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December 29, 2010
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2010 in Review
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Dear Friend, The end of the year is a good time for looking
back. Please look through these photos at a time when you can enjoy
reflecting on all that has been possible through the tremendous teamwork
by SYM donors, volunteers, and prayer partners. I am so thankful to God
for allowing all of this work. And I am very thankful for the support
of my wife, daughters, family and friends! Happy new year! May
2011 be a wonderful and blessed year for you and yours!
In January (and later again in Nov./Dec.), we went to the streets
with our Cold Weather Response. We hand out donated warm clothing, cold
weather gear, food and hot chocolate. We served an estimated 120 street
youth in January and 60 this Nov./Dec. 
In February, we established a new SYM tradition by providing a
memorial service for street youth who die in Austin. In 2010 we said
good-bye to five youth: Billy, Irene, Tink, Andre, and Meredith. In
addition, we got word of several others who passed away elsewhere. The
memorial services are very healing for the street community as well as
parents and family. This year I received a phone call from a relative
who was very touched by how the street community responded to the shared
loss of a loved one. 
In March we began a new fellowship event on Wednesday evenings. We
call it "in-reach" because we help a local church make room at a normal
fellowship event for the street youth to attend safely. The goal is to
help street youth navigate a traditional church and have a positive
encounter. An average of ten attend each week.
In April, our Easter lessons each Tuesday leading up to Holy Week
were very popular and much-discussed in the street youth community. 
In May and throughout the year, we hosted numerous service projects
with 19 organizations. The goal is always two fold: (1) to provide
community education about street youth and (2) to show the street youth
that they are part of our community in Austin that cares. 
In June we received our first intern! Our internship program is a 3
month training services for pastoral candidates, social workers and
youth workers designed to help them lead in future roles to better deal
with urban poverty. And it is key to our expanding services in 2011. 
In August, we took two street youth to a Christian leadership
conference in Austin.This action embodies our belief that many street
youth are natural leaders and need training to confidently step forward. 
In September, we started a weekly prayer hour with street youth.
Every week a group has joined me in prayer, exploring together who God
is, what they are thankful for, what is going on with them, their
confessions, and how they ask God to act in their life, in the street
community, and in the world. 
In October, we took 5 street youth as leaders to HopeFest. There
they helped make at least 75 duct tape wallets with young people
attending the Christian festival in St. John''s neighborhood.  |
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In November, we held a worship service with my home church of
Covenant Presbyterian Church. Terry was invited to preach and the street
youth and congregation shared communion after a warm celebration of
Thanksgiving. 
In December, we held our Christmas party. We were able to have a
time of fellowship with volunteers and street youth sharing thoughts on
Christmas. Each youth received an amazing Christmas "Bag of Grace" gift
as well as an music player preloaded with Christmas music, music from
memorial services in 2010, and audio Bible verses.  One volunteer was moved to tears:
"It was so amazing to see them act
like children as they opened their gifts. They turned to one another to
proudly show what they had received. They were so grateful and happy."
Here is a snapshot of the 12 months leading up to December 2010 with
lots of details:
In the past 12 months, as part of knowing and
serving our clients, we have met 512 new individuals, logged a total of
8191 contacts in our daily walks with the street-dependent, and shared
the Gospel directly 1254 times. This year, we''ve been helped by 178 new
volunteers (one time or regular), received an estimated $27,289 of
in-kind donations to help the ministry and our clients, and added 60 new
financial supporters (one time or monthly). Missionary Terry Cole and
volunteers spent 1349 hours in direct contact with our ministry clients.
SYM provided 835 hours of community education on learning to love
street-dependent young people to 19 school, church and civic groups in
Austin. In 2010 we grew from two weekly events to four! And in 2011 we
plan to add two more weekly events by continuing to grow our volunteer
base and adding one intern to our ministry team. Both our new events
have been asked for by our clients and will meet real needs for deeper
discipleship and a quiet place for study and self-improvement. We are
maintaining relationships with several street youth that are now stable,
sober, God-fearing and part of a Christian community. Each month we see
and get reports of many more who have achieved at least some of these
important success factors. Obviously we don''t take credit for our
clients success but we celebrate their accomplishments! 2011 will be an
exciting year! Join us by learning who we serve, what we do and how to
get involved at www.StreetYouthMinistry.org.
Here's a note shared with permission from the mother of one street
youth we served in 2010: You helped my son and his girl friend. I want to
thank you. They are both doing well. It has been really hard as a mother
of a homeless youth, never knowing what they are doing or if they are
hungry, cold, or safe. Many people don't understand them. They think
because of the way they live and look that they must be bad. I thank God
for you and the work you do.
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To know, love and serve street-dependent young people so that they may
come to know Christ. Who
We Serve
Internships Open! We are looking for two interns
in the ministry! We offer a small stipend and can help find housing
from among our Austin supporters. Interns will receive 13-weeks of
training from our missionary leader and will receive daily hands-on
training. This experience is perfect to complement preparation for
mission, pastoral, or social work. The experience looks great on a
resume. Learn more
here. Learn
more here.
Financial Support
This
ministry is supported by individual donations. We also are learning to
apply for grants from appropriate sources. In 2010 we expect to "break
even" for the first time, meaning that ministry and missionary expenses
will be fully offset by donations and none of our rainy day funds need
be used for 2010! This is possible because of monthly donors and
generous end of year donations. We can still accept end of year donations online;
a tax receipt is generated immediately. To learn more about joining
our monthly donor team, contact us or read more here.
FaceBook FriendsPlease follow our fan page
on FaceBook by liking us
and then sharing the ministry with a few friends. 
Volunteer
InfoIt takes 19 volunteers every week to
make SYM run well. These volunteers prepare food, drive, dog sit, and
offer welcoming smiles and help at our events. We manage our volunteers
from an online web site here. We
encourage you to choose the time that works best for you and reserve
your spots now. You can serve once, but we encourage you to consider a
once a month involvement. We are also looking for some high capacity volunteers who can
help once or on an on-going basis.
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