Friday, November 05, 2010
Giving Great Thanks!
As we reflect on the busyness of the Fall and how fast time always seems to fly, we are grateful for the season we are in. With November now upon us and Thanksgiving & Christmas quickly approaching, it always gives us an extra reason to pause and reflect on what we're Thankful for! Bridges sees God's blessings on a daily basis. We are so thankful that amidst a difficult economy God continues to provide above and beyond for our students and their families. We are thankful for our students who are getting plugged into church (and for some, it's the first time they've ever been involved in a church)! We are thankful for the students who have been consistently coming to our after school programs! The students are such a blessing in our lives and we feel privileged to get to hang out with them and get to know their stories! We are thankful for our staff and volunteers that make a daily difference in the lives of the students! We are thankful for our 270 mentors who are tirelessly going into the schools every week for 30 minutes to make a positive difference in the lives of children! We are thankful for the schools for being willing to open their doors to the community so that we can be part of the process of impacting our youth for the future! We could go on and on with this list of what we're thankful for. What are you thankful for?
Camp
We always seem to be a little slow in updating our blog! But alas, we want to share with you all about CAMP! Taking kids to camp is one of our and one of the students' favorite times of year.
In addition to taking middle school students to Spring Hill this year we also took high school students for the first time! Spring Hill introduced a new program called Diverge where youth groups (or individual students) come for a week of camp. It's set up similar to their weekend retreats where the high schoolers have their own speaker and band all week. When they weren't being challenged by Jeffrey Dean they were out participating in all the regular camp activities (blob, zipline, crafts, etc)!!! We took two high school students, Anna & Kassy, both of whom walked away challenged and encouraged to pursue a deeper relationship with God. One of the girls admitted that although she wasn't ready to enter into a personal relationship with God, she had a better understanding of who He was and began asking deep questions about why He should be important in her life!!! It touched my heart to see the girls so passionate about learning more!
This year for KAA we were blessed to partner with Zo Smith, a youth leader in town, and his students. Normally one of our biggest obstacles getting to KAA is trying to find a bus that will transport our students all the way to Branson, MO. God is always faithful, and this year He was abundantly faithful as we received a bus where the seats turned into beds at night. That means the students (and staff!) got to sleep much more comfortably than normal!!! KAA always provides us staff with an opportunity to get refreshed and to have deep group discussions with our students. Our students are already asking when they get to sign up for KAA and camp is still 8 months away!!!
Thank you to the many partners who help us send students to camp each year! Our students, who wouldn't be able to afford camp on their own, are able to experience God in a whole new way because of many people's generous support! Thank You!
In addition to taking middle school students to Spring Hill this year we also took high school students for the first time! Spring Hill introduced a new program called Diverge where youth groups (or individual students) come for a week of camp. It's set up similar to their weekend retreats where the high schoolers have their own speaker and band all week. When they weren't being challenged by Jeffrey Dean they were out participating in all the regular camp activities (blob, zipline, crafts, etc)!!! We took two high school students, Anna & Kassy, both of whom walked away challenged and encouraged to pursue a deeper relationship with God. One of the girls admitted that although she wasn't ready to enter into a personal relationship with God, she had a better understanding of who He was and began asking deep questions about why He should be important in her life!!! It touched my heart to see the girls so passionate about learning more!
This year for KAA we were blessed to partner with Zo Smith, a youth leader in town, and his students. Normally one of our biggest obstacles getting to KAA is trying to find a bus that will transport our students all the way to Branson, MO. God is always faithful, and this year He was abundantly faithful as we received a bus where the seats turned into beds at night. That means the students (and staff!) got to sleep much more comfortably than normal!!! KAA always provides us staff with an opportunity to get refreshed and to have deep group discussions with our students. Our students are already asking when they get to sign up for KAA and camp is still 8 months away!!!
Thank you to the many partners who help us send students to camp each year! Our students, who wouldn't be able to afford camp on their own, are able to experience God in a whole new way because of many people's generous support! Thank You!
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