What is a resolution? It’s a defined, ambitious goal or way of being. Certainly, moments of beginning and renewal have us pause and recenter, realign, and reset goals, objectives and ambitions. The New Year creates space for dreaming big dreams and listening to the Holy Spirit calling us into deeper connection. This deeper connection looks like love in action, faith fulfilling Jesus’s dreams and people moving into spaces of connection with God and others. ARM set aside time to pray and seek the Lord and our Father’s call. Here is what we see in 2021:
Complete the Lee County Tornado Recovery: ARM can complete the recovery for the remaining survivors of the tornadoes that devastated Lee County on March 3, 2019. Completion includes finishing the repairs for eight current families and adding five more families-the end of the list! While most of the work is repair, one family includes setting up a refurbished mobile home and one final house rebuild. Most repairs will be completed by April with the new home rebuild completing at the end of the summer. ARM will use mission teams, businesses and some contractors to complete the recovery. This is funded through several Lee County partners such as the East Alabama Community Foundation, Lee County United Way, MEND, the Alabama Governor’s Emergency Relief Fund, and gifts given directly to ARM for the tornado recovery.
Imagine the ARM model serving in other communities in Alabama! Through the funding of a USDA grant for rural housing renovations, ARM is experimenting with local home repair models in three other communities in Alabama. These communities partnered with ARM bringing mission teams to Livingston and Tuskegee. ARM will train these communities to provide basic case management, volunteer organization and construction oversight. The community will identify and qualify the families needing home repair assistance. Funding from the grant covers the material’s cost and some specialized labor such as HVAC, plumbing and electric needs.
Additionally, ARM will teach these local groups how to share their faith, the complexities of poverty and unique struggles low-income families have, racial reconciliation principles and more! Stay tuned for these stories and how this unfolds. Who knows, maybe your community will be next!
Develop a Youth Servant Leader’s Survival Guide: As youth travel to Tuskegee to serve or are serving in their local community, we know youth are hungering to know the next step. Emboldened, energetic, and eager for continuing their service, we believe this tool will deepen their discipleship and help shape their passion and influence into meaningful service. These Survival Guides will be ready for our summer mission teams!
Reimagine SonShine Kids Day Camp: Hold on for we are totally overhauling our day camp! Day camp reignites as a life skills development model so we are more effective in helping children from low income families not only survive but thrive! We intend to build up children and strengthen their families. Day camp will still have tons of Bible stories, character building, recreation and enrichment activities but now the added resources of important life skills rarely taught in school. Imagine children completing our seven week day camp knowing how to cook and prepare simple nutritious meals and read a basic recipe. Imagine children knowing basic safety, first aid and learning how to swim. What does it look like when children learn about managing and stewarding finances? This and so much more! The camp will be practical, educational, and fun all the while growing children closer to Christ. We are super excited about SonShine Kids Day Camp 2021!
Prepare ARM for Lisa’s one year deployment in 2022: We cannot say too much at this point because it is still too far away for details. However, our director, Lisa Pierce, who is a Colonel in the Alabama National Guard is scheduled for a routine rotation from March of 2022 through March of 2023. This means ensuring we have the right people in the right seats to run ARM’s daily operations and ministry.. Securing our financial posture to not only survive but thrive will be paramount. This means ARM must raise a total of 1 million for the 2022-2023 budget and means doubling our current total budget over the next two years.
For 2021-2022 our budget must increase from $492,000 to $795,000! That’s a huge goal considering Covid-19, reduced volunteers and more. But, we know that with God all things are possible and that we have not because we ask not!
The Fruit: With those large goals, here is what we envision through our resolutions:
- Repairing homes for 30-40 more families across 5 communities in Alabama and completing the Lee County Tornado recovery.
- Building up 400 more servant leaders through our community outreach and home repair events and getting the Survival Kit into the hands of these young servant leaders.
- Empowering 50 children from Tuskegee teaching them valuable life skills as part of their discipleship training.
- Raising $795,000 in 2021 to accomplish these goals.
Where do you fit in? Pray, serve, give in any combination! Thank you for what you are already doing through ARM and how you are impacting so many others for God’s glory! Are you ready for getting it done in 2021? Let’s do this together!
The Lord’s Servant,
Lisa Pierce
P.S. If you have a question about any of these resolutions or want to share yours, please email me lisa@arm-al.org or call me at 334-332-8878!
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