"The Christmas Message is that There is Hope for a Ruined Humanity--Hope of Pardon, Hope of Peace with God, Hope of Glory--Because at the Father's Will Jesus Became Poor, and Was Born in a Stable So That Thirty Years Later He Might Hang on a Cross." ~ JI Packer

The last month was pretty hectic, but fun, and came off surprisingly well!

Update
After the kids came back from Thanksgiving Break, they had 3 more weeks of school and programs before going back on another break for Christmas.  This alone would likely normally have the kids bouncing off the walls for the duration, but for the first two weeks of that time, they were getting out of school an hour early because they had parent teacher conferences.  And we opened up an hour early during that time to let them in.  Instead of coming up with a modified, longer program day schedule, we used that time to have the kids work on Christmas crafts and watch Christmas movies or listen as someone read them Christmas books (i.e. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", etc.).  They also went through an Advent Calendar, reading a verse or two a day that, at the end of the three weeks, told them the Christmas Story.  They put the verses on a small Rosemary bush, shaped like a tree, as ornaments.

Some of the crafts they did included handprint wreaths, Christmas chains, and letters to Santa which, when turned into the red mailbox at Macy's, would count toward Macy's giving $1 donations for each of them to the Make-A-Wish foundation.  Some of our older kids were reluctant to write letters to Santa, but once they heard what it was for, they were all over it.  Didn't even have to read the age-old article, "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus" to them!  My kids are pretty great!

The Annual Christmas party was a HUGE success!  2 different churches participated in the festivities and there were about a million gifts for our kids to choose from to buy for their families.  And pretty much all of them were donated!  We almost definitely had more volunteers than students.  (I could probably give a more exact number, but I didn't plan that day!  Thanks Emily!!!) Everyone was wonderful, and while it probably looked crazy, all the reports I got back were about how organized it was.

Of course,  I forgot to take pictures, so have some I found on our server!

Merry Christmas!!!

"Hope Has Been and Always Will Be Safe. It's Inside Every One of Us." ~ Xena

It's been awhile since I posted last, but in my defense, the kids had the week of Thanksgiving off.  And then half of the week after that we were closed.

Program Updates
During that downtime,we put together an advent calendar and activities for the kids for every program day before Christmas.  We got to teach the 4th-8th graders how to look verses up in the Bible (we're still working on it), and they got to hear the Christmas story as well as many things that are part of the Christmas story that you might not usually hear (like that they had been waiting for the Messiah to come for centuries... and they thought he was going to be born as royalty... and that the Wise Men did not get there the same night he was born, but a couple years later).

Parties!
We've been trying to get all the kids to turn in their report cards by bribing them with a big party after the new year.  Details on that to follow, but it will be a lot of fun!

We also had a big Christmas party on Thursday (the last day of our program until the New Year).  We had folks from Vineyard Church and Baseline Community Church come in to help the kids decorate cookies, play games, do crafts, and choose and wrap presents to give to their families!  I think the visitors had a lot of fun, but I KNOW the kids did!

Photobomb fail

Issues
Except one.  One of our junior highers has been falling behind in one of her classes because she's been telling us and her mom that she had no homework when she did.  I realize that's around the time of life that kids start doing that (I know I did), but does anyone have any suggestions?  She ended up missing most of the games AND most of eMerge because we were working on her project that was due on Friday.  And right now, her goal for life is to marry rich. :-/

We're also struggling with parent buy-in.  Most of our parents are great and really make sure that they're following our rules so that their kids get the best of it all.  Some even go overboard!  But a few don't take it that seriously, and we know of at least one who has almost none at all.  The kid has been coming and going by himself, because he wants to be there and wants to be a good kid, but isn't sure how.  But he knows that we can help him.  And us knowing these stories makes it easier to not get frustrated with the kids when they falter.

Daily Stuff
We ran low on volunteers the last couple weeks.  That's what happens when most of your volunteers are college students and they have these pesky things called "finals."  Who wants to start a petition to eliminate this archaic form of endurance testing?

Anyway, I got to hang out with the Troopers and Braves the other week.  We let them have their gym games outside on the last day before the rain started.  I think they enjoyed it.

High School Girls Bible Study
I've discovered that I apparently have a gift for telling Bible stories in ways that high school girls enjoy.  This past Tuesday night, I lured them in with promises of food and presents.  I made them my version of Crockpot Turkey Chili (which doesn't really taste like chili, but it is good and it is super healthy.  I didn't tell them that last part.).  The presents were actually paid for by the Alternative Christmas fair at La Verne Heights Presbyterian Church.  All the girls got their own personal Bible.  Now they can use those instead of me having to haul around my bag 'o bibles, and I can put mine back in their original strategic locations.  :-)

They had a lot of fun, and we had the Christmas miracle of one of our girls getting to stay for longer than an hour!  We're working our way up!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!