Danville Blog & Events

On Wednesday nights this summer, we are taking the fun to the Long Run Community Apartments. Last Wednesday night, we had a great time eating ice cream, playing corn hole, and creating masterpieces on the sidewalk! What better way to spend a hot muggy night than eating watermelon and cooling off with a slip ‘n slide? That’s what we will be doing tonight!

Serve the City Summer Wednesdays are a great time to bring your whole family out to love the people at Long Run for Jesus. Meet us tonight at 7pm at the apartments!

Something powerful happens when we serve others. It has the power to transform our hearts. When we serve, we connect with our Savior, Jesus, who came and lived a life of absolute service and sacrifice. The world’s criticism didn’t stop Jesus from spending His time with the least of these - from an impure woman at a well to a deceitful tax collector, Jesus gave His life so others could live.

When I think about serving, I remember what Mother Theresa said: “Whenever I meet someone in need, it’s really Jesus in His most distressing disguise.”

Wow. That’s a powerful statement that has the power to transform every encounter we have with someone who is less fortunate than us. What if, every time we saw someone in need, we saw Jesus? Would it deepen our desire to meet their need? Would it move us to action? Her words are a challenge to me. The words of Jesus in Matthew 25 are the inspiration for Mother Theresa’s comments: “I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!” -Matthew 25:40

This summer in Danville, we have the opportunity to serve our brothers and sisters at the Long Run Community Apartments! Each Wednesday night, we will have a different “Summer Wednesday” activity. From ice cream parties to slip ‘n slides, each Wednesday in June and July, we will be building relationships with the neighbors, sharing the love of Jesus with those in need, and telling them who Jesus is. If your family is looking for a place to serve, we would love to have you!

If you are interested in helping us unleash a revolution of love in Long Run this summer, please contact me or meet us at the Long Run Apartments at 7pm on Wednesday nights!

In John 12, Mary gave an outrageous offering to Jesus - a fragrance worth a year’s wages! She took the perfume and anointed Jesus’ feet with it. Her love was costly but the fragrance filled the entire house!

Saturday, May 18, we will have the chance to send up a fragrance of Jesus’ sacrificial love at Jennie Rogers Elementary. We are throwing an end of the year block party in the Jennie Rogers parking lot from 11am-1pm to celebrate the hard work of students and teachers this year. There will be food, face-painting, a slip ‘n slide, carnival games, and more!

Bring your family out to unleash love on the students, families, and teachers at Jennie Rogers before they go home for the summer. If you are interested in volunteering at one of the activities, please let me know!

Each year at Southland, we have the opportunity to support the ministries of Assurance Care Center in Lexington and The Pregnancy Resource Center of Central Kentucky. With your help, these ministries can offer free confidential medical and counseling services to men and women in the midst of crisis pregnancies and also healing through a post-abortive ministry.

Your part is simple. This weekend, May 11/12, grab a baby bottle after service, fill it with change, cash or checks, and bring it back on Father’s Day weekend (June 15/16). 

Your change will go a long way to help these ministries offer healing and hope to post-abortive women and men.

LIFT Middle School is headed to Louisville, July 14-19, for a Summer mission trip!

From July 14-19, 6-8th grade students are invited to come and serve Louisville. While we are there, we will be working with the elderly, playing with kids, hanging out with the homeless, and getting to know Louisville's community. But don't worry, this trip won't be all work! There will be plenty of time to hang out, build relationships with other students and leaders, and do some fun things in and around the Louisville area.

Cost for the trip will be $285, which includes transportation, meals, and housing for the week. Grab an application at any LIFT event or through the Student Ministries office. Applications are due by Sunday, May 12.

Every week in several central Kentucky neighborhoods, we visit families to pray with them, meet basic needs, and build relationships to share the love and hope of Christ. We call this ministry Serve the City.

If you're interested in serving with Serve The City, please watch this simple training video to learn more and follow the instructions after it's over, if you want to serve. We would love for you to partner with us to unleash a revolution of love in Kentucky! 

Serve The City Locations & Times:

• Downtown Nicholasville - Tuesdays at 6:30pm
• Woodhill Neighborhood (Lexington)- Mondays at 6pm
• Downtown East End Neighborhood (Lexington)- Tuesdays at 6:30pm
• Long Run Apartments (Danville)- Wednesdays at 6:30pm

Every week at the Long Run apartment community, we visit families to meet needs and build relationships to share the love and hope of Christ. This is what we call our Serve the City ministry.

This week, Serve the City will be changing our meeting time and day from Sunday to Wednesday at 6:30pm. We'll meet at Southland and then after a time of prayer, head over together to Long Run apartments to hang out with the residents. We would love for you to join us in extending hope to the Long Run community.

Stop by Connection Point this weekend to sign up!

Sheila didn’t know how to budget her small salary to get through the month without running out of money. David didn’t know how to get out from under his credit card debt. Lynn thought she needed a quick infusion of cash and everything would be ok with her financial situation.

These folks and 20 others now meet regularly with a financial life coach who helps them discover what’s going on with them financially. They each go through a process to learn where their money is going, what changes they need to make in their monthly expenditures, and what next steps they can take to improve their long-term financial situation.

Our life coaches aren’t all financial counselors or bankers. Many of them are folks just like you who have learned how to budget for their family, pay bills on time, and simply make wise choices with the resources God has given them.

As the economic situation continues to look bleak, more and more folks come to Southland for help. And while we have always had a financial assistance program, we recently changed our focus from “simply writing checks to help pay bills” to assigning life coaches who will invest in each individual by giving their time and connecting them to community resources.

Coaches are trained in all aspects of the process to better equip them to help those in need.

Our next training will be on Monday, April 15, from 6-8pm, at the Harrodsburg Road Campus.  If you would like to join us as a financial life coach, please contact Candy.

We’ve got some exciting news in the area of Sports Outreach at Southland. If you’re looking for a place to connect with others and get some exercise while doing it, we’re kicking off our Spring Co-Ed Volleyball in March at our Harrodsburg Road campus. The dates are March 18th through May 21st. Registration ends on March 8, so sign up today!

Also, beginning this Spring and going into the Fall, Southland is partnering with the YMCA to bring sports leagues to our Harrodsburg Road campus. The YMCA will be offering Soccer, Flag Football, and T-Ball leagues for youth on our campus starting in March.

For more information on the Spring YMCA leagues, follow these links:

• Flag Football
• Soccer

For more information with ongoing or upcoming Sports at Southland, check out our Sports page. 

Perhaps you've come on a weekend and wondered what we're talking about when we mention the "Dollar Club." The Dollar Club is a simple extension of hope, one small dollar at a time. We talk about it every week because it's really important to us. We love sharing what God does through your simple generosity.

If you've not done so, take a look at the video above and think about how God could expand your dollar into some drastic life change.

One way we generously extend hope to the poor is by serving and collecting food for people in need throughout our community. This is a very simple way for anyone to live out Expression 4!

Harvesting Hope is a soup kitchen and food pantry that serves over 1,500 Boyle Co. residents each month.  We are collecting any non-perishable, sealed & unopened food including but not limited to:

- peanut butter
- canned vegetables
- canned meats
- canned fruit
- boxes of cereal
- boxes of mac ‘n cheese
- canned soup

_{Drop off donations in our bin at the church entrance.}

We want every person to walk away from Southland with a desire and a passion to serve people on a daily basis. That's what our fourth Expression is all about. We Generously Extend Hope to the Poor. That can mean the emotionally poor, the physically poor or the spiritually poor. 

We have many opportunities you can get involved with, in our community or around the world. 

Anderson James Braker was born on June 26, 2012 with a healthy heart and gentle loving spirit. At just three weeks old he was diagnosed with Down Syndrome. Anderson was an unexpected gift to childhood sweethearts Tom and Lynn Braker after 13 years of marriage. Last July, Tom had a divine fall from grace, literally. He survived a 40 foot fall from a cliff at the Red River Gorge. His back suffered a serious combustion fracture. 

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This past Sunday, we invited families and individuals from the Long Run Community Apartments to our Danville Serve the City Christmas Party. We had tons of free food and refreshments, Santa showed up, and we had a professional photographer that took portraits of the families for free. It was great! The Lord blessed us with beautiful weather and beautiful people. Life is wonderful when we follow God's command to love our neighbor.

Words cannot express how thankful we are to the Southland volunteers that came forward to make this a great experience for everyone. We would like to especially thank "Bibles and Burgers" ministry which is led by Dan and Connie Eades. Thank you for being so giving and faithful to the Long Run Community. Your faith is accompanied by action and you are a blessing to all.

Lana Yeary, Volunteer
^{Danville Outreach Team Coordinator}

_{^{If you'd like to learn more about local outreach or Serve the City, check out our local involvement}}

Our Serve the City group will be throwing a Christmas party for the families in the Long Run Apartments on Sunday, December 16. We’re inviting families and individuals to come to apartment #91 from 4-6pm that day to get some free food and refreshments, say hi to Santa, and get their portrait done for free by a professional photographer.

We’re so excited to unleash the love of Christ in our community! If you’d like to help out, please email our outreach team to sign up.