Street 2 Street
Street 2 Street by Rebecca Dell
Professional Soccer
Brockman Soccer Story by Rebecca Dell
Friday, June 03, 2011
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Street 2 Street Reaches for "Every Kid in Every Neighborhood"
By Rebecca Dell
NEW YORK – Woody Woodfin and his urban basketball ministry, Street 2 Street, have a potential participation pool of 1.3 million.
That's how many kids live in New York City.
A ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ International, Street 2 Street aims to provide disadvantaged kids with the chance to play in competitive basketball tournaments. The name comes from the connection between the kids playing ball on the streets with the donors from Wall Street who want the opportunity to use their plenty to help others.
At the tournaments, participants hear the gospel: the message that Jesus can be their Savior and that He loves them even when it seems like no one else does. Local churches provide volunteers for the tournaments and follow up with participants in the weeks and years after the event.
This message is illuminated when kids see Woodfin and his team living out what they preach.
Woodfin is the kind of guy who will buy you lunch the first day you meet him. He'll stop on a crowded Manhattan sidewalk to open a door for deliverymen. He'll stop talking, silent for a moment, until his voice clears and he can continue talking about his love for the kids who are dumped by everyone except God.
Originally from Georgia, Woodfin played baseball and majored in communications at Tennessee Temple University.
There he met his future wife Renee, the attractive cheerleader who worked at the gym office. They married and joined staff with Campus Crusade's high school ministry, Student Venture, in 1995. They settled back in Chattanooga, Tenn., and started raising their family.
Years earlier, Renee had visited New York and told her parents she would live there someday.
"Because she had a heart for it, I did," her husband said.
So when the call came for a team to go to New York in the wake of 9/11, the Woodfins packed up and moved. The city was still in a daze when they arrived.
"Kids didn’t know which way to turn," Woody Woodfin said. The team worked at several different schools with Student Venture, providing "spiritual relief"
It wasn't easy to reach the kids, however. With his southern accent and white skin, Woody looked like an out-of-town cop and kids wanted nothing to do with him. He wondered what he could do to tear down those barriers.
Then one day in early 2005, Woodfin was walking through a neighborhood in Brooklyn for what seemed like the eight thousandth time. He saw some kids playing basketball. But this time, instead of seeing hoops and pavement, he saw a path opening between a white guy from Georgia and kids from broken homes in the projects of Brooklyn.
That February, Woodfin and local Damian Rosado started planning. In August, 128 kids came out for the first tournament. A chaplain for the New York Yankees and the New Jersey Nets delivered the Bible message.
"Twenty-something kids stood up in front of their friends to say yes to Jesus," Woodfin said. "I was hooked!"
He and Rosado had a way to reach hundreds of kids at once—a feat that previously would have taken months.
One memorable participant, Taishawn Bellvue, was known as "Lil LeBron" around his neighborhood. When youth pastor Desmond Wedderburn was looking to start a basketball team and a core group of youth for a youth church in the neighborhood, he recruited Bellvue.
On the court, Bellvue was brilliant, winning tournament MVP and character awards.
Bellvue heard the gospel for the first time that June and decided to give his life to God on a Student Venture retreat later that summer.
Six months later, Bellvue received a distress call from a friend in Union Square. When Bellvue came out of the subway station, he was stabbed to death.
Woodfin recalled the tragedy with sadness and hope: because of basketball, Bellvue put his hope in God before he died. He might never have heard about Jesus' saving power without Street 2 Street.
As the organization grows, Woody and Renee continue to work on logistics and ideas. Their own kids, Abbey, 20, Allison, 18, and Will, 13, plan their summers around the tournaments. The biggest challenge right now is figuring out how to raise support for full-time city staff.
"We live in a think tank together, don't we?" Renee Woodfin said.
"Yeah we do," her husband answered.
In addition to a tournament in Florida and one in Arizona earlier this year, this summer there will be 20 Street 2 Street tournaments throughout New York City, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Twelve hundred kids will get to play basketball and hear that God loves them.
Rebecca Dell can be reached at becca_2@myfairpoint.net
For more information:
Street 2 Street
Campus Crusade for Christ International
Street 2 Street - Telling Kids They Are Loved by Rebecca Dell
NEW YORK – Woody Woodfin and his urban basketball ministry, Street 2 Street, have a potential participation pool of 1.3 million.
That's how many kids live in New York City.
 |
| Woody and Renee Woodfin. Rebecca Dell |
At the tournaments, participants hear the gospel: the message that Jesus can be their Savior and that He loves them even when it seems like no one else does. Local churches provide volunteers for the tournaments and follow up with participants in the weeks and years after the event.
This message is illuminated when kids see Woodfin and his team living out what they preach.
Woodfin is the kind of guy who will buy you lunch the first day you meet him. He'll stop on a crowded Manhattan sidewalk to open a door for deliverymen. He'll stop talking, silent for a moment, until his voice clears and he can continue talking about his love for the kids who are dumped by everyone except God.
Originally from Georgia, Woodfin played baseball and majored in communications at Tennessee Temple University.
There he met his future wife Renee, the attractive cheerleader who worked at the gym office. They married and joined staff with Campus Crusade's high school ministry, Student Venture, in 1995. They settled back in Chattanooga, Tenn., and started raising their family.
Years earlier, Renee had visited New York and told her parents she would live there someday.
"Because she had a heart for it, I did," her husband said.
So when the call came for a team to go to New York in the wake of 9/11, the Woodfins packed up and moved. The city was still in a daze when they arrived.
"Kids didn’t know which way to turn," Woody Woodfin said. The team worked at several different schools with Student Venture, providing "spiritual relief"
It wasn't easy to reach the kids, however. With his southern accent and white skin, Woody looked like an out-of-town cop and kids wanted nothing to do with him. He wondered what he could do to tear down those barriers.
Then one day in early 2005, Woodfin was walking through a neighborhood in Brooklyn for what seemed like the eight thousandth time. He saw some kids playing basketball. But this time, instead of seeing hoops and pavement, he saw a path opening between a white guy from Georgia and kids from broken homes in the projects of Brooklyn.
That February, Woodfin and local Damian Rosado started planning. In August, 128 kids came out for the first tournament. A chaplain for the New York Yankees and the New Jersey Nets delivered the Bible message.
"Twenty-something kids stood up in front of their friends to say yes to Jesus," Woodfin said. "I was hooked!"
He and Rosado had a way to reach hundreds of kids at once—a feat that previously would have taken months.
One memorable participant, Taishawn Bellvue, was known as "Lil LeBron" around his neighborhood. When youth pastor Desmond Wedderburn was looking to start a basketball team and a core group of youth for a youth church in the neighborhood, he recruited Bellvue.
On the court, Bellvue was brilliant, winning tournament MVP and character awards.
Bellvue heard the gospel for the first time that June and decided to give his life to God on a Student Venture retreat later that summer.
Six months later, Bellvue received a distress call from a friend in Union Square. When Bellvue came out of the subway station, he was stabbed to death.
Woodfin recalled the tragedy with sadness and hope: because of basketball, Bellvue put his hope in God before he died. He might never have heard about Jesus' saving power without Street 2 Street.
As the organization grows, Woody and Renee continue to work on logistics and ideas. Their own kids, Abbey, 20, Allison, 18, and Will, 13, plan their summers around the tournaments. The biggest challenge right now is figuring out how to raise support for full-time city staff.
"We live in a think tank together, don't we?" Renee Woodfin said.
"Yeah we do," her husband answered.
In addition to a tournament in Florida and one in Arizona earlier this year, this summer there will be 20 Street 2 Street tournaments throughout New York City, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Twelve hundred kids will get to play basketball and hear that God loves them.
Rebecca Dell can be reached at becca_2@myfairpoint.net
For more information:
Street 2 Street
Campus Crusade for Christ International
 |
| From left, Lawrence McGugins, experienced AAU coach and director, talks with Woody Woodfin and Damian Rosado about the possibility of starting a Street 2 Street AAU team. Rebecca Dell |
 |
A pile of promotional bookmarks and schedules wait to be handed out to invite kids to the 2011 summer tournaments. Rebecca Dell |
 |
| Each participant got a drawstring backpack at the inaugural Street 2 Street tournament in 2005. The backpacks came stuffed with, among other things, a Bible and a hip-hop CD. Rebecca Dell |
Street 2 Street - Telling Kids They Are Loved by Rebecca Dell
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