"There is Surely a Future Hope for You, and Your Hope Will Not Be Cut Off." ~Proverbs 23:18

It's been so long!  I apologize!  But so much has been happening that it's been hard to keep up with.  I'll try to break it down simply and quickly here.

New Employees

Jeff and I started at half-time salary at Pomona Hope as the Youth Coordinator and the Kids Coordinator, respectively, as of January 2, 2013.  YAY!!!

Reason #1 this update took so long: I was still working half-time at my other job for the first two weeks.  So, it ate up a lot of my time.  That job was about an hour away, so during that period, I was getting home 12 hours after I left with no real lunch break.  I ate at my desk every day.  Except the last one.  That day I ate for free the whole day.

New Rooms

My last entry was not actually MY entry, it was something I reposted on Emily's behalf.  But it was for the work days in which we moved everything out of the church's kitchen (which we were using as two classrooms) and up to the 2nd floor into what WAS the Session Room, and is now our "Balcony Room."  It's set up like a classroom now, instead of a re-purposed kitchen!  That is where our K-3rd graders are now.

Not a kitchen!

She approves of her new room.

The loneliest goat sees the last sunset last.

Part two was moving our library across the gym and down the hallway into a newly painted classroom, and then changing what was once the library into my office, shared with Jeff.  No pictures of that until we get a chance to decorate it.  But the door is rather appropriately labeled, "Lounge." (Just kidding, we do work there!)

Things We're Working On

Jeff is working on repairing our computers.  They're all donated and very slow and he's doing everything he can to get them last as long as he can.  I'm SO glad to have an IT guy on the team!  Technology seems to hate me at the most inopportune times.

He's also working on bonding with the kids (especially the upper elementary and junior highers), in the hopes of retaining more of them through the junior high grades.  That's when they get super busy with extra-curricular activities, or when they decide they're too cool to get help with their homework.  But it's also probably the most important 3 years of their lives and lay the groundwork for shaping who they will be when they grow up!  So, in an attempt to keep them engaged, we're trying to think of more motivating ways to keep their attention.  (All ideas are welcome!)

Emily was doing SO much by herself for SO long that now that I'm really in it too, I have absolutely NO idea how she did it!

I'm working on taking over the volunteer coordination for the whole program... which won't actually take full effect until I'm full-time and creating the daily schedules myself.  (Which won't actually happen until I've fundraised all that from viewers like you. *wink, wink* *nudge, nudge*)

Part of that is training new volunteers.  We had one training yesterday and three more coming in the next week, in addition to our regular, monthly training sessions.  Let me know if you want to come!  (liz@pomonahope.org)

Reason #2 this update took so long: I was busy catching up on and learning all the stuff that Emily was doing that she was/is having me take over.

(Reason #3 was along the lines of recovery period and laziness)

There is just so much to do!  But now that there are 3 of us, we can finally move forward instead of just struggling to keep it going as it is!  And that, to me, is exciting!

Funny Stories

The K-3rd graders have been asking to play outside during their gym games lately, and I figure as long as it's not rainy or blistering hot, why not?  So their game the past couple weeks has been "The ground is water and you're the shark!"  When anyone who is not the shark gets tagged, they have to leave the playground and sit on the bench, because they're captured, where they wait for someone who is still free to tag them again.  Does anyone know the name of that game? 

I consented to be the shark for two days, but then told them to have someone else do it, because they cheat.  A lot.

In any case, on day one, our youngest girl was playing and every time I chased after her, her eyes got as wide as she could make them (taking up half her face) and her mouth got as big as she could make it while she screamed and ran away.  I never managed to catch her because, while she's not very fast, I was laughing way too hard at the spectacle to actually tag her.

On another day, one older sister got very protective of her younger sister and started telling everyone that her sister could not leave the playground (where she was safe) because she's little.  The downside to that was that just about everyone got captured, and they needed someone to free them.  That's where this occurred:

"Melina*, go save them!"

**********************************
As the first kids came in to the program on Tuesday... I stuck my tongue out at Elena* (6 year old)
Elena: Hey! I saw that!
Me: Saw what?
Elena: You stuck your tongue out at me!
Me: You're right, I did. Do you still love me?
At this point, Elena gives me this funny, "What are you even TALKING about?!" look.
Elena: Of course! You're nice!

Bible Study

Our high school girls bible study (still looking for a name!) has been meeting regularly for the past 3 weeks!  Our first meeting of the year, we talked about Epiphany.  And last week we started a "Women of the Bible" series.  So it's basically going through the bible by focusing on the important women! 

I got a bible study book about Women of the Bible for Christmas (I asked for it), but now that I have it in my hands, I'm finding that it's written more for married women with kids than it is for all women equally, much less teenage girls.  And their overview of the stories is disappointing.  So, I'm coming up with my own studies, loosely guided by the book (mostly the order, the general location they're talked about in the Bible, and a few questions).  I think I'll start a heading up above for those who may be looking to study what we're studying.

Never thought that I'd be doing this.  God works in mysterious ways!


*Names changed

“The Best Way to Not Feel Hopeless is to Get Up and Do Something. Don’t Wait for Good Things to Happen to You. If You Go Out and Make Some Good Things Happen, You Will Fill the World With Hope, You Will Fill Yourself With Hope.” ~ Barack Obama

Election Update
Let's see... last I left off was being excited about the election at Pomona Hope, right?  Well, the results are in, and they look something like this:

Yup, one of our kids figured out they could write in a candidate, and voted for herself.  Love the creativity.

The Conquerors (the group who voted) with their "I Voted" stickers.

Speaking of creativity, one of the students, while he was voting, asked why we weren't doing some kind of class president election for Pomona Hope.  Besides it not having occurred to us before, why aren't we?!  Stay tuned for more...

HS Bible Study

In other news, the high school girls bible study (still looking for a name!) is now meeting on Tuesday nights, in a really sweet room in the Pomona Hope building that I had never seen before.  That building is like a maze, and it's creepy and awesome all at once.  We also eat ice cream. :-)

The study we're working on is all about Jesus (which, I guess all of them technically are.  But this one is specifically about Jesus).  Last week, we discussed how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament and the Law.  I gotta say, I know I'm not incredibly well-versed in the Bible and all its nuances, but I seem to know more than I thought I did.  Most of the lesson was based in Matthew.  We started by following Jesus' lineage all the way back to Abraham.  We ended with the Parable of the Two Sons (Matthew 21:28-32) and the Parable of the Tenants (Matthew 21:33-46) and a discussion about the fact that you can SAY you believe in Jesus all you want, but you have to actually DO something for it to be true.  And that people who have studied and learned what God wants them to do, and then go around telling other people what that is, will ultimately be in way bigger trouble for not doing it themselves.

Junior High Retreat

This past weekend, our 6th-8th graders were invited to a retreat put on by 4 of our volunteers, 3 of whom were our interns in charge of the Summer Enrichment Program this past summer.  I tried to stay out of the way, since it was their thing, but they seemed to be having a lot of fun when I was there on Friday.  Here's some proof:

Yup.  Stuff's happening!

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.

"But the Needy Will Not Always be Forgotten, Nor the Hope of the Afflicted Ever Perish." ~ Psalms 9:18

Been REALLY busy the last week and a half!  I've been running the program for over a week now, while Emily took that time to work on a huge grant.  That is, until I would call her down for various things, like random people walking in looking for food, or moms of our kids coming in looking for her.  Mostly because they know I don't speak Spanish.  I need to learn Spanish.  For reals.  Someone add that to the list.

LAST Sunday, many of our kids participated in the Inland Valley Hope Partners' 39th Annual "Walk for the Hungry."  I explained most of it in my last post, but I didn't tell you how it went!  By Thursday, I got permission slips from HALF of the kids in our program, and they were really excited about coming.  Now, I've never really had to organize something like this before: getting permission slips, scheduling start and end times (if you know me personally, I'm pretty much late to EVERYTHING... it's part of my charm), finding qualified drivers with open seats, figuring out the best route to the location, making sure we had enough volunteers to keep everyone together, not losing anybody, etc. etc. etc.  Turns out it's a lot of work.  But Pomona Hope has wonderful volunteers who are ready to help out even outside of their normal volunteer hours.  And that's the way we like it.  We had enough volunteers signed up to have two kids to every volunteer.  And we actually had fewer kids come than signed up, so the ratio was even better!

MOST of our group.

As you can tell from the group picture, there was FREE POPCORN!  There was also free face painting (which our kids went crazy with!) and free balloons! The kids had a lot of fun, (I think) the volunteers had a lot of fun, the dogs had a lot of fun, and I took a nap on the couch when it was all over... I'd say it was a success!  (My dog, Rosie, is the one in the picture, and her best friend, Hurley, joined us.)

On the way to the Walk.

All the kids took turns walking Rosie.  I didn't even see her for most of the Walk, since she was dragging whatever kid was walking her to the front, while I was hanging out toward the back making sure we didn't lose anyone.  Every so often, whatever kid was walking her would get dragged back through the crowd (mostly made up of our group) until they found me, because Rosie realized I wasn't where she could see me.  Once she found me, she would charge back to the front, kid in tow.

I bring all this up about my dog because I was never really concerned that anything would happen to her.  If the kid was walking my dog, I was pretty sure they would take on the responsibility and make good decisions.  They even picked up the dog poop!  And then promptly handed it to the closest volunteer.  Close enough.

They met Tremor!

And Gumby!

Face painting!

Taking a break

 One awesome thing about the Walk location this year was that it was around (and through) the Claremont Colleges, where many of our volunteers come from.  It was a chance for the kids to see what a college campus (or 7) looks like.  They were fascinated by the bathroom at CGU (sorry CGU, they had to go and the door was open).

The little kids were REALLY tuckered by the end... actually, some of them were complaining about being tired before the first checkpoint.  But they made it (though one or two may have gotten piggyback rides, or rides in the wagon)!  I'm sure their families were glad for the break in energy too. :-)

The balloons were a challenge, but I imagine, well worth it.

Not just on the face.

This is where I found them when the walk was over.

Unacceptable.

"Hope is the Companion of Power, and Mother of Success; for Who So Hopes Strongly Has Within Him the Gift of Miracles." ~ Samuel Smiles

We've got some big things coming up at Pomona Hope, and a lot of enthusiasm from participants (kids, parents, volunteers) and those who want to participate!

Firstly, the high school girls bible study group.  We still need a name.  I will entertain suggestions from the audience.  Maybe I'll make it into a contest.  The struggle with the group is that they get permission to come, and then at the last minute something comes up and they have to watch their younger siblings or school activities or something.  I had similar issues when I was in high school and missed out on a lot, so I'm not deterred by this.  I do think it will be easier for everyone to show up regularly once we move it to Tuesdays, so stay tuned.  In the meantime, we'll keep trying to meet, and (if it turns out like last Friday), only one person can come, we'll hang out and watch a movie instead.  I also had two of the girls come over on Monday night to eat some of my dinner, but I didn't turn it into a bible study (which was all prepared!) because I didn't want them to feel tricked into it, though I don't think they would have really minded.  We watched Once Upon a Time instead.  So now they've seen the most recent episode, and that's it.

Secondly, volunteers.  I've been in contact with 4 new volunteers from places I never expected, just in the last few days. My favorite has to be the one who sent me a facebook message basically saying, "I was waiting around in the choir room of the church waiting to get married last week when I saw a flyer for an outreach in Pomona and I think it said to contact you."  The only way I can think to answer my automatic question of "Who does that?!" is "It's a miracle!"  I'm going to frame it and put it in my office someday.
 
Thirdly, the Walk for the Hungry.  The Walk for the Hungry is Inland Valley Hope Partners' big fundraiser for the year.  Most of the money goes to local food banks.  Every dollar raised can be used to leverage 5 pounds of food!  The kids of Pomona Hope are going to be participating in this year's Walk.  When we were originally approached, our issue was that many of our families are just getting by, and some may even benefit from the local food banks, so who would they fundraise from?!  But then we had a donor come up with the idea, and commit to donating $10 per kid who participates!  So now, all the kids need to do is get permission from their parents, and show up!  I'm in the midst of arranging volunteers to keep track of all the kids the day of, and to provide rides to and from the Walk.  Should be an exciting (and exhausting!) day. :-)

Fourthly, Pomona Hope's Annual Fundraiser.  This is our big fundraiser for the year, so it's usually a big deal, but this year it's taking on a totally new format.  Instead of a sit-down dinner, it's an art show (well, art auction, but I know I can't afford anything, so for me, it's a show), with tapas.  I'm excited about it, it should be a lot of fun.  It gives everyone more of a chance to talk to each other, network, etc. and it gives us an ice breaker or two to boot!  The art is being donated by local artists, and they were specifically asked to create something that reminded them of Hope.  The event is called "Impressions of Hope."  If you have any questions, or want to attend, please contact Tanya at teveleth@gmail.com.

It's weird.  I'm tired, from lack of sleep, because I keep stressing out about whether or not something was done, but only for the things I've already finished.  But I'm too excited for it to stop me.  And that problem will probably be solved once this is my only job. :-)

"Be Joyful in Hope, Patient in Affliction, Faithful in Prayer." ~ Romans 12:12

Looking back on it, this week could be considered a rough week.  Only one of the days seemed rough at the time, but it felt like there were fewer wins overall this week than usual.

Tuesday, I stepped in as the Program Coordinator for about an hour.  I  also had one student in particular who was absolutely driving me crazy.  He argued with everything I said to him, and some things I didn't say to him.  Normally, when it's that constant, I would give the kids a warning, but he didn't even realize he was doing it!  And when I pointed out that he was arguing with me, his reaction was, "No, I'm not."  ARGH!!  He's not normally like that.  I'm chalking it up to him having a particularly chatty day and not carrying it around with me forever, but on that day, I was feeling like his special project.

Wednesday was better.  I was not as hesitant to give warnings and it turns out, they (meaning any and all the kids) only needed one.  Ok, so that was the problem (maybe).  I'll just have to remember that next time!  Sad that I had to give out warnings, but glad that it stopped at one.  Count as win.

On Thursday, I had one of our kids confided in me, through tears, that he basically blames himself for his mother's miscarriage when he was a baby, because if she wasn't carrying him, she wouldn't have fallen.  She never blamed him or told him it was his fault, and I told him that if she knew that he thought that, I bet she would be really sad.  I also shared with him about a loss in my family when I was very young that I often felt blamed for, and then he needed to learn a lot sooner than I did that it wasn't his fault, it couldn't have been, because he was a baby.  Then we had a group hug and he smiled again.  So that one I count as a win.

Thursday was also the day that the kid who drove me crazy on Tuesday apologized to me!  What?!

Friday was a busy day.  After leaving my morning job, I led a volunteer training for someone we may partner with to provide more volunteers during the homework/tutoring times.  He seemed really excited about it, and hopefully it will all work out very well!  We'll be getting volunteers from CalPoly, so that will really expand our volunteer base.

Friday was also the day of our first High School Girls Bible Study (we're working on a name).  At least it was supposed to be.  But despite the seeming excitement from each of the girls every time I reminded them earlier in the week, no one showed up.  They all had valid excuses (school events, family issues), but it was disappointing because I was probably a little too excited about it.  So maybe it's a good thing that it's getting postponed, so I don't overwhelm them.  And it did give me a chance to fall asleep early... after dogsitting.  Yeah, I'm that cool.  In my defense, it had been a looooooong couple of weeks.  Anyway, not getting discouraged.  Still trying for a meeting again next week (I think this will all work out better when we can have it on Tuesday nights and all of our girls can be there).  This thing WILL happen!



Gotta keep telling myself this...

Next week should be better.  These kids always surprise me.  And I start getting paid (at quarter time... which actually means I'll be cutting the hours I'm helping out back for while)!  This will almost double my current income (yes, quarter time at a nonprofit where I'm fundraising my own salary will almost double my income from a City government where I'm working half-time).  Sign of the times...

There's always a silver lining though, right?  That's why there's a saying.

"And Now These Three Remain: Faith, Hope and Love. But the Greatest of These is Love." ~ 1 Corinthians 13:13

First week back this school year with a whole ton of new volunteers (from the Claremont Colleges)!  And they're pretty incredible.  The kids seemed to latch onto them almost immediately, and these volunteers, being college students, seemed to remember how to do whatever the kids were working on.  Perfect!

This was also the first week of taking the 4-6th graders up to the computer lab again.  This week they were working on drawing a picture of themselves in Paint, copying it and pasting it into a Word document, and then writing a story about their week, as a form of "autobiography". 

There was ONE day this week where we only had one student show up for the optional homework time.  So I got to help our one student while a pow-wow happened in the background.  It's a good example of what we're doing as an organization: helping with schoolwork, yes, but also creating community and sharing with each other about church, God, life, etc.

 

 

 

Courtesy of Dave Evans.

Now admittedly, the discussion corner didn't last the entire time, and towards the end of our homework help session, we were both getting the tired-crazies... the last math problem was drawing a box of the dimensions that she had already done the complex equations to find.  It took 15 minutes.  But the homework got done!