Our crowd continues to grow!
This last Sunday, we helped 78 people get things they need, whether, food, clothes, or things that help spiritually. Rafi develivered the sermon on John 9, and he did a good job! We'll have more on John 9 later. Don't forget to check out this week's special friend on the BASIC homepage.



Prayer List:
John M Conlon : "for me and my wife to be Paula McCreeny for full prosperity and to get her vehicle on the road."
Paula McCreeny : "Get my car repaired again, to have earned money again"
George Graham : "Prayer for strength"
Johnny Thompson : "Yes I would like Jesus to take away my desire for alcohol and drugs forever and to bless me to stay healthy, strong, and prosperous. "
Shadow Hawk: "Yes, Orlando, and New Orleans, and Miss.(issippi)"
Jonathan Amos Mitchell : "Psalm 26"
Carroll Hawkins : "Phone" (*Carroll is a guy, and one of our regulars, Ray Evans, Member with the Winter Park congregation, was able to answer this prayer request right away! Praise God for people who are willing to be Christ's hands and feet!*)
Larry D. Binns : "Get the position with either Orlando city or Maitland"
Danny Kennel : "No Floodings"
Mike Fai'son : "Prayer for my wife, who is in jail for problems at home."
Joe Smith : "Myself"
Alonzo Roper : "For better production"
***Terry Lange*** : "I had my ID stolen I need prayer so I can get it and few things" visit www.basicorlando.org/ThingsWeNeed.html

Terry is this week's special guy.
Luis Espinoza : "for Me"
Steve : "Prayer for all people"
Felix Gonzalez : "I need you to pray for me"
Theo Thompson : "Socks"
Krystal Coleman : "Health, wellness"
Connie Boltz : "Pray for me to get off the streets"
Annie R. Harvey : "Hope" Annie was in a motorized wheelchair this week, I didn't get a chance to talk to her about the hope she can have in Christ, but we were able to meet some of her needs.
William Robinson : "backpack"
Fred Halcomb : "Need Help"
Yvette Murray : "Please pray for finacial needs being met. Amen, Thanks Jesus bless you!"
Ramadan Muhammad : "food"
Jucques Davis : "yes! that things gets better for the homeless."

April Hunt Talks about Homeless life in Orlando!
The significance of this story is that it involves Brian Nichols, one of my friends downtown. He's also the guy on the Right in this picture. Remember to pray daily for Brian and everyone else, they are hated by some who think that homeless people are just another group they can bully and threaten.

NEW- Get the "Short List" here....

Have you seen this picture on the BASIC homepage? Click it and you will go to our "Needs" page. I took it this last sunday. Each week, I plan on changing the picture and highlighting a different person we served downtown, and some of their needs. You will also notice that on the right of that page there is a "short list" of our most common needs. There is also a downloadable copy of the "Full list" that you can post at your congregation of things that BASIC needs.

Thanks for your attention:

Central Florida's Positive Activist,

GB HOYT.

Prayer list from July 2nd...

We had a HUGE crowd this last week!
Because the city is acting onery toward feeding people downtown, it seems our crowd grows... Nothing surprising. We served about 70 people with food and clothes under the bridge downtown.
Here is the prayer list:
Mike Singleton "Prayer, Finances"
Clifford Thomas "My life situation"
Antonio "To get out of the streets"
Leroy Henry "Grandfather's healing"
Mark Wright "For me and My Mother who Past Away on Thursday"
Chris Wallace "Health, eternal life, goals"
Azim "Health, eternal life"
Greg James "Success getting out of town and safety"
Shorty "Bro in Law come by"
Juan Contreras "That we get to Miami"
Leon Stephene "For a job"
Mike J "For my Wallets return"
James D. Massey "A job a place to live"
Greg Simpson "For all homeless"
James Aiken "Work"
Robert Gross "For Johnye to come home from jail this month"
Garrick Mitchell "Yes, let me feel better"
Ronald Hollis "yes, for my family" ***PTL!!!
Jerimiah "Job, sisters, and brother, and my dad"
Connie Boltz "Pray for me"
Michael Sulelomo "That we get to Texas"
Claudia Fain "To help us get to Texas"


***He's out of Jail for trepassing, looking for work better than labor pool tickets at Disney. Anyone you know hiring a cook????

To help get the things we need to get people off the streets, I've made a "short list" of the most commly needed things the mission needs. To access it, visit the B.A.S.I.C. homepage by clicking the banner at the top of the Blog, or visit www.basicorlando.org and click on Ben's picture. You can also get a master supply list from that page. We always need pants! I can't say that enough...

Christian Unity: Unity and Baptism

Christian Unity: Unity and Baptism
This Elder in the Atlanta Church has some good ideas about the scripture. One of the problems I believe people have is that we've all heard the message, so to speak, from a young age. belief/repentance/confession/baptism were immediate to the New Testament era believer. Today, we are trained about Jesus from a very young age, and this decreases the violence done to our souls when we acknowledge our sins before God.
The IMMEDIACY of forgiveness is what is important to consider when thinking about conversion.

If you get this before 6:00 pm Eastern time Sunday, don't forget to pray for us downtown folks!!
Believe and Serve,
G. Brandon Hoyt

the 13th juror: Some teens' idea of sport: beating up homeless people

the 13th juror: Some teens' idea of sport:
beating up homeless people

Hey Everyone, I remember hearing about this a long time ago, and I think BASIC may have served this guy before.

Getting Ready...

As you can imagine, getting things ready to go downtown is a big deal. There's foodbags to make, a fishmobile to organize, clothes to sort and label, hygeine kits to assemble, and a myriad other tasks just to make each week happen. The amazing thing is that most of this happens Sunday, the same day we set out to serve people! The picture above is an older picture of a youth group helping us assemble foodbags.
Even before we are able to do this stuff, we need to buy/collect the raw materials so to speak. Usually that involves time at Wal-Mart, that oft misaligned marketplace where quantity is job one. Things at Wal-Mart are great. you get a lot for a little, so I make it the place to buy the things BASIC needs. Every now and again, we can find something cheaper something else, or someone will need something that can't be found there at the store. I can still almost garauntee though that I'll be there at least twice a month spending between $200-$300 just on socks, saltines, workboots, and other things.
This last week I wasn't able to go downtown because I didn't have a group to help me, so I spent extra time getting some things the mission has been short on, especially work boots and socks. These things are important because many of the guys we work with Sunday Evening could have a job Monday morning if they could get ahold of a pair of steel toed work boots. So far, Wal-Mart has had the best prices at $21-$27 a pair, but even then, you could imagine that things would get very expensive very quickly. So we are starting a new campaign called "Sock it to the Homeless People" and "Give Homeless People the Boot". It's going to be a great ad campaign designed to meet one of our most serious needs. If your church doesn't support BASIC already, but you think they could get involved in this, let them know about BASIC, and give me their church address. We'll be mailing something out in the next 2 months!
Until Then,
Believe and Serve!
GB HOYT.

Live From The Swamps Of LA: June 2006

Live From The Swamps Of LA: June 2006

Check out what my pop said a few days ago, it's written in green.
Never Understood just how deep the Old Man is...

Read some Wisdom

Clarke's Recent readings on Wisdom.

More interesting articles about Church Unity...

Another article examining the issue of why we (in the Restoration Movement) divide, and how we deal with this issue.

Here's another blog by a Church of Christ student.

Prayer Requests and Other Thoughts...

Prayer Requests:
Marie "Financial, housing"
Michelle Franklin "Shelter job healing health"
Stanley McAllister "Health, Shelter, Job"
Paul Wright "Hot Shower"
Alonzo Roper "To become firmer in prayer"
Bobby Jones "To pray for my children and wife"
Willie J. Hutson "Physical healing"
J. Tilley "God give me wisdom"
Tony Bell "People to stop stealing from me"
Walter Smith "Mother, Dorothy Smith triple bypass 79 years old, KY, Thank you"
Tawanna "Need House"
Marilyn Lucas "Job and better place to live"
Anthony C. Johnson "To serve Jesus Better"
EJP "Pray so I can no longer be homeless ever and reduce homelessness!"
Bernard Peterson "Work"
Michael Simpson "Deliverence"
Kevin Kelly "Son, Kevin Jr."
Sidney Jones "That I be safe within streets"
Felix Gonzales "Yes I love for God to save me and....Please have me in your prayers"

Ok,
Let's try this again!
Sunday nite my computer crashed (It's been on a crashfest lately) and it lost the prayer requests. Hopefully this will get published before the next reboot!
BASIC Needs Pants!
We are short again on pants, size 30 waist to 40, any length at least as long as 30. We also need socks and work boots. God willing, next Monday I'll go shopping for some of those things, but we will have to see.

The city is at it again! They don't want people to feed the homeless in city parks. I could be wrong, but I thought we weren't supposed to be doing that anyway...
Well, all I can say we are under a bridge, not in a park, and if they don't like it, they can lump it. I can't address the issues a homeless person has if his belly is growling too loudly to hear my advice. Read the article carefully, and you will see at least one blatant NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) statement. You can also notice who the bill's writer is. I say this because the person writing is on the same left wing team as the "Food not Bombs" group doing something around lake Eola. I believe there is no food without a few bombs, so I don't see their point. (IE military is needed to keep the peace, so DEAL WITH IT, or learn arabic, chinese, or some other obscure language, cause that's who's going to be feeding who's left after they drop their bombs)
I'm not denying that crime is a problem in downtown Orlando. To the contrary, every week I see homeless people who have been beaten and abused in horrible ways, but there are better ways to deter and prevent crime than by shuffling homeless people around the city. I don't care if I'm out of site when I feed and clothe and preach the gospel, but I am getting tired of constantly being told when and where I can do it. We will keep on keeping on, that's why I've got me a fishmobile. It's loud, but it's an effective secret weapon.

Discovering some new Blogs....

Hiya!
Discovered Team Pyro today, and think they warrant further investigationing...
This article about the Cross and God should make you Think.
Phil Johnson is not the Lawyer type, but another guy, who is nonetheless cool by me...
Just another thing to make you think.

More thinking.....


Now,
some action!

Clay's Ramblings: Going to Prison

Clay's Ramblings: Going to Prison

Thanks for getting involved Clay! Nothing like getting "in it up to your elbows" so to speak.

Interesting Places to Research Homelessness

Hi!
I wanted everyone to find out what "The Man" says about homelessness, hopefully these sites will help you understand the problem a little better.

National Alliance to End Homelessness

National Coalition for the Homeless

National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty

You know, I find it iteresting that there are so many national groups that focus on the sociological problems of poverty and homelessness. The common consensus is more affordable housing = a cure for homelessness. Housing can help, but it can only do so much. People need a way to get to that housing. So, reading all the literature, we need better interaction between people and government because government is equipped to be there, ready to spend money on getting people affordable housing.

There's also been a lot of chatter about justice. The recent acts of brutality against the homeless in BASIC's homestate of Florida underscore a growing sense of apathy amoung people in general. Everyone is tired of seeing the guy flying a sign at the nearest busy intersection.

What does this mean?
Homelessness is a spiritual problem, and it's a problem for everyone. From apathetic teenagers to alchoholic street bums, people aren't recognizing that they need a savior.
We are, after all, not home yet...

An Ominous Day?

By: G. Brandon Hoyt
LAKELAND, FL
As you can well imagine, all the guys downtown this last week were thinking about "today", June 6, 2006. I wrote the full date out on purpose, it's silly to think that a day is "The Mark of the Beast" when 1. it's mentioned as a number, sixhundred sixty six, to be exact; 2. the people OF THAT DAY could understand it. I doubt the church was thinking "man, 6/6/06 is going to be a horrible day!" They had greater things to worry about like emporers whose names just happened to add up to sixhundred sixty six. Did I mention that they made you carry papers to serve as proof that you had made an offering to Caesar, and that without this paper, you could not buy or sell anything? Now I could be wrong, but because of the precision of this line of thinking, and it's something every Christian everywhere can understand once they had all the facts, I choose to believe that unless GW demands sacrifices to him, we are allright.
Still don't mean I want an RFID chip implanted in me though :)
Well, as Doc Smith always says: When people want to focus on the sensational, focus on Jesus instead.
So we talked about the mark of the beast and the mark of the spirit.
Every time I think about the spirit's mark, I think about "the fruit of the spirit" found in Galatians 5:23-25. Call me oldschool, but I believe that THIS is what we are to be concerned about seeing in a person or on a person, not some tattoo or national id card. With the spirit's fruit in our lives we can be confidant that God is our maker, we have his seal!
Thank God we are more than conquorers!!
Praise God for the power of His seal in our lives!!!

This Week's BASIC Prayer list includes:

Dan McMillan: "Always need prayer. Want to leave town maybe miami."
Garrick Mitchell: "Let me live through today"
George Graham: "Strength"
Edwin Cabrera: "Power to resist Temptations"
James Aiken: "Work"
Steve Soglin: "Pray to reinforce my relationship with God. And to change my life."
Dannie Paul: "Yes, get off drugs."

Jesus said the way you know a person is a disciple by the love they have for each other, and the spirit marked life is a life marked with love.

RAFI UPDATE!!!
Rafael returns to central florida today! He's got a cast on for the next four weeks, and phys. therapy after that. Pray that his leg will heal and that he has a safe trip here. He's a great kid, and he would appreciate an email or two of encouragement. Thank him for supporting BASIC, and pray that BASIC can support him though this physical trial.

Kelly and I's special day!

It's our wedding anniversary!
We've been married three years. Seems like it's been longer than that, and yet, like it's not been long enough.
You know you've got a special woman when you go out to your ham shack, look in the fridge, and it's got a buncha Dr. Pepper in it!
Man I love that girl....
Makes me want to do the laundry!
Summer time is strange for BASIC. we sometimes get people who want to do stuff for a mission's trip, and our regular helpers sometimes want a break so they can go on vacation or something like that. In all, it usually works out. We had 15 people this last Sunday. I saw Connie Boltz this last sunday, she is someone I perpetually pray for. No Red Feather though...
I've thought about calling the system we use at BASIC "B.U.M.S." : Basic Urban Ministry System. What do you think?

Finally some ISP...

Verizon comes through!
Now I've got internet back, but we've been so busy, I haven't got much to say.
Seems like my momma said something about not saying anything at all if you ain't got nothing nice to say...
Some BASIC Newz"
Next week, 1st sunday in June, BASIC will receive a special collection of food from Southside Christian Church as part of their service about Hunger Awareness Day.
Thanks in advance guys!

Where's my ISP?

I ordered internet service on the 24th of April.
Yesterday I still had no modem, so I call my supposed ISP, Verizon. They don't have a record of me, so I had to order again. I got a call today telling me to expect service at the end of the month. It was a dark day.
Enough of the Hemmingway.
Moving should be a sport, that way, we'd figure out better accessories and whatnots than the patented U-Haul appliance dolly. We'd also really think about what we packed before we moved. Right now, Kelly and I have thrown out about two boxes of stuff we didn't even need to pack, and that amount is going to grow. I have a shack now. A real Radio shack! I'll have to share space with the Christmas Tree though. It also needs a door, but we'll replace our old doors soon, and when we do, one of those will go onto the shack door. Hehe! Late nite QRP operations on 40m, here we come! I'm a ham radio operator, KG4GVL, if you didn't know that already. It's a great way to relax, plus it helps me be ready for emergency type things. I've got dreams for this little shack. I call it the "Shack in the back". Sounds great for a QSL card, eh?
Enough shop talk.
Last sunday, Rafael covered for me again. This young man is phenomenal! Unfortunately, he twisted his ankle sometime later on, and is now on crutches. With your prayers, he'll be back up and at'em in two weeks. We won't go downtown next Sunday to give our volunteers some time to spend with their mamas, but in two weeks, we'll be back downtown. Rafi and I are also looking into Orlando's underground, to find the network of punk rockers and fringe elements. It's an area of ministry he's really interested in. It's also the proverbial tough row to hoe, so keep us in prayers about that.
Since buying a home, I've realized a few things about God and myself. Number One: No matter how hard I try, I am not in control. I only control how I respond. Number Two: God's love is big. I love my wife, and would do anything for her, but God's love is bigger. God will protect me and her late at night when bad things happen. It's so easy to say I trust that, but acting on it is a different matter. God is teaching me to pray to him, not to my own abilities. Number Three: Ministry in groups works! Everyday a group of people minister to me, and it is helping me. Whether it's my Pop, The Gravy, Raphael, or my Wife, they collectively nuture my soul.
Keep it up Guys!
And thank you.
Thank you too Mom, for doing all you do!

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Now it's Thursday!

hey!
here's the list for prayer requests, Rafael Rocks, I'm just a leeeeetle Slow...

Prayer Requests.

Danny Baptist: To be closer to Christ
Jonathan Mitchell: Psalms 24
James Aiken: Work
John Taruer: For my mom and brother.
Dan McMillan: Family and self.

And of course, don't forget to pray for Redfeather.
Raf didn't say whether or not he was there.
My Mom has a blog now. I wonder what she will say. Hopefully nothing embarassing about me! :O

Keep On Keepin' On!

We're moving!
Today we went to Orlando to get all our stuff out of storage. Stuff is strange. We keep it, and sometimes it keeps us. That's another story for an0ther time.
Downtown ,
Rafael, Carey Oster, and a rag tag group of people served about 30 homeless people tonite. From all reports things went real well. Rafael covered the story of the Prodigal son. The best news is that we may be getting some more help on a semi-regular basis with some more people. I'll have the prayer requests later too.
Moving has made me tired. I might actually get some sleep tonite.
Bout monkey time!