Tell Me About The “Why?”

By: Amy Lancaster

Many years ago, David was having a challenging day here at Wewillgo, and I recommended he go outside and build something. He came in later with this gorgeous wooden picture frame that he made and it was beautiful! The next weekend, some volunteers came and wanted to buy the frame! We also had lots and lots of precious neighbors coming to our house daily asking for help, money, and work. Jesus quickly spoke and showed us HIS amazing idea of ARTS here at Wewillgo. 

WWG ARTS was birthed in our back yard with discipleship and wood working, spending time together in scripture while learning practical job skills. Jesus gave us His insight into how to share His story, see lives transformed, and sell the wood products that provide jobs and training to our neighbors. Jesus has been so faithful in consistently sending many missionaries and interns to lead, teach, and make disciples through the years. 

WWG ARTS is such a beautiful practical blessing in so many ways!  We take lots of wood, old fence boards, and pine flooring and work alongside our neighbors.  Our WWG team gets to teach the glorious Gospel through practical hands on restoration. The Gospel is THE most amazing story of restoration ever told!

This week we helped one of our neighbors work on his resume and another neighbor to work on an advertising flyer for his lawn care business! So fun!  Each day that we gather in Jesus’ woodshop, we take time to pray, listen to each other, and share God’s Word. We have lots of practical talks about how the Gospel affects our daily lives and how to invite Jesus into every detail. 

So…why WWG ARTS? It’s a beautiful practical way to share the Gospel, real job training and discipleship. Sales of these gorgeous products support His ministry!  What an honor to be a part of Jesus changing lives every day!

Colossians 3:17 “whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Click Here to shop WWG Arts!

Ruth’s Testimony of Thankfulness

“Say ‘Thank you’” is something the adult in your life tells you from a young age. It is something beyond being polite, but a good parent also teaches you not to take everything for granted. Being thankful is something of good character. 

Being thankful to God is something we were created to do through worship and a life set apart to Him. As we were created to reflect God, our character changes to be more grateful the closer we get to Him. This year, in all the hectic events that have happened all over the world, we have had options in how we react. I have noticed that those who have remained in knowing that God is good, have grown in Thankfulness. 

There are times that I personally stop and stare at my surroundings as I can’t help but be thankful that God has me here. This is for two reasons. Firstly, I am from the UK. As a missionary in Jackson, Mississippi, my journey to get here and stay here hasn’t been easy with all the paperwork and necessities. 

Secondly, I was ready to quit on missions. 

I was a missionary in Africa for 4 ½ years working in a children’s home and with women who worked on the streets. During this time, as I was young and had little ministry experience, I had no idea what I was doing! Jesus really came through in all of this. He gets the glory for every life that was saved, in the spiritual and the natural. He personally saved my life a few times also! However, as I didn’t know what I was doing I got hurt in many ways. I got drained and burnt out. I was fatigued physically, spiritually and mentally. 

After spending just over a year in the UK after my time in Africa, I got to come and visit We Will Go. The visit changed my plans dramatically. As I said, I was ready to quit on missions, as my thoughts were it was dumb to do that to myself again! No Thank you! 

God had other plans for me. 

God knew me better than I knew myself and in that, He knew that We Will Go is a place I would flourish and grow. 

I am so thankful that my Father in Heaven is in control. I am so thankful that I have been healed from past hurts in every way. That God has surrounded me in a beautiful family here that keeps me accountable to putting my relationship with God first. That I have great teachers and mentors here that help me do missions well!

You don’t have to leave the mission field burnt out or in disunity with other believers, like 90% of missionaries do! You get to choose unity, forgiveness and love. You get to choose God’s plan for your life. In that, I promise you will be thankful for the fruit that comes from it! You also get to choose to humble yourself and get some kind of education in how to do missions well. 

If you would like to come and learn how to do sustainable missions, we would love to invite you to apply to join our team! 

There are many options in how to do this: 

WWG RESIDENT (6+ months commitment)

• $750 monthly fee to WWG Half price for children. – Pay total upfront and you receive 3% off!

• 10 hours weekly required to serve at WWG

• One WWG Serve Saturday morning per month; Two Sunday afternoons a month

• Weekly meeting with missionary of ministry area

• Neat, clean, professional in appearance and Godly conduct

• Bring every person into the experience of the transforming power of Jesus

WWG MISSIONARY (1+ year commitment)

• $550 monthly fee to WWG, Half price for children. ($300 for housing & $250 for internship) – Pay total upfront and you receive 3% off!

• 35 hours a week; One WWG Serve Saturday monthly 8am til 1pm; Twice a month 3-5 pm on Sunday afternoons

• Weekly teachings for family night

• Weekly meeting with Director; Serves directly under leadership of WWG Director

• Deeper call to missions and more growth spiritually, emotionally, physically

• Serves as Mentor for Engage JXN Students and WWG Residents

• More leadership and responsibilities, confident to make disciples, tasks, prayer, worship, teams

• Deeply committed to HIS heart here in Jackson and at WWG.

• Bring every person into the experience of the transforming power of Jesus

We also have an exciting program called Engage JXN. Each student will experience a mission’s practicum that is experienced through outreach, community living and daily encounters, as they live, learn and apply in our neighborhood in downtown Jackson. Each student will also take a class through a local University. I can send you more information on this as we have more! 

Engage JXN

Cost: $6500 

When: Aug 15th - Dec 21st 2021

Early bird registration offer until Feb 15th: $100 discount

Location: Downtown Jackson, staying at the WWG Base

Practical: Each student will have missional learning: from theory to practicum from Monday - Thursday and a weekend rotation of roles

Curriculum: We will be diving deep into Empowering Education, Kingdom Justice and Sustainability, Theory and Practice in Missions and Presentations, other assignments, as well as a university level class.

Apply Now!

Join Our Team: We Will Feed

By: Ruth Alexander

We are looking for Missionaries and Interns for our We Will Feed Ministry! Each Missionary and Intern will live and serve Jesus with us here in Downtown, Jackson! Spreading the gospel and allowing everyone to experience the transforming power of Jesus’ love! 

Missionary

• Serve in our We Will Feed and Clothe program on Tuesdays and Thursdays 

• Complete data entry, phone calls, and bookkeeping pertaining to scheduling neighbors for appointments

• Communicate current needs to donors and volunteers

• Coordinate with volunteers to provide for and participate in Sunday meals and other ministry needs 

• Manage and maintain kitchen certification and the organization of ministry spaces

• Ensure all food pick-ups are managed and completed

• Set standard of excellence and oversee all donations being received, sorted, and stocked

• Manage administration: calls, emails, thank you notes, etc.

Resident

• Assist coordinator and complete delegated tasks in a timely manner

• Help with function and administration of designated food distribution, stocking, and meal preparation

• Help with the preparation and administration of Sunday meal

We Will Feed

By: Olivia Hamilton

We Will Feed is our food ministry that helps supplement groceries for our neighbors in need. The majority of people we serve are over the age of 50 with at least 1 small child living in their home. With the Covid-19 pandemic, the greatest need in our community is that families are struggling to keep their pantries stocked all month. People in our community have the opportunity to come once a month and receive a large bag of grocery staples, frozen meats and refrigerated essentials. We receive food from The MS Food Network, Walmart in Madison, Panera in Flowood, and individual donors. 

In addition to food, we also provide a variety of hygiene essentials. We offer travel sized soap, shampoo, lotion, dental care packs, razors, deodorant, shoes, socks, underwear, blankets, and coats during the winter months. We are constantly in need of all these items and donors are welcome to contribute monetarily or financially to this. For $50 a month, you can sponsor a family and help us continue to provide essential food and hygiene supplies for those in need.

The biggest need in We Will Feed right now is financial support and volunteers. On Monday and Wednesday mornings volunteers have the opportunity to sort our large food donations, stock shelves, and make up grocery bags for our neighbors. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings we have our We Will Feed program which is when we pass out food to our community members. This is a time to meet physical needs as well as spiritual needs, because our ultimate goal is to pray and share the gospel with as many people as possible. We are encountering a new opportunity to pour into our community spiritually and physically, and we need your help to meet that need. We want 2020 to be memorable as the year we helped more people than ever before!

Testimony from Feed & Clothe

By: Ruth Alexander

This morning I had a wonderful time at our We Will Feed/Clothe program. As we take people around to choose their hygiene items and food, we always get to chat about how they have been doing, how they heard about us if they are new and obviously, what they are going to cook with this food! We get some great recipes and ideas as we all share!

Today I took around a daughter and her mother who have never been here before. We normally take people individually, but it made sense and we all agreed to go pick the items together. After we chose the food items we got to pray together. We sat and talked about how they are from Jackson and they boasted on how close their family unit was. They went over how much our city has changed, yet when the mother and her late husband were raising their family, they agreed never to leave Jackson as it was so nice! All our faces lit up as we got excited hearing stories about Jackson and speaking with hope in Jesus as we are watching it get restored again. 

They lost their husband/father only 5 months ago. There was such a softness in the way they talked over their loss. They are all believers and they know He is in Heaven, which gave them a beautiful confidence that I enjoy seeing so much. In the middle of grief and pain, something that we have no ‘fix it’ button for we can find Hope and Beauty from Jesus. It was an amazing reminder that everything we need is in Jesus. We get to live in His peace in the hard things. 

Something I love about doing our We Will Feed/Clothe program is that God ministers to me just as much as He ministers to those who are coming for food. God has something for everyone! 

What Is Really Important?

By: David Lancaster

This week we were talking about setting goals in the shop. So many times, my goals have been focused on the short-term things of life. Last week I asked our group this question, “When you die, what do you want to be known for?” The answer to this question is what the most important thing is to you.  So many of us do not have life goals that address what is important to us, but we lie to ourselves and say we do. 

Ask yourself, am I willing to be brutally honest even if it hurts? So many times, we see people on the street who do not want to be honest about decisions they have made in their life. So many times, I can have the same problem. At times I can hear God asking me, “Why are you doing this (getting angry, doubting, saying bad things about people) – Really? If we are honest with ourselves, many of our problems come from a distant relationship with God. We are not living out the call we have in us.

A common phrase I hear with so many neighbors is, “I’m gonna do what I’m gonna do.” The translation of this is I want to satisfy my immediate want over my long-term goal. All our choices have consequences and without a focus we can lead ourselves in a wrong direction. When we do not know what is important it can be easy to make decisions that lead us nowhere. Are you choosing important or immediate?

Our friends and the people we are with can determine our life direction. I read that you can not lead yourself by yourself. All of us need people to help us in this life. It is easy to find people with the same interests, but we need friends with the same values. It has been great working with my community some believers and some not to offer direction on what is important. It has been wonderful not just to give out Jesus but to live out Jesus.

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You can help support our We Will Go Arts job training program by purchasing the beautiful products made in our wood shop!! We Will Go Arts products are beautiful products with purpose to decorate your home, and make great Christmas gifts!

We Will Learn

By: Mariah Pitre

In light of JPS 'Virtual Learning' we're happy to have twenty-four students enrolled in We Will Learn this semester! We have three classrooms of students ranging from 1st to 10th grade. We are learning just as much as our students are. We are extremely thankful to be able to teach core values and educational standards that our students need for a fair chance at learning. As we move forward, we have been able to recognize and serve students in very specific ways. Please pray for our staff and students daily

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