Honey, they have been very quiet! Perhaps we should check on them!

    Aren’t those always famous last words, right before you find your children have gotten into something they shouldn’t be?  Well, we have been quiet this summer, but for us that is a sign that we are working hard and are staying busy!  It was crazy how busy the summer was and how fast it went by! We thought we would take this opportunity to blog and give you a brief recap of our summer activities!

    We started this summer, as we do every summer with a BBQ kickoff for our Kids’ Connection program on Memorial Day weekend.  We were excited to see familiar faces and welcome back several families from our previous years as well as to meet new friends.  We also picked up some new volunteers this summer.

     Kids’ Connection used a curriculum called Some Assembly Required.  It is a curriculum that incorporated building with Legos into the lessons each time we met. It was a hot summer, but we enjoyed all of the Kids’ Connections which culminated with our pizza party this past Saturday.  We have noticed a drop off in our attendance numbers once school starts and will adjust from the 8 Saturdays down to 7 for next year.  This will overcome some of that while allowing Kids’ Connection to overlap Mom’s Connection for a meeting or two.

  Men’s Bible study is going well!  Tony has a committed group of about 4-6 men who meet with him at McDonalds every Sunday evening.  They discuss a topic of interest and what the Bible says about it.  We are so excited to watch these men grow spiritually!

   Two Sundays ago, we took a bus of 50 people to the Atlanta Braves game. We were blessed by the Braves donating all of the tickets and a church donated to pay half the cost of the charter bus!  We left early in the morning after a light breakfast in a local church parking lot.  When we arrived at the stadium, we tailgated lunch and served hot dogs and bratwurst, chips, fruit, and cookies.  Park Avenue UMC not only paid for half of the bus, they also donated 50 snack packed bags for our people containing Gatorade, plenty of snacks, and even some candy for the game.  The game was great through the middle of the 6th inning when it opened up and poured!  After the rain delay, we had to leave without seeing the rest of the game. We quickly served pizza for dinner and took a group picture before it began to pour again! Then we boarded the bus for home.  On the drive home, we heard that the game was rained out and we had seen almost all of the game play!  The good news was the Braves won!  That trip was so much fun and was so successful that we will plan to do it again!

  Mom’s Connection is our newest program and it started with the beginning of the school year.  Using a curriculum written by Group Publishing, we are navigating through A Year of Encouragement. The mom’s have discussed how to overcome stress, how to pray for their children, and how to encourage others.  We have a handful of participating moms and we look forward to even more joining us as we continue the year.

    Transformations 2016-2 began 2 weeks ago.  This newest group of students who are learning how to overcome poverty is our first all female class.  We are enjoying them so much and ask that you pray for Eunice, Tia, Tonya, Whitney, Erica, and Santavia as they work through this program.  Our first Transformations class of 2016 is in the middle of phase 2.  We are working on resumes, job interview skills, and character required for a job.  We love this phase because we are able to incorporate speakers from the community into what we are doing. Please continue to pray for Clarence, Franklin, Taffiney, Jocelyn, and Diane as they work to graduate in late January or early February of 2017!

    That about sums up our summer!  Time to get back to work!  There is a fall Clothing Exchange in 2 weeks and I am up to my neck in laundry!

Until next time,

Darcy