North American Mission Board mission-
aries Andrew Mann, Ashley Emmert and Kelsey Townsell take advantage of the quiet to prepare for the week ahead. The three twentysomethings huddle for a quick staff meeting then return to their respective tasks. Sitting at his laptop, Andrew Mann
aBove: us/C2 missionary ashley emmert moved to new York from texas in 2008 to serve as director of Women’s Ministry and Child/ Youth development. BottoM: semester missionary Kelsey town- sell, joined G2 in 2009 as associate director of youth ministries.
reaches down and scratches the head of a yellow Labrador Retriever lying at his feet. The slumbering dog peeks one eye in recog- nition of her master’s touch. “Proof” knows now is the time to catch some Z’s before the after-school crowd rushes in and the real work begins.
Gone to the doGs
The five-year-old Lab is not your average
pooch. She’s a Canine Assistance Animal trained as a professional therapy dog that has become instrumental in Andrew’s min- istry at Graffiti 2 where she serves as a read- ing incentive, de-escalation tool and source of unconditional love for the children. “For kids who struggle to read, it’s good
for them to read out loud,” explains Andrew. “Sometimes they’re embarrassed to read to an adult, because we recognize their mis- takes. Proof doesn’t know their mistakes and they’re comfortable reading out loud to her.” Andrew also uses Proof as an anger management tool. If a kid is mad or upset, Andrew hands over Proof’s leash and asks them to watch her. “I wait until they’re calm and petting Proof, then I can walk over and talk to them,” says Andrew.
Pretty cool “tricks” for a dog, but what’s amazing is her uncanny ability to evalu- ate a situation and problem-solve to find a solution. Andrew tells the story of a kid who was having a particularly bad day— ”screaming at the top of his lungs, inter- rupting the rest of the program and making it difficult for the other kids. “With no cue from me, Proof got up and walked toward us. He walked right up to the kid and started licking his hands. Like a light switch being flipped off, he stopped screaming and started petting Proof. He was calm the rest of the day. “She’s a very special dog,” says Andrew.
“We call her the first missionary dog. For the kids, there’s few better examples in our
natural world of God’s unconditional love than what comes through a dog.”
Want a revolution
It’s been five years since Andrew moved into
the neighborhood—a far cry from the Mis- souri farm where he grew up. What started as a week-long summer sports camp has grown into a thriving after-school program, an expanded summer sports and fine arts program and—most important—a church primed to minister in the neighborhood. Andrew, Ashley and Kelsey have seen
the effects of a culture that largely ignores God—crime, vandalism, malnutrition, teenage pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, gang activity. You name it they’ve seen it. But that hasn’t kept them from moving in and making Mott Haven home. Like a lot of young people, they see themselves as dif- ference makers, world changers. “We’ve been impacted by the love of Je-
sus Christ,” says Andrew. “And that in turn leads us to impact everyone around us.” Andrew points to the God-given mis- sion of Graffiti 2 written on the wall— Revitalize, Revive and Revolutionize. “It’s the idea of ministering to the whole person,” says Andrew. “When we’re doing that, we allow the most opportunities for the Holy Spirit to work in someone’s life. “We can’t draw people to God, only God
can do that,” he says. “We can proclaim it, we can share the good news, and we’re just going to keep doing that.” These three young missionaries have
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