Fall Festival!

WHEW! We can't even believe how much growth has taken place with this event! It is going to be one awesome day in Grundy County! 

Pumpkins for the Fall Festival, thanks to Ronnie & Teresa Scissom!

Here's the current update:

8 community organizations: HeadStart, Grundy County Schools Early Intervention, Grundy County Health Council, Family Resource Center, Grundy County Safe Communities Coalition, Grundy County Rotary, SAA Ranch (pony rides) and Tracy City FUMC Youth Group (collecting socks for own community).

1 Mountain T.O.P. Day Camp table - former day camp staffers from IL, KS, GA, TN

1 Murfreesboro organization: MOPS (mother's of preschoolers) - Collecting Coats

Kent UMC -  

1 booth: coats 

1 booth: free glucose & blood pressure testing 

2 more AIM participant booths

Soles4Souls - 300-400 pairs of shoes and potentially donating food & water

Sewanee Students - collecting hats, gloves, scarves in dorms and campus organizations

United Healthcare donated 400 plastic bags, 200 water bottles and 200 frisbees

18 AIM participants volunteering on the Fall Festival side - from 11 states (AL, TN, KS, IL, WA, NV, IN, MS, OH, GA, FL) - 1 woman that came to AIM for the first time this past summer is coming back specifically for the festival and is bringing her two sisters (the ones from NV and WA)

5 of those 18 volunteers participated in our day camp programs this summer and are specifically coming back for the FF.

7-10 Saturday MTOP volunteers are coming to help with FF.

**Live Music - Johnny Phillips and Vera Lynn Bush (songwriters for big country artists)**

Johnny has performed on the same bill with over one hundred country acts including Big and Rich, Gretchen Wilson, James Otto, Shannon Lawson, Waylon Jennings, Bobby Bare, Brooks and Dunn, Trisha Yearwood, Bill Anderson, Asleep at the Wheel, Travis Tritt, and Don Williams.

Free Lunch - volunteers from Morton Memorial UMC organizing

3 inflatables! Two moonwalks and one obstacle course! 

And last but certainly not least, $275 has been donated to MTOP directly for the Fall Festival. 

You can do the same here:  Fall Festival Fund

It just made sense

Recently I was shared a NY Times article about poverty and education. You cannot live in Grundy Co, TN, on the Cumberland Plateau or (really) anywhere in the US and not hear about education. I've grown to be a huge fan of Mountain TOP's summer programs, and I am always looking for resources to aid us in our mission. If you are a parent, you know that summer camp isn't just about having fun. There are so many benefits to the experience beyond learning to juggle or going on a hike. All of our day camps for local youngsters have been working on incorporating quality place based education into our routine program. For non-educators, this can be a challenge.

What I like about this most recent article and some of the others by the author is that he highlights character formation as essential in learning.

...simply teaching math and reading — the so-called cognitive skills — isn’t nearly enough, especially for children who have grown up enduring the stresses of poverty. In fact, it might not even be the most important thing. Rather, tapping into a great deal of recent research, Tough writes that the most important things to develop in students are “noncognitive skills,” which Tough labels as “character.” Many of the people who have done the research or are running the programs that Tough admires have different ways of expressing those skills. But they are essentially character traits that are necessary to succeed not just in school, but in life.

The article goes on to mention that any student, not just those "enduring the stresses of poverty", benefit from character formation. And character formation is not just for schools, but let's not get into that debate right now. Apparently all of this is drawing on 10 years of research in the area. And I'm inclined to think, especially from a Kingdom perspective, that we might just be on to something. 

Along with all of the successes of this past summer, MTOP collaborated with Tracy City Elementary School, Scholastic (yes, the ones that write text books), and the Yale Child Development Center (yes, that Yale) to pilot a camp to teach resiliency (i.e., noncognitive skills) in younger children. I mean, I know Dr. Linda Mayes at Yale knows what she is talking about, but I guess I just didn't see it all at first.

Of course, none of us really knew this when we started Quest. It just made sense.

The Means to Help

This past Wednesday, I spoke at one of Collierville UMC's WOW Wednesday night classes. There are a number of awesome AIM volunteers and YSM participants that come out of Collierville, as the church has been coming to Mountain T.O.P. for 18 years! It was a pleasure to look out and see friendly faces among the crowd!

Every time I head out to share about the ministry, I ask God what He wants me to say. In preparing for this particular visit, I was interested to see the difference in statistics for a county like Grundy and the county in which I was speaking.  Here's what I found (based on 2011 Census Bureau data):

	Grundy	Shelby	TN
Population	13,535	935,088	6,403,353
Bachelor’s Degree  or higher	8%	28%	22.7%
Median household income	$26,529	$44,700	$43,314
Median value of owner-occupied housing unites	$80,000	$135,300	$134,100
per capita money income in past 12 months	$14,000	$25,002	$23,722
Persons below  poverty line	31.5%	19.7%	16.5%
How many people?	~4,100	~187,0oo

I know there are many differences among these two communities, but what caught my attention was their similarity. Thousands of people live below the poverty line. Not just in Grundy or the seven other counties we serve, but in Shelby County, TN. In my backyard. In your backyard.

Our theme scripture for this year comes from 1 John 3:16-18. As I looked at these statistics, I couldn't help but recall, "If you see some brother of sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God's love? It disappears. And you made it disappear." 

I believe we all have the means to help others. Financially, physically, socially, spiritually, emotionally, or in whatever way God has gifted you. These statistics prove that our help shouldn't stop at MTOP. They prove that the question we ask volunteers at the end of a weekend or week-long mission trip is imperative. What will you do to help those in need in your own communities? 

Our scripture very bluntly says that God's love will disappear if we do not help others. We simply can't turn a blind eye or a cold shoulder or sit back and let someone else volunteer... at least not those of us who proclaim to love Christ and desire to spread His love.

So, ask yourself. Do I have the means to help? 

If the answer is yes, then practice real love! Wherever and whenever God may be calling you to do so.