1. family and parenting
2. children

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!
Continued…
“
Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.”
Hebrews 10:24
SPRING'IS'COMING'&'WE'STILL'NEED'YOUR'HELP!''
It's hard to believe it is already 2015, the 6th year of Cross Town Impact working in Schools in Brockville and
surrounding communities. Spring is just around the corner and you can help us continue planting seeds of life in our
schools for only $20/month. The “Impact Zone” after school homework clubs are an important means of supporting
our children and their families. You cannot change a child’s situation but you can help them bloom and flourish right
where they are.
With project “Bloom Where You Are Planted,” your $20/month will help stabilize our charity’s foundation and allow
us to grow and plant more seeds into the community. Here is an illustration Jesus used: “The Kingdom of Heaven is
like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it
grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches.” With your generous seeds, you are giving these
children a safe loving space to bloom where they are planted.
We are looking for 50 friends or families that will help us to continue endeavoring to make an impact in our
community by committing to give $20/month. Only $0.66/per day. Less than you pay for half a cup of coffee. For
more information on how you can dig in and get involved please visit: www.crosstownimpact.com/support
Thank you for your faithful prayers and financial support. All of the wonderful things we are able to report on are only
possible due to your generous support of Cross Town Impact and its vision. Please enjoy this newsletter and some
of the highlights from 2013/14.
There is more hunger for
love and appreciation in
this world than for bread.
Mother Teresa
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Cross Town Impact ! 71 George Street -- Brockville, ON -- K6V3V6 !tel: 613-213-1968 | email: [email protected]
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CROSS!TOWN!IMPACT!REPORT!
WINTER!2015!
The!Houldcroft’s!2015!!
While 2015 has been a great year it has also been a tough
one. Just as we were starting up our school programing we
had a kitchen fire. The fire put black soot through the entire
house and displaced the five of us to a hotel for a month while
the house was cleaned. It was a huge distraction but we’re so
thankful for the support of family and friend’s through the
process. One family memory that I cherish this year was when we helped harvest
6000lbs of potatoes to help feed the local community. It was an amazing moment
that gave us a better perspective on life, family and community.
I hope you enjoy this newsletter because this is the result of your support in 2014.
We are excited to see what God has in store for us in 2015! May God bless you
and your families.
Love “The Houldcroft’s”
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Prayer!Requests!!
~ For our family’s physical, spiritual and emotional well-being as
we serve with your support into our community.
~ Volunteers for the Impact Zone.
~ That you would consider becoming one of the 50 partners
needed @ $20/month for our project “BLOOM where your
Planted”
~ Protection for our wonderful board Members:
Jeremy Conway & Sharon McDougall.
Birthdays!&!
Feb 22nd ~ John (8)
Mar 6th ~ Niki (??)
May 23rd ~ Karys (5)
Sept 3rd ~ Greg (??)
July 9th ~Eveline (2)
Oct 23rd ~ Anniv. (11)
~ We want to thank Debbie Smith for serving 5 years on the board and appreciate
all that she has done for Cross Town Impact. Please pray for Cross Town Impact
as we begin to select new board members.
High!School!!X:Factor!
Wednesday
@ TISS & Thursday @ BCI High School (Room 251) during lunch hour, Cross
!
Town Impact supports and encourages youth in the Christian clubs to be missional. Some
events include SYATP (See You At The Pole). Again this year’s turn out was phenomenal as
you can see in the above picture. This picture epitomizes the true meaning of community within
Brockville. Students from all high schools, parents, pastors & youth pastors coming together to
pray for Brockville’s community, students and staff. Earth Day, Holiday cupcake giveaways (my
favourite !), Love Stinks Week, BBQ Bible Giveaway and Operation Christmas Child are one of
the many outreaches during the school year. This year Reagan Zinck & Ben Stopfel took on the
leadership of Operation Christmas Child at BCI. With their organization efforts and the X-Factor
team they were able to collect over 100 boxes and inspire one youth to pack ten boxes! Between
the two high schools we were able to send over 150 boxes to the Ukraine.
Be enCOURAGEd by the youth today. They are an inspiration to us all when it comes to actively
sharing their faith. This years SYATP theme verse was Ephesians 6:18 that was “#Never Stop
Praying” so please never stop praying for the youth today. Never stop praying!
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CROSS!TOWN!IMPACT!REPORT!
WINTER!2015!
Impact!Zone!
The Impact Zone offers students from grades 3 - 6 assistance with homework and an activity
or presentation from a special guest in the community. We also provide nutritious snacks
and a positive Christian character-building message all for FREE!
We are excited to be offering the Impact Zone in three Elementary schools: Prince of Wales
~ Brockville (Mon 3-5pm), Pineview ~ Athens (Tues 3-5pm) & Wellington ~ Prescott (Wed 35pm). The Impact Zone gives children the opportunity to receive help with home work and
be challenged by a special guest like The Pastry Kings Princess. She delivered a sweet
message on how important math is for doing her job and then the kids decorated cupcakes.
Karate instructor Bob Noonan also talked about the importance of being a warrior to defend
the weak but to never bully. Christmas dinners, crafts, tubing on the St. Lawrence River,
field trips to local farms and yes, homework make the Impact Zone the place to be! Please
pray for our volunteers as they love and mentor the children in the Impact Zone. We are
also excited to be writing an Impact Zone curriculum to help us expand the program into
more schools. Please call Greg Houldcroft @ (613)-498-6270 for more information on
volunteering / enrollment or go to www.crosstownimpact.com.
Crosswalk!Community!Team!!
I’m involved with a amazing group of youth pastors/pastors that meet together every month.
This group has a heart that wants to work together to make a difference in the community.
The events that we work together on are called Crosswalk’s.
One of the events we put on this year was Easterrific. On Easter Saturday, with organizers
and volunteers represented from many of our local churches we once again brought
Easterrific a free family friendly event to the community of Brockville. Crafts, clowns,
interactive games, bouncy castles and a 5000 egg Easter egg hunt followed by a barbecue
were among the activities enjoyed. With over 1000 in attendance The Gideon’s gave out
over 250 bibles and we presented the Easter story with the film called “Rez The Rock that
Rolled”. I love that Easterrific really focuses on the heart of what Easter is all about, God’s
incredible love for every one of us through His son Jesus.
God’s love was tangibly communicated by every volunteer
to each person that came to Easterrific. It truly was a
beautiful day.
Another Crosswalk Event we put on was a concert by Tim
Neufeld and the Glory Boys at the Brockville Arts Center.
There were over 500 in attendance from ages 8 to 80, which
was awesome to see. Again at this event we really saw how
UNITY within the commUNITY is a beautiful thing.
Camping!&!Retreats!&!Missions!
Please Pray for the Following:
~ Providence Point ~ Snow-Camp Feb 27-Mar 1st
~ Community VBS ~ Everest ~ July 6th – 10th
~ Sept-Iles, PQ ~ Montagnais Mission Trip ~ Aug ?
~ Paris, Ontario ~ Pitch & Praise ~ May 15th -18th
~ Blue Mt. Hike & Charleston Campout ~ July 15th-16th
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WINTER!2015!
CROSS!TOWN!IMPACT!REPORT!
Love!Stinks!Campaign:!5!Days!~!1!Shirt!~!4!Love!
Last year was the second year of the Love Stinks Campaign during which you wore 1 shirt for
5 days 4 love. We kicked off the Love Stinks week at The First Presbyterian Church and it was
incredible to see that many Love Stinks shirts in one room! Community families, youth groups,
churches and the Impact Zone kids participated in the Love Stinks Campaign. Over 300
people wore a Love Stinks Shirt for 5 days and raised $4000 for Leeds and Grenville Interval
House, the shelter for abused women and children. One of the after school Impact Zone kids
raised over $350 just on her own. Now that’s a group of people who are making a stinking
difference! Are you going to help make a Stink for Love this year?
It costs $10 to participate in the Love Stinks campaign. This includes a T-shirt, a pledge form
and an official Love Stinks guide/devotional. I am very excited about this year because in
addition to writings by Pastor Nik Hubert and myself, we also have youth from the community
writing the devotionals. Also this year we wanted our featured charity to support mental health.
So we are supporting www.rightbyyou.ca, which is a teen suicide prevention program. Only
25% of youth affected by mental illness are getting the care they need. This is definitely an
issue we want to make a stink about! If you want to get involved in the Love Stinks campaign
March 30th – April 3rd, 2015 please visit www.crosstownimpact.com/lovestinks and sign up
before March 19th, 2015.
Mission!Trip!Sept:Iles,!Quebec!
This year we returned to Sept-Iles, Quebec to help support the Montagnais.
This was my fourth mission trip to Sept-Iles. Our shirts said “Facta Non Verba”
which means, “Deeds not Words”. We spent our time serving the Montagnais
! work projects, VBS and campfire fellowship. The team got to see first
with
hand just how desperate and hopeless the situation can be for some of the
Montagnais. It’s one thing to hear about the situation on the reserves but it is
another thing to see the reality first hand. Our hearts were broken for the
Montagnais and we are prayerfully considering going back again this year.
Please pray for the Montagnais and our future involvement.
Christmas!Cupcake!Community!Musical!
Our musical of choice for Christmas 2014 was The Christmas Cupcake. Noelle becomes so
distracted about her impending stardom on the Yum Yum Foodie Network that she loses sight of
the real meaning of Christmas. Noelle's friends help remind her about “the sweetest story” ever
told!
We started rehearsals in September and after 12 weeks of hard work, gave 2 performances
instead of three this year due to a snowstorm. A highlight for all of us was staging one of the
performances at the Brockville Arts Centre.
It was hard to believe this was our 9th year doing a Christmas musical. Kimberly Cosgrove and
Lisa Leroux directed the show this year and the kids were really inspired by these directors.
What a privilege to have them both involved this year. I can’t thank them enough for all they do
for the kids and the production.
There are many challenges involved in selecting, producing and directing a play. In addition to
doing props, programs, a radio interview, and costumes, we rely heavily on volunteers to help
build sets, execute stage design, stage crew, lighting, technical crew (thanks riGuy Productions!)
and of course feeding the cast and crew as well as provide post show refreshments for all!
Approximately 500 people heard the true Christmas message through this years show and the
feedback has been very positive. As usual we can’t wait for our next 10th year production!
UNTIL NEXT TIME… Look for our next newsletter in the summer
! or please visit www.crosstownimpact.com & become our friend
on Facebook www.facebook.com/CrossTownImpact !