July 5, 2023 • 29 mins
" Celebrating twenty years of putting faith into action in Harrisburg, the First Assembly of God Church announces a week-long teen outreach that concludes with a Family Festival at the Forum on July 27th." Ministries of Harrisburg First Assembly of God in Pennsylvania
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Hi, I'm Sylvia Moss and thisis Insight, a presentation of iHeartMedia where
we really do care about our localcommunities and all our listeners who live here.
As politics and religion are not typicallywhat we discuss on this particular program,
there is an aspect of one ofthem that can be a very effective
influence on all of us. WhatI'm talking about is faith. Faith is
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defined as a firm belief in somethingfor which there'll be no tangible proof and
is especially hard to believe. Andthese days, forget it people, it's
hard to find somebody who can actuallysay they have total faith. But it
seems to me that many of usare putting our faith in others instead of
where it should be. The incredibleMother treesa One said that the food of
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faith is love, the food oflove is service, and the food of
service is peace, and heck,that's what we all want, right.
My guest today is Missy Cook.Missy's from the First Assembly of God Church
where she's the outreach coordinator, andI've invited her to share with us about
how her church is going to becelebrating twenty years of putting faith into action
in the Harrisburg area. Missy andI talked a little bit before we start
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doing this programment. It's so simplebeing kind to people. It's like,
it's not going to cause your scentprobably won't collect you more than a couple
of minutes. And it's all aboutI don't want to say random acts of
kindness, but because you're not goingto come across situations every day. But
yeah, pretty much is, isn'tit It is? Yep. And our
biggest point of this event, andit has been over the years, is
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just to go out and fulfill thegreat commission, which is love God first
and love your neighbors as yourself.No politicians going to play with that one.
I'll tell you where's the church locatedfor starters, So we're located at
forty one hundred North Progress Avenues,So we're the last church they're on Progress
going up there. Hell, Iknow exactly where you are. Before we
get into what's going to go onthe week, it's the seventeenth of the
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twenty third, I want to talkto you about some of the issues that
are impacting families and children anywhere inthe United States. But how what you've
witnessed in this area let's start withwhat I feel is a big thing.
Okay, there's no connectedness. Thereis no connectedness. Parents don't seem to
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want to be friends, and theywant to be friends, they don't want
to be parents. Right, what'sbeen your experience. Now we're not talking
about everybody out there, but alot of the kids have this issue.
Yeah, I think, you know, just being a parent. Now,
my daughter is grown, she's twenty, but she knew growing up that we
were not her friends, we areher parents. And so you know,
it's like we're kind of in controlhere. You know, we're going to
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tell you what to do. It'snot the other way around. So we
do find that a lot just withkids, you know, even working with
kids during this event that we do, we find kids just kind of want
to do what they want to doon their timetable. And that's not what
this week's about. You know,we're all about service, and so that's
what we're trying to kind of changein the minds of kids and even just
with parents. So for them thisweek, they are totally unplugged. They're
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not allowed to have any kind oflike, oh my goodness, no cell
phone, no nothing. So andbecause we want them to kind of focus
on everything that's happening for the week. You know, we want them to
focus on their services. We wantthem to focus on when they're doing their
projects, because I think there's nothingworse than when we're out somewhere and a
kid is playing on their phone ortaking inappropriate pictures. You see it all
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over the place. Yes, Sothat's where we're trying to kind of change
and flip that around. You know, some kids, we won't. We
all have kids who will not comefor the week just because they can't give
up their phones. So you know, I'm like, look, you can
either give them to me at thebeginning of the week, or you just
leave them at home, but don'tlet you're right, or don't let me
find it. That's where parents aresupposed to step in. Correct. Yeah,
why do you think parents don't wantto step in anymore? I don't
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know if it's just like maybe they'reafraid, you know, of of Oh
well, I don't want to beoverbearing. I don't want to hurt their
feelings. And I tell the kids, I'm like, your feelings do not
matter to me this week, becausethat's not what this week's about, you
know, it's like, we haveto go this is a service week.
This isn't about funding games that wedon't want them to have fun, because
trust me, we have some thingsthat are planned that are going to be
fun for them, but we wantit to be about service and they need
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to understand that. You know,in the real world, it's not always
fun. You know, getting upand going to work isn't always fun.
But it's something that we have todo and we have to learn how to
handle that. You know. Anothermajor problem with children are drugs and alcohol,
and a lot of grandparents these daysare raising children because their kids died
from opio abuse. Do you seethat we do. We've actually seen,
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you know, several we know severalfamilies who have lost either one or both
parents, and grandparents are raising them. And you know, that's really a
tough situation because you know, you'retrying to reach these kids, and you
know, if you haven't dealt withsomething that in your life, it may
be harder to kind of reach thosekids. So, I mean kids,
I think everybody kind of goes throughthe same situations. I think social media
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and different things along those lines thatkind of changes in how we deal with
students. But when you think aboutit, we all deal with the same
situations in our life. It's justdifferent, it's magnified differently just because we
have the world at our fingertips,you know. So I think you know
what, you know, how itused to be like at school, if
there was a fight, you you'dfight it out and then the next day
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everything was okay and you were buddiesright and girls didn't get into fights.
Right now it's just yes, youcan carry on and keep this going and
going, just with your cell phone. So I think situations are different,
but I think the problems are thesame, you know. You just that
you have to care what It hasto start at home. If if you're
not doing what is needed at homeand you're not being a parent. You
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know, there's curfews, there's thingsthat this is how it's going to be.
You're going to do this, andif you're not doing that at home,
there's for your action correct And youcan't expect a school or anybody else
to handle that or a church.You know, it's like you only have
these kids for a certain amount oftime, you know, even at church
every week, you only get themfor a certain amount of time, so
you want to make sure you're maximizingthat time and teaching them what they need
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to know. You know, violenceat homes, domestic violence that seems to
be like drug and alcohol. It'spassed from generation and generation. But never
before have we seen so much violencein schools, guns, kids, babies.
What happened in Connecticut. Yeah,have you faced that at all?
I mean, we haven't had alot of issues. Like I said,
I think, you know, inthe weeks leading up to Faith in Action.
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Over the years, we have seenlike a spike in violence. You
know, one year there had beenyou know, as many homicides in a
week as there are days. Sowe do see those things and sometimes the
parents will get a little worried,but you know, generally we've had no
problems when we're out. A lotof people they're appreciative of us. You
know, if somebody's out doing somethingthey shouldn't be. When they see us,
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we're all wearing the same T shirt, they kind of leave us alone.
So we haven't seen any issues whilewe're out. I think people are
pretty open to us because they knowwhere they're doing something good. But we
have seen, you know, inthe weeks leading up to it. There
has been you know, there areoccasionally those spikes of violence and you know
here about a shooting here there orsomething along those lines, but nothing too
to major believe it or not evenhere in Central Pennsylvania. Lack of food.
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Thank god for the Central Pennsylvania FoodBank and other food banks out there,
but people sometimes don't have a placeto live in a lot of people
out there are like one paycheck awayfrom losing everything. That's got to be
an issue that you've come across,right, I mean we do see you
know, I mean we know peopleyou know in those situations. So it's
you just try to kind of ministerto people the best that you can.
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You try to help them. Wealways try to say we give them a
hand up, not a hand out, right, because the thing is people
have to know you can't get intothe cycle of well, okay, I
might get money for this and Ihave to kind of go to you know,
you have to kind of work yourselfout of those situations. And I
know we kind of talked a littlebit before, but like this generational thing
where you can see, you know, you have to have I think a
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mindset of like I don't want tobe how my parents were like. For
me, I grew up in HarrisburgCity. I'm a graduate of the high
school and I was raised by mygrandparents. My parents weren't really in the
picture, so you know, forme, I you know, I was
very grateful that I had grandparents wholoved me to take me in and raise
me and my sister. But youhave to look and say, you know
what, I don't want to dothe same thing. I don't want to
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end up pregnant out of high school. I don't want to you know,
I want to go to college.I want to make a difference. And
so but I think you have tohave a strong mentality as well. You
know, you have to have peoplewho are pushing you. But also I
was grateful that I had people inhigh school, like I had great counselors
who you know, for one time, somebody said, well, what do
you want to do with your life? You know, it's not what are
your grandparents want? What do youwant? And that was really a turning
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point for me. I think whenyou need to have people in your life
who are going to push you tobe better and not just the status quo,
because some people are just content withjust graduating or you know whatever,
getting car firing them up correct,And you have to you have to have
that in your gut like I wantto be I want to do something with
my life. And it doesn't haveto be something huge. You know.
You can take small steps in yourcommunity to do things. You can volunteer,
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you can do different things. Soit's just about you know, just
even being in the church is lovingon a child, you know, loving
on somebody who may not have thatat home, you know, And that's
kind of what we strive to do. I see. What you're doing is
the opportunity to break that chain becauseparents today they are still coming out of
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what they witnessed and what they youknow, what they were a part of
growing up. But to get ayoung young people, start them when they're
little. I've said to so manytimes on this program. When you get
chilling when they're little, and givea message, make it fun so they
remember it and we enforce it yearafter year. That's what's going to turn
things around where we don't have selfcentered kids, you know, don't you
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agree? I agree? Yes,I mean we see it all the time,
you know, even within the church. You know, we tell the
kids were like, you, Godgave you a gift, a talent,
and it's not about your gift,you know. The whole point is that
you're going to take that gift andyou're going to grow it in the church
congregation. And it can be singing, it can be dancing, it could
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be anything. You know, kids, there's so many different talents playing an
instrument, but those are the thingsyou have to learn. It's not to
show off what you have, butit's to grow in it. That way,
when you're older, you can useit and you know, work,
your workplace, church, wherever youare. You went back to your hometown
to start this at the City ofHarrisburg. Counsel about what you've done with
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the City of Harrisburg. And you'regoing to be meeting some time later this
week with a school board. Isthat you're saying, yes, tell me
about tell me what we've done sofar. So over the years we have
partnered with mostly the Harrisburg School District, but over the last couple of years
we have partnered with the City ofHarrisburg. And after COVID, you know,
we had to kind of change alittle bit how it did it,
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but we still continue to do it, so even in twenty twenty we were
able to do a project. Thekids really wanted to do something, so
we did something at the church andwe had a neighbor who lived behind us.
Their pool had burst a few yearsprior to this event, and they
were like, hey, you knowI'm in the hospital, but could you
guys help me tear all this stuffdown? So we went over. It
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was like one hundred degrees outside fortwo days, we ripped this pool down,
We did all these things. Well, afterwards we found out that this
person was married to the former HarrisburgSchool superintendent. It was just the craziest
thing, and for us that wasa god moment. So we were like,
oh my gosh, what were thechances you know that this was happening.
I had not met this person.We just spoke on the phone,
so and that was one of thosethings where we could have just brushed it
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off, but he called and Ithought that would be a great project.
The kids were wanting to do something, so after COVID that was twenty twenty,
and then in twenty twenty one andtwenty two, So twenty one we
partnered with Harrisburg Schools and we bouncedit from school to school to school,
so it was kind of different.So we would just take everything on the
road, so we took games inflatables, everything with us and just set up
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every single day and just would ministerto whoever would come out and listen.
And then last year we actually didit in different parks, so we were
at Reservoir, Um, just youknow, different places because I picture you.
I love that movie with Whoopi Goldbergsister Acton where she goes the kids
here and people on the street here, here, the nuns singing and they
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are like drawn to it. What'sgoing on here? Right? So I
picture you And it did kind ofcome out that way, like it depended
on which park we were in.When we were at Fourth and Emerald,
that was a big location for us, Like a lot of people came,
so it just depended on where wewere, but if people could hear us,
they'd come out. In fact,when we were at Reservoir, we
played the Cupid Shuffle and everybody whowas in the park did it. It
was so much fun just to bea part of that, and it was
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just something silly, but it wasjust a great way to connect with those
who came out, so and therewere some people who followed us to each
different location. Um, but wesee people of different faiths that come out
and listen. You know, we'rejust out there sharing what we believe.
You know, we're not we're notforcing someone to listen, but you know,
we just want to share our faithand just show that Jesus loves you.
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You know, That's that's what thisis all about. Absolutely. You
know you we had talked a littlebit about these kids. Can you explain
to our listeners where the kids comefrom? Did you get and you're it's
part of the big week that you'vehad coming up from the seventeenth or twenty
thirty, You're like, talk tous about that. So we have about
forty students and staff coming from fivedifferent churches. So now the bulk are
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coming from Harrisburg first, but wehave several other churches that are sending students.
So they're going to arrive with uson July seventeenth about four o'clock.
We let them kind of get settled, we do orientation with them, We're
going to feed them, and thenwe have a nightly service at seven pm.
Now those services are closed this forsafety, but on Wednesday night at
seven o'clock. Anyone is welcome tojoin us at the church. That's an
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open service for us. So doyou have a camp out or a camp
stop? Well, we keep thekids like they stay there church the church,
we'll house them there and so youknow, they get showers, we're
feeding them, they get t shirts. So it's just such a great week.
But Tuesday to Friday, so weget up in the morning, they
have breakfast and then we have avery short devotional in the morning with the
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kids. We do a couple ofsongs, we get them out the door
and they're going to do community service. This year, we're partnering with the
school district. I'm actually gonna bemeeting with him here in the next couple
hours and we're just going to figureout what they're going to be doing.
We send them out and then inthe afternoons after lunch, we're gonna go
canvassing. So we have ten thousanddoor hangers that we're going to hang up.
What is the partner with the schooldistrict. So what we'll do is
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we're going to go into the differentschools, so we'll probably do some weeting
like litter pick up, anything thatthey need us to do. Sometimes we'll
do paint jobs, like very minorpaint jobs, anything that the kids can
do. We don't get into anythingtoo too crazy, just you know,
anything that's safe for the students todo. But it's just such a great
week for them to understand about service. You know, this week is bigger
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than just them, and that's whatwe try to teach them. I'm like,
this isn't about fun and games thisweek. Not that we don't want
you to have fun, but wewant you to understand this is you know,
when we say you're the hand endsand feet of Christ, this is
what you're doing. You know,a lot of people we talk to they
might not even know who Jesus is, you know, they may not know.
So when we tell them, hey, this is what we're doing,
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people will listen to us. Wehave the opportunity to sometimes pray on the
street with people. You know,we've encountered people. There was a lady
who was having an issue with hermedication and we just stopped with her and
prayed with her right where we were, right on the street. So we
just encounter people. We're like,hey, do you need us to pray
with you, we'll pray with youright now and so and that takes twenty
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seconds, you know, or justa smile. We tell the kids like,
you got a smile, don't beafraid your face will not break,
you know. And how we actin front of them, that sets the
tone, Like if we're going inthere and complaining, they're going to think,
oh, these kids don't want tobe here exactly. So that's what
we tried to from the beginning.It's like, you go in and you
do whatever they ask you to do. If somebody's giving you food to eat,
you eat it and you don't complain. You know, this is a
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whole lot of work. That's youknow, this takes us a year to
plan. This isn't something going toask you about that. It must take
you a long time to get allthis together. It takes a whole lot
of time to put this together.And we had to raise fifty two thousand
dollars to do this event. Sothat's a lot of money we came together.
And the neat thing about this Thisyear, we're going to do a
back to school bash. So onJuly twenty second, we're going to be
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at the Forum Auditorium. Yeah,that sounds awesome, so it's very exciting.
So we're hoping to fill it.So we need people to come out
and enjoy. We're going to haveseveral concerts. It's just going to be
a really great time. Is itopen to the public. It's open to
the public. It is free,it costs nothing to go in, and
it's at the Forum. So fromone thirty to three thirty, we're going
to do our outside portion. It'sgoing to be the back to School Bash.
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So we are registering people now.If you go to our website,
it's just HBG one st dot org. The information is there. It'll tell
you how you can register for thisback to School Bash. We're going to
be giving away. We have atleast seven hundred and fifty backpacks that we're
going to be filling throughout the weekto hand out that day. So it
is better to preregister because if youdo, you're guaranteed a bag exactly.
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So for that then the to theForum. We're going to open at three
thirty and we're gonna head inside andwe're gonna have performances from national recording artists.
Jove On. He's been with usfor several years. He's fantastic.
We have Aaron Cole so he's kindof more R and B hip hop,
and then we have Aguilar and theirSpanish, so we have all of our
bases covered. We're gonna have somelocal talent in there as well, and
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we're gonna give away a thousand dollarsworth of cash prizes. So but you
have to be there to win it. How to raise all this money,
you must have fundraisers throughout like theprevious year for the following year, right,
well, we started so last yearwhen it ended, we kind of
started figuring out what we were goingto do. By January, we knew
we were going to be at theforum. So we've done a lot of
fundraising. You have to know whoto talk to, to go to and
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ask. Trust me, we haveasked a lot of people to donate and
we're very appreciative of those who havedonated. So we have some private donors
that help us out. But alot of fundraising had to be done.
We finished up in June is whenwe finally knew we reached our budget.
So it's always a good day.Wow when you reach bud Fire. So
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it's it is kind of scary becauseyou're like I have to pay these bills,
but everything worked out. You know, yes, it is definitely again
a God moment, Like we justwe know it is hard because people always
say, don't worry, don't worry, You're gonna make it. Well,
you do have to worry about ita little bit because at the end of
the day, you know, ultimatelyit's all in your laps. So you
try to just work hard and youknow who to go to. I'm not
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afraid to ask any Usually if theysee me, come and they know I
either want money or something. Sobut you just I think just working with
different organizations, they know us,they know what we're doing. They know,
like you know, we have nothingto gain from this. You know,
there's no glory in this at all. All we want to do is
go in and make a difference.Tell me about the differences that are the
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difference that it's made in the livesof kids have already gone through it.
So we see differences from year toyear, even our students who attend.
So you have to be in atleast seventh grade, going into seventh grade
to because anything younger than that youwould not be able to handle. It
is a lot. We move youquick. There's not a lot of downtime,
so and we design it that wayon purpose. But we do see
students who their lives have changed.They'll come in. We've had kids who
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just are they don't want to bethere, they're angry, they're throwing a
fit, and by the end ofthe week, because again they don't have
their phone. We put kids intogroups and we purposely split friends and different
things like that, because again,it's not about you. This isn't hang
out time, so kids will getupset about that. We had one group
one year tell us they wanted toleave because they couldn't be with their friends.
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They stay, but and you seekids they'll come and say, you
know this was this made a differencein my life, Like, hey,
I didn't want to be here,but once I got into it, I
realized that, yeah, this isreally great. So you see a heart
change in them. You know,that's the best. The kid can come
in with the toughest. I alwaysfind the kids who are the toughest are
the most enjoyable. I mean thereare times where you're just like, Okay,
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I don't know how I'm going tosurvive with this student this week.
But for the most part. Thoseare the kids that really you see an
impact, because the first couple daysyou'll see the kids like they won't want
to get up, they don't reallywant to participate, But by the end
of the week, they're right upthere, you know, just lead in
the pack. So and we loveto see that. Or we'll see kids
who you know, you might notthink, oh, they don't really say
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much or whatever, and by theend of the week they're just testifying to
how great this week was. Sothat's the goal, is like they're going
to take this and say, hey, when I go back to my school,
I'm going to try to make animpact here. I'm going to do
something different. So we've seen peoplethroughout the years, even the adults.
You know, we've done this atdifferent locations throughout the twenty years that we've
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done it, and we've seen peoplewho have come in. They have been
drunk, they've been high. Ihad a lady who came in once she
was wearing this was like one ofour first years. She had on two
left shoes. I mean it wasjust a mess. And all you could
do is like we gave her somefood and we prayed with her and then
the following year, we saw herand she was a thriving member of a
local church. And really it's notwhat we did. All we did was
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just be Jesus sir. So youknow, we hope that that's all we
can do. Is we're going toshare the gospel with people. We're gonna
say, hey, here's why we'rethis is why we're happy this And just
because you're a Christian doesn't mean thatyour life is easy. That's not what
we're saying at all. You know, everybody has troubles in their lives,
but there is somebody to lean on, you know. And then when you're
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in a local church body, thenyou have people that you can lean on
as well, so you kind ofgrow this family. So that's really the
goal of it is that, youknow, we all we do is plant
the seed, you know, andthen God waters it. What's been the
response to the parents of the childrenwho have come to these events, it's
probably saying who is this kid?Right? Yes, I mean we do
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see a lot of you know,parents will come and say, oh,
this was really such a great weekfor them. We haven't really had students
who were like, oh, thiswas the worst week of my life.
You know, we haven't seen that, but there are parents who come back
and say, wow, you know, I've really seen a difference. Or
because of this event, this studentfeels that they're being called into ministry of
some sort. So that's really what'sexciting is that you're seeing the kids.
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Sometimes it's hard, like as theorganizer, you're I'm not handling with the
kids necessarily, you know, becauseI'm kind of bat yet. But that's
where all of our adult leaders comeinto play, where it's like you have
this opportunity to spend this whole weekwith these kids. You're seeing them and
you're watching how they grow. Youknow that first day they might be a
little shy. We always tell thekids, I'm like, Monday night isn't
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really the tell. Tuesday is thetell because Tuesday's when we're gonna get up.
That's the hardest day of the weekbecause that's the first day. But
once you get past that, Ithink there's just this camaraderie with the kids
where they just you're you're in thistogether. Everybody's you know. You look,
it's hot outside. I get it. We're walking, we're working,
you know, and it is it'sa tough week because usually this about the
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hottest week of the year. Ifind you plan it. I do sometimes
just because it's like it's that's thegood week, you know, like just
used to be like the perfect week. But it's just one of those things
where the kids, you know,there's something they all have in common,
like everyone's on the same playing level. There's no there's no leaders, there's
no you know. And that's whywe tell the kids, like we require
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that leaders have to be twenty one, just because then you're a little older
than the youngest, you know.So it yeah, it can be tough
because I think sometimes when you're rightout of high school, you know,
they want to be leaders, andI'm like, well, I can't make
you a leader yet, you're justnot there, you know. But we
try to give them jobs to make, you know, to make them feel
like they are being a part ofit and they are being a leader,
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because this is how they learn.You know. You have to give you
have to teach them how to dothese things, because if you don't,
who's going to be. You know. A friend of my of mine and
I had a conversation a couple ofweeks ago, and we were talking about
marriage and about when I was growingup, if you were twenty five and
you weren't married, you were anold maid. And I think to myself,
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I knew nothing even when I wastwenty five. And these kids,
a lot of them come out ofeven high school or college and they want
to be the leaders when wisdom isso much a part of who you become.
And I think that applies to whatyou're talking about too. You've got
to walk the walk before you cantalk they talk. I mean, you're
(24:15):
going out there unarmed if you wantto be a leader. Yeah, it
is hard because again when you're youknow, when you're twenty nine, you
know, twenty or nineteen, you'rejust right out of high school, yeah,
going you know in college, soyou haven't had those life experiences.
And even for us as organizers,you know, the first year, I
took over this event in two thousandand six, so it started at oh
(24:37):
three, and then we took overin two thousand and six just because the
person who started it had left,which to a different church. So you
know, you realize that it takestime to learn how to do things.
Like our first year, we hadtwo months to put it together and it
was quiet now was on a smallerscale. It's not as big as it
is now. But you learn fromyour mistakes. You know, every year
(25:00):
we learn how to make it better. There'd be nights where we'd be up
till two in the morning trying toget details finished. Where now we know
ahead of time because we've done itfor so long. Now everything can be
done ahead of time, so we'renot stressing. We're not oh my gosh,
this isn't done. I mean,you always have to be ready for
something. You never know what's goingto happen. You know, we could
(25:22):
show up somewhere and they're like,okay, you're going to do this.
Okay, but then when we getthere, well, nope, we've changed
our mind. This is what you'regonna do today. Now. Sometimes I
can be frustrating, but you justhave to do it because that's how life
is. That's it. Gee.You can't control everything, so you learn
that. You just have to havea backup plan so you know, if
something happens, we just kind ofmove around it and we find something else
(25:47):
to do. I'm like, look, if we got to pick up trash
for three hours, we can doit. Let's do it. There's plenty
of trash to pick up, youknow, so I don't care. We
give the kids gloves. You know, we're not out there making them do
stuff that's dangerous. But that's thewhole point, is that you know,
life is unpredictable and you never know. Every day is different. So that's
what we love. You're given thesekids a heck of a gift. It's
really great. It's a controlled environment, it is all their needs are meant.
(26:12):
You say, you get them fromfive different churches. I have a
funny feeling this is going to getbigger and bigger. I don't think.
I mean, I can't imagine whya lot of like you're talking about the
one school district that you're meeting with, I can't imagine why people would not
want you there to help out.But as far as the kids themselves,
it's it's going to grow. Youbetter get helper. The one year,
(26:36):
I think the most we've ever hadat a year was one hundred and twenty
five students. That was a lotof kids, so we had to have
a lot more help. So howbig is your church? So we have
about i'd say about two hundred ona Sunday morning. So with our services.
So you know, it's tough becauseagain this kind of goes back to
what we were talking about before.I think one of the struggles we find
(26:59):
is parting with other churches. SoI mean, I know, we reached
out to dozens of churches and it'shard sometimes to connect. I mean,
now some churches, you know,depending on when we've reached out, they
might already have something planned. Yeah, but it is tough to just get
churches to partner because for us,again when we're out, we never promote
Harrisburg first. I mean, that'sI work there, So that's where it's
(27:22):
based, like that's where the ballcalled the work is done. But for
us, it's about the Kingdom inand of itself exactly. For us,
it's like we just want to loveJesus humankind. That's what it's about.
Other things, beings, that's abottom line. It's not complicated. You
don't have to follow these particular rulesof this church or that church or anything
like that. It's just trying tobe the best person you can because that
(27:44):
and sir, but that's why we'resupposed to be here, and I think
people forget that. Here's a callto people out there, if they want
to support you. How can theydo that? So you can go to
our website and again it's HBG onethe number one st dot org. So
I mean, if you want todonate again, we're going to be doing
these back to school back to SchoolBash so we are going to be purchasing
some more supplies, so you're welcometo donate. You just go to the
(28:07):
give button. It's very simple.It's a one time gift. You just
mark other and their opportunities for giftsand kind like you're talking about. Okay,
yeah, so you can donate thatway. Definitely come out and support
this event by coming to the forum, join us and be a part of
it so that we want to fillthat forum. We want to really just
bless the community. Tell us onemore time when that big event is going
(28:29):
to be. So it's July twentysecond at the Forum Auditorium one thirty to
three thirty is the Back to SchoolBash. Portion doors open at three thirty.
Events starts at four and runs tillnine. Missy, thanks so much.
This is the core of what weneed to do. We just need
to find more churches to partner withyou and get the word out. And
I want to thank you so muchagain again from the First Assembly of God
Church which it's located at forty onehundred North Progress Avenue in Harrisburg. My
(28:52):
guests has been outreach director Missy Cook. Thanks so much and remembered that you're
all invited to be a part ofthis fabulous event. And also remember that
if you can't catch Insight when itairs on one of our iHeart stations,
catch it anytime on your favorite podcaststapp. I'm Sylvia Moss. This has
been Insight. Thank you so muchfor listening. See you next week.
Hi, I'm Sylvia Moss and thisis Insight, a presentation of iHeartMedia where
we really do care about our localcommunities and all our listeners who live here.
As politics and religion are not typicallywhat we discuss on this particular program,
there is an aspect of one ofthem that can be a very effective
influence on all of us. WhatI'm talking about is faith. Faith is
(00:23):
defined as a firm belief in somethingfor which there'll be no tangible proof and
is especially hard to believe. Andthese days, forget it people, it's
hard to find somebody who can actuallysay they have total faith. But it
seems to me that many of usare putting our faith in others instead of
where it should be. The incredibleMother treesa One said that the food of
(00:45):
faith is love, the food oflove is service, and the food of
service is peace, and heck,that's what we all want, right.
My guest today is Missy Cook.Missy's from the First Assembly of God Church
where she's the outreach coordinator, andI've invited her to share with us about
how her church is going to becelebrating twenty years of putting faith into action
in the Harrisburg area. Missy andI talked a little bit before we start
(01:08):
doing this programment. It's so simplebeing kind to people. It's like,
it's not going to cause your scentprobably won't collect you more than a couple
of minutes. And it's all aboutI don't want to say random acts of
kindness, but because you're not goingto come across situations every day. But
yeah, pretty much is, isn'tit It is? Yep. And our
biggest point of this event, andit has been over the years, is
(01:29):
just to go out and fulfill thegreat commission, which is love God first
and love your neighbors as yourself.No politicians going to play with that one.
I'll tell you where's the church locatedfor starters, So we're located at
forty one hundred North Progress Avenues,So we're the last church they're on Progress
going up there. Hell, Iknow exactly where you are. Before we
get into what's going to go onthe week, it's the seventeenth of the
(01:51):
twenty third, I want to talkto you about some of the issues that
are impacting families and children anywhere inthe United States. But how what you've
witnessed in this area let's start withwhat I feel is a big thing.
Okay, there's no connectedness. Thereis no connectedness. Parents don't seem to
(02:12):
want to be friends, and theywant to be friends, they don't want
to be parents. Right, what'sbeen your experience. Now we're not talking
about everybody out there, but alot of the kids have this issue.
Yeah, I think, you know, just being a parent. Now,
my daughter is grown, she's twenty, but she knew growing up that we
were not her friends, we areher parents. And so you know,
it's like we're kind of in controlhere. You know, we're going to
(02:35):
tell you what to do. It'snot the other way around. So we
do find that a lot just withkids, you know, even working with
kids during this event that we do, we find kids just kind of want
to do what they want to doon their timetable. And that's not what
this week's about. You know,we're all about service, and so that's
what we're trying to kind of changein the minds of kids and even just
with parents. So for them thisweek, they are totally unplugged. They're
(02:59):
not allowed to have any kind oflike, oh my goodness, no cell
phone, no nothing. So andbecause we want them to kind of focus
on everything that's happening for the week. You know, we want them to
focus on their services. We wantthem to focus on when they're doing their
projects, because I think there's nothingworse than when we're out somewhere and a
kid is playing on their phone ortaking inappropriate pictures. You see it all
(03:21):
over the place. Yes, Sothat's where we're trying to kind of change
and flip that around. You know, some kids, we won't. We
all have kids who will not comefor the week just because they can't give
up their phones. So you know, I'm like, look, you can
either give them to me at thebeginning of the week, or you just
leave them at home, but don'tlet you're right, or don't let me
find it. That's where parents aresupposed to step in. Correct. Yeah,
why do you think parents don't wantto step in anymore? I don't
(03:43):
know if it's just like maybe they'reafraid, you know, of of Oh
well, I don't want to beoverbearing. I don't want to hurt their
feelings. And I tell the kids, I'm like, your feelings do not
matter to me this week, becausethat's not what this week's about, you
know, it's like, we haveto go this is a service week.
This isn't about funding games that wedon't want them to have fun, because
trust me, we have some thingsthat are planned that are going to be
fun for them, but we wantit to be about service and they need
(04:06):
to understand that. You know,in the real world, it's not always
fun. You know, getting upand going to work isn't always fun.
But it's something that we have todo and we have to learn how to
handle that. You know. Anothermajor problem with children are drugs and alcohol,
and a lot of grandparents these daysare raising children because their kids died
from opio abuse. Do you seethat we do. We've actually seen,
(04:30):
you know, several we know severalfamilies who have lost either one or both
parents, and grandparents are raising them. And you know, that's really a
tough situation because you know, you'retrying to reach these kids, and you
know, if you haven't dealt withsomething that in your life, it may
be harder to kind of reach thosekids. So, I mean kids,
I think everybody kind of goes throughthe same situations. I think social media
(04:53):
and different things along those lines thatkind of changes in how we deal with
students. But when you think aboutit, we all deal with the same
situations in our life. It's justdifferent, it's magnified differently just because we
have the world at our fingertips,you know. So I think you know
what, you know, how itused to be like at school, if
there was a fight, you you'dfight it out and then the next day
(05:13):
everything was okay and you were buddiesright and girls didn't get into fights.
Right now it's just yes, youcan carry on and keep this going and
going, just with your cell phone. So I think situations are different,
but I think the problems are thesame, you know. You just that
you have to care what It hasto start at home. If if you're
not doing what is needed at homeand you're not being a parent. You
(05:35):
know, there's curfews, there's thingsthat this is how it's going to be.
You're going to do this, andif you're not doing that at home,
there's for your action correct And youcan't expect a school or anybody else
to handle that or a church.You know, it's like you only have
these kids for a certain amount oftime, you know, even at church
every week, you only get themfor a certain amount of time, so
you want to make sure you're maximizingthat time and teaching them what they need
(05:58):
to know. You know, violenceat homes, domestic violence that seems to
be like drug and alcohol. It'spassed from generation and generation. But never
before have we seen so much violencein schools, guns, kids, babies.
What happened in Connecticut. Yeah,have you faced that at all?
I mean, we haven't had alot of issues. Like I said,
I think, you know, inthe weeks leading up to Faith in Action.
(06:21):
Over the years, we have seenlike a spike in violence. You
know, one year there had beenyou know, as many homicides in a
week as there are days. Sowe do see those things and sometimes the
parents will get a little worried,but you know, generally we've had no
problems when we're out. A lotof people they're appreciative of us. You
know, if somebody's out doing somethingthey shouldn't be. When they see us,
(06:42):
we're all wearing the same T shirt, they kind of leave us alone.
So we haven't seen any issues whilewe're out. I think people are
pretty open to us because they knowwhere they're doing something good. But we
have seen, you know, inthe weeks leading up to it. There
has been you know, there areoccasionally those spikes of violence and you know
here about a shooting here there orsomething along those lines, but nothing too
to major believe it or not evenhere in Central Pennsylvania. Lack of food.
(07:06):
Thank god for the Central Pennsylvania FoodBank and other food banks out there,
but people sometimes don't have a placeto live in a lot of people
out there are like one paycheck awayfrom losing everything. That's got to be
an issue that you've come across,right, I mean we do see you
know, I mean we know peopleyou know in those situations. So it's
you just try to kind of ministerto people the best that you can.
(07:29):
You try to help them. Wealways try to say we give them a
hand up, not a hand out, right, because the thing is people
have to know you can't get intothe cycle of well, okay, I
might get money for this and Ihave to kind of go to you know,
you have to kind of work yourselfout of those situations. And I
know we kind of talked a littlebit before, but like this generational thing
where you can see, you know, you have to have I think a
(07:53):
mindset of like I don't want tobe how my parents were like. For
me, I grew up in HarrisburgCity. I'm a graduate of the high
school and I was raised by mygrandparents. My parents weren't really in the
picture, so you know, forme, I you know, I was
very grateful that I had grandparents wholoved me to take me in and raise
me and my sister. But youhave to look and say, you know
what, I don't want to dothe same thing. I don't want to
(08:16):
end up pregnant out of high school. I don't want to you know,
I want to go to college.I want to make a difference. And
so but I think you have tohave a strong mentality as well. You
know, you have to have peoplewho are pushing you. But also I
was grateful that I had people inhigh school, like I had great counselors
who you know, for one time, somebody said, well, what do
you want to do with your life? You know, it's not what are
your grandparents want? What do youwant? And that was really a turning
(08:39):
point for me. I think whenyou need to have people in your life
who are going to push you tobe better and not just the status quo,
because some people are just content withjust graduating or you know whatever,
getting car firing them up correct,And you have to you have to have
that in your gut like I wantto be I want to do something with
my life. And it doesn't haveto be something huge. You know.
You can take small steps in yourcommunity to do things. You can volunteer,
(09:03):
you can do different things. Soit's just about you know, just
even being in the church is lovingon a child, you know, loving
on somebody who may not have thatat home, you know, And that's
kind of what we strive to do. I see. What you're doing is
the opportunity to break that chain becauseparents today they are still coming out of
(09:24):
what they witnessed and what they youknow, what they were a part of
growing up. But to get ayoung young people, start them when they're
little. I've said to so manytimes on this program. When you get
chilling when they're little, and givea message, make it fun so they
remember it and we enforce it yearafter year. That's what's going to turn
things around where we don't have selfcentered kids, you know, don't you
(09:48):
agree? I agree? Yes,I mean we see it all the time,
you know, even within the church. You know, we tell the
kids were like, you, Godgave you a gift, a talent,
and it's not about your gift,you know. The whole point is that
you're going to take that gift andyou're going to grow it in the church
congregation. And it can be singing, it can be dancing, it could
(10:09):
be anything. You know, kids, there's so many different talents playing an
instrument, but those are the thingsyou have to learn. It's not to
show off what you have, butit's to grow in it. That way,
when you're older, you can useit and you know, work,
your workplace, church, wherever youare. You went back to your hometown
to start this at the City ofHarrisburg. Counsel about what you've done with
(10:30):
the City of Harrisburg. And you'regoing to be meeting some time later this
week with a school board. Isthat you're saying, yes, tell me
about tell me what we've done sofar. So over the years we have
partnered with mostly the Harrisburg School District, but over the last couple of years
we have partnered with the City ofHarrisburg. And after COVID, you know,
we had to kind of change alittle bit how it did it,
(10:52):
but we still continue to do it, so even in twenty twenty we were
able to do a project. Thekids really wanted to do something, so
we did something at the church andwe had a neighbor who lived behind us.
Their pool had burst a few yearsprior to this event, and they
were like, hey, you knowI'm in the hospital, but could you
guys help me tear all this stuffdown? So we went over. It
(11:13):
was like one hundred degrees outside fortwo days, we ripped this pool down,
We did all these things. Well, afterwards we found out that this
person was married to the former HarrisburgSchool superintendent. It was just the craziest
thing, and for us that wasa god moment. So we were like,
oh my gosh, what were thechances you know that this was happening.
I had not met this person.We just spoke on the phone,
so and that was one of thosethings where we could have just brushed it
(11:35):
off, but he called and Ithought that would be a great project.
The kids were wanting to do something, so after COVID that was twenty twenty,
and then in twenty twenty one andtwenty two, So twenty one we
partnered with Harrisburg Schools and we bouncedit from school to school to school,
so it was kind of different.So we would just take everything on the
road, so we took games inflatables, everything with us and just set up
(11:56):
every single day and just would ministerto whoever would come out and listen.
And then last year we actually didit in different parks, so we were
at Reservoir, Um, just youknow, different places because I picture you.
I love that movie with Whoopi Goldbergsister Acton where she goes the kids
here and people on the street here, here, the nuns singing and they
(12:16):
are like drawn to it. What'sgoing on here? Right? So I
picture you And it did kind ofcome out that way, like it depended
on which park we were in.When we were at Fourth and Emerald,
that was a big location for us, Like a lot of people came,
so it just depended on where wewere, but if people could hear us,
they'd come out. In fact,when we were at Reservoir, we
played the Cupid Shuffle and everybody whowas in the park did it. It
was so much fun just to bea part of that, and it was
(12:39):
just something silly, but it wasjust a great way to connect with those
who came out, so and therewere some people who followed us to each
different location. Um, but wesee people of different faiths that come out
and listen. You know, we'rejust out there sharing what we believe.
You know, we're not we're notforcing someone to listen, but you know,
we just want to share our faithand just show that Jesus loves you.
(13:01):
You know, That's that's what thisis all about. Absolutely. You
know you we had talked a littlebit about these kids. Can you explain
to our listeners where the kids comefrom? Did you get and you're it's
part of the big week that you'vehad coming up from the seventeenth or twenty
thirty, You're like, talk tous about that. So we have about
forty students and staff coming from fivedifferent churches. So now the bulk are
(13:22):
coming from Harrisburg first, but wehave several other churches that are sending students.
So they're going to arrive with uson July seventeenth about four o'clock.
We let them kind of get settled, we do orientation with them, We're
going to feed them, and thenwe have a nightly service at seven pm.
Now those services are closed this forsafety, but on Wednesday night at
seven o'clock. Anyone is welcome tojoin us at the church. That's an
(13:43):
open service for us. So doyou have a camp out or a camp
stop? Well, we keep thekids like they stay there church the church,
we'll house them there and so youknow, they get showers, we're
feeding them, they get t shirts. So it's just such a great week.
But Tuesday to Friday, so weget up in the morning, they
have breakfast and then we have avery short devotional in the morning with the
(14:05):
kids. We do a couple ofsongs, we get them out the door
and they're going to do community service. This year, we're partnering with the
school district. I'm actually gonna bemeeting with him here in the next couple
hours and we're just going to figureout what they're going to be doing.
We send them out and then inthe afternoons after lunch, we're gonna go
canvassing. So we have ten thousanddoor hangers that we're going to hang up.
What is the partner with the schooldistrict. So what we'll do is
(14:28):
we're going to go into the differentschools, so we'll probably do some weeting
like litter pick up, anything thatthey need us to do. Sometimes we'll
do paint jobs, like very minorpaint jobs, anything that the kids can
do. We don't get into anythingtoo too crazy, just you know,
anything that's safe for the students todo. But it's just such a great
week for them to understand about service. You know, this week is bigger
(14:50):
than just them, and that's whatwe try to teach them. I'm like,
this isn't about fun and games thisweek. Not that we don't want
you to have fun, but wewant you to understand this is you know,
when we say you're the hand endsand feet of Christ, this is
what you're doing. You know,a lot of people we talk to they
might not even know who Jesus is, you know, they may not know.
So when we tell them, hey, this is what we're doing,
(15:11):
people will listen to us. Wehave the opportunity to sometimes pray on the
street with people. You know,we've encountered people. There was a lady
who was having an issue with hermedication and we just stopped with her and
prayed with her right where we were, right on the street. So we
just encounter people. We're like,hey, do you need us to pray
with you, we'll pray with youright now and so and that takes twenty
(15:31):
seconds, you know, or justa smile. We tell the kids like,
you got a smile, don't beafraid your face will not break,
you know. And how we actin front of them, that sets the
tone, Like if we're going inthere and complaining, they're going to think,
oh, these kids don't want tobe here exactly. So that's what
we tried to from the beginning.It's like, you go in and you
do whatever they ask you to do. If somebody's giving you food to eat,
you eat it and you don't complain. You know, this is a
(15:52):
whole lot of work. That's youknow, this takes us a year to
plan. This isn't something going toask you about that. It must take
you a long time to get allthis together. It takes a whole lot
of time to put this together.And we had to raise fifty two thousand
dollars to do this event. Sothat's a lot of money we came together.
And the neat thing about this Thisyear, we're going to do a
back to school bash. So onJuly twenty second, we're going to be
(16:15):
at the Forum Auditorium. Yeah,that sounds awesome, so it's very exciting.
So we're hoping to fill it.So we need people to come out
and enjoy. We're going to haveseveral concerts. It's just going to be
a really great time. Is itopen to the public. It's open to
the public. It is free,it costs nothing to go in, and
it's at the Forum. So fromone thirty to three thirty, we're going
to do our outside portion. It'sgoing to be the back to School Bash.
(16:36):
So we are registering people now.If you go to our website,
it's just HBG one st dot org. The information is there. It'll tell
you how you can register for thisback to School Bash. We're going to
be giving away. We have atleast seven hundred and fifty backpacks that we're
going to be filling throughout the weekto hand out that day. So it
is better to preregister because if youdo, you're guaranteed a bag exactly.
(16:56):
So for that then the to theForum. We're going to open at three
thirty and we're gonna head inside andwe're gonna have performances from national recording artists.
Jove On. He's been with usfor several years. He's fantastic.
We have Aaron Cole so he's kindof more R and B hip hop,
and then we have Aguilar and theirSpanish, so we have all of our
bases covered. We're gonna have somelocal talent in there as well, and
(17:19):
we're gonna give away a thousand dollarsworth of cash prizes. So but you
have to be there to win it. How to raise all this money,
you must have fundraisers throughout like theprevious year for the following year, right,
well, we started so last yearwhen it ended, we kind of
started figuring out what we were goingto do. By January, we knew
we were going to be at theforum. So we've done a lot of
fundraising. You have to know whoto talk to, to go to and
(17:41):
ask. Trust me, we haveasked a lot of people to donate and
we're very appreciative of those who havedonated. So we have some private donors
that help us out. But alot of fundraising had to be done.
We finished up in June is whenwe finally knew we reached our budget.
So it's always a good day.Wow when you reach bud Fire. So
(18:03):
it's it is kind of scary becauseyou're like I have to pay these bills,
but everything worked out. You know, yes, it is definitely again
a God moment, Like we justwe know it is hard because people always
say, don't worry, don't worry, You're gonna make it. Well,
you do have to worry about ita little bit because at the end of
the day, you know, ultimatelyit's all in your laps. So you
try to just work hard and youknow who to go to. I'm not
(18:26):
afraid to ask any Usually if theysee me, come and they know I
either want money or something. Sobut you just I think just working with
different organizations, they know us,they know what we're doing. They know,
like you know, we have nothingto gain from this. You know,
there's no glory in this at all. All we want to do is
go in and make a difference.Tell me about the differences that are the
(18:47):
difference that it's made in the livesof kids have already gone through it.
So we see differences from year toyear, even our students who attend.
So you have to be in atleast seventh grade, going into seventh grade
to because anything younger than that youwould not be able to handle. It
is a lot. We move youquick. There's not a lot of downtime,
so and we design it that wayon purpose. But we do see
students who their lives have changed.They'll come in. We've had kids who
(19:11):
just are they don't want to bethere, they're angry, they're throwing a
fit, and by the end ofthe week, because again they don't have
their phone. We put kids intogroups and we purposely split friends and different
things like that, because again,it's not about you. This isn't hang
out time, so kids will getupset about that. We had one group
one year tell us they wanted toleave because they couldn't be with their friends.
(19:33):
They stay, but and you seekids they'll come and say, you
know this was this made a differencein my life, Like, hey,
I didn't want to be here,but once I got into it, I
realized that, yeah, this isreally great. So you see a heart
change in them. You know,that's the best. The kid can come
in with the toughest. I alwaysfind the kids who are the toughest are
the most enjoyable. I mean thereare times where you're just like, Okay,
(19:55):
I don't know how I'm going tosurvive with this student this week.
But for the most part. Thoseare the kids that really you see an
impact, because the first couple daysyou'll see the kids like they won't want
to get up, they don't reallywant to participate, But by the end
of the week, they're right upthere, you know, just lead in
the pack. So and we loveto see that. Or we'll see kids
who you know, you might notthink, oh, they don't really say
(20:17):
much or whatever, and by theend of the week they're just testifying to
how great this week was. Sothat's the goal, is like they're going
to take this and say, hey, when I go back to my school,
I'm going to try to make animpact here. I'm going to do
something different. So we've seen peoplethroughout the years, even the adults.
You know, we've done this atdifferent locations throughout the twenty years that we've
(20:38):
done it, and we've seen peoplewho have come in. They have been
drunk, they've been high. Ihad a lady who came in once she
was wearing this was like one ofour first years. She had on two
left shoes. I mean it wasjust a mess. And all you could
do is like we gave her somefood and we prayed with her and then
the following year, we saw herand she was a thriving member of a
local church. And really it's notwhat we did. All we did was
(21:03):
just be Jesus sir. So youknow, we hope that that's all we
can do. Is we're going toshare the gospel with people. We're gonna
say, hey, here's why we'rethis is why we're happy this And just
because you're a Christian doesn't mean thatyour life is easy. That's not what
we're saying at all. You know, everybody has troubles in their lives,
but there is somebody to lean on, you know. And then when you're
(21:23):
in a local church body, thenyou have people that you can lean on
as well, so you kind ofgrow this family. So that's really the
goal of it is that, youknow, we all we do is plant
the seed, you know, andthen God waters it. What's been the
response to the parents of the childrenwho have come to these events, it's
probably saying who is this kid?Right? Yes, I mean we do
(21:44):
see a lot of you know,parents will come and say, oh,
this was really such a great weekfor them. We haven't really had students
who were like, oh, thiswas the worst week of my life.
You know, we haven't seen that, but there are parents who come back
and say, wow, you know, I've really seen a difference. Or
because of this event, this studentfeels that they're being called into ministry of
some sort. So that's really what'sexciting is that you're seeing the kids.
(22:07):
Sometimes it's hard, like as theorganizer, you're I'm not handling with the
kids necessarily, you know, becauseI'm kind of bat yet. But that's
where all of our adult leaders comeinto play, where it's like you have
this opportunity to spend this whole weekwith these kids. You're seeing them and
you're watching how they grow. Youknow that first day they might be a
little shy. We always tell thekids, I'm like, Monday night isn't
(22:29):
really the tell. Tuesday is thetell because Tuesday's when we're gonna get up.
That's the hardest day of the weekbecause that's the first day. But
once you get past that, Ithink there's just this camaraderie with the kids
where they just you're you're in thistogether. Everybody's you know. You look,
it's hot outside. I get it. We're walking, we're working,
you know, and it is it'sa tough week because usually this about the
(22:51):
hottest week of the year. Ifind you plan it. I do sometimes
just because it's like it's that's thegood week, you know, like just
used to be like the perfect week. But it's just one of those things
where the kids, you know,there's something they all have in common,
like everyone's on the same playing level. There's no there's no leaders, there's
no you know. And that's whywe tell the kids, like we require
(23:12):
that leaders have to be twenty one, just because then you're a little older
than the youngest, you know.So it yeah, it can be tough
because I think sometimes when you're rightout of high school, you know,
they want to be leaders, andI'm like, well, I can't make
you a leader yet, you're justnot there, you know. But we
try to give them jobs to make, you know, to make them feel
like they are being a part ofit and they are being a leader,
(23:33):
because this is how they learn.You know. You have to give you
have to teach them how to dothese things, because if you don't,
who's going to be. You know. A friend of my of mine and
I had a conversation a couple ofweeks ago, and we were talking about
marriage and about when I was growingup, if you were twenty five and
you weren't married, you were anold maid. And I think to myself,
(23:55):
I knew nothing even when I wastwenty five. And these kids,
a lot of them come out ofeven high school or college and they want
to be the leaders when wisdom isso much a part of who you become.
And I think that applies to whatyou're talking about too. You've got
to walk the walk before you cantalk they talk. I mean, you're
(24:15):
going out there unarmed if you wantto be a leader. Yeah, it
is hard because again when you're youknow, when you're twenty nine, you
know, twenty or nineteen, you'rejust right out of high school, yeah,
going you know in college, soyou haven't had those life experiences.
And even for us as organizers,you know, the first year, I
took over this event in two thousandand six, so it started at oh
(24:37):
three, and then we took overin two thousand and six just because the
person who started it had left,which to a different church. So you
know, you realize that it takestime to learn how to do things.
Like our first year, we hadtwo months to put it together and it
was quiet now was on a smallerscale. It's not as big as it
is now. But you learn fromyour mistakes. You know, every year
(25:00):
we learn how to make it better. There'd be nights where we'd be up
till two in the morning trying toget details finished. Where now we know
ahead of time because we've done itfor so long. Now everything can be
done ahead of time, so we'renot stressing. We're not oh my gosh,
this isn't done. I mean,you always have to be ready for
something. You never know what's goingto happen. You know, we could
(25:22):
show up somewhere and they're like,okay, you're going to do this.
Okay, but then when we getthere, well, nope, we've changed
our mind. This is what you'regonna do today. Now. Sometimes I
can be frustrating, but you justhave to do it because that's how life
is. That's it. Gee.You can't control everything, so you learn
that. You just have to havea backup plan so you know, if
something happens, we just kind ofmove around it and we find something else
(25:47):
to do. I'm like, look, if we got to pick up trash
for three hours, we can doit. Let's do it. There's plenty
of trash to pick up, youknow, so I don't care. We
give the kids gloves. You know, we're not out there making them do
stuff that's dangerous. But that's thewhole point, is that you know,
life is unpredictable and you never know. Every day is different. So that's
what we love. You're given thesekids a heck of a gift. It's
really great. It's a controlled environment, it is all their needs are meant.
(26:12):
You say, you get them fromfive different churches. I have a
funny feeling this is going to getbigger and bigger. I don't think.
I mean, I can't imagine whya lot of like you're talking about the
one school district that you're meeting with, I can't imagine why people would not
want you there to help out.But as far as the kids themselves,
it's it's going to grow. Youbetter get helper. The one year,
(26:36):
I think the most we've ever hadat a year was one hundred and twenty
five students. That was a lotof kids, so we had to have
a lot more help. So howbig is your church? So we have
about i'd say about two hundred ona Sunday morning. So with our services.
So you know, it's tough becauseagain this kind of goes back to
what we were talking about before.I think one of the struggles we find
(26:59):
is parting with other churches. SoI mean, I know, we reached
out to dozens of churches and it'shard sometimes to connect. I mean,
now some churches, you know,depending on when we've reached out, they
might already have something planned. Yeah, but it is tough to just get
churches to partner because for us,again when we're out, we never promote
Harrisburg first. I mean, that'sI work there, So that's where it's
(27:22):
based, like that's where the ballcalled the work is done. But for
us, it's about the Kingdom inand of itself exactly. For us,
it's like we just want to loveJesus humankind. That's what it's about.
Other things, beings, that's abottom line. It's not complicated. You
don't have to follow these particular rulesof this church or that church or anything
like that. It's just trying tobe the best person you can because that
(27:44):
and sir, but that's why we'resupposed to be here, and I think
people forget that. Here's a callto people out there, if they want
to support you. How can theydo that? So you can go to
our website and again it's HBG onethe number one st dot org. So
I mean, if you want todonate again, we're going to be doing
these back to school back to SchoolBash so we are going to be purchasing
some more supplies, so you're welcometo donate. You just go to the
(28:07):
give button. It's very simple.It's a one time gift. You just
mark other and their opportunities for giftsand kind like you're talking about. Okay,
yeah, so you can donate thatway. Definitely come out and support
this event by coming to the forum, join us and be a part of
it so that we want to fillthat forum. We want to really just
bless the community. Tell us onemore time when that big event is going
(28:29):
to be. So it's July twentysecond at the Forum Auditorium one thirty to
three thirty is the Back to SchoolBash. Portion doors open at three thirty.
Events starts at four and runs tillnine. Missy, thanks so much.
This is the core of what weneed to do. We just need
to find more churches to partner withyou and get the word out. And
I want to thank you so muchagain again from the First Assembly of God
Church which it's located at forty onehundred North Progress Avenue in Harrisburg. My
(28:52):
guests has been outreach director Missy Cook. Thanks so much and remembered that you're
all invited to be a part ofthis fabulous event. And also remember that
if you can't catch Insight when itairs on one of our iHeart stations,
catch it anytime on your favorite podcaststapp. I'm Sylvia Moss. This has
been Insight. Thank you so muchfor listening. See you next week.
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