April 8, 2007
It was a cold Easter morning but the congregation of Rez House came together
as the sun came up over Resurrection Park
in
Tommytown. We sang songs and read the scriptures retelling the story of the
resurrection of Jesus. Members of the congregation took turns reading from both
the Spanish and English Bibles as the rest huddled together under blankets that
we keep at our pavilion for chilly mornings.
Resurrection Park Hosts Highpoint Bike RunMarch 17, 2006 Each year the Good News Jail And Prison Ministry organizes the Pasco
County High Point Bike Run. Last year Resurrection Park was a stop on
the run. This year we were the final stop of the event. In Pasco County
Jails, the chaplains provide church services to inmates, staff and
families. Each year they must raise funds for their expenses and
salaries. Pasco County Jails provide offices but not funds. The chaplain
raises their support through gifts from churches and individuals. All
proceeds from this event will go to help the Pasco County Chaplains
reach prisoners for Jesus and also provide the support and counsel to
prisoners who can return as productive citizens and family leaders. It
was a beautiful day for a concert in the park. Our community women made
a ton of Mexican food and we also had hotdogs and burgers as well. The
Higher Ground Band came and gave us some wonderful music. Everyone had a
wonderful time and hopefully a safe ride home. |
March 4, 2007
Several of our singers and dancers were invited to visit Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Venice and while it was a long ride there and the kids had to be on the road early in the morning, they had a wonderful time. We were able to share songs at both of their morning services and between the services the Folkloric Dance Group from Farmworkers Self-Help's Teen Dream Team danced for our hosts in their fellowship hall while our guitarists went to play for the Sunday school children. We want to thank Pastor David Johnson and the congregation at Emmanuel for making us feel so welcome. It is rare that our children say “I really liked the pastor” instead of “the cookies were great” or “the beach was cool!” Also we would all like to thank all of the adults from the church who took us into their home, fed us and then took us to the beach.
Winter 2006 – Dade City
Rez House and our partners at Farmworkers
Self-Help have given the youth of our community
the opportunity to play soccer by creating a field that is as close to
regulation size as possible. The guys love it and come for supervised play two
afternoons each week although we do see them out
there playing almost every day. This is a wonderful thing considering the
alternatives that await them on the streets. We are hoping to finish off the
field by finding money and materials to build regulation size soccer goals and
perhaps get the kids some uniforms. When they are not playing soccer, the kids
are often on the basketball court or on the baseball field. On most weekends we
see nearly 100 people in the park just having fun. Rez House and FSH are committed to
doing whatever it takes to keep our young people off the streets. The lure of
the streets is strong in our community and drugs and alcohol are easily
available to the kids. We are working on opening an after-school café that will
be a safe place for the young people in our community. We are close to
completing the renovations to the former crack-house that we began last year.
All that is left for us to do is plumbing. This building will also tie into our
feeding program as we are planning to offer a hot meal to the latch-key kids in
the community that would otherwise go without. For ideas on how you can help
our kids reach new goals, call Margarita Romo at 352-567-1432.