BASICS in Milwaukee, Inc.

Praise and Honor to Almighty God!!

“I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders.” Psalm 9:1

During the month of August, Almighty God has revealed His power, His attention to detail, His perfect provision and love for all in an amazing way that needs to be shared with the Body of believers. May this account encourage us all to

“fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter our faith” –Hebrews 12:2a

A “GOD THING” happened at the “Men and Women to Milwaukee” Construction Project July 8 through 13:

For the past three years, men primarily from the suburbs come into the city of Milwaukee to do a construction project. In a one week period, normally the week after the fourth of July, twenty to thirty men volunteer their time to help build, rebuild, and in some cases, tear down buildings in the city designated for ministry. And this year, God blessed this project by adding women of faith to co-labor with the men.

This years project was unique to the previous two years, in that the team was going to attempt to do three different projects at three different locations in Milwaukee. For the first two days, the team was going to 23rd and McKinley and help paint, landscape, and do light repairs for a missionary sister of God, Marcia. The next two days, the team was going to begin working with a faithful husband and wife ministry team, Darnell and Donna on 35th and McKinley in starting renovation of an old landscaping company into a children's ministry and Christian day care center. And finally, to complete the week, the team was going to 49th and Villard to complete and help open up an old auto parts store, and prepare it for the first worship service of an exciting church for Pastors Anthony and Shaun.

"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Sure, we all know this verse from Isaiah 55:9. It rolls off the tongue with ease. But in this project, Almighty God demonstrated this verse to each one of us that were privileged to observe, that I think it is safe to say that we will never doubt this verse again!

On the first day of the project, a young African-American boy came by the work project, and asked one of the men if he would repair his bicycle. Now, we were at this home not to repair bicycles, but to repair this three-story home of our missionary friend. But the faithful servant that was asked the question took time to stop what he was doing and repaired the boy's bicycle. The boy thanked him and left.

A little while later, several other boys came and asked if the men could repair their bicycles as well. Now this time, several of the men on the team stopped what they were doing and repaired the bicycles. The missionary woman who's house we were repairing, saw what had happened, and began to talk with the team about how awesome it would be if there could be a time that bicycles could be given to the children of the neighborhood. She explained to us that there were many young children, between 8 and 18 that were on their own a great deal of time, and that many of them were children of one parent and in some cases, no parents. We prayed about what God would have us do, and here's where the miracles begin!!

We set a date for Saturday, August 10th at the vacant park across the street. Several members of the construction team began to search for bicycles, not really knowing where to begin. But the good news is Almighty God was way ahead of everyone, and did He let the floodgates open wide.

The first stop that we went to was a St. Vincent DePaul store in Watertown. Watertown is almost an hour west of Milwaukee, so how God directed us there only He knows. The manager of the store told us that he had about 40 bicycles for sale, and that because of what we were doing, would sell the bicycles to us for $2 a bicycle!! So we loaded up a trailer with twenty bicycles, and the manager also threw in some free seats, and foot pedals and away we went, not having a clue where God would next take us.

A faithful brother in the Lord next told us that he would donate $500 in the pursuit of bicycles. Praise the Lord for that!

Shortly thereafter, a sister in Christ called me and told me about what was going on in her life, and in her ministry. She then asked what was new in our lives, so I told her about the need for bicycles. Without hesitation, she blurted out a name of a bicycle shop, "Classic Bikes." I repeated it back to her, and said the name sounded familiar. She said it should sound familiar; it is in Menomonee Falls, where you live!

Da! I never would have thought of that bike shop in a million years. But just by the way she said the name with no hesitation, I thought we had better go check it out.

When we got to Classic Bikes, WOW! There were hundreds and hundreds of bicycles everywhere in the front of the place. (Later on, the owner of the store told us that he had been told on more than one occasion that he should submit his bicycle shop to the Guinness Book of Records as having the most bicycles per square inch in the world!)

After looking at some of the bikes, I asked the owner, "How much were several of the bikes." He turned and walked away from me, and said, they were not for sale! Imagine a bike storeowner telling a customer his bikes were not for sale. I was confused, to say the least. Well, I will show him I thought to myself. I pulled out my wallet, and had some of the $500 with me. "You don't understand, I have cash!" Again, he softly said the bikes were not for sale.

Now I didn't know what to do. Here are tons and tons of bikes, and a bike shop owner won't sell them to me. So, I tried one more time to strike up a conversation about what these bikes were for, and then asked him, "how much is this one bike for sale for?" He picked it up, and set it on the side, and asked, "what other bikes do you want?" I showed him several other bikes, and he set those aside as well.

When we had set aside a number of bikes, he blew me away! He said, "you can have all these bikes for free, and any other bikes you want, help yourself." Dumbfounded, I thanked him, and he told me "when God tells you to do something, you do it out of obedience." He proceeded to tell me that he often gives bikes away to churches, to ministries and to schools, but he was just making sure that what I was telling him was legitimate. Amazing! So I told him I would be back the next day, and would bring a trailer back to load bikes. (The ride home was something else - he blew my mind!)

The next day, Jeff, my partner in bikes for not only this day, but also the next three weeks, came by to pick up the bikes. We had just begun loading the bikes on his trailer, and the owner of the bike store told us about a special type of Raleigh bike, a number three that he was excited for us to have. We loaded it in the back of the van that was pulling the trailer, and God showed up!!

A customer came up to the manager, and asked him if he had a Raleigh number three bike. He said he had been looking all over for one, and was curious to see if there was one for sale. The manager told him that he had just given us the only Raleigh three he had. Upon hearing this, we told the man that he could have the bike for no cost, just as we had received it at no cost. The manager of the store then told the customer, "you need to make a donation to the ministry, then you can have the bike!" So the customer pulled out some money, and gave us money for the bike that we had just received for free!

After the customer had left, the manager told us this was a once in a thousand years experience, that he could not remember ever having anyone ask him for a Raleigh number three bike, and he just so happened to ask for one after we had received it. Not only was this faithful manager of the bike store giving us free bikes, he was now helping us sell his bikes for the outreach.

We loaded the van and the trailer full of bikes, and asked if we could come back again for some more bikes, and the manager said sure, and while you're gone, he told us he would fix a few of the tires for us! We came back a second time, and loaded a second trailer and van full of bikes. He not only helped repair a few of the bikes, he helped us load them, and he give us a soda to drink. Talk about the love of Jesus!!!

This manager came up with one more good idea. He asked if we knew of anyone in Milwaukee who could use a financial blessing, and we said we did. He asked us to take the money that we would have given him for all the bikes, and make a donation to the ministry or ministries that we felt could benefit from the money. As a result, we were able to give two missionaries in Milwaukee each $100, because of this faithful servant of God.

Another stop on our bicycle tour took us back to Watertown, to a bike shop that was being run out of a man's house. This faithful man, named Frank, was a former Vietnam prisoner of war, who had been decorated with two purple hearts, and a number of other metals of honor. He told us how he had been through twenty-seven surgeries since Vietnam, many of which were needed because of what had happened to him in the war. Frank then proceeded to tell us how a boy came by one day, and asked him if he could fix his bike, and six years later, and almost 1000 bikes later, he is still repairing bikes. Frank told us that this labor of love really changed his life, because he had been primarily, bedridden and without hope.

Frank's basement and his garage were as well set-up and stocked for bikes as any top of the line bike stores. In fact, he told us how he had bought out several bike shops in the area that were going out of business. He proceeded to take us to the backyard, and told us that we could have an entire section of bikes at no charge. (He did later tell us that we could give him a picture of the outreach when we were finished as payment for his generosity!) So we loaded up about twenty bikes, as well as a burley, which is used to pull young children in, and he also gave us many handlebars, seats, and pedals to use.

We flew all the way back home from Watertown to Milwaukee, praising God for His faithfulness, His love, and for giving us the privilege of meeting a wonderful brother like Frank!

The burley that was given by Frank also fits into this story in a powerful way. A faithful brother in the Lord, who had helped us get the Hydraulic Cherry Picker, which we used to help paint Marsha, our missionary friends house, at a very low cost, just so happened to need a burley. He had been out looking for a burley, and saw how expensive they were, and decided he probably couldn't afford one at the time. So we were able to give to him this beautiful burley, that Frank had so loving gave to us, to give to this brother, who had so faithfully given our project the Hydraulic Cherry Picker. But God is not done yet! Upon receiving the burley, this dear brother, John, decided to give us three bicycles for the outreach. Glory to God!!

During this time, we learned that Darnell and Donna, who were the second construction project we were working with, had a need for bicycles. Darnell told us that they do park outreaches, and they had been praying for bicycles to give away this summer at their events. God had provided them some bikes, but not enough for all their outreaches. Because of God's faithfulness through these faithful servants, we were able to give these wonderful servants quite a few bicycles of all sizes, shapes and colors for them to use at their park outreaches.

Again, God did something at one of these park outreaches, using these bicycles that none of us ever could have imagined. Darnell and Donna had given out 15 bicycles, preached the Gospel, and watched a good number of children give their lives to Jesus. They should have both been overjoyed, right?

Donna, however, seemed down. I asked her what was wrong and she said that there was a young girl, who was one of six children who had came to the outreach for the first time, and she cried because she did not get a bike and her friends all did. We learned that there was no dad in this home, and that the mom had been struggling with drugs, and would probably not be able to get a bike for any of the kids. Donna told me that they could use three bikes for the six girls - an adult sized bike for the two older girls, a mid-sized bike for the middle two girls, and a big-wheel type of bike for the younger girls.

Well, it just so happened that just before the outreach, we had been out rummage sailing, and had picked up, you guessed it - 3 bicycles. One was an adult sized bike, one was a mid-sized bike, and one was a “big-wheel”. I asked the crying girl and her sisters where they lived, and they told me where. I told them I would go home, load up the three bikes, and be back within the hour, and they should be looking for me.

When I came back, there were not only the six girls, but also a small army of children from the housing complex where they lived. They were all calling out for bicycles!! I told them we only had three bikes for the six girls, but if they came back to the park the following Saturday, we would have more bikes to giveaway. As I was getting ready to leave, the mother of the girls came to the door, crying, and thanked us for the bikes.

We ran a bulletin ad in the Elmbrook Church bulletin, and God allowed us to meet many generous people, who donated bikes, sodas for the day, cookies, prayers, and way beyond anything we had imagined. To try to tell you about all of the people would be impossible, but here are several saints worth mentioning.

A faithful man who cried when he gave me his bike, saying it belonged to someone who had died thirteen years earlier, and he had been praying for a way to use it for God's Glory. He had me come in the house and meet his wife, who is going blind, and she crying and thanked God for being able to be used!

An elderly woman who apologized for the older bikes she was donating, saying she was not giving her best to God, and was sorry. Well again, God blew her and us away, by finding out she had donated three classic bikes, which upon checking on the Internet, these type of bikes had sold for up to several hundred dollars apiece. We called her and told her, and asked her if she wanted the bikes back, or wanted to sell them herself on the Internet, or would let us sell them, and donate the money to the missionary, and she told us to sell the bikes and give the money to Marcia, and that she would pray that God would bring in a tremendous windfall of money for her ministry!

A woman in Wauwatosa who had been praying for what to do with her bike, and told us this bike giveaway was an answer to her prayers.

A woman who gave us several beautiful bikes, with a bag of cookies to give to the children, and a note pinned on top of one of the seats that read, "This outreach will put a smile on Jesus' face."

A bike, which turned out to be one of the top bikes, was donated to the outreach, and was in a box of things that was not supposed to include bicycles.

We had collected almost 200 bicycles, of which we had given away probably 50, and we needed to repair the remainder of the bikes, so we could do the outreach on August 10th. So again, God blew us away with men and women who came on three different occasions to repair bicycles.

There were over twenty-five different people who volunteered their time to Jesus, repairing bikes, cleaning bikes, inflating tires, and enjoying the sweet fellowship of the Lord. Once each of the bikes were repaired, and inspected, we praying over every bicycle, asking Almighty God to bless the person He knew would get the bikes, to protect them as they rode, and to use this outreach to draw many souls to himself.

And even as we were repairing bikes, God did another incredible miracle!!

We were blessed to be able to use a truck to pick-up bikes and to deliver them for the day of the outreach. The truck that we were blessed to use was available with a washer and dryer on the back of the truck. We volunteered to deliver the washer and dryer to the woman's home in Milwaukee, near 60th and Silver Spring, and again, God blew our minds.

We met a quiet woman named Sharon, who welcomed us and directed us where to deliver the washer and dryer. When we finished, Jeff and I said we wanted to pray a blessing over Sharon, not really knowing anything about her. We asked her if we could pray over her, and her countenance changed. She said she loved to pray, and we should come into the house.

She opened the door of the apartment, and there was a beautiful banner hanging there that said, "Prayer is the heartbeat of God." We had an awesome time of prayer, with Sharon asking God to please bring some food today for a young teenage mom who she was helping take care of. She showed us a refrigerator that was totally empty and she had absolutely nothing to eat.

Sharon then told us about her ministry that she was running for several young teenage moms, and had fixed up a former drug-house and turned it into a house for the women to stay, to study the Word of God, and to grow in Jesus Christ. She told us that she was expecting the washer and dryer to be delivered not for two more days, but she needed the washer and dryer today, because one of the mom's had no clean clothes, and that the timing was of God.

We told her we were taking the truck to load up bikes for an outreach coming up, and that there were twenty people gathering today to repair bikes. As we were praying for the food, God put the idea in our minds that we were going to have lunch for the bike repair people, and that we could take a freewill offering back to Sharon for her to give to this young mom to buy food for her and her child.

We went back to the repair people, told them what we had seen, had lunch together, and these faithful men and women of God gave $60 for food for this young mom they had never met, in addition to volunteering several hours of their time repairing bikes on a very hot day.

Two of the ladies then went with the offering back to Sharon's house, prayed with her, and were totally blessed. These ladies are not continuing to collect items for Sharon's ministry and a new partnership is developing, all because God knew it needed to be done!

At the bike repair station, several of the ladies decided to make 100 leather straps with the colors of the wordless book Gospel presentation, and a note saying Jesus Loves You, and What Would Jesus Do, to help the children remember a Gospel presentation that was going to occur at the outreach.

Finally, someone had asked about bicycle helmets. We had spent just about every cent we had. And the outreach was now about a week away. We had figured we would be giving out around 100 bicycles, and so we would need that many helmets. Well again, God was way ahead of us. On Saturday, August 3rd, just one week before the outreach, a couple came to our house that had not been over in at least several years. They said they were just in the neighborhood, and would stop by and see what was going on. We told them about the bike outreach, and they said they wanted to bless us and would be back tomorrow. So on Sunday, the husband came back with a beautiful bicycle for the outreach, and then gave me an envelope, and said this was his wife’s work bonus that he wanted Lisa and I to use however we wanted. Upon opening the envelope, there was a check for $500!

Now on Monday, five days before the outreach, we learned about a non-profit organization on the West Coast called "Helmets R Us." I admit thinking this was a joke, or a rip-off of Toys-R-Us, but we were just about out of time. I called to the salesperson at 5:10 Milwaukee time, which is 3:10 their time, and told the woman what we were doing. She told me they are a non-profit organization that could only sell to non-profit organizations, and that they had $30 top of the line helmets for $4 each.

She described them to me, and asked me when we needed them. I told her we needed them by Friday, for the event on Saturday. She told me that their shipping and receiving department would be closing in 10 minutes, and if we wanted any chance of receiving the helmets by Friday, we would have to email an order in within the 10 minute window of time. I told her we would send an order out within the next several minutes, and asked her if she would call me back and let me know if we made their shipping deadline or not. She called me back at 5:40 our time, ten minutes after the deadline, and told us that she got the order sent out at 3:25, five minutes before the department closed. This did not still guarantee we would have the helmets on Friday, but she told me she would pray they would come on time.

Tuesday — no helmets. Wednesday ... no helmets, Thursday ... no helmets. Friday morning — no helmets.

Lisa, our daughter Alaina and I went for an afternoon bike-ride on Friday. When we got back, there were four large boxes of helmets sitting in our driveway. The cost of the helmets was $500 - $400 for the helmets, and $100 for the shipping - just the exact amount of the check our friend had just given us on Sunday!

And these helmets were awesome - bright blue, very sharp. The woman who sent the helmets asked a lot of questions about the ages of the children, and she sent along many additional pieces of padding at no cost, so we could properly fit each child's head.

There had been many miracles performed, but the underlying lesson we all learned was that prayer was taking place everywhere for this event. From the people who were donating the bikes, and money for the outreach, to the woman sending helmets, to the entire volunteer team, the repair team, and intercessors all over the area were all praying. There were prayer walks at the park, which included several of the children in the neighborhood, praying for the event on Saturday. And God was not only hearing all these prayers, He was answering them in ways none of us could ever had imagined!

SATURDAY, AUGUST 10TH - 11:30 A.M. - 2:30 P.M. - 23RD AND MCKINLEY - OUTREACH DAY!!

The day we had been waiting for finally arrived. Earlier in the week, the weather forecast had been describing Saturday as a day of showers throughout the day. Almighty God blessed us with a beautiful sunny day in the 80's. The area we were going to be doing the outreach in was on top of a hill, with many beautiful large shade trees, making the temperature and set-up for the day just right.

Here is the outline of what the day looked like:

• 11:30 - All the volunteers came together for prayer, vision casting and role definitions.
• 12:00 - 100 bicycles were unloaded, children were all registered, and the area was transformed.

The children wrote down some prayer requests they had, and a “Dear Jesus” letter. Here are several of those letters and prayer requests:

• Dear Jesus - I am so glad that you are the Savior of the world. Thank you Jesus for saving my soul. I love you. You also made me whole, you pick me up, and turn me around. You place my feet on solid ground. And I'm glad about it! - Natalie
• Jesus, I am thankful for my family, house, mom, dad, sisters, brothers, and that I wokd up and am still alive. Pray for my sister Latisha who cannot hear or talk. - Isaiah
• I like the bike, but I love Jesus. I want a bike that is pink and purple! - Latititia
• Dear Jesus - You save us from evil. Jesus, there's something to ask you - What is happening at your house? — Fabia
• Thank you for letting me be here today. I want to thank you for my family. Please pray for my family and help my niece with her sickness. — Jara
• Dear Jesus - I am thankful for my family. Thank you for putting me on this earth. Thank you for saving me from evil. — Katerricka
• I want to thank you for my life and a bike is a nice thing to have in getting around. God, if you are listening, tell my grandmother I love you! — Deshaun
• Dear God - Thank you for the bikes, Lord. I would like for you to pray for my sickness, and hope that I don't have to go back in the hospital. Your friend, Tedhia

12:30 - The program began, with a welcoming of all the children. There were over 100 children who were there, in addition to over 20 adults as well. A Gospel message about the story of David and Goliath was delivered by an evangelist, Ray Jablonski, and an invitation was tendered to anyone who wanted to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. 38 children gave their lives to Jesus, and each of the children was prayed over.

What a joy and a privilege it is to see people go from death to life - from despair to hope!! Before the bike giveaway even took place, another miracle of God occurred!

A woman from the neighborhood had heard about the bike giveaway, and asked if we wanted a baby-stroller. Now why someone would bring a baby stroller to a bike giveaway, I don't know, but God sure did! We thanked the woman for the stroller, and within five minutes, there was a young mom, who heard about the baby stroller, and said she needed a stroller! Isn't our God awesome?

Then the bike giveaway took place.

The volunteer team took that yellow type of tape, the kind police use to rope off an area, and put all the bikes inside the area. We separated all the names of all the kids that were there into three containers — one for the children under the age of 5, one for boys, and one for girls.

We randomly drew five girls’ names, then five boys’ names, then five girls’ names, etc., and then let each of the children pick out a bike from the designated area. It was so exciting to see the faces of these children as they received their bikes, and from there, they were fitted with a helmet, had their picture taken with their new bike, and had their bikes adjusted to their size. You cannot imagine the thrill of seeing three weeks of work come together, as this neighborhood that had been almost totally hopeless, had met Jesus Christ in a powerful way.

During the next hour and a half, God gave away over 100 bicycles, more than we had even brought down there. But again, to God this is not a problem. Throughout the giveaway, people continued to come with more bicycles - people that we did not know were coming, but God did.

As we were finishing the giveaway, we were three bikes short. And again, you guessed it!! A trailer came driving up the hill with three bicycles - just the right size for each of the three children! The man who brought these last three bikes said he had totally forgot about the outreach until this morning, and didn't know what time the outreach was at, but he thought he would take a chance and maybe he would catch us. In God's perfect timing!!

As we closed up the time, we had 40 volunteers all in a circle, praying together, praising Almighty God for His indescribable goodness and faithfulness. We asked several people to share what they had learned, and one man, named Larry from the neighborhood told us the following:

"I had been knocking on doors in the neighborhood all morning, telling people to come to this outreach. I knew many of the children who are here today, but some of them that I did not know, or chose not to know, I got to meet today. And you know what - these kids are not as bad as we think they are!"

WHAT'S NEXT???

I am glad you asked.

A number of us that helped put this event on, got together and cried out to God in prayer on what He would have us do, and this is what we are looking at doing.

On Saturday, September 7th, from 2:00 - 6:00 p.m. we are going back to the park to have a picnic with the children and their parents from the neighborhood. We are praying that Almighty God would raise up gift certificates for shoes and clothing for the children as they go back to school, that we would sell to the moms for $1.

In addition, we will be sharing another Gospel message, having sign-ups for weekly Bible Studies, and tutoring for those children struggling with school, and just spend some time getting to meet these wonderful children and their parents eating a meal together.

If you would like to help in anyway with this outreach - whether in prayer, in financial support, in food preparation, in spending time with these precious people, please ask Almighty God what He would have you do. If you want to volunteer, please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 262-781-1520 and ask for Mark.

Father, we thank you and praise you for what you did and are still doing in this neighborhood. We ask that you would truly touch each of the hearts that surrendered their lives to you. Father, may this 23rd and McKinley area be claimed by the name and blood of Jesus Christ as holy ground. May your Holy Spirit come as The Honored Guest in this area, and reclaim your territory, all for your glory. We love you Lord Jesus. Please speak to each person who served in this ministry, but also to those who are reading this testimony of Your greatness. Encourage us. Strengthen our faith in You. Help us to not loose heart, but to trust in you with whatever is in our hearts. We give you all the praise, honor, and glory that is due you Lord. And we thank you for letting us see Your powerful hand at work. In Jesus Name. AMEN.

"Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!"– 2 Corinthians 9:15