community interest Golfing Fore Children 2023 Ministries

Goshen Valley Boys Ranch

Located on 160 acres in and home to 50 young boys in foster care, providing the safety of a home, the love of a family, and the hope of a future. Goshen Valley provides hope and healing to foster youth and venerable families to cultivate personal healing and generational Change. Their mission is to be the leading provider of trauma-responsive, faith based services for children, youth and families predicated upon best and most promising practices to create relational environments that evoke peace and purpose in self and others. Each year, Goshen Valley has increased the average number of at-risk youths served per day, currently nearly 100 per day per calendar year:they have served over 700 foster youth, seen. 8 young men join the armed forces , have celebrated 51 high school graduations, have facilitated over 30 adoptions and have seen countless families restored through their programs.

FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIAN ATHLETES (FCA)

The FCA is an interdenominational Christian sports ministry with a mission to see the world impacted for Jesus Christ through the influence of coaches and athletes, primarily by working to lead every coach and athlete into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ and HIs Church.

In each practice, huddle and game-day play, the FCA seeks to make disciples through their methods of engaging, equipping and empowering coaches and athletes to know and grow in Christ and lead others to do the same Golfing Fore Children contributions have directly helped the FCA ministry at two high schools in Cherokee County (Cherokee and Riverwood). Hundreds of students on the football, lacrosse, baseball and basketball teams are reached through witnessing, character building sessions, one-on-one praise sessions and weekly bible studies. At Cherokee County school the entire football team will be attending THE premiere FCA camp this summer at the University of West Georgia There the coaches and athletes will work on perfecting their craft, and participating in break-out sessions to dive deeper in their faith; some hearing the Gospel for the very first time

Must Ministries

MUST Ministries brings people together to minister to others with compassion and love Their mission is to serve our neighbors in need in the community and in doing so, transform the lives and communities in response to Christ’s call. MUST has a vision to become Georgia’s most respected servant leader restoring lives one person and one community at a time The MUST Ministries Client Services in Cherokee County offer food, housing programs, workforce development and clothing, as well as Breads and Sweets Clients participate in a variety of classes in the classroom and the computer lab Over 70,000 were served from July 2021 to June 2022 alone; more than 285,000 lbs of food was distributed and they saw a 124% increase in housing clients. Over 500 people were provided job assistance and 300 placed in stable jobs. They have a charity score of 98 2% placing them as one of the top nonprofits in the country

—— STUDENT SERVICES FOR CHEROKEE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT (CCSD) ——

CCSD is a high performing public school system dedicated to “educating the emerging generation” with 40 schools and centers, 4,800 employees and more than 47,000 students with many families and children in need Student Services provides resources for homeless children and youth as well as students in foster care throughout Cherokee County Student Services for CCSD is able to provide specific needs for the child and the family, in order to maintain the child in the school learning environment. For instance, a child and/or family may receive grocery cards for those families who have no food for the weekend. Roughly one-third of children are in supplemental lunch programs but have no weekend food.

Mega Sports Camp

A summer sports camp, co-hosted with FCA, for children in grades 1-8, inspiring kids to take another step on the journey to achieving greatness.

The Pregnancy Center

The Pregnancy center is located in Jasper offering a pro-life alternative to unplanned pregnancy, compassionate and confidential care, clothing and supplies, along with CHristian discipleship to the expectant mother and her partner.

——————————

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD ——————————

Operation Chritmas Child is a Project of Samaritan's Purse, sending Christmas shoeboxes packed with toys, school supplies, and a copy of the Gospel to children around the world.

TEAM OR PLAYER SIGN UP:

Call or email the church with your player or team Information. Credit card Payments may be made by either calling the church or by opening the PayPal app and scanning the QR code to the right. LA Church Office: 770-479-3886 / lakearrowheadchurch@gmail.com

READING FOR THE AGES by

Jeanne Schwartz

Demon Copperhead | by Barbara Kingsolver |

This book is painful. I spent a lot of time wondering why I was reading it, why I was putting myself through the torment. But still. There is redemption – or the promise of redemption.

The book is an updated retelling of David Copperfield, and Barbara Kingsolver just won the Pulitzer Prize for literature for it, partially because, I think, it takes a special kind of bravery to take Charles Dickens’ most sentimental novel and write it again for today.

But it’s not a book for book club, unless your book club is extremely serious and willing to look at very tough subjects straight on for long periods of time.

Still. Powerful. There have been a ton of books written about the opioid crisis, about the Sacklers who engineered it and profited from it, and this book places the fictional Lee County at the heart of their initial targeting efforts to get the ball rolling, so to speak. Lee County, ”hillbilly country,” where to be there was to be known. “If Lee County isn’t that, it’s nothing.”

Demon’s life was doomed from the start. He was born in southwest Virginia in the late 1980s to a teenage mother who equipped herself for childbirth with gin, amphetamines and Vicodin. She had no idea how to care for him – or even any interest in doing so. Their trailer was as much a mess as her head. Demon said: “I asked mom one time how to fix the bed so it was covered up like you see them on TV, which she thought was dead hilarious.”

To escape Stoner, his mom’s abusive husband, Demon had his best friend Maggot next door. Until Stoner forbade contact between them. The torment of home didn’t end until his mother was sent to rehab for a long stint, and Demon became a ward of the state. Which is to say, as the New York Times book review put it, he undergoes a transformation from “boy” to “inventory.” Shuttled off on a string of foster care “families” who were in it only for the money and treated their fosters like slaves or worse. Demon spent years hungry, lonely and worked to the bone. His only refuge was drawing superheroes, and imagining the rescue they would undertake to save him. That, and dreaming and scheming about ways to see the ocean. A dream that a few times seemed like it was going to come true, but was consistently thwarted by circumstance.

Published by Harper

As a foster of the alcoholic football coach at the high school, Demon enjoyed a respite. He became fast friends with Angus, Coach’s daughter, and was given a chance to play football on the much - touted high school team, the Generals. His friendship with Angus lasted. Football didn’t, as a knee injury he suffered during a game got him hooked on opioids.

And from then on, the planning to procure, the machinations that were involved in procuring, the staging of the times when the drugs could be taken – and which ones and how much - became the central preoccupation of his life.

His only lasting salvation through the years was his drawing. He drew cartoons, panels, characters everywhere he went, and gained the support and understanding of a high school art teacher along the way who became one of his rare advocates. Even after he dropped out of school.

At his worst, he moved in with his girlfriend Dori, who was at least an enabler, if not the cause of his addiction to substances other than Oxy. She deteriorated into worse shape than Demon, at all times either passed out or shooting up. But he stayed loyal. “All she wanted in the world was to be loved. I had to think of her as my baby doll. You don’t blame a doll for slacking. You watch her pretty eyes open and shut. You tuck it under the covers at night.”

Excited to read this yet? But there is at least a form of redemption. Demon was a brave, beat-up striver who never lost a kernel of faith. He addressed challenges head-on: “This ain’t no hill for a climber. I’ve been doing this all of my life.”

And honestly, I can say that after finishing the novel, I am very glad I read it. It’s that good.

Purdue Pharma has been held at least partially accountable for the ravages of the opioid epidemic, but the carnage is out there, with Fentanyl now joining the party. For those who have been prescribed Oxycodone for pain after surgery, you’re more than likely getting a 5mg dose for a limited period of time. On the street, people buy 40s or 80s, with some ingesting 240mg a day.