Welcome to the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year!!!! We are currently in our first week of school here in Duval County and the two:fiftytwo After School Program is underway. We have 15 kids enrolled and 12 of them are returning students! There were questions as to whether or not a few of them would come back due to some families moving away. Thankfully, for right now, those few are able to continue in our ministry and continue to build relationships with us and God. As the kids get used to structure once again at school and our program, please pray that they get acclimated smoothly and that our relationships with their families and teachers would help create a safe environment in their lives where they can Live the truth of the gospel, Learn as scholars, and Lead their community forward.
This is Amaria. This is her second year with us and she is now in 3rd grade. I had the privilege of reading a book called Pool Party with her Monday and Tuesday. When we got to a part in the book where the dog couldn't see color, Amaria started asking questions about colorblindness. She wanted to know what her dog saw when it looked at her. Here are the pictures I showed her. She giggled saying, "That's weird."
Something else that has been encouraging me lately is the number of former two:fiftytwo students there are in our Connect Middle School Program. Now that I help out with the middle schoolers every Monday and Thursday, I get to continue those relationships and talk through some more "mature" subjects. Middle school is another whole ballgame. If you have taught both elementary and middle school, you know exactly what I mean. At Connect, there are more advanced Bible lessons, life skills, cooking classes, art lessons, games and sports, as well as guest speakers. While I was in Wisconsin a couple weeks ago, I received this picture in a text while the middle school program was going on. There goes Diallo waving while they were in the middle of a cooking lesson. Diallo was an usher at my wedding and I'm blessed to have the opportunity to spend time with him, at least a couple times each week. Please pray that these middle school students start their year off with good first impressions, discover more and more about who they are and how God created them, and that they learn to put others before themselves.
For all you students, teachers, parents of students, parents of teachers, etc., may God bless your school year and may you acknowledge him in all your ways.
What is it about nature that draws us to it? Looking out into the ocean or staring up at a range of mountains. Hearing a beautiful song played by a cello choir, seeing so many species of birds in one place, so many trees. I envy the first man, Adam, at times. He got to experience all of God's creation as it was intended to be, uninterrupted by cars, not torn up by paved roads. Just Adam and the trees, the waters, the creatures of the air and the creatures of the sea, and God. Growing up, my family would vacation frequently in Colorado. I'd stare out the window in awe of the size of the rocks and trees as we drove through mountains to get to where we needed to go. Not only on vacation, but I often imagine what an area looked like before all of man's creation took place. Five hundred years ago, before this Target and it's huge parking lot and competing businesses were here, how tall did the trees grow? What animals roamed the earth? Because I grew up in the suburbs and now in the big city of Jacksonville, I can start to believe that most of the earth is now tainted with the works of man. That thought get completely obliterated when I fly in a plane. As we take off, people shrink as though ants, then invisible. Cars shrink as though fleas, then invisible. Streets, small neighborhoods, big neighborhoods, even big cities, become as small as insects. I quickly realize that my problems, my network of relationships, my goals compared to the vastness of God's creation are nearly invisible.
I was fortunate in the past couple weeks to travel with my wife and her parents on an Alaskan cruise. Talk about a large piece of creation barely touched by man. There are many places that people live in Alaska that can only be reached by boat or sea plane. Very few roads. When Alaska was purchased from Russia, it was thought to be a dumb purchase, a waste of money (despite only paying two cents per acre), until gold, oil, and other minerals were discovered. As we took a nine-hour long train ride one day, there were references to the 9.2 earthquake of 1964 that completely demolished certain areas. From that earthquake, the trees created a time table based on where and when those trees began to grow again. Dramatic shifts in the earth were pointed out by our guide on what altitude some land used to reside. I just seemed very small. Very very small. In one hundred years, "Andrew Vollmer" will probably not be talked of again (referring to me, I realize I don't solely own that name). I'll be gone, yet it will still rain, the earth will still rotate, life will carry on. So what's the point of all this? Why am I even here? God sees a thousand years as a day and a day as a thousand years. He knows when the next volcano will erupt, when the next forest fire will happen, where the glaciers will melt to. We play but a very tiny role in eternity. I like this quote from Dead Poet's Society. "To quote from Whitman, 'O me! O life!...of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless...of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?' Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?"
We are mortal beings. We will die someday. There's no getting around that. I talked about the trees, the waters, the mountains, the animals, all that God had made. But He made one thing is his own image. Man. As I've contemplated my life the past few years living in Brentwood, ministering to those that have needs and pains and struggles, I see so many metaphors running into each other in a beautiful symphony of colors and sounds and tempos and tones and timbres. Ripples (my actions can impact my sphere of influence). Mirrors (the light of Christ reflects off of me for others to see). Instruments (we are to be used by God for his song). Although it is tempting to move to Alaska, build a cabin, and hunt and fish in seclusion for the rest of my life, just me and God, that is not my purpose. To put it plainly, my purpose is to make disciples of Jesus Christ, make it known to others that he exists and that he has come to walk on his creation to save his creation from the evils of the world and our hearts and is alive today, still at work.
As a new school year is around the corner, I'm excited at the opportunities to continue to build relationships with the kids, their families, and making Christ known in this neighborhood. At times when I just don't think they are getting the gospel or making any progress, God blesses me with signs of hope.
Ripples grow. Mirrors reflect. Instruments play.
Check out this Alaska Cello Intensive cello choir all made up of kids between 6 and 16. They are really good. We got to see them play (but not in the snow).
