Summer Bible Clubs

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This Summer

There are lots of exciting things going on in Bryan this summer. We had our first Bible club of the summer at the park last night, and I can't wait for the rest of them.
Here is the schedule so far for kids events at Jordan Loop:

VBS at First Baptist Bryan
June 7th-15th
Bus will pick kids up at the park at 5:15 and bring them home at 9:15.
For kids who have completed K-5th grade only
Signed permission form required

Monday Night Bible Club
Will meet at the park from 6-8pm
May 31st, June 7th, June 14th, June 21st, June 28th, July 5th

Sunday Night Classes and Fun
Meet at the community center to learn more about sports, art, or cooking
5:30-6:45pm
June 13th, June 20th, June 27th, July 11th, July 18th, July 25th, Aug 1st, Aug 8th, Aug 15th

Thursday Night SOS on Location
Bible Club with SOS at the park from 6-8pm
July 8th, July 15th, July 22nd, July 29th, Aug 5th, Aug 12th, Aug 19th

There are 3 new community centers opening this summer, one in each of the other Bryan housing projects. There will be bible clubs in each of these neighborhoods on Tuesday nights in June. There will be grand openings on June 5th for the centers on MLK and on Dansby. 10am at MLK and 12:00 at Dansby.

Also, the Housing Authority will be providing a children's time with tutoring this summer starting June 15th. This will be every Tues, Wed, and Thur at the housing Authority from 1:00-3:30.

Please keep all of these new efforts in your prayers. God is at work!

Barneyville swimming

We had a fun end of the school year party at Barneyville. It was a beautiful day for swimming, and good thing because the kids could not seem to get enough of the water. We praise God for keeping us safe (there were a few close calls). Some of the kids conquered their fear of the water for the first time and everyone had a blast!

The Lake

What a beautiful day to spend at the lake with wonderful people!

Bill's dad let us come out to his place and enjoy their lake and boats.
The kids had a blast swimming and boating and fishing.

Over the last month, there have been many times like today where I show up and look around at the body of Christ loving and serving together wonderfully and I just marvel at the wonder of what is being accomplished as many individual children are all being led and loved by Godly adults. I am so blessed to see the impact that these mentors are making. Thank you so much for being involved! You are truly a delight!

I say to the Lord, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing."
I say of the godly who are in the land, "They are the noble people in whom is all my delight." Psalm 16:2-3

check out some more great pics at this link too http://picasaweb.google.com/judymoss56/PeacePlaceParty#

Fun at Barneyville

It seems like there is a lot of change around the Peace Place right now... kids that have moved, new faces to volunteer (yay!), new kids to be mentored, summer fast approaching.... Praise God that He knows what he is doing and He is at work amidst the changes.

From everything that I heard, Spring Break Bible Club went a really well out here so thank you for praying. They had lots of people come love on the kiddos and teach about Jesus.
The Housing Authority does want to get a community center and something similar to Peace Place going in another neighborhood and excitingly there is someone who God is calling to lead that! What an answer to prayer. Please continue to pray as the planning and ground breaking work begins...more details to come.

Two weekends ago we got to take the kids out to "Barneyville". Barneyville is the home/ranch of one of our volunteers. We grilled, played baseball, fed cows, chased chickens, celebrated a birthday, face painted, worshipped Jesus and had a really great time! You could tell that the peacefulness of the place had a calming affect on the kids and the freedom to run and play in a place like that with Godly people was really good for them. Ok, enough talk... here are some pictures:

Update

This upcoming week is Spring Break, so we will not be meeting with normal activities. Instead a group from the church will be leading Bible Clubs at the park for all the neighborhood kids on Monday-Friday from 12-3. Please be in prayer for these clubs and the eternal fruit that will come from them.

Another prayer request is that we are looking into the possibility of taking some kids to summer camp this summer. Pray that if this is something we should do we find the right place, choose the right kids, and have the means to make it happen.

Sunday night classes have been going great. We love the First Baptist Youth helpers. The classes have been a little less attended and a little less structured then I might have hoped, but the kids are being loved, learning new activities, and learning about serving and worshiping God.

Another praise is that on Mondays some of the men have stepped up to teach the lessons to the kids! It is wonderful for the children to see a man love and teach God's Word and it also frees me up to take care of other needs.

A few of our kids have moved in the last few weeks... we are trying to learn how to continue to pursue them and keep them plugged in. This is why it's so great to have them connected to individual mentors... I don't feel like they'll just be lost now that they don't live in the neighborhood anymore...I know there is still someone connected to them.

One last prayer request - there may be the possibility of opening up a community center in another one of the housing projects here in Bryan and starting a similar program with children there. There is a group doing a Bible club at that location next week so we will see what all comes of that.

cooking class

our valentine party

painting fun! (thanks mom for the smocks)

Excitement

So, the toilet overflowed last night.
And if you are thinking overflowed, like a little water coming out the sides while you are plunging, take a look at the above graphic one more time.....

That's right, it was like The Peace Place meets Niagara Falls. Thankfully, it didn't happen until the end of the night after our Bible lesson, when the kids were one on one with their leaders going over what we had talked about. One of the boys in the back room kept splashing his foot in the water that had covered the floor in half of the building - a leader finally got annoyed by the sound and asked him to stop and then did a double take and wondered "Why is there water all over the floor for him to splash in?" - What followed was about 30 minutes of mopping and sweeping and towel soaking and wringing out, and removing in any means possible (other than licking) what felt like 10 bathtubs full of water from the floor. (In actuality it was probably more like one bathtub full, but it sure felt like 10) Although it was somewhat chaotic, the kids seemed to enjoy tramping through the water and "helping" - imagine that. :o) Anyways, it was good for a laugh... I'm still trying to get everything cleaned and dried out and back to normal, hopefully it will be by the end of the week.

In all reality, the most exciting part of last night was not the Niagara toilet, but that we had three new volunteers who were great, which meant that a couple new kids got to come! Praise God! (It's really not fun to send crying kids home each week because there is no mentor for them)
Jehovah Jirah- Our God is a great provider and I can't wait to see who and what all else he has in store for this semester.