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Help keep Christ in the ymCa.

 

From Wikipedia: YMCA Beginnings – founded June 6, 1844.

  

 

With regard to the history and purpose of the founding, this "organization and its female counterpart (YWCA) were established to provide low-cost housing in a safe Christian environment for rural young men and women journeying to the cities."[2] It was associated with industrialisation and the movement of young people to cities to work. The YMCA "combined preaching in the streets and the distribution of religious tracts with a social ministry. Philanthropists saw them as places for wholesome recreation that would preserve youth from the temptations of alcohol, gambling, and prostitution and that would promote good citizenship."[2]

 

Founding:

 

The YMCA was founded by George Williams, a London draper, who was typical of the young men drawn to the cities by the Industrial Revolution. He and his colleagues were concerned about the lack of healthy activities for young men in major cities; the options available were usually taverns and brothels. Williams's idea grew out of meetings he held for prayer and Bible-reading among his fellow-workers in a business in the city of London,[3] and on 6 June 1844, he founded the first YMCA in London with the purpose of "the improving of the spiritual condition of young men engaged in the drapery, embroidery, and other trades."[4] By 1851, there were YMCAs in the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States.

 

Mission Statement:

 

Each member YMCA is therefore called to focus on certain challenges which will be prioritized according to its own context. In practice, urgent needs such as environmental responsibility are ignored at the YMCA's national and local levels.

These challenges are an evolution of the Kampala Principles:

 

·         Sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and striving for spiritual, intellectual and physical well-being of individuals and wholeness of communities.

·         Empowering all to take increased responsibilities and assume leadership at all levels and working towards an equitable society.

·         Advocating for and promoting the rights of and upholding the rights of children.

·         Fostering dialogue and partnership between people of different faiths and ideologies and recognizing the cultural identities of people and promoting cultural renewal.

·         Committing to work in solidarity with the poor, dispossessed, uprooted people and oppressed racial, religious and ethnic minorities.

·         Seeking to be mediators and reconciles in situations of conflict and working for meaningful participation and advancement of people for their own self-determination.

·         Defending God's creation against all that would destroy it and preserving and protecting the earth's resources for coming generations. To face these challenges, the YMCA will develop patterns of co-operation at all levels that enable self-sustenance and self-determination. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YMCA

 

Winter Park, Fl. YMCA/Florida Hospital Facility 10/23/2015 (yep, Creation Day, Year 6019) - currently under reconstruction.

 

  

  

Pictures from painted walls along second floor walking circle.

 

 

 

    

 

   

    

   

 

I suppose that both the magnificent artwork and the meaningful chalk board will not be in the new facility. A new chalkboard with a new Bible verse would be great.

 

But like all the other institutions and traditions that Christians have lost to the secular world, these two sound very minor.

 

And at best, we have to admit we have been in ‘damage control’. Prayerfully with a more conservative government and judiciary as of 11/2022, the possibility exists of gaining more respect for the 10 Commandments which is necessary for cultural sanity not only in America, but in all nations where Christians are called to serve. See Holiness Tab (or why the Big 10 are don’ts and do’s).

 

Why can’t we start at the ‘Y’? Y not. Physically, spiritually, mentally and culturally….

 

As Moses said in Deut. 4:

 39.  Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.

 40.  Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, forever.