often are ministered to just as much or more. You will hear no argument from me in that regard. Certainly I felt like I was the one being ministered to most of the summer and I was very humbled by it. I'm guilty of thinking I was going to join on with the Lighthouse team and bring my passion and youthful ignorance to the table and storm hell with a water pistol, but that quickly got shot down. I came to understand how ironic the inner-city could really be. I thought that a rich man would come in to a place like the Central community and be given an instant ego boost because he had so much more, but that changed. The richest man in the world could come in to Cleveland and spend his entire fortune and the problem would not be fixed. Money alone can never redeem the community. There must be more people with hearts of gold like James, Phil, Delta, Andy and Kristen Batten, and Jacob Hawes who runs Cleveland Victory Church and when I mean run I mean sprint. As those people and other like them multiply God will take care of the rest through His willing vessels. I finally understand why it is that I have been given the opportunity to go out and bring youth groups in to spend a week learning to love. Its because there's a war going on in Cleveland and we could use some more soldiers who are willing to get behind people like James or Lashunda Lee. This letter was taken from Matt’s Blog

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