Connect Middle School Program: More kids coming. More kids staying. More kids growing in leadership. More kids being introduced to the Bible, to God, and to what that means for their lives. Sometimes I overestimate what a teenager can really take in and apply to their lives. Other times, I completely underestimate their ability to understand biblical concepts and how to relate to them. I've been super blessed to be able to see Christian volunteers come in and lead a small group of teenagers in what the Bible says about a certain topic. They break it down in terms that the students understand by using their own examples and stories to better convey the biblical truths. This month, we are learning about anger and different ways it comes out and what God wants us to do with that anger.
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| Sweet potato harvesting |
In October, we've had a chill game night. Just Dance was a huge hit on the Wii. We went to our nutritional garden and harvested sweet potatoes. It was getting darker earlier so we had to work quickly on weeding some garden beds and digging for those veggies. Also coming up this Saturday is our annual Family Fall Festival, and the middle schoolers have been planning, designing, creating a photo booth wall to be used at the event. They voted on pumpkins, candy corn, and skeleton masks like in the beloved movie Coco. Interesting combination of decorations but they have been executing it well. A couple of the students were even willing to come early to the event to help set up. I believe these kids are hungry for responsibility, for meaning, and for growth. Please pray for continued growth in their lives, for wisdom for us as staff and volunteers to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit when He would have us speak truth into their lives, and for even more kids. God proves over and over that he answers prayers, we just need to put our trust in Him.
Boys Day at the After School Program: We had six boys over at my house earlier in the month (most ever to be in my house so far) and it was fun for the most part. We got to do one of my favorite activities--spray paint art! While the boys waited their turn to colorfully express themselves, they watched the movie Like Mike inside. It was good bonding but also revealed some frustrations between some of the boys. Three of the boys are brothers and new to the program. None know how to read and struggle to process things like when they can't have what they want when they want it, when they lose in a game, etc. The other three boys have been around for years and definitely have a strong bond towards each other and band together to despise and ignore the new boys. Please pray that the boys would learn how to handle conflict this year and how to make good choices despite the choices that others make.
Max Update: Praise report, Max's hand is out of his cast and the bone has healed fine. Prayer request. Max seems to be struggling to poop lately which is resulting in stomach pain and throwing up a lot in the mornings. We give him laxatives, give him reflux medicine in case it's something to do with that, and mess with his feeding rates and amounts. If you could please pray that God would give us answers, we would be gracious. He often seems to take two steps forward and 1.9 steps back.
Thank you so much to those who donated sports equipment or money last month. The kids have been overjoyed!
If you want to see something you've never seen before, click the link below. We got a sweet new basketball to make videos with.
