"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!!!

"When You Say a Situation Or a Person is Hopeless, You're Slamming the Door in the Face of God." ~Charles L. Allen

Quick update since the last one (I hope):

Fundraiser Dinner
The fundraiser dinner went pretty well, I thought!  And it was super nice to see so many people who support me there!  The room looked gorgeous, and there was a really cool collaborative piece of art work for everyone attending to participate in creating that will be hung in Pomona Hope somewhere.  I hope it goes in my office!  But the Volunteer Break Room might be better...

I also want to steal the video we showed to add to our volunteer trainings.  It was a pretty good overview of what we do, I thought.

And we got new pens!  I love them, despite them having orange accents.  It actually works on these.  (Let me know if you want a pen, we've got about a million.  Okay, really more like 500, but who's counting?)

It was nice, as a member of the Ministry Group at my church, who has helped put this event on several times now, to not have a ton of work to do to set everything up...  I did help out, but it seemed far less stressful for me this time, and it seems that the past few years the Board has really made sure that they were the ones doing most of the work.  I am so grateful to have such a hands-on Board to work for!  There was still stuff to do last minute (which is good... I don't like having nothing to do), but it didn't feel like it was the end of the world if it wasn't perfect.  Which is strange, because it seems like that's how it should feel once I actually start working for the organization...

The registration process looked very organized.  The food was DELICIOUS (my mom even liked her non-dairy versions of everything!).  The tables were named after major streets in Pomona!  Very cute!  It was all very elegant and well done, and everyone involved deserves chocolate.

And I got to dress like a grown-up!  I'm gonna need more reasons to wear that outfit.

Garden Knowledge Board Game
The Garden Knowledge Board game got tested for the first time this week!  The kids were at snack and we let the older group try it.  They really struggled to answer some of the questions I thought would be easy, but hopefully they will rise to the challenge instead of just giving up.  They did say they liked it, but I'm not sure how much of that is that they didn't want to hurt my feelings.

Champions
Our Champions had a rough week.  Monday there was an incident where several of our students and one high school volunteer were acting very suspicious when some of our incentives for the 2-minute math tests went missing.  That, combined with the fact that almost every single one of our junior high students (even the good ones!) left something out to be picked up by staff, caused me to start the entire group off with one warning as soon as they got there on Tuesday.  I had to give the entire group a lecture about respect the place and losing our trust and I had to ask the high school volunteer to leave and not come back until after Thanksgiving, but I let him know we wanted him there, but we also wanted him to take his role as a leader seriously.   And by the end of the day, I also had to ask his friend (two peas in a pod) to leave and not return until after Thanksgiving (same general speech).  I don't like having to come down so hard on the kids, but some of them have been getting away with stuff for too long already, and they seemingly took advantage of the fact that Jeff was on jury duty all week.  I just really hope that the two boys do want to come back and do better when they return.  I'd much rather have them here than out on the streets all afternoon.  Especially with the rise in violent crime around town lately.

Cancelled Day
As harsh as it sounds, the kids who got kicked out really only missed one day.  We cancelled the program on Thursday for because of a whole bunch of reasons, the combination of which meant we would have too few volunteers, too many kids with no homework, nowhere to send the kids during garden workshop, and too few rooms by the end of the day, with just me setting everything up and making sure everything worked out.  Instead, I used the time to plan our Advent calendar, starting next week, let volunteers know about the week off (for everyone but staff!), and continue planning the Math Adventure Journal!  (I have to make it sound cool!)

We've started figuring out our Christmas party (thankfully, Emily is organizing that!) and we're going to be opening an hour early for the kids who are getting out of school early for the next 2 weeks!  We may have been crazy when we decided this.  But, on the bright side, it means the kids actually have time for their Advent calendar and associated activities!

Week Off?
It's Thanksgiving week and our kids get the week off of school, which means they also get the week off from us.  But that doesn't mean WE get the week off!  Nope!  This week is fundraising week.  Everybody's favorite!  But in all seriousness, we do need to do it, and we've been so busy with actually running the program that we haven't had a chance to.  I don't know about Jeff, but almost every one of my regularly scheduled weekly fundraising sessions has been postponed due to some kind of emergency that I had to deal with (getting kids picked up, people showing up, etc.).  So it's good we have this time.  Only to be interrupted by our delivery of Thanksgiving Baskets to our kids tomorrow (anyone want to help?), writing a letter of recommendation for a REALLY AMAZING volunteer who wants to go into teaching, and the random phone calls I've been getting all morning.  And maybe cleaning my desk.  (It really needs it.)

Thanksgiving
I just want to be sure everyone knows how truly thankful I am to be working in this job.  To be supported by wonderful people like you.  To be there for our kids (even when they're driving me crazy... because it is so rare).  To work with amazing volunteers and colleagues, and to work for such an awesome Board.  I have a lot to be thankful for, and I hope you do too!

"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!