A Miracle in the Making...

by Jon Sullivan, December 2009

It was a mid-January Sunday in 2006 when the three minds of Rev. Phil Hawk, Carlos Baca and Jon Sullivan collided at St. John's Wesleyan church. The plans that were set in motion that day have and will continue to pound on the gates of the enemy as manifest in the St. Johns district of North Portland.

That first 15 minute meeting has spawned a renewed belief in the power of God to do literally anything He wants to do.

The content of that meeting was the casting of a vision to reach out to the community in a way that engaged them at a crucial point of need. St. John's Wesleyan has already been running a successful food bank ministry and done various outreach ministries on a regular basis. What the three men were proposing was something more, something that struck back at the very heart of where the enemy has had such a stronghold for so long. They wanted to address the needs of the family.

It has always been Rev. Hawk's passion to encourage Christ-centered families. As family members embrace God's love and plans for their lives, so He then strengthens the bonds and levels of safety that each person experiences within the family unit. The family was meant to be the safest environment on the planet. It was meant to be the training ground for the most vulnerable members of society; our children. They were to be learning the rules of appropriate social engagement while experiencing unconditional love and acceptance from a mother and father. Unfortunately, through deceptions and compromise, the family unit has been decimated to a point where we are now facing the sour fruits of this struggling and broken institution in the larger social context.

The three men agreed that Christ can heal the family and plans were set in place on how to begin.

Carlos Baca's background had been youth mentoring for well over a decade and he brought an enormous amount of expertise in this area to project. His passion was to see children receiving mentoring in a Christ-centered after-school program. Carlos shared on several occasions that what concerned him most about current trends in other mentoring programs was how parents/guardians were viewed as hindrances in the mentoring process instead of partners with the mentors helping in the training of their own children. All agreed that this pervasive attitude was in direct conflict with how God desires to see households run. This is where Jon Sullivan's passion fit into the vision. Jon's background has been youth ministries, program administration and family systems therapy. His heart was to combine Carlos' vision with a holistic approach to the problem. The key factor that would make this new ministry unique would be that in every aspect of programming the goal would be to shore up and support not just the child, but the child's primary environment. It was agreed that mentoring serves a powerful purpose, but it's effectiveness could be multiplied ten-fold by reaching out and impacting where the child will receive most of their social training. Jon had witnessed first hand from his time at New Horizon's Youth Ministries how the greatest change took place in a young person's life when the family was also involved in Christian counseling. The change in the young person's life went deeper and had the potential of lasting longer when they were supported by a primary environment that was also being challenged to grow and do away with harmful relational patterns.

The vision began to catch on. It was only a short time later that Laura Baca, Carlos' wife talked about adding teaching English as a second language. She had recently completed her Master's degree in this area and wanted to offer her services to the community as well. This training would be offered to those who's children knew English already and therefore held an upper hand over their parents in the broader culture. It is difficult to truly parent when the child is better equipped to navigate through the world on their own because of their ability to converse more effectively. Helping parents feel empowered to engage the broader culture with confidence could impact their feelings of worth which would directly impact their parenting skills and attitudes. Also, these parents could more directly watch over the influences their children were receiving from the English-speaking culture and would also be better equipped to work with the education system so their children would be less likely to slip between the cracks. What a perfect addition!

The idea was presenting to the church body and was widely accepted. More ideas began to surface including the idea of regular family game night. This idea was enthusiastically supported. It fit the mission of the ministry and it could be implemented almost immediately wher