Hey there! So this week I have something for you to think and pray about. I don't want to sneak up on you or anything so here it is; I am asking for support. The ministry has decided to have the staff start raising their own support. In Part because of the economy being the way it is. You should know though that the state of the economy has forced other ministries in this country to shut down completely, but Metro has not even had to close parts of the ministry. Pastor Bill says, "The economy is a resource. Not the source. God is our source." The salary of the staff has always been taken care of by Pastor Bill as well as all other money coming into the ministry. There are 160 full time staff working here. That is a lot of salaries to pay, and that is just a fraction of the finance that is needed to run this ministry. Pastor Bill just celebrated his 60th birthday. It is time some of the burden was taken off of him. And so comes the need for us as staff to bring in a little bit of the money ourselves. A sponsorship program called "Run With One" has been created for us to raise support. Profiles were made up for each of the staff to send out that explain how the sponsorship works and how donations and pledges can be made directly to the ministry on our behalf. The minimum pledge is $25.00 monthly per staff member. If you would be interested in receiving one of my profiles and helping me raise support, please contact me. My new email address is ryanjacobwood@hotmail.com. And I'm on facebook if that works better for you. Thank you for your time. And to those of you who have been praying, THANK YOU!!! I could not keep going with out it. seriously. I've wanted to quit many times already. But I wont! Peace and love.

Ryan.

Hi there! hope you are all doing good and missing me a lot. haha. I miss you too. I will be back on the good old island for a couple weeks this Christmas, from Dec. 22 to Jan. 5. So if you are going to be in Duncan during that time let me know and we can hang out sometime, sound good? Last time I said I would get some pictures on here for you. And then I lost my camera. So I am very sorry and hopefully I can borrow somebody's soon so I can show you what this thing I am doing looks like. But for now if You will forgive me, words will have to do. I was riding the bus last Saturday for sunday school with my kids. I was sitting with one of my little girls, Jessica, a 5 year old. Up at the front above the driver there was the bus number with the "no standng or eating permitted" sign right above it. Jessica read out the number, "2...6...1...2". I asked if she could read the sign above it. She looked at it for a moment, thinking hard. She looked up and said, "I think it says bus". It was cute. It has been a good week, for real. Things are getting crazy as we're coming up to the end of the semester. I cannot believe it is already half way through November. Two weeks till my birthday baby!!! I need money and cookbooks. haha... just kidding. Thank you all so much for your support, your prayers, your encouragements. drop me an email sometime. God bless.

My first post ever!!!

Hey everyone!!! I am so sorry it took so long for me to start one of these things. But hopefully it will help a lot with keeping in touch with all of you. As this is my first blog it is kind of simple but I promise it will be followed with pictures and stories and all kinds of awesomeness. So far though I am doing very well. For those of you who I have neglected to tell, I am living in Bushwick, an area in Brooklyn, and my site where I do sidewalk sunday school is in Harlem. Look up Drew Hamilton Houses on Google earth and you'see it. The past few weeks have been frustrating and tiresome. But you will never get anywhere in this life if you are not willing to stay committed through those times. a lot of people have been asking if I am enjoying myself or if I am having fun. No. At times yes, of course, but this is not the place to enjoy yourself. Last weekend the Bloods were having their initiation. The Bloods and the Crips are the two biggest gangs here. The rumors said they had to kill 31 women over the weekend and they were cutting people's faces. It's hard to teach Sunday school knowing that's going on a few blocks away. But yes, we still had Sunday school, still on the sidewalk, and I still love it. Every Friday I get to spend almost an hour just hagning out and dancing with my boys at my site. It's such a blessing to be here. God has provided me with opportunities that I do not deserve and I praise Him for that. Well hopefully I'll here from a lot of you soon. Blessings.
I will get some pictures here as soon as I can. If you guys could be praying that I could keep my focus where it needs to be and that I would learn to have more dilligence with the paperwork aspect of my work. Thank you all so much. I really appreciate all of you, some more than others. hahaha. Peace.