Week 1- Grace Baptist, New Friendship, Fredonia Hill, Biltmore Baptist

  POPE

     Pope is a brand new site and ran for the first time this week.  Pope is an alleviation site established to reduce some of the large numbers from Guernsey.  With Pope being only a short 5 minute walk away we weren’t sure of what to expect the first week, but God had big plans for us!  We ended the week with 47 kids attending and maxing out our space available, it was awesome! Fredonia Hill from Nacogdoches, Texas worked great with the kids and really started the summer off with a bang!  Every team member really bonded with a particular child at club and it was a wonderful sight to be seen.  Even our MIT, Calvin, bonded with one little boy who stole everyone heart.  The kids were taught about great kings from the Old Testament and made adorable crafts to go right alongside.  Please be in prayer for the summer as we continue to run Pope and teach the children the love of our Lord and His amazing wonder. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:14 -Aimee 

NATIONAL

   National was one of eight sites that were open week one of summer 2012. Biltmore Baptist Church returned to run National. Erica and Gaby were pumped to see what God was going to do with this team. Treadwell will be staffed by Jake in a couple weeks but for now she has the opportunity to bring the apartment kids to National. The Missionary in Training program has grown this summer and the National staff is thrilled to have Promise as an MIT. She is an incredibly hard worker and did a wonderful job this week.

Monday there were crazy thunderstorms all morning. So we took it as a chance to pray over our site our kids and for God to move in a mighty way in the hearts of the people we would come in contact with. It was almost like God was making a statement that He wanted us to start off the summer in prayer before we served. The team decided to go door to door to tell people about bible club as well. With the cool weather and a passionate team God brought out a ton of kids with a high of 82 on Thursday.

Keep praying for the kids, their families and for the teams coming to National for the rest of the summer!
-Erica

 Leahy's

    This week has been both a full one and a fun one. Monday threw us an unexpected curve-ball in the form of thunderstorms and lots of rain, but as always God worked everything together for good, and we were still able to go to our site once the rain stopped. A few of the kids who have been to Bible Club in previous years came running out to us after they realized we were there, ecstatically shouting the names of some of the team members they remembered from last year and asking about the ones who weren't there. Because the rain had flooded part of our site and delayed our arrival at Leahy's, we weren't able to have club on Monday, but we still got a chance to play with the kids that came up, as well as go through the trailer park and some of the nearby streets to let people know we're starting up again. Tuesday through Friday saw a steady increase in the number that came, with a total of fifty kids coming through our site this week. All in all, it was a pretty great week, full of excitement, fun, smiles, and learning opportunities, and I believe it laid a good foundation for the rest of the summer to build upon.
 -Kala

JOHNSON

    We had a great first week this summer with all the kids at Johnson! The beginning of the week did not look so good with rain and thunderstorms but several kids still came out to Bible Club. The team put in a lot of work to go find kids in the community and organize their Bible Club for them. Many new kids from the area are getting to come for the first time and it has been exciting to see how much they are enjoying it. The team really poured into the kids this week. You could sense God’s love and presence there as they interacted with the kids. Their hearts were broken for them, and they were really wanting to give them hope. The lunch truck did not show up for the first part of the week so the team actually went out to buy lunch for the kids at Bible Club. It has been a great week and we are looking forward to the rest of the summer! 
-Johnathan

WHITTIER

We had an awesome time at Whittier this week! Grace Baptist did an amazing job with the kids. Unfortunately, Bible Club was rained out on Monday, but Grace was determined to get out and walk in the pouring rain and canvas the neighborhood.  Their work proved to be well worth it, because we had 38 kids come out on the very first Bible Club of the summer! How exciting! Grace Baptist did such a wonderful job with the kids this week; we ended up having 50 kids on Friday! It was great to see God move and feel His presence this week. Excited to see what He has in store for us this summer at Whittier! -Cassie

 KENDRICK

What a great kick off week we had at Kendrick!  Grace Baptist Church was in the house and they really stepped up to get the kids out, playing, and learning the gospel.  Even though we had a stormy day on Monday, the team was able to get 17 kids to come out.  It only got better from there with a whopping 52 kids on Thursday!  It was really cool to be able to watch the
Holy Spirit move within these students who had never come to Street Reach before; they were unsure of what to expect, but as soon as they met the kids, they fell in love.  The kids were SO excited to see them and jump up on their shoulders every day!  From unique crafts to some great games of football, from "Little Sally Walker" dance offs to interactive Bible stories, Grace set the bar high at Kendrick for the rest of the summer.  We can't wait to see what God does with this site over the next seven weeks. So thank you, Grace, for all your hard work KENDRICK, HOO-HA-HA! -Holly

GUERNSEY

Wow!  What a first week we had a Street Reach.  Things are a little different over in the land of Guernsey because we’ve opened another site just down the street, but with the two combined we’ve got to have over 100 kids enrolled already!  Guernsey 1 was lead by Fredonia Hill (some of my favorite Texans!) and we had a blast.  On Monday we had rain and thunderstorms, but they quickly told me, “We’re going out there to see our kids!”  I LOVED THAT, so we headed out to the site, prayed over it and began driving down our streets.  When the rain stopped for a while I let team members go down their routes for pick up and visit with kids and their families to let them know club would start the next day.  We ended up having a great time with about 4 kids that live next to the site and it only grew from there.  Throughout the week we had no less than 40 kids there at club.  The team was awesome and had lots of energy and love for our kiddos! Needless to say the Gospel was shared and kids and their families were loved on.  We miss you Fredonia Hill and can’t wait to see you next year! 

Don’t Forget: “GUERNSEY ONE HAS MORE FUN!”    -Kacie 
    
ROSAMOND

This week at Rosamond was a fun and new experience for everyone! We had New Friendship Baptist Church come to Street Reach for the first time to run the Rosamond site for the first week.  The kids enjoyed singing songs, making crafts, and playing with the HUGE parachute that was brought by New Friendship.  By the end of the week, Rosamond had up to 50 children and many of them were walking up to the site because they had been to Bible club previous years. We were blessed to have Olivia as our MIT this week and she did an amazing job with the children! Kimberly and Justine are both excited to see what God has in store for Rosamond this summer!
-Kimberly



Stay tuned for more summer updates! Thank you for your prayers!