Heather On A Mission

Get a 3 Minute Taste of Urban Life Skills

heatheronamission — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 23:25:17 +0000

I hope this video will give you a bigger picture of what it is God has called me and my team to. Enjoy!

Thankful for Prayer

heatheronamission — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 01:56:07 +0000

I go through seasons. Seasons of loving what I do and really wanting to hang out with girls and seasons of feeling like I just want to move to the suburbs and get a desk job. In those dry moments I earnestly seek God begging him to give me passion for what He has called me to.

This week has been a season of loving what I do and feeling encouraged. I was thinking about why that was today and God reminded me “Heather, there are people praying for you.” Wow, what an unbelievable blessing that is. I am so grateful.

“So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.” Acts 12:5

And please continue to pray, God is moving…

“I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.” Romans 15:30

Taste of New Life- Karlov

heatheronamission — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 23:02:02 +0000

Each year my church blocks off the street and has a “Taste of New Life” where we have church in the street, baptisms, free food, pony rides, games, etc.. Basically we have a carnival for the neighborhood in the street. It’s pretty awesome! This year we are having two “Taste of New Life”, one for each side of the neighborhood. We had one a few weeks ago on the West side. Here is a short video of what went down. I think about 1000 people came through. This Sunday we are having the Taste on the East side. Please pray as the Gospel will be preached and many will have an opportunity to hear the Good News.

The Fourth in Little Village

heatheronamission — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 01:55:29 +0000

I wish these videos did justice to what it is like in Little Village on the 4th of July. There are fireworks EVERYWHERE. And when I say everywhere, I mean on like every street corner everywhere. These are no tiny fireworks, these are like the big city fireworks. And every time one goes off, so does a car alarm. Well I’ll let you get a taste for yourself. In order to truly understand, you will have to come visit.

Baby Shower

heatheronamission — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 15:53:58 +0000

Here how some pictures from Tere’s baby shower. Enjoy

Feeling Insufficient

heatheronamission — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 16:00:39 +0000

There always seems like there is more to know. More to learn about counseling, more to learn about substance abuse, more to learn about the court system, more to learn about working in the urban context, more to learn about the Bible and so on and so on. It seems like the list is forever. Therefore, whenever I am presented with a new class to teach or new group of youth to take on, I often feel insufficient, that I don’t know enough or that I will fail. God used the story of Moses approaching Pharaoh in Exodus 4 to really encourage me.

Moses Given Powerful Signs

4 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” ²The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” ³And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground

, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. ⁴But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— ⁵“that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” ⁶Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow.⁷Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. ⁸“If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign.⁹If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”

¹⁰But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” ¹¹Then theLord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? ¹²Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” ¹³But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.”¹⁴Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. ¹⁵ You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. ¹⁶ He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. ¹⁷And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”

God has equipped me and he is faithful. Sometimes, I am the one who needs to stop out and trust God, for in my insufficiency, he is all sufficient.

A Normal Week… huh?

heatheronamission — Wed, 30 May 2012 15:35:35 +0000

In the last few months, I have had several people ask me what a normal weeks looks like for me. There really is no such thing as a normal week in ministry. Here are two snap shots of my calendar so you can get a taste of what “normal” looks like

Mentoring is Worship

heatheronamission — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:18:00 +0000

A good friend and fellow mentor wrote the below post on her blog last night and it really resonated with how I feel as well. She is an amazing woman of God who truly loves this neighborhood. She has been a huge blessing in my life. You can check out her blog here.

“I don’t have anything eloquent to say about the past 5 days. I’m tired emotionally, spiritually, physically. I’ll blog one day about the past 5 days but today, in reflecting on my weekend, I wanted to share and reflect what it means to me to be a mentor to me as partially inspired by Romans 12.
It means walking through the good and bad. It means entering their lives, entering the pain, entering the confusion and loving them right through it. It means remaining a faithful presence. It means rejoicing when they rejoice and weeping when they weep. It means loving until it hurts for the sake of the gospel. It means being patient in tribulation, it means rejoicing with HOPE and it means being CONSTANT in prayer.. It means having your heart broken but then looking to the Lord for hope. Mentoring is one of the responses of my heart to the Lord. To me it is an offering to God, an act of worship. To love for the sake of the Gospel, I am compelled only by Christ.”

Heavy Heart

heatheronamission — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:34:26 +0000

I met Sarah last week. She came to my house with a few other girls. Later that week, I received a phone call from a friend, who had received a phone call from the police officier who works in the local high school, Officier Moreno (who is a believer). He said there was a girl who has been suspended pending a parent/ teacher conference but she doesn’t have parents. Her mom is in Mexico and her dad passed away. Her sister has guardianship, but doesn’t care about her and she is an A/B student. It was Sarah. I saw God’s hand at work. I heard yesterday that Sarah is possibly being offered $3000 to drive to Miami with a truck driving. I am fearful this is a sex trafficking ploy. This is just Sarah’s story and I am sure only the surface of it. Let’s not forget about…

-the 16 year old girl who has been sleeping with her step dad (this story is ALL to common)

-the 15 year old who was called a juvinile deliquent by her mother

-the 16 year old who is sleeping with a 35 year old married abusive man

These are stories I just heard yesterday! I have heard countless more of gang rape, abuse, neglect and the list goes on. I have nothing to offer these girls apart from the love and hope in Jesus. And so I woke up this morning with a heavy heart…

God, bring your good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives. May these young girls see the profound and deep love with which you love them. Soften their hardened hearts. May they see that I am not just another person in their lives to abuse and mistreat them. I will not abandoned them, because you have not abandoned me. God do a great work here in Little Village. It is all pointless without you at work in their lives. So Abba, do that, take the scales off their eyes that they may see you as their Abba. Heal them from the pain, abuse and neglect! Grant me favor with them. Oh Jesus come!

*Names have been changed

Hanging Out on the Block

heatheronamission — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:06:32 +0000

If a girl I am mentoring doesn’t have a cell phone it is nearly impossible to get a hold of her. One of the sure ways to track them down and hang out is to go to the block where they live or normally hang out and join ‘em. Here are a few videos of a day Elizabeth (a good friend and fellow mentor) decided to go track down the girls we mentor.

“After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.”” John 5:37

Sometimes we have to go to them.