Smoke Rise Baptist Weekday School is blessed to have wonderful families within our community. We wanted to introduce you to two of them in this edition of the CrossTie. Both families are actively involved in ministry locally and abroad. The Weekday School is blessed to support these families with discounted tuition as our way of supporting the ministries in which they are involved. It is our pleasure to introduce the Green and Iverson families to you:
The Green Family
Jacob and Tatum Green are the directors of Youth with a Mission (YWAM) Atlanta. Youth with a Mission is a global, interdenominational missions movement of Christians dedicated to knowing God and making God known. With a presence in nearly every nation, YWAM’s ministry flows through three main expressions: Evangelism, Trainin, and Mercy Ministry. In 2024, Jacob and Tatum’s biggest ministry project was called Kindness Stone Mountain. Their vision was to gift a Bible to every home in the city limits of Stone Mountain, also called “Stone Mountain Village.” This included as many as 3,400 homes they visited. Families received a Bible and heard the Gospel. People were very open with our having only a five percent rejection rate.
To learn more about YWAM, visit https://www.ywamatlanta.org/about-ywam-atlanta
To support The Green family financially, visit https://tnpartners.org/
The Green family has also faced insurmountable grief as they have been serving the Lord and raising a family. The Greens’ son, Sammy, is in his second year at the Weekday School. Not long before joining our community, the Greens’ second son, TJ, was born with trisomy 18. He lived only a short time before Jacob, Tatum and Sammy had to say goodbye. Out of their grief and as a way to educate and support other families who have experienced such tragic loss, Tatum and her sister, Annie F. Downs, wrote the book Where Did TJ Go? This is a book for kids about grief, loss, and the hope of heaven.
Tatum says, “When we got TJ’s trisomy 18 diagnosis at 12 weeks of my pregnancy, one of my first thoughts was how this would impact Sam. He was only 18-months-old at that time. He turned two right after TJ was born. Figuring out how to walk Sam through this felt so heavy. How do we communicate such big, hard things to such a small (but smart) boy? My therapist suggested that we find a book to read with him to help him understand TJ’s medical challenges and that he would not be with us for long. We wanted something that would expose him to death and grief while pointing him to truth and hope. Since my sister is an author, I figured she’d be able to find a good book for us. She asked around and shockingly there wasn’t anything that fit what we were looking for. So, Annie said, “I guess we’re writing a book.” So that’s what they did.
The Greens feel it is a gift to get to share their two precious boys with the world. It is their prayer that their book will comfort families in knowing they are seen and that they’re not alone in their grief and also remind parents and kids/siblings alike that we have eternal hope in Jesus.
To get your own copy of Where Did TJ Go?, find it on Amazon at https://a.co/d/3zrySqi
The Iverson Family
Danny and Kimberly Iverson have been doing inner-city ministry together since the time of their engagement. They first started among the projects of Newark, NJ, then traveled to Orlando, FL, for seminary. They then moved to Atlanta, to do church planting and nonprofit work in the under-resourced area of the Westside. There they started Restore Life, a nonprofit that identifies local leaders and empowers them to serve their communities in the ways God has called them—from food and clothing ministry, to youth mentorship, summer camps, neighborhood cleanups and work projects to the building of a full professional recording studio for Christian artists and the mentorship of youth. As gentrification took place on the Westside of Atlanta, the families they had been working with were pushed out to extended stay hotels. They themselves moved to Stone Mountain, and now work with youth and young adults coming out of the juvenile detention centers, families in extended stay hotels, and the community at large. Both Danny and Kimberly encountered the power of the risen Lord Jesus when they were teens, Kimberly in Virginia after her mom‘s death, and Danny in Japan. They know that the message of Christ’s sacrifice for us on the cross, His death and resurrection has the power of God to change the human heart and deliver individuals from the cycle of poverty, addiction, and the lure of gang life. Christ’s power and His presence are also their hope as they raise their 11 children (Kimberly just gave birth to twin boys!) and welcome many people from various backgrounds into their home for worship, meals or mentorship. They are currently gearing up and raising money for their annual six-week summer program, which serves over 100 youth and teens throughout Atlanta. For more information about the Iversons and for ways to support Restore Life, follow along via their website at https://secure.qgiv.com/for/ifs/ .
In addition to running full steam ahead with their ministry, Kimberly has recently written a book, entitled Memoir from the Manic Years. In the book, Kimberly describes her struggles with postpartum anxiety after giving birth to her eighth child, and her journey as she discovers the virtue of humility as an antidote to anxiety. Memoir from the Manic Years makes the unlikely connection between humility and peace of mind, allowing the reader to come to a place of rest and freedom amid their own manic seasons of life. Drawing from a book published by an 18th century pastor, the author takes forgotten truths and communicates them in fresh ways as they relate to the very real details of daily life. This wonderful book is available from Amazon at https://a.co/d/5dQn23e.
The Iversonss’ son, Joel, is a 2024 graduate of the Weekday School. Their daughter, Hope Shalom, is a current student in our Dolphin class!
It is a privilege to get to hear the stories of these families doing such good work right here in our neighborhood. When you support the Weekday School, we are in turn able to support families just like the Greens and the Iversons. Please pray with us for these families as they continue their ministries. If you are unable to purchase copies of their books on your own, you can find them in our church library.