"To Keep a Lamp Burning, We Have to Keep Putting Oil In It." ~Mother Teresa

The last couple weeks have been pretty busy for staff at Pomona Hope.  You'd think that the time that the kids weren't there would be a time for us to take a break!  But in reality, that's when we start planning and preparing for the upcoming school season.  We're changing things up a bit this year, in addition to the school year starting earlier on us altogether!

New ways to reach the kids, new group names, and a new name for the program itself.  No longer will the after school program be referred to as "Pomona Hope Kids!"  Our kids are getting older, and some are getting "too cool" for that designation.  But they're still in school, so we're calling it "After School with Pomona Hope". 

We're changing what options they have available to them once they're done with their homework.  Before, their option was strictly reading quietly.  But towards the end of last year, we were losing the attention of many of them.  Now there's a cup full of craft sticks that each have a different activity for them to do to keep them busy while everyone else finishes their homework.

Before, their age groups were named after the color spectrum (the youngest were Red, next Orange, etc.).  Now, the groups are named in an attempt to give them a fighting spirit (in the sense of standing up for what's right, in the way of all the inspirational sports movies).  Now the groups are the Troopers, Braves, Conquerors, Champions, and Advocates.

There's more educational activities and ideas available to both kids and volunteers, and they'll be changing constantly to keep everyone's interest.  We live in an ADD world, and it's Pomona Hope's good fortune that the staff have ADD too!

In addition to all the changes to the program and set-up, the start dates are changing.  We don't want the oldest kids to fall behind in their schoolwork just because they don't have internet access for their homework, so middle school and high school will be starting the day that school starts (next week!).  They'll get a couple weeks to themselves, since a lot of the time, they end up becoming volunteers, and get less of the focus.  We're hoping this will promote a sense of ownership of the program.  A couple weeks later, the 4th and 5th graders will start, and a week or so later, the K-3rd graders will start.

Part of this gradual transition is to give us time to get enough volunteers on board, since most of our volunteers come from the Claremont Colleges, which don't start back to school until September.  Part of it is to give new volunteers a chance to get the hang of things before the program starts into full swing.

All this to say, lots of planning has been happening.  We've had 3 volunteer trainings in the last two weeks.  We had two Parent Orientations/Testing Days for incoming kids this week, and one more coming up next week for the kids who couldn't make it this week.  There's all kinds of rushing around going on, but we don't even care, because we're just so excited about the kids coming back.

We're hoping for a great year!  If you want to join us, please email me at liz@pomonahope.org.

Or if you just want to support our efforts, feel free to visit the "Donate Now!" tab above.  If you want to support me directly, type "Kids Coordinator" into the Comments section.

"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.

"Far Away There in the Sunshine Are My Highest Aspirations. I May Not Reach Them But I Can Look up and See Their Beauty, Believe in Them, and Try to Follow Them." ~Louisa May Alcott

As of this morning, I'm on my way to Kenya.  Normally I wouldn't post that here, but for two reasons: 1.) I've also sent out my fundraising letters for working at Pomona Hope this morning, prompting people to come here to find out what's going on, and 2.) Kenya is actually the reason I ever started going to Pomona Hope.

That first trip to Kenya changed my life in ways that I cannot explain.  Before I went, before I even considered going, I was far less patient, far more selfish, and far more likely to get sucked into petty arguments.  I had never really thought about leaving the country, and I definitely had no intentions of going to any third world countries.  But when Stephen Githumbi stood up in front of our church and told us he was leading a team of people to his homeland of Kenya to help out at the orphanage that our church had helped establish, I couldn't resist the call.

Going to Kenya, meeting those girls, seeing that kind of poverty, and in some cases, hopelessness, that changed my life.  And when I got back home, all I wanted to do was return to Kenya and spend more time with our kids out there.  But I also knew it wasn't feasible.  It wasn't (and still isn't) safe for them or for me if I did that.  Nevertheless, I still had this urge to do something for someone, no longer just to remain in my same circle of friends that was pretty much made up of people just like me.

And that's when my old Sunday School teacher told me about Pomona Hope and asked if I wanted to volunteer.  I had quit my job to go to Kenya and was entering my last year of college, so I didn't have a whole lot keep me from saying yes.  And once I got there, and learned about those kids, I couldn't believe what kids so physically close to me were going through!  I drove home almost every week crying because of what some of the kids told me they were going through.

The program has changed a lot since then, and I've gotten to know more kids and their families and I love them all and am endlessly excited at the prospect of doing it every day and doing what I can to make a difference in their lives.  But I also like going back to where it all started, and remembering how that change came about. 

So I'll be back from Kenya by July 1.  And I'll still have something to tell you about Pomona Hope because I'm setting up a video postcard lesson between the girls in Kenya and the middle schoolers at Pomona Hope so that they can learn about and from each other.  This is going to be awesome!

"In All Pleasure, Hope is a Considerable Part." ~Samuel Johnson

Several months ago, back when it was raining, I was working with the kids in the Green group (middle school aged), when it somehow came out that Peter* had never learned to swim.  After the initial shock of this, it was decided that once it got warm enough out, we would have a pool party at my apartment complex, and only the Green group would be invited.  This would give us a chance to give Peter swimming lessons.

Months later, when it started to warm up, the kids remembered that and started asking about the pool party.  I had fully intended to follow through, I was just impressed that they remembered for that long.  I figured they must have been really excited about it.

I sent out invitations last week that said that they should call me if they needed a ride, and I would find some way to pick them up.  I also convinced one of the Board members to help me chaperone, in case some kids showed up while I was picking kids up.

The only kids who ended up coming were the ones to whom I gave the rides.  But we had a great time!  We got in a good 4 hours of swimming.  I spent a good amount of time trying to teach Peter how to float, and then how to tread water, and how to swim.  He can't really do any of them on his own yet, but he came a long way.  Especially considering how worried he was about going in (he spent the first half hour wearing my life vest I got for kayaking).  He's still not comfortable in the deep end, but he was really excited about learning.

I also taught them how to play Marco Polo.  Of course it's a lot harder to play when not everyone is shouting "Polo" after "Marco" is called, but they found the sneaky excuses of being underwater when it was called, or that they whispered it.

When it was over, they didn't want to come out, but they did because I told them it was time to go.  Even the Board member commented on how well behaved they were.  Why are people always so surprised?

After they got out, they helped me pack up all the food I'd brought out for them and bring it back to my apartment, where we played a few rounds of Just Dance 3 and they called their parents to see if they could come with me to dinner at Miss Barb's house.  We, of course, also asked Miss Barb, who was happy to have them over.

On the way to her home in La Verne, as we passed the Lutheran High School, Mora* commented on how nice that area is (comparing it to her area of Pomona).  It was like she didn't even realize how close it was until that moment.

As we pulled up to Miss Barb's house, the kids said, "You can tell she's a gardener" before I even pointed out which house was hers.  They just knew. :-)  They quickly made friends with her dog and 3 bunnies and I took a break while she told them all about rabbits and dogs and the pictures she had hanging on her walls, and the fact that the seashells she uses to decorate her home are all real, and what's for dinner, etc.  (How are these kids so full of energy?!  They've been swimming all day!)

We had dinner and watched some Wheel of Fortune and had a grand old time.  They definitely were doing everything they could to stay longer.

*Names have been changed.

"All Kids Need is a Little Help, a Little Hope and Somebody Who Believes in Them." ~Earvin Johnson

Well, the after school program is over for the school year, but strangely, I'm still being kept busy!  The summer program is supposed to start in a couple weeks, and two of the three interns have been helping to prepare for it all last week.  Here's a recap of the week for me:

Sunday, May 27: (Pentecost!) After years of trying to remember to wear red on Pentecost, and remembering the week before, and sometimes the day before, and ultimately choosing yellow or blue in the last minute crunch to get ready, I *FINALLY* remembered to wear red!  Totally by accident!  And then I didn't go to my regular church.  I was asked to attend the service at 1st Presbyterian Church of Pomona, because they wanted to pray for Jeff (the other new employee) and myself as we fundraise our own salaries to work at Pomona Hope.  The church actually owns the property that Pomona Hope works out of, so we have a close relationship with them.  It was a very nice service and a very nice congregation, and I'll probably go back to visit a lot (nice to have a backup church for when I just can't get there even close to on time).  I'm usually super nervous when speaking publicly, but it didn't seem that bad this time.  Probably because it's also a really small congregation.  If you're looking for an active church family that will adopt you very quickly, and is very involved in the welfare of their community, I would recommend this place.

Anyway, the prayers went well.  The sermon was good.  It was a much less formal, more personal service than I'm used to, simply because of the size of the congregation.  And then after the service ended, I spoke with several people and found that even if I didn't know them, I knew people that they knew... it always amuses me to find out how small the world really is.

After church, I was also asked to be a mentor to one of the interns for the summer program this year.  To which I said, of course!

Wednesday, May 30:  I got a call from Peter* (actually, about 6 missed calls and then I finally picked up) asking me if I could go to his 6th grade graduation on Friday.  It was both a touching and hilarious conversation (he doesn't call people much I guess, so awkwardness ensued).  I told him of course I would go!

Thursday, May 31: First meeting with my mentee!  (The internet says it's a word!)  We went to lunch at Taco Jalisco (a first for both of us... very delicious and inexpensive) and had a grand, old time.  I think she's going to be just fine.

I also spent the entire day splitting my time between updating the handbook for the summer program, editing and printing my fundraising letter and the pledge cards, posting summer program volunteer opportunities on the job board at church under the heading "resume builders" (which I totally made up) and several other little things I can't remember right now.

Friday, June 1:  Peter's graduation was at Lincoln Elementary School at 11:30am.  It was very cute and a lot quicker than I expected.  But I got pictures!  YAY!

After the ceremony, I found his parents (well, his mom found me...) and followed them to his classroom.  I love his family, they're so sweet!  I only wish I could speak Spanish, so I could have real conversations with them.  They speak a little English, and I understand a little Spanish, but we do seem to get to where we need to be.

I picked up his older sister, Jewel*, from school about an hour later and took her to Ganesha Park, where several of the families of graduating 6th graders were having a celebratory picnic.  I spent the rest of the day hanging out with Jewel, and even took her to see "Snow White and the Huntsman" (don't worry, she's going into her senior year of high school and I had parental permission).  FYI: That movie is terrible.  Or hilarious.  Depends on how you want to look at it.

Saturday, June 2: Morning ministry group meeting to plan the fundraiser dinner in November (we're looking at November 3, so keep your calendar clear!), our ministry group month at the church, and Mission Sunday (next week).

From 2 to 5pm I took the kids from the after school program who improved the most over the school year (Yvonne, Donnie, Maddy, Jimmy, and Ally)* to Boomers!  With the AMAZING help of awesome volunteer, and close, personal friend, Barbara.  She had just gotten off of a plane and pretty much came straight to us.  We wouldn't have been able to go without her.

The kids had a great time!  After the kids used up all their game tokens, the two older kids, Yvonne and Ally, went with Barbara to go rock climbing or bumper-boating, or what-have-you, while I took the younger kids to play a game of miniature golf.  After mini-golf, Jimmy, Maddy, and I rode the bumper boats.  Jimmy got completely soaked and loved it, and as we were pulling into the dock, Maddy told me, "This is the best day ever!"

The kids and Barb!

Jimmy won A LOT of candy in one of the games.

Yvonne's prize!

Maddy's prize

I was there too!

After bumper boats

Donnie finished out the day on the plane ride.

I'm glad she thought so.  Since her older sister, Ally, was told "no" once and that apparently shot the whole day for her.  Can't win them all.  Adventures in growing up.

*Names of kids were changed... and after this is posted, I'll be going back through old posts to use changed names to be consistent with real kids.