Just Initiative Update

2017 Year in Review

2017 has been quite a fantastic year here. 
The Lord has amazed us and we have felt His faithfulness. 
We are excited to share some of our favorite highlights with you.

In August, we had the honor to baptize this young man and his mother as they considered and decided to give their entire lives to serve Jesus.
This beautiful day that we spent at the beach together culminated at sunset with these two publicly professing their faith. It was definitely one of our most favorite parts of 2017.

The New Petra House - June 2017 

Our biggest challenge in 2017 was finding a new location for the Petra House.  After months of looking we were a couple days away from making the difficult decision to close the doors on the residential aspect of Just Initiative.  Right at that time, by the total grace of God and the obedience of one of his servants, we found a house to call home!  It required quite a bit of TLC as it had been empty and not taken care of for years, but with the help of many people from separate churches this house quickly became our home.  Many thanks to those that were part of this transformation including The Underground, Relevant Church, South Tampa Fellowship and Palma Ceia Presbyterian!  
 
Since the inception of the Petra House two years ago, a residential place of refuge and discipleship has been provided to nearly 75 women and children. 
 
Click here to see the transformation of the new Petra House:

Petra House Transformation

Partnerships in 2017

2017 was a year of forming new partnerships that will be integral to our growth as an organization but more importantly, to provide the level of support the people we are working with need.  
 
We started working with Betty Williams of Fresh Start Ministries and she has been teaching in-house Job Readiness classes at Petra which was a great addition to our Enrichment Classes.
 
In the summer, we formed a partnership with the Culinary School at Metropolitan Ministries. One of students we brought to the school has now transitioned into being on the Metropolitan staff!  This picture to the left is another student we brought to the program on his frist day last month. 
 
We also had the opportunity this year to form a partnership with the HELP Team of Hillsborough County Schools.  This is the team that offers support to all children in the school system facing homelessness.  This has been a great source of support and information.

Another Partnership that continued this year is with First Presbyterian Church of Tampa.  For the last two years, they have welcomed our kids into their VBS program.  The kids have LOVED being there having fun and learning more and more about Jesus.  When asked what happened today at VBS, we captured this sweet response on camera - "Jesus was lovin' me."

Some other Favorite Moments from 2017  

These are two of the beautiful graduations we saw this year. Whether it is kindergarten or higher education, we celebrate and don't take these accomplishments for granted!

We started developing a network of tutors this year for high school students at risk of not graduating without intensive help.

We took time for fun, enjoying God's creation and celebrating birthdays!

Our partnership with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship grew this year to include a group of interns working with us over the summer.  They invested in the children and in the Petra House in many ways!

We spent time at the cool new Perry Harvey Sr park celebrating Black History in Tampa, and we celebrated the life of Martin Luther King, Jr at his parade. 

It was a great joy to provide a car to a family through a pay it forward program we are running.  This mom was trying her best to make it with on the bus and through rides from friends which proves very difficult when you are going from day care to work everyday.  Having a vehicle is literally life changing in Tampa.

We had an outreach on Halloween for the neighborhood and for all of our children to  show the love of God, meet new people and deepen relationships!

We love to spend time together laughing and talking and just going deeper in relationship in our community. 
(Underground Banquet Dec 2017)

When one of our single moms and her chidlren moved from the Petra House, she moved into her own stable home, with a stable job and her own vehicle, all of which she did not have when she came into Petra. We definitely Praised the Lord!

Looking to 2018

As we leave behind a year of foundations being set, we thank Jesus and we set our eyes on Him to take us deeper into his heart for the neighborhoods we serve.  We have many dreams and we prayerfully consider and submit each to Jesus.  A few of our main hopes for the near future include:
Relaunch The Zone, our homework and tutoring program. Include a state of the art software learning intervention program designed those with learning difficulties. 
Expand and solidify our volunteer base we have many opportunities for volunteers to work with women, children and men or to work administratively.  Our hope is that this year the overall volunteer base would grow and the percentage of black volunteers we have would grow considerably. 
Find or build out a physical multi-purpose space for tutoring, children's activities, adult classes, corporate worship etc.
Continue to improve our discipleship program.
Grow a network of employers that will employ the people in our program.
 
Thank you for taking time to review this very long and very long overdue update from us. 
 
If you are partnering with us financially or prayerfully, we are eternally grateful for you and truly recognize you as a large part of the Just Initiative team.  You are integral in every work that happens in Just Initiative to work with the Holy Spirit to usher in justice, care for those in poverty, proclaim the Good News of Jesus and provide discipleship for those who will follow. 
 
If you want to start partnering with us financially, you can use the link below to donate via EFT.   You can also send a check to the Underground Network (our fiscal 501c3 sponsors) annotate Just Initiative on your check and send it to this address: 909 E. 22nd Ave, Tampa, FL 33605
 
If you wish to begin volunteering with us, please contact Julie Wood at julie@justinitiative.com.
 
If you pray for us, please pray for God's will and the expansion of His Kingdom daily through the Just Initiative.
 
Thank you!  We Love you all!  Happy New Year!!

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