May 22, 2000
Churches unite to offer hand up
through Crossover Ministry
___By Alison Wingfield
___Special to the Standard
___DALLAS--Being there is an important key to the success of Crossover Ministries. Being there to provide food for those who are down on their luck. Being there to listen, pray for and pray with a drug addict or homeless person or single parent in need of a job. Being there to tutor and play with children after school.
___Katie and Jason Besly, along with volunteers from Dallas-area churches, are there for the diverse population of the Maple Avenue area just north of downtown Dallas and southeast of Love Field.
___Housed in North Dallas Baptist Church, Crossover Ministries works in a community of diverse people groups who don't always see eye-to-eye.
___"The community is very split and polarized," explained Katie Besly, a Dallas native who co-directs Crossover Ministries with her husband. The area has a large homeless population, a number of immigrants and refugees out of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, as well as white, African-American, Hispanic and Asian residents.
___Much of the community suffers from high unemployment, lack of education, drug and alcohol abuse and prostitution. In contrast, another part of the community, Oak Lawn, is home to many well-educated young professionals with good incomes.
___A food pantry, English as a Second Language classes, a prayer network and an after-school tutoring program are some of the ways Crossover ministers to the most needy area of this community.
___The food pantry is unique in that those who need the food are given a credit each month and allowed to "shop" in the pantry, giving them more control over their choices. Crossover requires a minimum of paperwork and only a brief intake interview.
___"Even though some take advantage, we also get the people who fall through the cracks," Jason Besly said.
___In addition to the lifeline of food, Crossover offers another lifeline through prayer. The Beslys offer to pray for and with the individuals who come through their doors. Although some refuse to pray with them, the Beslys let them know someone will be praying for them every day.
___Through a recently started prayer network called "Lifeline," prayer cards for each individual served at Crossover are assigned to prayer partners from local churches. Volunteers commit to pray daily for that person for the next four months.
___"We are seeing the power of prayer working in people's lives," reported Jason Besly. "Some who haven't had work in eight months or a couple of years are getting jobs."
___The Beslys also have referred a number of people to a rehabilitation center outside the inner city. One individual asked them to drive him to the bus station so he wouldn't be tempted to buy drugs before he got there.
___Jason Besly recently was able to provide for a man in a tangible way. After coming to the food pantry, the man told Jason all he needed to get a job was a hardhat. A hardhat had been sitting unused in the back of Jason's truck for six months. He gave it to the man, and the man went to work.
___An after-school tutoring program is the newest ministry for Crossover. Located in a recreation center next to the "Little Mexico" housing project on Harry Hines Boulevard, the program helps about 35 children from the apartments on Monday and Wednesday afternoons.
___The children who attend range in age from kindergarten through sixth grade. Sullen and skeptical at first, the children slowly have warmed up to the Beslys and their volunteers.
___"At first, they wouldn't talk to us, and now they come up to us and tell us everything," Katie Besly said. The twenty-something couple also provides an important example of a good marriage for the children.
___"The girls were appalled that Jason was my husband," she explained. Since most of the children live with their mothers or some other female caregiver, they don't have good role models for fathers and husbands. Apparently the girls were worried about Katie's safety.
___The Beslys, both graduates of Texas A&M University, came to Crossover Ministries in August last year. Both are Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Envoys under a new program where they receive CBF support but no funding.
___Crossover Ministries is a non-profit organization supported by local churches, Dallas Baptist Association and several foundations.
___Churches currently supporting the ministry include Park Cities Baptist, Audelia Road Baptist, First Baptist of Carrollton, Ebenezer Baptist, North Dallas Baptist and Wilshire Baptist. Volunteers from these churches also work with the various ministries.
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