“Everyone Must Dream. We Dream to Give Ourselves Hope. To Stop Dreaming - Well, That's Like Saying You Can Never Change Your Fate. Isn't That True?” ~Amy Tan

Update on the Junior High Retreat! 

(from Brianne, one of the leaders)

I would say that the retreat was a success! We had five kids on Friday and four on Saturday. I thought they seemed really engaged and were extremely willing to participate; I think we struck a good balance between "hanging out" and actual content for the weekend.

To me, what was perhaps the most telling was our ending activity, where Sarah had all of us write a short story about a time when we were feeling a certain way (e.g. joyful, scared, confused, etc.). We all went around and shared our stories. Though the point made in this activity was that you can't judge people or any situation based off of one piece of information, it really struck me how open the kids were with each other and how willing they were to share about parts of their lives that we don't normally see at Pomona Hope. I think that no matter how much we teach them, building relationships with the kids and helping them build relationships with each other is probably the most important thing we can do. They need a place and people that they feel they belong to/with.

Other than that, I definitely enjoyed myself. We did some out of the box things, like a blindfolded partner obstacle course, and a hospitality game where the kids had to present their snack as if I was coming over for dinner. I think everyone enjoyed the different structures we set up. I'm not sure how much they learned explicitly, but I always enjoy hearing their thoughts about things they most likely don't talk about in school. The kids might not know it, but their perspectives are in such formative stages right now and they're taking in everything around them.

In addition, we got to hang out with some of them at "the feast" afterwards (the dinner hosted by Rock of Faith). Sharing day-to-day life with them, if only for a weekend, was such a delight and privilege. It's easy to get caught up in school and even in IV ministry, so I'm grateful for the time I got to spend away from campus and kind of just hanging out with the kids.

 

 

"Expect to Have Hope Rekindled. Expect Your Prayers to be Answered in Wondrous Ways. The Dry Seasons in Life Do Not Last. The Spring Rains Will Come Again." ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

So all the kids are back!  And they're awesome.  We have kids from Kindergarten through 12th grade.  Among our K-3rd graders, we have one student who is not related to anyone else in the program.  It's a real family affair.

We now have kids taking us up on our optional homework hour every day that we offer it.

Our only struggle in the program as a whole is working around the number of volunteers (pretty low for the past month).  But we've had 4 volunteer trainings in the last 2 weeks, so that number is coming up as we speak!  And last night, one of the founding partners of Pomona Hope and I visited the Pomona/Pitzer College InterVarsity meeting to drum up more volunteers.  If any of you are reading this, I hope you come!  And if our brief intro last night didn't do it, maybe friendly rivalry will: I'm pretty sure we have more Harvey Mudd students volunteering than anyone else.

We have had one other issue: the concern that one of our students has been exposed to a cult.  After taking her out to coffee and seeing what she thought about the cult, and about the idea of hanging out more regularly to study the bible, and checking in with Emily, our Program Director, and Jeff, the Youth Coordinator (since it's technically his territory), I'm starting a high school girls bible study.  The hope is that it will provide the group setting that all the girls need to confide in each other and get whatever support they need, and provide a stronger biblical background to help them make wise decisions.

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