The Awesome Alpha Academy
Have you heard of the Alpha Academy? Jack Gould, an active congregant here at Grace, started the Alpha Academy as a beautiful 40 acre ranch to serve as a transitional home for young men trying to figure out their direction in life. The Alpha Academy's stated mission is to mentor young adults seeking direction in acquiring the spiritual, emotional, and physical skills necessary to lead successful, responsible, lives.
Not long ago, I had a chance to get out there and see and experience the hospitality of the ranch over off Buckley Road. What a neat thing is going on out there! This is kingdom work, one transformed life at a time!
One of the things I like best about the Alpha Academy is their goal of becoming a self-funded, self-supporting ministry. To that end, they are designing intentional ministries to partner with local churches and to generate income in a way that allows these young people to see how life, hard work and money all work together. . . .
MissionCars is a ministry that handles and processes cars that are donated to other ministries. Sometimes a donated car is more of a curse than a blessing. MissionCars seeks to eliminate the hassle and headache.
Web Cars and Trucks is a service that will locate and purchase for you the used car of your dreams at great price plus a small fee. Again, let these young men handle the hassle!
Thousand Hills Pet Resort is a short term care facility for your pet. I've called around. . . .there is a shortage of places to care for pets here on the Central Coast. This a great idea to meet a real need! Call them the next time you head out of town on vacation!
Is all this cool or what? I am going to shoot Jack an email and let him know he's been blogged. What I need you to do is to leave him an encouraging comment here at Life Together. . . and use one of these valuable services to support the Alpha Academy the next time you have the opportunity!
Keep up the good work, Jack! We are praying for you and for God's work at the Alpha Academy!
7 comments:
I used to know a guy that helped out there at Alpha, so I've been out there as well to see what they're doing.
I wish I had remembered their MissionCars ministry a few weeks ago when I donated my old car to Cars 4 Causes!
Jack, your work is to be commended. I know it has helped a number of young men grow closer to God in such an important part of life.
Pastor Tim, Thanks for your encouraging BLOG on Alpha Academy.
God has been so faithful. You are appreciated!
If anyone has a student we can help, let us know.
That's great. I'm glad to hear about this so I can pass it on. Word of mouth is almost better than advertising around here. I already know of someone just planning to donate their car. The ranch sounds like a really helpful way to love people.
I had the chance to experience the hospitality of Alpha Academy just this last Monday. Dave, thanks again for the lunch! It was great walking around the facility and hearing about God's faithfulness from Jack. I was struck by the way the guys greeted me with confident and firm handshakes. I also enjoyed the the goodnatured ribbing that characterizes the interactions at the Academy. Keep up the good work Jack and thanks to you and your men for allowing me to share a lunch time with you all!
Not to sound too much like an echo but yeah, the Alpha Academy and the guys out there are great. I've gotten to spend a bit of time there over the years as three of the guys who have been house leaders there are friends of mine (Jake, Jeromy, and John -- hmm, never noticed the J connection before -- and then throw in Jack...what IS going on?). I can second what Steve mentioned about the sweet interaction between the guys. I had a chance to get to know Tony and Estevan a little bit in the past when they lived there and they were always so nice to me. Anyway, I'll second your assessment that it's a great organization. Keep up the good work Jack, Christian, Jeromy, John, and Jake (and anyone else I'm missing)!
I saw a story on Alpha on the KSBY news last night (9/7). Anyone else catch it?
Tim, Strange small world. I live in Highland CA. My son is in jail right now as a result of some bad decisions. A year ago I ran across Alpha on a google search. My son had planned to go and backed out at the last minute. Now, he has grown so much, reading any Christian book he can get his hands on!!! He now wants to go so bad and we are praying that the court and his PO will let him go--it's all in God's hands. Through this all, my blog friend Chris sent me your post here. I have talked with Jack and Christian Henderson many times and you are blessed to have them as part of your congregation! I'm sure they are blessed as well to have you as their guide and pastor. God Bless!
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