June 7, 2008

Friends of ICM:

In a conference a few weeks ago the speaker reminded the group of young men from across the Americas that 50% of children born in America would be without fathers. Where have all the fathers gone in America? Father's Day will be here soon. Where have all the fathers gone?

Mrs. D stood before me on a Friday noon at the Basement a week ago; she and her 10 year old son are living in their two door car; he attends school in Long Beach. They try to find a safe spot each evening to park the car for a safe night's sleep. Then they find an open public restroom in the morning to freshen up before school. Tears sprang from her eyes as she spoke of her fear of thenight creepers and her son's comfort for her fears. The boy's father abandoned them both ten years ago and recent financial problems have put them into the car as home. Mrs. D found our Basement family recently. She asked for a Bible and she and her son are reading together God's Word while there is evening sunlight. Her son also found a youth Bible at the Basement and avidly reads that on his own. Mrs. D is working on a temporary hotel place in a nearby city when she gets her SSD check the first of next month. We both asked the Heavenly Father for a permanent home so her son can find stability and witness to school friends about his own bedroom. Thank you for your prayer for this fatherless boy.

Last summer a father and his four children attended our Family Camp. The four children had not been in school for a year. At the camp, the father admitted to our chapel speaker that he had been so remiss in falling into his wife's feeling that school was not important. They prayed and the chapel speaker pledged his time to get the children back in school. The father was asked to step up and be "father." Last September the father became father to his family. Children re-enrolled in school and mother soon enrolled in a trade school program. The family began attending the Basement Sunday night services together.

Our message to our homeless and near homeless attendees of our services is personal responsibility, accepting the guiding-enlightening principles of God's Word, and doing daily what their Jesus Mission is, even in their street poverty. We are beginning to see men stepping up and asking for opportunities to be God's men. They aremaking calls, tracking down lost children, and reaching out to the fatherless mothers in a "righteous" way in our Basement family.

We are beginning to see that persistent challenge, digging together into the Word of the Lord, and holding each other accountable is producing results. We are witnesses to a steady group of men now stepping up to "be" what they have missed out on in years past and be on their Jesus Mission amongst their former street partners in addictive behaviors. We see commitments being made, yet there is a vast army of wandering walking "dead" men still to be touched by Jesus and our challenge is to be true, consistent, persistent witnesses of the life changing presence of Jesus in their lives.

Life can be so suddenly taken away from our Basement attendees. Recently a 50 year old man in a wheel chair stopped for a few moments at the door after a Sunday night service to say thank you for the message and the meal. The next day he was tragically ripped from his wheel chair by a street thug; he hit his head on a curb and was gone into eternity immediately. Thank you for your prayer that our message and witness will always be fresh, energized by the knowledge that this may be the last word from the Lord for someone in the Basement family.

We are now preparing for our summer camps. Our Family Camp will be in July and our High School and College camp in August. We have run these camps for 40 years and continue to be amazed at the trickling calls from former campers reminded by the memory that their camp experience really did change their personal direction for life. Better to have tried than to have remained on the sideline ofthose who have always said there is little hope for those inner city children. Thank you for your prayer and financial support.

Fred Newkirk

Fred and Mardella Newkirk

Director of Inner City Ministries

Long Beach, California

Inner City Ministries

P. O. Box 2627

Long Beach, CA 90801

fred@reox.com