Report to BOD

Rick's view to the Board of Directors after two weeks in the 360 house.

The dream that started 20 months ago is now a reality. The process of taking young men and transforming their lives into disciples has begun. Matt 28:19-20 is being lived out and I will testify to you this morning - He is with US! Matt 20:26-28 is being lived out as we are modeling servant hood to each other. Colossians 3:11-17 is evident in the fact God has chosen 2 Sudanese, 2 African Americans, a wonderful women and one redneck and brought them together to clothe themselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. To bear with each other and forgive grievances against one another. To put on love and let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. To be thankful and let the word of Christ dwell in us, teaching and admonishing one another with wisdom and sing with gratitude in our hearts to God. Doing everything in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are living Psalms 78 by showing the praises of the Lord to all generations so they might set their hope in God and not forget the works He has done, but keep His commandments.

I want to share with you this morning some of the ways these foundational words of God are being fulfilled. We have set some of our teachers and mentors in place. Derrick coming on Wednesday afternoon to teach theology. Bill Nelson is coming spending time with the guys working on their speech & pronunciation. September the guys will begin classes on How to Study the Bible with Bart Box. The highlights of their first two weeks was the team building exercises they participated in with Chad. They commented on how they had to depend on one another and how they had to trust each other. I can tell you as a spectator, these 4 guys grew closer that afternoon. Since then you can see a bond among them that was not there before. Weekly assignments and responsibilities have gone good, but we do have some challenges. We have the normal situations of trying to beat the system. This is to be expected, but we have confidence as time goes on good habits will be developed. (After 28 years of marriage, my wife will tell you I still do not get my weekly assignments right). Each week we have one cook, one dishwasher and one trash man. One is placed in the bullpen but he is asked to blog the events of the week on the 360 Website. We had our first big house cleaning yesterday. I believe the guys went to bed early last night. The priceless moment of the day was the finding of a sandwich wrapped in a napkin under the sofa cushion. As Bullen would say, "What in the world is going on!".