Oooh this is getting good!

Only one month ago: apple sauce, goldfish, cheetos, and apples.

In the past month: bananas, carrots, apple juice, yogurt, pears, blueberries, pancakes, pumpkin bars, potatoes, peas, broccoli, meatballs, and of course apple sauce, goldfish, cheetos, and apples.

These are the foods Max has been willing to eat or try. We are hoping this will translate to the beginnings of calorie-counting and slowly removing the amount of milk he needs via food pump. Keep him (and us) in prayer.

BLOCK Middle School Program - We've had a small number of kids coming so far this year but the connections and relationship building have flourished. Out of the kids, I'd say most are soft-spoken, shy, and introverted. However, after a few weeks of playing games, their friendships have been forming and growing. Who knew it would only take a little Wipeout on the Wii. In connecting with the Young Life coordinator, we were invited to attend a showing of Hamilton downtown at the Times Union Theatre. Despite being late on a Wednesday night and getting the students back home around 11pm, we had a blast. It was long, yes, but the kids couldn't stop talking about their favorite songs and characters. King George was a favorite for sure.

We have also started doing some Bible lessons while watching The Chosen. The free tv show takes a deeper dive into the disciples of Christ. Spoiler alert about the first episode. You can skip down below the picture of "Jesus" if you don't want to know. Episode one follows Mary from Magdala and how Jesus met her at her lowest point. We only see Jesus for maybe the last couple minutes of the episode, but with the music swelling and her life about to change, one of our students said, "Oooh this is getting good!" The show has been very powerful in my recent life. It is not a replacement for the gospels, but it does make the people from the Bible feel more accessible and relatable to us today.

Family Fall Festival - We were able to have our Family Fall Festival this year! Last year we cancelled it due to covid and we were debating whether to give it another year, but with covid cases trending downward in our area, we gave it a shot. With social distancing practices in place, we had about 20 trunk or treat games and 20 health/community vendors come out to hand out candy and connect the people with different resources in their community. At the end of the day, we had over 500 people attend! Although it was smaller than previous years, I saw so much joy from the first-time volunteers, from former students who came to help out, and from the families who came to dance to the music, collect some candy, and have a great time. The Jacksonville Free Press even wrote an article about the event! You can click the link below to check it out.

https://jacksonvillefreepress.com/fall-festival-reignites-community-transformation-and-empowerment/

Unfortunately I was very busy the day of the festival and did not take many pictures of the event. If you want to see pictures of the event, you can either go to the 2nd Mile Ministries page on facebook, or you can follow 2nd Mile Ministries on instagram.

Follow block_brentwood on instagram to see this cup stacking competition play out.