Barry and Terryl Bruce – The Way Out Ministries Despite COVID-19 and all the unexpected tribulations of 2020, many goals have been met and our ministry has expanded in this past year. God has been exceedingly good to The Way Out Ministries through our faithful partners and our creative and determined staff and volunteers.

In March 2020, California COVID-19 mandates temporarily shut the doors of The Way Out

Ministries and our mission church, The Gathering. Without missing one church service, our staff launched an online live service that was watched weekly by both our local church as well as people from all over the United States. We were fortunate to have online tech help from a volunteer friend in Iowa who has since helped us develop a very professional pre-recorded online ministry that continues to this day. Sermons from The Gathering can now be viewed online anytime. Children’s ministry programs, music videos, and ministry program shorts can also be viewed on our YouTube channel. Gifts and offerings for The Gathering can now be made electronically through a program service called PushPay. Even when our church services were only available online, we never experienced a substantial lull in church giving. In-person church services and all ministry programs at The Way Out have been re-opened since Pentecost Sunday, May 31, 2020. Except for two one-week shutdowns, when COVID-19 spiked and affected our staff in November and December, we have remained open. The Way Out Ministries' Terry Turner Resource Center stayed open throughout all COVID-19 mandates as we are considered “essential” by the county. We served needy families and individuals while equipped with the proper PPE. Food, clothing, and hygiene kits are made available daily and two food service programs are held weekly for those experiencing homelessness. We also provide shelter assistance; help with applications and forms and social service and job referrals. Recently we built a large walk-in closet for the center. A new daily volunteer, Daniel, joined our resource center in 2020 because the ministry he worked at closed. Daniel now helps run our center and has also begun a weekly recovery Bible study that meets both in-person and online with Zoom. People join from all over the world!

One of our men experiencing homelessness playing bingo at our

annual Jesus Loves Hawaiian Gardens Outreach.

The Terry Turner Resource Center remained open through the

Pandemic and provided meals, assistance, and showers to

individuals, families suffering from homelessness.

Our summer camp programs were challenged in the COVID-19 crisis, too, but thanks to a creative staff we were able to have all four of our camps with a few changes. Our 2020 Summer Fun Urban camp for kids was re-branded Camp COVID and featured daily drive-thru packet pick-ups of a craft, Bible verse color sheet, and a boxed dinner. Each drive-thru day of the week-long camp featured a socially distanced interactive activity for kids. After each daily drive-thru, the kids went to their homes to watch our online camp on YouTube, which featured a daily skit, sing-along songs, and a Bible study on overcoming fears and trusting God. We registered 80 children and kids can still watch Camp COVID on our online YouTube channel—we encourage you to watch it, too!

Registered campers for Camp Ohana (ages 8-11) underwent a change of venue from the mountains to the city as we turned The Way Out Ministries facilities into a themed Hawaiian paradise. Campers checked in each day for nine hours of camp fun. Camp songs, food, crafts, interactive games, Bible story time, and even a giant water slide and pool were among the daily activities. Camp Zion (ages 12-18) took on a changed venue from a conference campground (closed by COVID-19 mandates) to a large lake house in Lake Arrowhead, California, where youth enjoyed God and one another in a more intimate setting. By the end of the summer, only one of our camp venues (Family Camp) remained as originally planned—in a campground in the San Bernardino Mountains. Some of our group activities had to be altered, but we were still able to celebrate God and one another with family members of all ages in the great outdoors. All of these camps were provided by camp sponsors!

The October, November, and December COVID-19 mandates of 2020 made us have to re-think our annual outreaches to the community. Rather than having our community Fall Fiesta, we hosted a Trunk-R-Treat event for children on Halloween, featuring some 25 cars and trucks with fun kid themes, safe games, Christ-centered tracts, and candy of course. For Thanksgiving, we held our annual community dinner, served by volunteers in

Kid’s Club Summer Outings Beach Trip One of our camp participants drives through Camp COVID to pick up his

activity packet.

Campers pose at our drive

up photo booth at Camp

COVID.

Family Camp 2020 Camp Ohana Zion Youth Shares a message of Faith, Hope,

and Love during the BLM protests and riots.

PPE and with distanced outdoor dining. Unfortunately, our annual Christmas programs were shut down except for our Christmas Eve service, which was scheduled for outdoors until an 80% chance of rain was forecast. We moved the worship service indoors with masks and family seating for a beautiful candlelight service.

Hopes for 2021 Our short and long-term ministry goals remain essentially the same as last year. The COVID-19 crisis moved us to a temporary “survival mode” as it did for most ministries; nonetheless, we did accomplish modernizing our ministry’s bylaws and board manual and built up the active membership of our board of directors. We also established a weekly substance abuse support group with Daniel. Our short-term goals will now include building up the numbers in our weekly programs which were damaged by the COVID-19 crisis. We will also re-evaluate how we do personal ministry in a post-COVID-19 world. We are also in the process of re-evaluating some of our long term goals since COVID-19 gave us a different perspective: 1.) The plan to hire a part-time technical employee will likely be in the form of an online consultant rather than an in-house employee 2.) Hiring a part-time case manager for the Resource Center is likely to become a full-time volunteer in the person of Daniel 3.) Hiring a new full-time youth minister is currently on hold; however, Ryan has now been ordained and is moving towards a part-time Assistant Director/ Worship Minister position. 4.) The plan to build an upstairs bathroom and roof deck off of the Sound Studio is still in our plans. 5.) The renovation of our restrooms in rooms B, C, D have already begun in this New Year. Bathroom C, along with our gym’s renovation, is almost complete. 6.) Develop a regular arts program (drama, art, music) that will be integrated into outreach and service programs (this goal is currently being re-evaluated) 7.) Rather than developing The Way Out Ministries’ online School of Ministry (which is currently cost-prohibitive), we decided last year to offer a correspondence course through the ministry. Three men are currently enrolled.

How We Can Pray Please pray for the youth in our city that are experiencing

depression due to COVID-19 school and activity shutdowns (many with suicidal tendencies).

Pray for a stop to COVID-19 mandates. These have been especially abusive to low-income residents, mental and emotional health, business in our city, and general income.

Pray for the well-being of our staff

Pray for our financial needs

Please pray for us as we continue to reach the city of Hawaiian Gardens that we can share the love of Christ and serve those in need.

Due to COVID-19 lockdowns we saw a

lot of depression especially amongst

our teens and seniors. We started a

walking group that is open to anyone

and meets Tuesday and Thursday

mornings at our local Nature Center.

Additional Needs We always need financial support, especially in August, September, and January through April. We welcome mission teams that are skilled to do work projects. We always have a wish list that would serve to enhance the ministry or fixes that need to be done.

Thank You Partnership with the RCA makes up 18% of our total giving and 38% of our funding comes from many individuals who are members of RCA churches. We are blessed and thankful for our relationship with the RCA. Without the support of the RCA, much of the ministry we do would not be possible. We rely on this support to continue service to those in need. In Christ, Barry and Terryl Bruce