More faces of Urban Hope

Christy is one of our faithful nursery helpers each month. She is also the mother of two little boys, Samuel and Micah. Christy is awesome at balancing family, friends, work, and ministry and is so generous and hospitable. Christy and the boys have taken turns being sick over the past week or so. Please pray that God would protect them (and Jason, too) from sickness. There have been a lot of colds going around recently, so pray that our church would trust God's protection, provision, and healing.
Cornerstone has become a big program at our church, as of last week. We setting it up like an afterschool program on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 3:45 to 5:45 pm. We pick kids up and they have a snack, play games, have Bible time, homework help, and can choose from electives like shop, art, cooking, or Bible quizzing. Kelly, is the leader of the homework helping section and also a lot more. I have often found her in the office making copies of math worksheets, cleaning out cabinets and closets in the church, and buying things for the Cornerstone store in the past couple of weeks. The kids earn dollars for doing certain things during Cornerstone or get them taken away if they are not acting appropriately and then get to buy things at the store. Please pray that God would be the one in charge of Cornerstone. What a praise to have so many helpers like Kelly who love Jesus, these kids, and serving the church with the talents He's given them.

Just a quick Urban Hope update...

Here is a picture of Hector, Jennifer, and Hilda, three teens who are living for Jesus and helping weekly with Kingdom Kids. Hector is even the one to lead the memory verse part each week. He makes up motions and does a great job! Pray that these three would be a big part of the youth group that is starting on Wednesday nights at 7 pm this week!

These guys were having a great time at Kingdom Kids yesterday, even though I couldn't get them to smile for the picture. :) Jordan, on the right, is a PBU student who has gotten involved this semester and has been an awesome help acting out parts of the Bible story each week.

Ashli, Mary, and Cassy go to Chicago!

This afternoon, I get to take Ashli, Mary, and Cassy to the airport so they can fly to Chicago for three days. They are going to a training to learn how to run a God-centered afterschool program that will probably be beginning next week every Tuesday and Thursday. What an awesome opportunity! It's really exciting, too, because it will be Mary's first time on an airplane. She is nervous, but still very excited. Mary's two daughters, Shayla and Abee, are on the right of this picture. Pray that Mary would trust God and her boyfriend to take care of the girls and their brothers while she is gone. She's nervous about leaving them for sure. But God is definitely able to take care of them while she's gone!
Last Sunday, Jason spoke about the spiritual world at Celebration and it got a lot of people's attention. Pray that our church would put on our armor today and be ready for Satan's attacks. He is working hard in our neighborhood, but our God is way bigger!
My husband Ryan, Judah, and I went to Penn Valley Church on Sunday morning to share a little about Urban Hope in the service. We were so welcomed and loved while we were there. They have been a big encouragment to our church through sending helpers monthly for Kingdom Kids and giving us tons of prayer and financial support. It was really refreshing to get to meet some older, wiser believers. Please pray for older believers to move to Urban Hope to mentor the leaders here. We need it!

What a Celebration!

Yesterday was an awesome morning at Celebration! We had so many people and a lot of new faces. God is moving in our church and neighborhood big time. My husband and I met a man when we were out visiting some boys from ROCK that my husband is getting to know. His name is Mr. Robert Ashbourn and he used to be involved in the Third Brethren Church that used to be in the building that we are now. He is a believer as far as we know, but hasn't been involved in a church for a few years. We told him that we need him! We are not complete without him. He said that he would come to Celebration for sure next week and maybe this week and he came this week with his wife. They are in their sixties, so we are very thankful for an older couple. Pray that they would get involved with the church encouraging others and being encouraged as well. Pray that they would know that even though they are not as young as most of the rest of the church, God is definitely not done with them yet! Brent did an overview of the whole story of the Bible yesterday for the message and it was really good. I learned a lot and I know a lot of people that aren't as familiar with the Bible could really have benefited from it. God, let your Word be living and active in the lives of your people here and everywhere! Oh, and one of the moms from one block down from us came for the first time yesterday with her six kids. Five of her kids are involved with Kingdom Kids. I asked if I can come over to her house tomorrow to talk. Daddy, give me the words to say and ears to listen. Please save Nikki and her children!
Kingdom Kids was so encouraging yesterday. The Bible story was about David forgiving Saul and not killing him when he had a chance to and plenty of reasons to. There were some great skits and songs and games to go along with the lesson. When I was picking up the kids on our street (God brought out 17 kids total from our street!!!), I got to Shalia's house (our next door neighbor that I had pictures of last week) and she was crying. She said she had gotten in trouble because of something her brother did and her mom said that she can't come to Kingdom Kids anymore after today. Interesting punishment. I think the enemy is behind all of this. So pray that Shalia would continue to be able to come and that Satan would not get the victory! Pray that I would be wise in knowing how involved to get in talking to her mom or whatever. Prat that Shalia would be forgiving of her mom and brother like we talked about in Kingdom Kids and show her mom that she's different because she's following Jesus. Wouldn't it be amazing if her Mom Maria became a follower of Jesus out of all of this? Thank you for praying!

Last Sunday was Puetro Rican Parade Day in Philadelphia! Here are a couple of pictures from our block party. The first one is from our front porch. There are several whole chickens roasting as well as some pork. There are four men playing a mean game of dominos as well. The kids played in the street all day and then around 6 pm we had a potluck dinner. I was asked to bring the bread again, which makes me feel so welcome and part of the block for sure. Ryan and I even got to help serve the food to our neighbors, which was such an honor. In the mean time, Judah was being passed around between several neighbors who wanted to hold him. I love our block! The second picture is of Ryan, Judah, Shalia, and Irving on our front porch. Shalia and Irving are our next ddor neighbors and so much fun! Shalia helped me make the rolls for the block party. It's a lot of work making bread for a whole block, so I very much appreciated the help! Do you see Judah holding his little Puetro Rican flag? Please pray for Ryan and the other leaders of a youth group that will be starting on Wednesday nights this month. Pray that they would be on their knees for the youth and crazy in love with God so they can love the students with His love.