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Twin City Bible Church participates in F.A.N. Club with First West. Their members lead two of our Front Porch F.A.N. Club groups. In August, you read 18-year-old Stephanie Baer's account of how F.A.N. Club has changed her life. This month, we have another report from Twin City Bible Church about the life transforming effect F.A.N. Club can have on friends and neighbors:
Connections with the Community
by Rennee Rhodes, Twin City Bible Church
 Kelly Taylor and I never imagined how our lives, and the lives of our families, would change when we became involved in F.A.N. Club in West Monroe way back in June of 2007. Our first experience with the folks we now call “family” was on a hot summer day, sitting on a quilt in the middle of a dry, dusty yard down past the railroad tracks on Lazarre Street. We told Bible stories to a crowd of little kids, none of whom seemed at all familiar with the story of Adam and Eve or the beginning of the world. To tell the truth, it seemed a little strange even to my ears to be discussing the Garden of Eden in a section of town that was littered with trash and broken-down houses. But it somehow felt right, too.
That first day we ate snacks, made crafts, played jump rope and dodge ball in the middle of the road, and sang the Hip, Hip, Hippopotamus song while watching Kelly stomping around in a circle. We sweated, got dirty, started stinking…it was absolutely wonderful. Words can’t describe how we felt when it was time to load up for home. For the first time ever, I can remember thinking, so this is what it feels like to "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel." We were so excited to have been part of something so fulfilling and spiritually rewarding.
A lot of time has ticked by since that hot June day, but we’re still just as excited. Over the past year, our families have shared meals in each other’s homes, sat around a bonfire late at night together, had sleep-overs with our kids, gone through hundreds of candy bars and Bible verses, talked about life and future goals…become family.
 In closing, I hope you’ll enjoy these final thoughts, all of which are now memories from a vacation we took last week with some of our “family” members:
- It’s hard to sleep in a double bed with three squirming little girls
- Twenty-one people are way too many for just two bathrooms
- State park cabins don’t have TV’s
- When you have the West girls and the Baer girls for teachers, you CAN learn to jump off the diving board and swim to the side of the pool, even if you think you can’t
- Mrs. De An must have already had practice cooking for an army…she did it so well
- Kelly worries a lot about people drowning
- Kelly’s constant smile is why she is everyone’s favorite
- Pooh can slap-dab put away the food even with such a skinny little body
- Using your rod-n-reel to hook and pull-in a dead, water-logged turtle is NOT a good idea
- It’s incredible to see a full moon shining on the water while standing on a dock with folks you love
- When brown skin and white skin are hugging each other, it feels like God is closer than normal
- Vacations never last long enough
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An yes, Nu-Nu, you’re right, it was “beginning to feel like home.”
Here is Stephanie Baer's article on her experience with Backyard Bible F.A.N. Club this summer
 Last week, I went on a mission trip to an often-overlooked corner of the world. The yard of the home we visited stank from garbage, and bits of trash littered the porch. I was unsure how many people lived there; at least six children under 12 and several teens and adult women shared the space. As far as we could tell, all the fathers were absent: “He gone” or “up at the jail,” the children explained. They were not shy about telling us this. For them, an absent father was a fact of life.
The inside of the home was dark and cluttered. The adults had no cars and had to walk to their jobs, returning too tired to bother about something as trivial as housework.
 What hit home the hardest was these children’s need for attention. They crawled on our laps, played with our hair, and begged to be held. One girl pulled me around the corner of the porch insisting she had something important to tell me. Once we were out of sight of the other children, she simply stood there, smiling at me and clinging to my hand. I realized she simply wanted a chance to be the only one I saw, if only for a minute. This starvation for attention combined with the chaos and instability of the home situation even drove one boy, only 10 years old, to attempt suicide.
 You can see that there is an aching need in this home and the community that surrounds it. What you may not realize is that this opportunity to share God’s love exists not even 5 minutes from TCBC’s front door. These are the people that the FAN club ministries reach out to. Right now, the ministry is reaching eight homes in the neighborhood, and only the lack of volunteers is stopping further expansion. The most important thing is not to give the children a ‘head-knowledge’ of the Bible – it’s to give them a ‘heart-knowledge’ of God’s love for them. We don’t share this love by merely telling the children “God loves you.” What they need to hear is “I love you” and feel our arms around them.
I encourage you to get involved with the FAN club ministry. A few hours out of your week can make a lifetime of difference.
 Front Porch F.A.N. Club groups meet several different days of the week at the convenience of the leaders and the host home. To help in a group or start your own, Contact Terra Taylor at 396.4677 or e-mail the Taylors for more info
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