Connect Middle School Program- April has been month of practicing what it means to have a relationship with God. Rather than just reading the Bible and learning about God, we took a couple Thursdays to spend intentional time with Him. We not only learned about quiet times, why they are important, and how Jesus had his quiet times, but we also took about a half hour to just read Scripture, journal, and pray to God himself. This was a new experience for most of the students and they said that they felt more and more calm as the quiet time went on. The following week, we spent time learning about prayer, how to pray, and what we could pray for. With various stations around the church with a different aspect of prayer (gratitude, pray for others, confessing sin, asking forgiveness, making personal requests), the students could freely go to whatever station they felt led to go to. It was encouraging to me to hear some of them say that the easiest station for them to pray was praying for others. I struggle with this one. Too often my prayers manifest themselves out of my own feelings and personal needs. Today we will be watching the Passion of the Christ and I'm praying that this powerful display of Christ's sacrifice would bring a deeper desire within the students to draw nearer to Him in their lives.
The middle school students have done some art with spray paint and glue (really cool) as well as had a night to just play around on many different musical instruments. It was a lot of fun playing/teaching simple tunes on the keyboard.
Community Garden- With the former garden keeper now in a new role, 2nd Mile staff and volunteers are now in a rotation to keep this garden looking nice. I remember my mom keeping a small garden on the side of our garage growing up, and I remember occasionally helping, but was never really interested in it. Missi and I went to the garden for less than an hour and let me tell you, it is hard work. We weeded, and we weeded, and we weeded, and we watered a little bit. I think the weeds were growing faster than we were picking them. Weeds are really annoying. I will say, however, that it was very relaxing to be in a place where nature is grown, little lizards are running around, and right in the middle of our Brentwood neighborhood. Hopefully the extra hands in the garden will allow more people to appreciate this little gem on our streets.
Personal Share- I'm sorry. We gotta talk about the Milwaukee Bucks. Never in my life have the Bucks been in 1st place in the Eastern Conference, only once in my life have they led their division at the end of the season. This is a special year for them and I'm really hoping they not only get past the first round of the playoffs, but hopefully contend for a championship in the Finals. Sometimes I forget that famous athletes or celebrities are people too. I elevate them as untouchable, only there to entertain me and for me to watch and consume. If you have a minute, I would really like you to read a blog written by Utah Jazz sharp shooter Kyle Korver. In a league that's 75% African American, Korver (white) talks about his experience in the NBA. He has a unique perspective and I think we all can learn a lot from his blog. Click this link to read it now. https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/kyle-korver-utah-jazz-nba
Did you read it? Makes you think huh?
Anyway, thank you as always for taking the time to read these blogs. Whether these blogs encourage you, challenge you, upset you, or just inform you, I thank you for reading.
Have a blessed Resurrection Week!
