From the Executive Director:

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church..."

God has been faithful in the programs and processes of 2005 as Mission Indy continues to:
Equip Christians to Serve Others

I will touch on the Highlights here:

New Board Members
2004 ended and 2005 began with the addition of two new board members. Ron Terry, from Chapel Rock CC joined the board and has been a great help throughout the year. Rob Dininger from Ben Davis CC also joined and became very active in the work of Mission Indy. Then at the end of 2005, Laretta Benjamin from Englewood CC agreed to serve on the board and we are looking forward to her contributions.

Sarah Jones Story
In the February Newsletter, former Summer Staffer Sarah Jones told about what Mission Indy had meant to her. Here are some of her words: "Reminiscing back to the summer I served with Mission Indy, I realize how much that experience truly changed and matured. I learned a lot that summer, and not just the street smarts. I came away with a new paradigm of thinking. All in all, Mission Indy was amazing. I walked away with so many close friendships, memories and experiences I will forever cherish. I pray that these same experiences will continue to touch the lives of many more Mission Indy Summer Staff members and every individual who supports Mission Indy's mission and hard work."

National Youth Workers Convention
Mission Indy had a display booth at this large convention and we hope this will greatly increase our exposure to youth groups outside the Christian Churches. We pray that this will then lead to a broader range of interested church groups which will lead directly to filling our capacity in the summer.

Jr. High Journey Conference
At the end of October Mission Indy was the featured ministry for this convention of about 600 students. Several of past participants came to help us choreograph an exciting workshop for all students and sponsors. It was great exposure and we received about $1600 in offerings!

College Visits
We visited several colleges in the fall and added Emmanuel School of Religion as well! Visits were made to Anderson, Lincoln, Marian, Johnson, Kentucky & Milligan to recruit summer staff.

North Liberty - New Church Host
The first week of the Mission Indy Summer Program was hosted by North Liberty CC. Rob & Sue Wilkes headed the first time effort and it was a great week! Mission Indy is so grateful to North Liberty for the many people who sacrificed time and energy to serve us during the week of June 19th-25th.

We also had two very large "First Time" groups during the North Liberty week. 47 participants came from Grace Community Church and another 23 came from Lawrenceville, Illinois.

Bill Briley - An Answer to Prayer!
We had prayed for God to send someone to help us with the project side of Mission Indy ever since He called our friend and co-worker, Scott Vestal home in June of 2004. We had no clue when a guy named Bill Briley called us in April from Arizona, this would be how God would answer our prayer. God has brought Bill and his wife Julie to work with us for a year or so, and wow, they have been such a blessing! Thanks to Common Ground CC and Greenwood CC, as well as some other friends, Bill is working about half time with Mission Indy and contributing in several areas. In addition to having many construction skills, Bill also helped by leading some music last summer, and with computer 'stuff', such as building our recruiting and Promo Videos.

Incredible Summer Staff
We believe that the working with the college-age Summer Staff is perhaps the most important work we do! We are able to get to know and work with these students for 10 weeks, and so the relationships we build and the impact we can have on them is far greater than what happens during a week-long program.

Back Row (left to right)
Justin - Crossroads Bible College
Rocky - Central CC of the Bible
Ron Greiner
Stephen - Cincinnati CU
Dustin - Cincinnati CU
Bill Briley

Front Row (left to right)
Marsha Greiner
Cheri - Olivet Nazarene
Charlotte - Purdue University
Amy - Johnson Bible College
Niccole Wilkes
Molly - Cincinnati
Sarah - Florida CC
Amanda - Butler University

New Training Process
On July 4th, we tried something we had never done before, and engaged groups in a 2 hour skill training course before we left for the work sites. We had a station-rotation system set up to cover ladder safety, painting, drywall mud, proper hammering techniques, tools check-out process and power tools. Bill teaches on power tools in the picture at the right.

In 2004 we expanded the way we evaluate Mission Indy programs, by adding a Pre-Assessment And a Post-Mission Indy Evaluation as well as a board-member interview process. These things are all part of our attempt to critically measure what we are doing well, and what we may need to improve upon. Board Member Chris Spanburg leads the effort to develop a specific evaluation or assessment tool to help us measure accurately. Each participant at Mission Indy is asked to fill out a Pre-Assessment on Sunday when they first arrive. This is intended to gauge where the individual is in terms of their thinking and practice of the particular Christian ideals we will teach on that week. Then following their week at Mission Indy, each participant is asked to fill our a Post Evaluation which is designed to measure how much movement there might have been in their attitudes or proposed actions after the experience at Mission Indy.

Not everyone completes these assessment tools, but for the ones who do, here are the results Mr. Spanburg has complied:

	PRE	POST
I serve in a ministry of my church at least once a month.	82%	91%
I work (or will work) in a community service activity at least once a month.	31%	54%
As a Christian I am different from the rest of the world in my outlook and behavior.	63%	94%
As a Christian I show others what Jesus teaches about loving each other.	43%	99%
Like Christ I reach out to the poor and needy.	31%	63%
Like Christ, I reach out to those in my community who are different.	29%	67%
Like Christ I love my enemies.	14%	58%
	Outstanding	Very Good
Overall, how would you describe your Mission Indy experience?	53%	42%

Comments from Participants when asked, "How were you affected by your week at Mission Indy?"

• I truly believe that my life has been changed and that I grew closer to God. I also understand poverty better.
• I was challenged to begin to ask questions and think through what I believe about being a servant of Christ. My outlook on those who are poor in the inner city has completely changed. I feel so much more willing to help out there and even more comfortable spending time with the people there.
• I have learned so much this week, I don't even know where to begin. Serving at DAMAR, I acquired a whole new perspective on kids with special needs, and I have discovered that everyone needs God's love and how to share that love by just talking to people.
• I was challenged physically and spiritually. I came looking for knowledge and a life altering experience - I found both. I met many new people and became much closer with those that I came with. I love the approach that MI has when it comes to the work-people first, work second.

September 18^th was our regular "3^rd Saturday or Mission Indy Day" as they have been called. Groups from Mt. Gilead, Ben Davis and Tri-County CC came to participate. The groups were working at three different sites; with three different churches or ministries. Ben Davis CC worked with Pastor Rick Hall of City Light Ministries at a house on N. Parker that they are totally renovating. Tri County CC from near Middletown IN is a group new to Mission Indy. They brought a group of about 12 and worked on Brookway Avenue at a house being renovated by Englewood CC. The 3^rd group went to work with a project we call "Common Ground School".

Don Moline from Chapel Rock went with Ron to Pittsburgh for this convention October 13-16. This was our most expensive and expansive effort yet to "get the word out" about Mission Indy. It was an opportunity to be where over 3000 youth workers from around the country had come for training, fellowship and information. It was great to see some fellow ministry people from around the country and we did talk to several people who were glad to hear about Mission Indy.

Several of the Indianapolis area youth pastors got together and created a Jr. Hi conference that was held October 28-30 at the Adam's Mark hotel near the Indianapolis International Airport. Mission Indy was the featured local ministry and what a privilege that was! In addition to setting up our display booth and talking with youth leaders, we also had the privilege of worshipping with nearly 600 Jr. Hi students. We also were able to lead a workshop for all 600 of the youth sponsors. They were split into two groups (whew) and we had each group for about an hour. During that time, Niccole, Ron and Bill worked with one student each, randomly selected from the audience. Niccole showed her student how to paint on a mock exterior wall set up on the stage, while Ron "equipped" his student to build a stairway and Bill taught framing. After the short demonstration/equipping sessions, Ron explained to the larger audience what had just taken place. They were examples of some of the things you experience at Mission Indy. We went on to say that many more things happen at a week of Mission Indy.

On Monday April 18th seven students and Professor Phil Foster from Lincoln Christian College came to Indy to take a tour of urban ministries. Mission Indy served as the tour-guide and introduced the group to a wide variety of ministries here in the city. We began with Shepherd Community as shown at right. Miss Emilie told us all about the various programs for children, youth and families the church and community center operate to meet their goals.

The next stop was Lighthouse Mission, where director Bob Goodrum explained the goals and strategy of Lighthouse's amazing success rates with helping men come out of homelessness and hopelessness.

The next stop was with Chris Provence of Rebuilding the Wall. Chris talked a lot about living in the neighborhood and wanting neighbors to have good and safe housing. That desire led to buying old run down homes and then rehab work to prepare affordable homes for very low income neighbors.

Tim Streett the interim director of Jireh Sports gave us the history and plans of the sporting ministry happening at Jireh

From there we moved on to Englewood Community Development Corporation, a functional arm of Englewood CC. Mike Bowling shared with the group of very condensed version of the 109 year varied history of Englewood CC, and how that led to the practical decision to set-up the Community Development Corp as simply a "tool" to do some of the work they church family wanted to do with and for each other. Mike explained that as people simply share life with each other, various businesses, such as bookkeeping, and various efforts such as house rehab were natural outcomes as opposed to creating "programs" or processes.

There continues to be strong interest in the monthly (3rd Sat) Work Days. Even in the cold and unpredictable weather of January and February we had the privilege of working with several groups from churches such as Ben Davis CC, The Church at Mt. Gilead, Grace Community and Smith Valley United Methodist. We give the groups a short devotional with some follow-up questions. The time is designed to encourage deep thinking about why and how we serve, and more specifics about what the role of the church is in our culture. The response has been that this addition is positive and that people are thinking and asking more questions as time goes on. In March we had the privilege of working with groups from Ben Davis CC, The Church at Mt. Gilead, and 1st CC of Hessville (Hammond, IN). We picked back up after the busy summer with work days in September and November. In September a new group from Tri County CC joined us and in November we had groups from Meridian Church of God and Zionsville Presbyterian.