BIBLE BELIEVERS WORLD OUTREACH CATHDRAL

            Operation Oasis is the name of the vision that the Lord gave Pastor Richardson for the Gardere and Hermitage Communities. There is a need for a multifaceted community center that is passionately committed to changing the landscape and mindset of the residents and its critics. This center will connect the residents to the agencies and institutions that will help transform the Gardere and Hermitage area from neighborhood of chaos into an oasis of hope. Our mission is to help develop the Gardere and Hermitage area through training, mentoring and empowerment classes.

            Our church is in the process of looking for property to build or renovate that will house our multifaceted community center that will address the following atrocities: the high school drop-out epidemic, poverty, drug addiction, teaching accountability and parenting skills, job skills, reconnecting fathers to their children through “Father Mentoring Programs”, the abandonment of morals and values, crime, premarital sex and sexually transmitted disease, and elderly assistance.

            According to the U.S. Census Bureau in the Gardere Community 5.5% of the people between the ages of 16-19 are not enrolled in school and are not graduates of High School, that’s 1,899 people with minimum education, which leads to a minimum wage job or no job which ushers in poverty. Also another important statistic is 53% of the students who fail to graduate on time between 18-19 don't continue their education and graduate. In the Gardere area, 53% of children entering elementary school had no pre-school (head start) experience. The crime update given by East Baton Rouge Police Department list the Gardere Community as number one in East Baton Rouge Parish for murder (1999-2003 & 2006).  Drug trafficking, drug addiction, theft and robbery and lack of education are also major contributors to the downfall of the community.

The statistics and atrocities just mentioned couple with “agape love” is the prime reasons why our church has chose to build a multifaceted community center in the heart of the Gardere community. There is a need for a daycare/enrichment center that will prepare the children for elementary school, and an Overcomer’s Unit that will provide job skills for the residents by utilizing college and professional business people and entrepreneurs.  Also a Computer lab will allow drop-outs to receive their GED by taking online courses, community kids do home work and research papers and help others enhance their careers by becoming computer literate.

            In the Gardere Community 53% of the males 15 years of age and older have never been married and 35% are married but have been divorced. The females 15 years of age 44% have never been married and 33% are married but have been divorced.   This center will teach family values, moral accountability and Parenting skills.  Also 245 out of 261 households with a male and female are living together which means 93% are shacking. Males living with males 7 out of 261 households or 3%, and females living with females 9 out of 261 household or 3.4%. The center will also teach about sexuality and sexually transmitted diseases.  It should also be noted that 87 out of 179 households or 49% of grandparents are raising their grand kids in the Gardere area alone.

            In the Gardere area 28% of the population are living below poverty level. Families with female as head of household 52.1% are living below poverty level.  This is yet another reason why we must build a multifaceted community Center in the heart of the Gardere area to bring hope to a depressed community faced with tremendous obstacles that is trying to impede their progress to a better way of life.

            Operation Oasis is a comprehensive well thought out vision/plan to restore the Gardere area. This program will address the twelve major problems plaguing the Gardere area and offer attainable solutions.  Also we are the only church in this area doing a program of this kind.

            Operation Oasis will serve as a bridge that will grant access to those, who because of their economic or social background were not able to get the educational or mentoring tools needed to achieve success.

Operation Oasis will turn the community around through:

§         Quality pre-kinder care teaching programs to prepare children for elementary school

§         13 week course on parenting to teach parenting skills and accountability 3 days a week

§         Free GED and business/job skills classes to prepare participants for better paying jobs

§         After school tutorial/homework assistance program to assist kids will their homework

§         Financial accountability classes designed to teach proper stewardship of resources

§         Father Mentoring Classes designed to reconnect the father in every way to his children

Church Activities design to enlighten, increase self-esteem and personal wealth:

§         Pastoral teaching from the bible (every Wednesday Night at 7:30 p.m.)

§         Choir & Musician Rehearsal (every Thursday Night at 7:30 p.m.)

§         F.R.E.S.H (Faithful, Righteous, Excited, Saved, Spirit filled Heaven-Bound) Generation

            Through Operation Oasis, prayer, diligent workers, and proper funding  $75,000.00 from friends and partners, we can turn this war zone, the number one murder hot spot in the community, into an “Oasis” a model community for all communities plagued with the same problems to pattern theirs after.  Will you help us!!

Bible Believers World Outreach Cathedral has the passion, convictions, and the mandate from the Lord to make a positive impact on this community. We have been in this community for almost eight (8) years and we have built a reputation for being a warm, but firm ministry with truth and righteousness as our motto.  “Each one, everyone, reach one, anyone” is our mission statement.

           In our eight (8) years of being in this community, we have helped over 2,000 families and we have partnered with guidance counselors in elementary and junior high schools to meet the needs of the families in the Gardere, Hermitage and surrounding area.

             The Bible Believers multifaceted outreach center will be responsible for receiving and processing all applications on recipients.  The center will also be responsible for determining each recipient’s immediate needs as well as long-term needs.  The center will assign each recipient to the appropriate programs available internal as well as external (outside resources).  The center will be responsible for follow-up and updating data on each recipient such as change of address, employment, education, changes in living conditions, successes and failures of individual and system.

Send your generous donation today to Bible Believers World Outreach Cathedral