"Hope Sees the Invisible, Feels the Intangible and Achieves the Impossible." ~ Anonymous

Dear Friends,

Many of you know that I’ve been working at several different jobs (often more than one at a time!) for several years.  You may also know that I’ve received my Master’s degree.  And you probably know about my trips to Kenya and how I’ve been volunteering for Pomona Hope, in varying capacities, for 6 years now.

What you may not have heard is that I have officially been hired as a staff member at Pomona Hope, as the Kids Coordinator (for Kindergarten through 5th grade).  You can read more about what Pomona Hope does on their website: www.pomonahope.org, but I’ll mostly be working with the kids—coordinating their after school activities and keeping them interested—as well as coordinating the volunteers, both returning and incoming.

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters"—Colossians 3:23

I am truly enthusiastic about this opportunity to work for the Lord in this community in Pomona.  It is the first time I’ve been presented with the chance to serve Him directly, in a way that I felt called to, for a living.  Everything I’ve done since high school has been preparing me for this, which is why I approached Pomona Hope to find out how I could further help with their ministry, and how I found out their need for more full-time staff (perfect, right?!).

In order to start working for Pomona Hope full-time, I will need to raise $2,750 per month.  This is where I need your help.  If you feel at all drawn to the work Pomona Hope is doing, please consider investing in the future of Pomona by providing for our ministry with a consistent, tax-deductible monthly donation.  More specifically, if you want to support me and my work there, please indicate my job title of “Kids Coordinator” on the memo line, and that will go directly toward my salary.  However, I ask that if you already donate to Pomona Hope regularly, that you do not reduce the amount you give to the organization as a whole.  Don’t worry if you’re already giving all that you can or are unable to give, prayer goes a long way.  At no point, during this process of having a position created for me, was I ever concerned that there would not be sufficient funds.  I know this is where I am supposed to be, and I know that God will provide.

Whether you donate or not, I still wanted to let you know what I’ve been up to, and how excited I am about it.  I’ve started a blog about the struggles and successes of working in our after school program at Pomona Hope, and I invite you to check it regularly.  I hope it will be inspiring and informative, but all I can really promise is that it will be about what’s happening.  It’s called “When Doubting Would Be Easier” and can be found at www.whendoubtingwouldbeeasier.blogspot.com.  I’ll update it as often as I can (though that will be easier to commit to when it is my job).

Thank you, whatever you decide, for even being a part of my life.  I’m not sending this letter to strangers; I’m sending it to friends and family who mean something to me.  And I want you to know that I’m glad you’re a part of my community.

Each of you must give what you have decided in your heart, not with regret or under compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver.—2 Corinthians 9:7

If you do feel led to give, please visit:
http://www.pomonahope.org/donate/donate-online/
And type "Kids Coordinator" into the Comments section.
Any amount can be donated as often as you like.  And every little bit helps.

THANK YOU!!!

I freakin' love these kids!

 

"Entertain Great Hopes." ~ Robert Frost

I missed the first couple of weeks of the Summer Enrichment Program, but I have to say that from what I've seen since I got back, they did a good job this year!  Props to Brianne, Katie, and Sarah (our summer interns) and to Jelitza and Veronica (our high school students working for scholarships this summer).

The curriculum was built around the States.  Each age group was named after the State animal of one of the states that one of the interns was from.  Incentives earned for doing well in something were State flags.  And the show that the kids put on at the end of the program was made up of short dances from different states.  The youngest kids did the hula, and the older kids did a choreographed dance to a song from the Broadway musical "Singin' in the Rain".

The kids had science and math workshops.  They got to play new games.  The read new books and learned about people in other places (another post summarizes the video postcard the Junior Leaders, aka the Longhorns, were exchanging with kids in Kenya).  Overall, I think the kids and volunteers all had a great time!

This is the final practice for the kids before the big show!  They did great!  But I was busy helping with other things, so I couldn't get video of the actual show.

Turtles Hula Dance!

Whales + Deer Broadway dance!

If you like the work Pomona Hope is doing, please visit the "Donate Now!" tab at the top.  If you want to support my work in particular, please type "Kids Coordinator" in the Comments section on that page.

"Everything that is Done in the World is Done by Hope." ~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Kenya was AMAZING and I'm sure I'll go back again.  We got a lot accomplished while we were there this time, as a team.  But one of my favorite things that I got to do with the girls at the orphanage we were working with was a video postcard between them and the kids at the Pomona Hope Summer Enrichment Program here at home!

Part of the curriculum of the program was learning about people in other places.  In fact, they were going through a book that presented statistics about the world in a really interesting way: "If the world were a village with 100 people, "so many" people would have electricity."  The Summer Interns definitely did a good job with the whole program this year.  They also did a great job with the videos that they sent to us in Kenya.

The girls at Providence Children's Home were VERY excited to be able to talk to and learn more about kids out here. The moment I presented it to them, their eyes got big and they got huge smiles.  And once they got in front of the camera, they completely took charge and knew exactly what they wanted to say and what questions they wanted to ask.  It was fabulous to see how much these older girls have grown into leaders.

The best of all of this for me was that all these kids that I love got to meet each other!  From all the way across the world!!!

I'll let the kids speak for themselves.  I want to apologize for the video quality from Kenya.  For some reason it looked perfect on the tablet I had and then uploaded to youtube with issues.  It is not my spiritual gift.  I also want to apologize for there not being more.  I wanted there to be, but internet was only available to us in one room at the school, and we lost it for good several days before we left.

Providence Children's Home to Pomona Hope #1

Pomona Hope to Providence Children's Home #1

Providence Children's Home to Pomona Hope #2

Pomona Hope to Providence Children's Home #2

Unfortunately, that last question never got answered, since that's when we lost internet.  On the bright side, I did leave the camera and instructions for how to post videos for us to see there.  And one of the things we did as a group was provide a computer lab for the school.  So we may be seeing more videos in the future.

We did get to send a video to the kids at Pomona Hope about Switzerland too.  I hope Megan doesn't mind that I post this here.  She's another volunteer for Pomona Hope who went with me on this trip, so I had her narrate to tell the kids what we had done so far in Switzerland, from the top of Mt. Rigi.

If you like the work we're doing, please visit the "Donate Now" tab at the top of the page.  And if you want to support me, personally, please type "Kids Coordinator" into the Comments section.