Update on the new PC Facility

The boys have been hard at work this week on the new building. We have mostly been painting and eating! We were blessed to get two hitting nets and some outdoor carpet for the hitting area. When Jeff and myself and the boys were unloading the nets we were surprised to find two baby Copperhead snakes inside! You just never know what you'll get when your bargin shopping. The nets are perfect! We are slowing getting things done and we will keep you posted with new pictures and videos. It's very exciting that the boys are riding their bikes and walking over already, when it's basically just an empty building! The just walk around and look so proud saying, "This place is going to be so much fun!"

Help Power Cross fill the walls...

About four years ago, God laid a vision on Jeff's heart that would reach out to the lives of the young men in our community. And for the past four years our home has become the second home to almost 90 boys every week. We have prayed and searched for a building or land to build a facility for about 2 years. It's been kind of like being stuck on the runway on an airplane. God loaded us up with all the passengers, and we've just been waiting for the runway to open up. We've been waiting with the boys for over three years to have a place they can really take off. Today I am so very happy to tell you that Power Cross now has a temporary facility! As you'll be able to see by the video, it's not pretty, but we'll take it! We were blessed to find a 7,000 square foot warehouse that was available right in the downtown area where many of the boys live. We are within walking or bike riding distance to about 90% of the kids we work with. Although we won't be able to have the indoor basketball court as we had hoped, at least not for the moment, we will be able to do a lot of other activities in the buildings. We are working today on hanging the indoor batting cages, and other baseball training items. We hope to have the indoor speed and agility training center set up within the next couple of weeks. We will have almost 3,000 square feet for just the Bible study, tutoring, eating, and recreation area. The Middle/High School boys are excited! They got to help us clean yesterday, and we'll be painting and revamping for about the next week before it's ready to go. The Elementary kids will get to see the new facility on Tuesday. We were not able to purchase the building right now, so we are just leasing with the hope that we don't get kicked out for a while! We know God will help provide the funding for our permanent facility in His time. But in the meantime we need some help filling the walls of the temporary facility. Below is a list of the items that we will be in need of. It's a pretty big list! If you can help personally or have a connection on getting any of the items listed please call Coach Jeff today (704)902-1653. We can wait on some of the items but the majority of them we need to try and get pretty quickly. Along with the excitement and wonderful benefits of having a Power Cross facility come the reality of paying for it. As soon as our lease was signed yesterday we increased our expenses by about $2300.00 a month. Please remember Power Cross in your prayers! We are going to need a lot of monthly support to keep this ministry running full speed. Thanks so much for the prayers over the past three years. The prayer that has been number one for many of us was finding a facility. The Bible tells us "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6. God has always provided everything this ministry has needed and we have great faith He will continue to do so! Thank you for your prayers!


Power Cross Facility Needs:
Paint and paint supplies
Cleaning Supplies in general
4 Sectional Couches
2 Big Screen Televisions
2 Television Stands
2 Ovens
2 Refrigerators
Double Sink
Microwave
Ice Machine
Folding Tables
Worship Style Seating Chairs
Shelving (lot of shelving for food, pantry items, sporting goods, books, and clothing)
4 Desktop Computers
Bike Rack (to park bikes)
2 Roll-away Basketball Goals
2 Baseball Cage Nets
2 Pitching Mounds
1 Pitching Machine
Baseballs, Basketballs, Footballs
A Stage
Digital Projector and large Screen
Sound Equipment
Rugs
Filing Cabinets
2 Ping Pong Tables
2 Desks/Office Furniture
Commercial Pots and Baking Pans

Have a wonderful weekend! We'll be uploading pictures of the progress as the building comes along!

God Bless,
Jeff, Nat, TJ, and the PC Boys

Reservations please...

It's a normal Friday night at our house. We have pretty much the entire baseball team spending the night in order to make sure they actually arrive for the game tomorrow. Pun's back for another few days to round out the bunch. We had a couple of funny quotes today I thought I'd share with you for the weekend. Both Power Cross baseball teams are in action this weekend, we'll give you an update on Monday.

Funny Quote #1:
This afternoon Jeff and I were running errands when Pun called. Pun is eight years old, he's a regular at our half. He's been staying with us about two weeks out of the month while his mom is battleing Sickle Cell Anemia. The part that's funny about this is that Pun called Coach Jeff when he got home from school to ask what his mom's cell phone number was. So being your average eight year old in Power Cross it's much more important to have Coach Jeff's cell phone memorized that your own mom's! Actually he told me tonight that Coach Jeff's number was the only one he memorized, because it was the only one he needed.

Funny Quote #2:
This evening we were at the Statesville High School baseball game with the Power Cross team. Rayshawn called to see if he could spend the night and we had to tell him, there was to many kids already for tonight. Maybe he could go ahead and make a reservation for tomorrow. So T.J. made the comment that, "Our house was like a hotel, only we don't get paid." I second that only we don't have a maid either!

God Bless you this weekend!

Coach Jeff & Nat

Statesville School Release

The Statesville High Students begin released from school...








This week Bonfire Crusades, Ken Freeman Ministries, Front Street Baptist, Power Cross, the band CAYERIO, and a team of volunteers, held the first school release in Statesville. For those of you not familiar with a school release here's a quick summery. We were able to get students from Statesville High and Statesville Middle released from school for 1 block (or class). We bus them to a local church (Front Street in this case). We share with them the word and love of God through music(CAYERIO Rocks!!!), and through a speaker (Ken Freeman, there's no one better!). We are able to reach many children who have never set foot in a church or opened a Bible. On Monday, our first day, we had about 200 kids participate. By Wednesday, the final day, we had pretty much doubled that number. In addition to the release from school we had a pretty kick butt revival all three nights. Last night we even filled the balcony! The entire experience may have been the most moving thing I have ever taken part in. To see all of the kids spilling off the bus to come to church was just an amazing thing. Granted some kids came just to get out of school for a little while. But that's the whole idea! For many of them they left with so much more! I think pictures do a better job of describing the events! We have had about 10 calls already this morning asking, "How many people got saved?". Someone guessed 50 people, and just laughed thinking there is no way that many was possible. We saw 257 students and adults give their life to Christ this week. We had about 5 Power Cross parents finally receive the same gift their son's have received. Seeds are being planted in Statesville everyday. This week we had almost 400 students released from school, but we had 257 people released from their past, their sins, and the life they use to have. What an awesome week.







Statesville Middle Students being released from school.






CAYERIO showing the students how to worship!!!



CAYERIO rocking the Power Cross hat!!


The reason for the event...Salvation is here.

Coach Jeff praying for the students.

TJ with Khalil at the alter

Students at the alter...

19 more on Thursday...

Coach Jeff did a great job with the Bible study this week. He shared with both the elementary and high school boys the Easter story. Next week we are watching The Passion, which really helps the boys to get a grasp on the actual events. At our middle/high school Power Cross on Thursday we always have right around 40 boys. We have a base of 30 boys that are here every week rain or shine. Then we have maybe 20 more that pop in and out according to the athletic season and what's happening after school. We had several first time boys here yesterday for Bible study and I think all but one of them accepted Christ as their Savior last night. We had a few boys that God (and Jeff!) had really been working on for some time finally make the best decision of their lives last night. One who is really special to us is a young man named Devantae. Yesterday happened to be his birthday. I prayed all day that God would help him to have an open heart and receive his word. He didn't make a decision with Jeff's initial invitation,but 4 boys had it right off the bat. One of them was a first timer at Power Cross and he was standing up ready to receive the Word before Jeff even finished asking. Then Jeff said raise your hand if your not sure your going to be in heaven when you die. About 10 hands went up. So Jeff told them again that nothing they had done in the past mattered any more. That when Jesus died on that cross he died for all of their mistakes and sins. He ask if you want a new lease on your life, if you want to start over, but this time with God in control make this decision tonight. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Devantae stand, take his backpack off, take a deep breath, bow his head for a moment and then head to the back room with the other boys who had decided tonight was the night for them. I thought all day yesterday how neat it would be if Devantae had a new birthday on his real birthday. Obviously God was thinking the same thing.



God Bless!
Nat, Jeff, TJ, and the PC Boys

12 More for the Lord...

Wiffle Ball at the Park...


Sepie showing his skills

Tra doing the Dizzy Bat relay


Sepie helping Savion with his stance.

TJ and Jim getting ready to crush it.

We had a great Bible Study at Power Cross on Tuesday with our elementary school group. The boys have finally gotten all of the words to "All Ye" by Coffey. Check out the video below. We had a great afternoon of wiffle ball at the park. We are so excited this year to have two Power Cross baseball teams. More to come on the baseball teams as the season gets going. It's great to see some of the more experienced players help out all of the new kids. The best part of the night was definitely the Bible Study. Jeff began sharing with the boys the last day in the life of Jesus and the Crucifixion. The boys were all effected by the message. It's a wonderful thing to have this little wonderful face come to you with tears and say, "Did He really die like that for me?". We say 12 young men give their lives to the Lord on Tuesday. The best part is that we had 3 sets of brothers share in salvation together. Just imagine what an impact those young brothers might have on their entire house hold! Tonight we have the middle school boys and hope to have another great night!

Power Cross Prayers...

JaQuan with what's left of his house.


Hi Everyone,
Several Power Cross families have had a rough last few weeks. We just wanted to ask for some extra prayer support for them. Below is a quick prayer list. Please pass this information along to anyone you know who would join us in support.

1. Chris and JaQuan's home burned down last week on Saturday. Actually there is still a shell of a house there, but everything inside was completely destroyed. We have been able to provide the boys with new pack backs, some clothing, and a basketball. Their mom also lost everything. If you have any furniture that you'd like to get rid of, or some extra clothing lying around just give me a quick email. I'll send over all of the sizes for the family.

2. Cynthia Branch is Power Cross member Ausar Rankin's mom. She is currently in the ICU at Iredell Memorial Hospital suffering from a blood clot in her lung and pneumonia. She's doing well, but we just ask that you pray for her quick healing.

3. We had a Power Cross dad return back to jail about three weeks ago. He was just released out of jail a couple of months ago. So the excitement of him coming home, didn't last long. Please just pray for this situation.

4. Please pray for our search for a Power Cross facility. We realize that it is all in God's timing. Pray that we may be blessed with a facility before school is out for the summer.

5. We have had three Power Cross mom's (all three single mom's) loose their jobs over the last two weeks. We just ask that you pray for them during this time for patience and faith.

Please just add these families to your prayers!

God Bless,
Jeff, Nat, TJ, and the PC Boys