hammond newsletter julypdf

8/9/2019 Hammond Newsletter JulyPDF

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Building Community at HometownOur first event led by local familiesBy Kim Hammond

We moved into Hometown on

May 16th. In two months we have

taken over the Community Events

for the neighborhood, some 1200

homes, 3500 people. Over 50%

are Hispanic and the rest are made

up of Black Americans, Asian and

others. Our estate is in East

Aurora which is one of the

poorest areas in Illinois. I love that

we are serving with local families,

and with our friends who all live in

Hometown and have kids our age.

Every Monday night we (thanks to

our friends the Moberly’s) are

running T-ball and Baseball for over

60 kids in the neighborhood.

In a few weeks we will begin an

open meeting once a month for

anyone in Hometown wanting to

join us in transforming the

neighborhood. Whether they want

to help us form a community

Neighborhood Watch committee

or help with art classes in the local

school, they can be part of our

team. We are hoping to transition

from Baseball to Soccer to

Basketball through the next few

seasons. We have also been given the

keys to an empty cafe in the

middle of Hometown that we

plan to renovate and turn into

a community centre. We plan to

run youth events and community

events and would love to see a

functioning cafe open again. We

also are working with

Community 4:12 in collecting

goods for a local food pantry.

Over 600 goods were collected

from around Montgomery

including Hometown. It is all run by

Angela, who also lives in Hometown

Our first community event, our July

4th celebration and parade, saw

250 people come out for face

painting, family games, craft, snow

cones and a picnic.

Lachlan Hammondwith his friend Jeremyleads 250 people inthe July 4th parade atHometown, Aurora .

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;k;.

Our kids are involved in every part of missionLachlan, Carter & Jordan are on mission too

H A

M M O N D M O N T H L Y

Lachlan is growing up right

before my eyes.

(He is nearly 5 ft 3!). He is as

committed to mission here as

anyone of us. As we walk

back from baseball he gets off

his bike and walks next to

kids who don’t have one and

chats to them. He has made

lots of friends with the kids

around our neighborhood.

Hometown Events

The next event we are running is Halloween. We hopeto have fixed up the cafe, form a neighborhood housecommunity, start after school mentoring, a drop incentre and build a strong team among the communityand see increased community involvement.

“Baseball is an American past-time. Every

kid dreams of playing baseball one day.

Find an open park and you will find kids

playing catch. We are providing a safe

place for kids to play sports and make

friends. Our plan for the year is to offer

baseball, soccer then basketball.

More kids turn up every week from the

surrounding houses (including nine last week!)I think it’s hilarious that an

Australian is teaching American young

people how to play baseball. But I

love being around my kids and their friends,

and I love watching my kids make new

friends.”



We moved to Chicago Dec 16 to begin two new roles: I

am the Director of Missional Imagination for

Community Christian Church in Chicago (a multi-site

church with 11 locations reaching nearly 7000 people weekly),

and I am launching Forge America as the National

Director.

After being here 1 month, my son Carter (7 years old)

complained of chest pains & broke out in spots, so we rushed

him to the doctors to hear the words no parent wants to hear,

especially a million miles away from home & family: “Your son

has Leukemia.” Carter was rushed to the University of

Chicago where he was immediately sedated & underwent

several blood transfusions. ( A.L.L Leukemia is cancer of the

BLOOD that happens when the bone marrow which should

produce white blood cells that fight infection produces

"immature" cancer cells instead that fill the blood.) Carter had

100% leukemia in his blood, his platelet count was

dangerously low (what CLOTS the blood) & his immunesystem was shot.

I cried every day that week as he went through several

life-saving blood transfusions, spinal taps (needles into the

spine), bone marrow scraps in his back, and a line put into his

arm that went all the way to above his heart for

Chemotherapy. My little brave boy never complained and

never cried when they stuck him with needles & I all I could

do is weep saying to God “please don't let my son die.” I

have no brave prayers, I am carried by all of yours, like the

crippled man on a mat carried to Jesus. I am paralyzed by

grief. So your prayers mean a lot to me. 50 years ago all kids

who were diagnosed with Cancer died within two weeks.

Today, depending on the type, they have a 80% -90% chance

of beating it. However, I don't want any chance of my child

dying—would you? I hate it when people say “they are good

odds”--how would you feel if you had kids & I said there is

a10%-20% chance of your kids dying?

The health system here is costly & complicated

We had not been paid yet, had not received any of our

support, & had only just filled out the health insurance form

which will cost us $8000 for the insurance, when we had to $4000 for the deductible. (You pay the first $4000 before

anything is covered-- the first Hospital bill was $64000 for fo

days.) 6 months in, Carter is responding to treatment. He is

low risk, and is responding to the Chemotherapy & the

cocktail of drugs, including a heavy dose of Steroids. His ha

is falling out & he will soon lose all of the hair on his body.

The pick has been removed from his arm & a port has been

inserted into his chest for the next three years of treatment.

Every day is a challenge, from headaches from the spin

taps, rage & mood swings from the steroids, & tears with the

weekly day in hospital where he is still prodded & poked. It

tiring every week having blood taken and spending a whole

day in hospital, even more tiring for Carter who can’t eat for

12 hours before. Maria does the 1.5 hour trip to the City ev

week. We have a website for Leukemia research & for the

medical costs associated with the costs of having a sick child

The web site is called www.clippersforcarter.com

In a foreign country with no family or long te

friends we have had to lean on God and build

support base from scratch-it has been hard.

especially feel for Carter who got sick a monafter we arrived so hasn’t made many close

friends and all his life long school & church

friends are back in Australia.

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Carter still fights

Cancer

Photo 1: Each beadrepresents a needle,bone marrow scraps,spinal taps, bloodtransfusions, chemotreatmentsetc....Photo 2: Part of the side effects of the

treatment is loss of hair, sunken eyes,puffy checks, weightgain, headaches, back pain, vomiting andnausea.

Carter Hammond’s fight with Leukemia

http://www.clippersforcarter.com/

http://www.clippersforcarter.com/



Every Dollar you give allows usto do mission here in America

Thank you for your

ongoing support and friendship.

Your support means more to us

than you could ever imagine.

Your support allows us to

minister in the following roles:

Director of Missional

Imagination: At Community

Christian Church in Chicago. I

train, coach and teach across all

11 campuses, soon to be 18,around 7000 people. I continue

to work 20 hours a week in this

role and volunteer at

Montgomery campus by

preaching teaching, greeting

and pastoring people.

National Director of

Forge America. We have

hubs in Alabama, Kentucky,

California and Chicago all in

the first year. We are also

establishing a partnership with

Shapevine through the

rebranding of MQuest to be

under Forge America.

Lastly, we are committed to

leading the Mission in

Hometown. We will seemultiple missional communities

planted here in our

neighborhood.

We can’t do this without

you. Please keep in contact with

us: us: [email protected]

[email protected]

www.kimhammond.com

Skype: kimhammo

Twitter: /kimhammond

Facebook: kimdhammond

www.forgeamerica.com

twitter.com/forgeamerica

We loved July 4th in America. It was ourfirst one and we alldressed in Red Whiteand Blue.

HAMMONDMONTHLY

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mailto:[email protected]


http://www.forgeamerica.com/

http://www.forgeamerica.com/

http://www.kimhammond.com/

http://www.kimhammond.com/





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