Camp Week #1

The art side during a game of beach volleyball

Kids outside doing sidewalk chalk during a session of art camp

We finished up the first week of camps this past week, so things are quiet around here until next week when we start things up again. Please pray for us this week as we prepare for the second week. So far I have confirmed numbers with two of the groups that are coming next week and they are bringing many fewer people than they originally thought. I will not worry--God, I trust you! Please pray that He would do a miracle and bring out many people to help next week. We had so many helpers last week and it was awesome. We had three groups from Texas, Maryland, and Ohio, plus Operation Barnabas for a short time while they were starting up their traveling. Also, several people from our church--April, Bruce, Sam, Chris, Ashli, Jason, Alethea, Jason, and Hilda, to name a few. It was amazing to see all of the groups working together as one.
Here is an update from Ashli, who is a vital part of making the camps happen. This update camp in the middle of the week last week, but there are still things to be praying for this week!




Aahh...KIP STREET. So you know the kids that you work with are a little rough around the edges when a good friend comes up to you and asks, "So does Kip Street really have to come to camp?" and then laughs. Please pray for the Kip Street kids. They are living up to there previously self-made reputations. Here's some of their names: Jose, Andre, David, Brandon, NICHOLAS, and Anthony (he no longer lives on kip street but fights with david). These boys are the definition of handful. Please pray that God softens their hearts and gives each of their leaders wisdom. Numbers...some are into this some aren't so I'll just share. We all know that numbers are NOT what counts, but we were'nt sure how many kids would show, so this is kind of cool. About 130 kids are currently registered. 78 or 79 kids came Monday and 89 kids came today. 10 kids who came yesterday didn't come today. That means we've already seen around 99 kids. Pray that God would be at work in all of our hearts. Pray for safety. Pray for HIS GLORY. Tomorrow there's no school for kids so we're switching back to our normal camp time of 12-4 we've been meeting 4-7. Please pray that parent's would remember this switch and that kids would be awake and ready. We'll be focusing on Matthew 15:18- but the words that come out of your mouth comre from your heart. And they are what make you unfit to worship God.
Thank you for your prayers!

Thoughts from Bethany

4.

3.
1.

2.

We had an awesome day on Saturday and Sunday, too, really. It was just an awesome weekend overall that God gave us. Saturday morning we went downtown to run and Ryan convinced us to go the full loop-8.5 miles! That is the most I have run since before I was pregnant. We did it, even in the midst of some rain. Ryan invited our intern over for lunch and then they put in one of the doors in the new bathroom. It looks so good! Then we hung out with our neighbors for a while at our block party. Do our neighbors ever know how to party! We had two pigs slow roasting out in front of our house all day long. Check out some pictures: 1.Here is one of the pigs roasting. The first one was done already, so people are lined up to get food like rice and beans, macaroni salad, chicken livers and green bananas, and rolls (brought by us). Kids were wizzing by on scooters with pig skin hanging out of their months. Kind of like a fatty popsicle. :) Ryan tried it and said it was much too strong for him. 2.Here Albert, our next door neighbor, is butchering the pig. They were just hacking away at it! They had kept the pigs in their basement overnight and Irving (their four year old son) kept asking Ryan and I on Friday night if we wanted to see them. No thank you! But we definitely couldn't avoid seeing them on Saturday. I actually had a few bites because I want to be as Puerto Rican as I possibly can. It had a lot of flavor. 3.Here are Maria and Albert in between bites. They have three children who live at home with them--Angel (14), who Ryan is starting to get to know and has been to ROCK a few times, Shalia (9), my favorite little girl in the world or my second child as I often call her, and Irving (4), who is so full of energy and opens his front door everytime we open our's to come in or leave so he can talk. Please pray that they would clearly see Jesus is us and Shalia who is a growing little sister in Christ. Pray that we would learn Spanish so we are better able to talk to them and show them the love of Christ! 4.One last picture of Shalia and her friend Sally from NJ who came down for the day to hang out at the block party.We finished up the day with a birthday party at the youth center for Gina, another one of my Cornerstone girls. So, we had a second dinner and some cake and listened to High School Musical songs all night. It was fun to get to meet some more of her family. I really love her mom, Bobbie. She is a sweet sister and it is so great to know that Gina is being raised in a Christian home with two parents who love Jesus. Family makes such a difference!Yesterday we had celebration and then Ryan and I got to have a relaxing afternoon together since there is no Kingdom Kids again until September. I love Kingdom Kids, but it is nice for a break. We did some drywall together and then dropped Judah off at the sitters so we could go to the gym for a little bit. Ryan had a great night watching the Lakers win the championship last night and I am thankful for some earlier nights to go to bed this week! We get ready for camps this week and especially for Kerri and her group to come on Sunday, so I know it will be a fast week. Please pray that we would take the time we need for quiet times with God so that we are focused on the goal. We do not want to get distracted or give Satan any chance for victory. We are His ambassadors who want to proclaim boldly to the world his message of "come back to God!"
Sorry for the pictures being a little crazy!

Loving each other

As Jason continues to teach on 1 John, our church is learning more and more about the importance of loving God and loving others. This book really reflects what Jesus teaches in Matthew about the two most important commandments--loving God and loving others. They both must happen together, not one at a time. I'm also teaching my discipleship girls about loving others and serving others. Over the past two months, we have helped clean houses of people in our church; visited kids on our blocks to remind them about Kingdom Kids, give them a snack, and pray with them; made muffins to take home to our families to tell them we love them; and helped each other with homework. It has been a great way to teach the girls that love is an action, not just a word. We read Romans 12:5 yesterday and talked about how we are all part of Jesus' body and each of us has different work to do, but we are all necessary and need each other! Pray that this would describe our church!

Happy June!

Well, we're rounding the end of the school year and I know everyone is looking forward to summer. The kids are done with school June 23 and the teachers the 25th, I think. It will be here before we know it! We have two more weeks of Kingdom Kids and then our first week of summer camp is here. Pray that we would finish out Kingdom Kids well this semester. Yesterday our lesson was about freedom and the sacrifice that Jesus gave for it. Please pray that that truth would come to the minds of the kids and the leaders often this week. Pray that we would live in the freedom that cost Jesus so much. Pray that God would draw children to himself who don't know his freedom yet and are still living in slavery to sin. That is a dark and terrible place to live. Pray that our hearts would break for those who don't know him and that our broken hearts would move us to pray and speak truth. Live in His freedom today!