Well, week 3 is about to start here in a couple hours so
I figured I’d update y’all in my last few minutes of free time. This past week presented new challenges, new
successes, and more growth and excitement in multiple ways.
We had a total of 54 participants from three different
churches from Hudson, OH, Greeneville, TN, and Orlando, FL. Going from 30 to 54
participants was an adjustment as the amount of food we needed quickly
multiplied, the amount of bodies made our space tighter, and the number of
participants to connect with and form relationships with grew. Nonetheless, we
were all very excited to start week 2 and take on the challenges that it
presented.
As Sunday evening rolled around everything seemed to be
going smoothly. We were cooking dinner and groups started arriving. We then received
word that the group from Ohio was caught in traffic resulting from a rock slide
and would not be arriving until around 8 o’clock which threw our schedule
completely off. We decided to keep going as normal and that I would stay back
and feed the group when they arrived. Dinner was given and cleaned up and youth
orientation had just begun. We were in the start of orientation when some of
the youth raised their hands and told us the kitchen ceiling was leaking. As I
looked back, I saw water gushing from the ceiling hitting a good portion of our
pots and pans and flooding the floor. By God’s grace, dinner was over and our
club room was moved to the dining room otherwise we might have not seen this
until much later. At the same time the ceiling was leaking, the group from Ohio
was arriving. Needless to say, the start of the evening was pretty hectic. We
were able to put trash cans out to catch the water and the church’s maintenance
man, John was able to come quickly and fix the problem. We proceeded with orientation
and the rest of the night moved rather smoothly! One downside resulting from
this was that we had to wash and sanitize all of the dishes and pots hit by the
water (which we discovered was toilet water) later that night. We did finish
before midnight though!!
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All the dishes we had to do!!
This week was the first week of having all four kids
clubs. Last week went relatively smoothly with doing two of the kids clubs at
Carver and the Boys and Girls Club so I wasn’t super nervous, although I knew
there would be challenges that I would face. I was able to created four bins
for each site with different craft materials and games for the participants to
take. We had orientation Monday morning and everything seemed to go well. The
adult leaders and youth acted excited for the week. The groups headed out to
their specific sites and I started my rotations between the four sites. My
first stop was the Boys and Girls Club. This is the site where we cannot talk
about Jesus therefore, we focus on just the fruit of the spirit which happened
to be patience last week. This was our second week at the Boys and Girls Club
so the staff there and the kids knew what to expect when we arrived. I had no
trouble getting this group started off and it was wonderful going back and hearing
“Miss Hope you came back like you said you would!”.
My next stop was to Glenwood Rec Center. This was our
first week so I knew that it would be a little more challenging to get started.
However, I was not prepared for the seemingly mad chaos that I walked into.
There were about 80 kids and they were all over the place. The adult leaders
were very frustrated and stressed and rightly so. The kids were supposed to go
swimming but because of the weather that did not happen. Because they couldn’t swim,
the kids were out of control and so was their behavior. I decided to wait and
see how Tuesday went before taking any action to fix anything because I knew
Monday was an off day. However, Tuesday was not any different. After talking
with my area and site director, we decided that I should meet with the main
contact and get on the same page, expressing my concerns and seeing what
changes could be made. We were able to eliminate the 11-12 year old group and
have staff members in each room to help control the kids. Wednesday and
Thursday were worlds apart from the first two days. When I walked into sharing
square on Wednesday I almost cried at the attention the kids gave and the
attentiveness the possessed. God is good!
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This is a picture of the youth leading the kids in a
song!
The last two sites, Avondale and Carver ran relatively
smoothly. I am super excited to go back tomorrow and start a new week with the
4 sites. It is amazing to me the impact that is being made on the kids. Because
of the youth and their amazing teaching, 75 kids total from all four sites were
able to memorize the bible verse of the week! I am hoping to up that number to
100 in the next couple of weeks!
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Sometimes I feel that I am not making relationships with
the kids because I am only at each site for about 30 minutes every day and
during that time I am teaching them, not interacting in the way that I wish I
could. It is easy for me to be frustrated and upset that I am not forming these
relationships in the way that I want
to. But God is using me still and he is constantly reminding me of that. As we
were shopping at SAM’S Club for next week’s food a little girl approached me as
I walked out of the store. She asked me, “Are you Hope?” “Yes, I am!” “You work
at Avondale!”. A little girl whose name I don’t know and who I only met this
past week knew who I was. God has tricky but amazing ways of showing me that he
is using me and that if an impact was made in just one week, he has big plans
for the rest of the summer!
This coming week we have a total of 69 people (including
staff members). We have a group from Florida, Michigan, and Minnesota this
week. Please pray for the students and adult leaders who are currently on their
way to Chattanooga. Pray for open hearts, minds, and souls. That God would use
them in unforeseeable ways this week and that they would be able to serve with
their whole hearts, experiences new things every day. Also, please pray for our
staff as we had some changes that were made this past weekend. We have an
amazing new program staff named Garrett and we are all very excited to work
with him the rest of the summer. Please pray that we would be able to bond as a
team and grow with each other and in God together. Pray that we could
effectively lead these youth and show them, along with their adult leaders the
love of God!
This week’s theme for kids club is Goodness and the Bible
superhero is Noah. It is amazing that I am learning just as much, if not more,
than I am teaching each week. God is good in so many ways! Here is the kid’s
club memory verse for the week, one that is a wonderful reminder of God’s
goodness and his purpose for each of us:
“But you are not like that, for you are a
chosen people…you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of
the darkness into his wonderful light.” 1
Peter 2:9
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