Phillip Roe
Why I am choosing to do Mission Year...
Hello, my name is Phillip Roe and this is my story of how I am being a part of this process.
After reading about Mission Year in a small pamphlet I received last year at a conference in Atlanta, called Passion ’07, and through my journey with God during this past year, I began to realize this open opportunity to possibly be able to do what I have been dreaming of which is to be able to serve God full-time as part of a ministry. Eventually, I began to understand the necessity for inner-city missionaries here in the States, which is when I chose to apply for MY.
I am choosing to do this because of the love and passion that I have for serving Jesus as well as people, especially those who are often neglected from society. It is my hope that through this process I will gain an even better knowledge of what I will be best in doing for the Kingdom.
I currently live here in Oklahoma City. I’m twenty years old. I like waiting tables, reading (somewhat), as well as listening to most kinds of music.
About Mission Year
Mission Year is a year long urban ministry program focused on Christian service and discipleship. We take teams of young people, place them in an area of need, and help them to serve people and create community. We are committed to the command of Jesus to “love God and love people,” by placing the needs of our neighbors first and developing committed disciples of Christ with a heart for the poor. Learn more about our first year program…
Phillip Roe's Blog
My Culture / May 27, 01:18 PM
I like video games. While at work, I like to listen to podcasts of people talking about them. It’s a culture, and I am a part of that culture. This month I had the opportunity to help run a video game tourney, my first one ever. It was a blast.
There were sixteen gaming machines total. There were four different games and the winner from each game went to the final. While some of them played, the ones who were waiting had pizza and coke. To put it into perspective, there were 70 or so kids and 75 pizzas from Little Caesar’s. Finally after two or three hours, the winners faced off to see who could go the farthest on one life in the original Mario Bros. Everyone sang along with the various (and most memorable) soundtracks. The winner won an Xbox.
Being Blessed / May 27, 11:12 AM
I cannot remember ever celebrating Memorial Day. When I was a kid, I always celebrated not having to go to school for a day. This year was different.
First, our neighbors invited us over to eat a bunch of the barbque they made. There were chicken, ribs, beans, everything. When I thought I was full, Sharon told us to keep eating. There was a lot of food, but I didn’t expect her to not let us stop. I like to eat. And to make it better, one of my housemates is a vegetarian which means more meat for us.
As we left, she gave us leftovers. If there is anything to remember from being here in Chicago, is that every time I think I can’t handle any more food, any more kindness, any more love, it doesn’t matter. There is always more to go around. I don’t know how that is possible. But that’s what Jesus does. We think we don’t deserve it, or we can’t handle it. In truth we just need to shut up and eat. We do not need to be afraid to let ourselves be blessed and changed by the love of Jesus.
That was the first round. Ruth and I went to another cookout over in Little Village. There were fajita tacos, soccer, and ladder ball. The demographic was a bit younger, which was nice. We had a lot of fun there, but we were tired and decided to go home before it was too late. When we got home we watched Harry Potter 5 with Kaitlyn’s friend from Switzerland. It was a good day.
Blessings and Curses / Jan 21, 11:29 PM
Happy new year since this is my first post in awhile. Over the past month or so, we had a few weeks off for Christmas time. There was a lot of football, resting, and spending time with my family. While I was there and even when I think about growing up with my family, I always knew I was blessed. This ideal took a new picture of understanding in my mind because of the events of last night. While we were at church on Sunday, one of the pastors, Juan, told us to come by the food pantry that the church donates to the community to get some food. I thought that it was a cool idea, but when I got there, it was weird.
I had never been to a food pantry. I arrived there at around 5 to meet up with Juan like we planned, when I found him he was in a large, cold room, with a couple of people moving chairs and such, when Juan simply said, “take what you need”. Before I move forward any more, I must state that as a part of Mission Year, we have a budget for everything, one of which is food. So when Juan said to take what we needed out of these large crates, there was a slight confusion in me as I was thinking about people in the community. He assured me that it was a good part of understanding community living, people being able to be codependent on each other. So I grabbed what I saw, which filled two large boxes of pasta, soup, canned goods, and much more. During this time of choosing from the different foods, he said that we should let ourselves be blessed as a group. It clicked in my mind with this amazing idea of blessing each other. It is so simple. So easy. But then why do we feel that it is some gut-wrenching task that we have to force ourselves to do. We see a homeless person, but yet we try to justify ourselves from doing what Jesus commanded us to do. So what if a homeless person uses that money to buy liquor It is still a blessing. Jesus told us to love each other as much as we do ourselves. To hoard our resources would be a crime. That is why I like food pantries, homeless shelters, and soup kitchens. We should not be so selfish, and give as we have been freely given unto us. God bless. And may we become the answers to our prayers. Amen.
We need help! / Dec 3, 04:20 PM
As a part of the economic situations that the country are having to take care of right now, our organization has been forced to make some sacrifices. We, more specifically I, need help raising funds because that is how I am able to be here as well as the rest of the people who work with Mission Year, we raise donations. The donations are how I am able to be here and continue to work at the Lawndale Christian Health Clinic as a data entry for the new Electronic Medical Records system, as well as our church, the Lawndale Christian Reformed Church, to help shovel snow for the upcoming winter season, therefore what I am committing this post is to help raise support for my team and specifically myself. The information I am learning, the service I am giving, and the wonderful change that is taking place in me from selfishness to caring about others I wouldn’t have normally is worth more than anything I could have read in a book. Therefore I now ask you to consider making a special gift this Christmas to my Mission Year; I might be a tenth of the way to my fundraising goal of $12,000. I need all the help I can get, whether it $20 or $2,000 we need it. The support can also come in the form of pledges of however much you might be able to give, if this identifies with you, and you would like to support me on a month-to-month basis, you can set that up by clicking on the “Donate Now” to on the right side of this page. And if you can give, please give, the holidays are right around the corner, so if you have no one to give a present, buy Mission Year one so we can do the work that we are doing.
Celebration / Nov 5, 02:05 PM
Last night I was in Grant Park. There were it seemed at least 100,000 people (according to yahoo), all come to gather around and stare at the gigantic jumbotrons (and Obama for those who shelled out the cash) and wait for the results of the closing polls. There was many boos when McCain won a state, and lots of jumping and cheering when Obama won a state.
It was very interesting because being the in the middle of all of the Chicagoans as they were watching and waiting in anticipation to see if Barack Obama would be the first African-American President. There was a great amount of hope as the crowds of people really wanted to see the change that was promised. Every twenty minutes or so, the crowds would be chanting “Yes, We Can!” and “O-ba-ma” and it was very exciting seeing state after state go by until the turn of 10:00 when the polls closed on the west coast. Right after they closed, then the moment came. It was obvious that Barack Obama was the President-Elect on the Untied States.
I’ve been reading quite a few books over this year and it has made me want change. I personally believe that change will finally come. It might not come all in the next 4 years. Another thing I noticed while I was there was how old John McCain is. He’s very old. But during his concession speech, it almost seemed like he was speaking for the past generations of religion-influenced politics, saying that there was room for compromise and a personal desire almost, to see the direction of this country. The economy will adjust, the wars will end sometime, but America really is tired of facing the struggles that it shouldn’t have to face. I told my brother the other day that I believed the primary focus of the government should be the health and welfare of all Americans. And that same focus should be the focus of the church. Yes saving souls is good, but Jesus said to love the whole person and take care of all of their needs, so that they can be a part of the body of Christ, the church. We need to re-learn how to really love people. It is nice to see those health clinics, halfway houses, and rehabilitation centers. But we need more. Hopefully that will be the care of the church, and maybe in some crazy parallel universe, the churches could ignore the stupid denominations and come together. Grace and Peace.
