The Lord has been very good to us this past year. We have seen maturing growth in each of the areas in our men’s ministry. There are three primary dimensions to our work and a fourth area of individualized counseling. The first area is our weekly huddles. Approximately 150 men each week are being built up and equipped as Christ followers. These 16 huddles are led by 14 leaders in diverse groups with business owners, men in recovery, post incarceration, young and old alike in Pittsburgh, Scranton and New Jersey. Four of these huddles are with men in prison at Renewal and Washington County Correctional Facility (WCCF). The Marines believe that every soldier needs to be equipped and proficient with a rifle. We believe with Jesus ‘every man a disciple maker.’ Please pray for all of our huddle leaders and their men. Pray for the discipleship they provide and the Christ-like example they show through their lives.
We have gone deeper in our discipleship efforts through our huddle ministry utilizing a new Locking Arms 10 Unit series entitled “Set Free In Christ.” This series is being piloted by 3 huddle groups: our North Side group, our Scranton group (now nearly completed), and through our brother Terry Brown. Terry has taken more than two hundred men through the series in the California Correctional System. We are getting very strong feedback from our pilot leaders and their men about the strong teaching in the series and the spiritual discipline it is helping to cultivate in them.
The second is our monthly events outreach area. Over the past year we touched over 1,500 men through these events with the message of Christ and his call to serve the poor and fatherless. This included our Marriage Celebration Dinner and two cigar events, one with axe throwing! We had over 130 men attend our two retreats this year with a strong representation of young men from age 10-30. We also partner with Urban Impact in their Man Up Pittsburgh event where another 1,500 men are reached.
A third and very important dimension of our ministry is service. Our ministry partners: Del Rey Ministries (Equipping Pastors/Providing Short Term Mission Trips), Washington County Jail (Mike Pierson), Urban Impact Foundation, Light of Life Mission, and Washington City Mission. These partners represent areas of engagement for our men to give their life away as mentors and volunteers. This engagement occurs through weekly huddles, sponsoring boys and men in recovery for our retreats, mission trips and one-to-one mentoring. We are village sponsors for Vasca with their pastors David & Anna through Del Rey. Thanks to your generous support we are donating $1,500 for Christmas food baskets to needy families! See www.delreyministries.org for more information. The fourth area of ministry is individualized counseling work that I do with men as well as premarital and marital counseling with couples. This area continues to grow and yield some godly victories: helping men to get free over addictions, assisting in marriage reconciliation, and helping couples to build a good foundation for marriage.
2019 Dominican Boys Camp
In August we served 80 boys ages 10-18 chosen from the sugar cane villages where our Del Rey pastors live and lead their congregations. This was our third camp over the past four years. The year we missed, we donated $8,000 to the Medical Clinic in Margarita instead. This year it was powerful to witness the maturity in a large number of the young men who were veterans as well as the loving engagement of our Del Rey pastors with the boys. The FCA Dominican staff did a great job with a number of sports activities leading the friendly competition and testimony times. Special thanks to our sponsors to help make this happen each year.