Pearl's Before Mine: Nearing the end of Camp

Summer Day Camp - We are nearly finished with our 6 week long virtual summer day camp. This year has thrown us surprises that have forced us to be innovative and flexible. As mentioned in the previous month's blog, we meet virtually Monday through Thursday, and have attempted to meet in person on Fridays. As of right now, with the number of positive cases surging in the Jacksonville area, we have decided to finish out camp completely virtual. However, the kids were lucky enough to meet up at the church for one more Friday to make giant bubbles, build intricate balloon animals, and oh yeah, MEET SOME ANIMALS FROM THE JACKSONVILLE ZOO! In review of the camp, it seems that the Camp in a Box idea has been a success! As the school year is right around the corner, we are proceeding with caution. There will be more updates on our plans for other programs hopefully next month.

BLOCK - Our middle and high school program has had its ups and downs. Currently, we meet every Tuesday night via zoom, and the kids that have been coming have been hungry for the word of God. When asked to think through questions they have about God, the Bible, and life in general, these students came back with thought-provoking questions, questions they had clearly been wrestling with in the past.

"Why does God let bad things happen?"

"Are women allowed to be pastors?"

"What do I do with my anger towards someone who hurt me?"

We answered these questions to the best of our abilities and with Scripture that God had put on our hearts. The students soaked up every word. Praise God for their pursuit of the Lord their excitement to see what the word of God says! This is great news for the kids who have been attending, but it has been difficult to get more kids to join in on the virtual calls. With school starting up, knowing that many of them will be learning virtually at least for the beginning of the school year, will the kids want to get on yet another virtual call? With the summer nearing its end, what type of content, what type of programs, what type of activities will effectively engage middle and high school students to want to hop on a call? If you have answers, suggestions, or even any helpful input or experience in this, please email me at lilvollmer@gmail.com.

Nutritional Garden - About once every other week, I go to our neighborhood garden that 2nd Mile maintains and spend lots of my time pulling weeds, watering plants, and dreaming of what it would look like if the garden was flourishing. My creative juices start flowing in thinking of ways to improve a garden that almost seems too full of potential. Please pray that God would give me wisdom to discern what this creative surge is doing and why I'm drawn to the garden more and more. I feel a shift coming at some point, a positive shift. This could be because of the pandemic and being cooped up for so long, or maybe it could be the necessary slowing down that my life really needed to see what God has been doing in my heart.

And finally, I leave you with a video I'd like for you to watch. It's a series called "Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man." A black man answers questions that some people might be too afraid to directly ask a person of color. He also brings guests in subsequent episodes to hear from others. In one he brings out interracial couples. In another he invites white parents who have adopted children of color. What I love about the series is that everyone that comes on has not only the ability to share their own personal experiences to the group, but there is a posture of respect and humility and willingness to listen of others. For me, it's hard to ask people questions sometimes, because it might expose my lack of knowledge or awareness, or it requires me to listen to someone else's point of view which may clash with mine. A great way to show you love and care about someone is to ask them questions and just listen. I encourage you to watch at least this first episode.

Thank you for reading this blog.