January 2023 - They are precious in his sight

I gotta shout out a few of the kids in our two:fiftytwo After School Program.

Zavier, a 5th grader, has shown tremendous growth in his second year with us. We've had many conversations about leadership, responsibility, and humility. He is quick to follow directions and understand how things are run with the program. He is always offering to help clean up sports equipment, always absorbing the little nuggets of wisdom that we sometimes feel go unheard, and he takes great care and focus on the things that he cares about. For example, when we go to the garden, he volunteers to take pictures. Thinking he just wanted to get out of pulling weeds, I was surprised to see how creative he got with the photos. Most pictures you see in these blogs of the garden were taken by Zavier. Another example, he loves basketball. He practices his skills and often challenges me to 1on1 to try these new skills. When he wants to learn a new skill, he asks for help. He is extremely driven, has a great sense of humor, and has the respect of many of the other students. To the right, he is pretending to be a barber and acts like he's cutting his little brother's hair. Other boys lined up to get their hair "cut". I'm excited to see who Zavier grows up to be. He's at an age where he seems very teachable and willing to grow.

Faith and Daliyah, two 2nd grade girls, are two of the kindest kids in our program. They do their homework during homework time, hungry to understand new things. Daliyah has mentioned that when she grows up, she wants to lead two:fiftytwo and plan fun activities. Daliyah, the job is yours when you get older if you want it. Faith is a quieter leader as you might not even realize that she has cleaned up trash, sports equipment, or supplies, until you notice her quietly carrying lots of stuff. She doesn't seek out praise and is very attentive to what's being said. Every Wednesday we have talking circles and at the end of that time, everybody goes around and does a G.A.P. (a gratitude, an apology, or a praise for someone that's in the circle). I've heard multiple adults in multiple weeks praise Faith for paying attention and keeping on task. What personalities these kids will have as they get older, only God knows.

This year I learned that Victor, a 4th grader, is very creative and loves art. Well, most kids love art, but Victor is actually really good, and gets lost in his drawings and paintings. This is his second year with us, and last year we focused a lot on his reading which was at a much lower grade level than where he should've been. In can be easy to focus too much on a kid's weaknesses and not see the gifts right in front of you. Sometimes I get frustrated when I can't make progress with a kid's reading or understanding, even my own kid. I hate to equate helping a kid learn with frustration and stress. Victor and I bond over different ideas and it's great to see the moments where he helps the younger kids with reading or other homework.

Here's a thought. Everything you've ever seen, ever heard, ever learned, or ever experienced in your life, at one time, it was the first time you've ever seen, heard, learned, or experienced that thing. The first time on a swing set. The first time living on your own. The first time eating chicken noodle soup. The first time seeing a frog in the wild. I'm in the unique position to be able to expose the students to new things. At the BLOCK middle and high school program this past month. We "painted" with light and learned about long-exposure photography. (Check out our instagram @block_brentwood for more awesome pictures.) We went to the local park, played some tennis and tried out pickleball for the first time. I hope to take them ziplining for our end of the year field trip, which will be a scary yet unforgettable experience for them I am sure. We also have a challenge snack each Friday. If you eat this (blank), you get a bag of chips, or a honey bun, or etc.  Usually the (blank) is a vegetable or a fruit, which I'm surprised at how few of them have eaten. For example, some high schoolers have never had bell peppers or raspberries before. Wild.

I'd like to end this blog to talk about Amazon Smile. This is a program that Amazon has created to help shoppers link up with non-profits and different charities so that their purchases will make Amazon give a donation on their behalf. We've learned that sometime in February, Amazon Smile will no longer exist. A HUGE thank you to those who've designated 2nd Mile Ministries as their organization of choice when shopping on Amazon. How you can continue to help with Amazon, I'm going to share our Amazon wishlist. Hopefully this Amazon wishlist link will work. It's a small list as we are trying to build it out with things we may need for summer camp. Currently there are some sports equipment things, kids Bibles, ball racks, and art supplies there. If you want to buy something, you can ship it to my house at 3646 Brentwood Blvd., Jacksonville, FL 32206 and I promise I'll take it to work with me and not keep it for myself haha. Thank you for reading, for the prayers if you remember to pray for us, and for the support over the years.