Week 7: Calvary, Parkway Southern, Parkway Baptist, PIckensville

POPE

    Pope's last week of the summer was a hit with Parkway Southern running things!  We broke a record on Tuesday with 55 kids at Bible Club; brand new kids, regulars, and kids who hadn't come since the beginning of the summer combined!  The team loved the kids and even remembered some of them from three years ago.  Everyone had a good time with cute crafts, silly songs, exciting games, and good Bible stories.  An older boy accepted Christ, and what better way to end the summer?  Thank you, Parkway Southern, for a great last week! –Holly

LEAHY'S

     Week 7 at Leahy's was amazing! Calvary West came in with a group so eager and ready to love on these kids and reach them with the Gospel, and we had some really cool things happen this week. One day, the doors to the church bus wouldn't close, and so before and during Bible Club we had a few team members working on it and trying to get to the bottom of what was wrong. Meanwhile, an eleven-year-old who just started coming this week with his cousins started asking a lot of questions over in his group. One of the team members who was going through things on the bus trying to figure out the problem with the doors happened across some Spanish Bibles that no one had even known were on the bus. About the same time as he was finding those, the eleven-year-old was hearing the Gospel from another team member. God used the problem with the bus doors (which after that started working!) to show us where the Bibles were, at just the right time for this boy to get one! It was just one example of how perfect God's timing is, and how faithful He is to orchestrate every detail and work all things together for good according to His will. We also had a blow-out number of kids this week--it went from 36 on Monday to 53 on Friday! It was a great way to end the summer for Leahy's, which will have one last day of Bible Club when a group of us staff run it on Monday. Thank you so much to all who have been praying!! God is answering! -Kala

JOHNSON II

Wow!  Last week we had 12 sites running and this week we were able to open 14!  God is truly blessing us this summer so that we are able to reach out to even more areas. This week I was moved from Guernsey in order to open a new club over near the original Johnson site.  My team from Calvary’s middle school ministry was able to have a site just for the Johnson Circle kids and the management there allowed us to use an open lot behind their office. This opportunity was extra special to me because Johnson Circle is the first neighborhood that I ever visited when I was on a team coming in to serve with Street Reach. It was really neat to see a smaller Johnson crowd come out, and some of the tougher kids opened up a little more simply because of the one on one time we could spend with them. I even had a few older kids come by that I haven’t seen in years just to say Hi (they remembered the team that I used to come to Street Reach with and asked about many of the members.)  That just goes to show that the one week you guys spend with our kids makes a difference. These kids don’t just forget about you when you go home, but they wait for you to come back again and again.  We love you guys at Calvary and can’t wait until next year!

-Kacie 

JACKSON

    Last week in staff meeting Jason made an announcement that we would be running 14 bible club sites this week. One bible club would be a brand new site by Jackson Elementary School. The children in this area have never heard of bible clubs. This site was inspired when some favorite Whittier children moved into a nearby apartment complex. Behind that apartment complex was an enormous park perfect for a bible club site.  A team from Parkway Baptist Church gave the children in this area a spectacular week of bible club. We all felt the weight of only having one week with these children. The gospel was shared with all of the children multiple times and the kids were loved on. Friday we were blessed to have 52 kids at Jackson. All of the kids loved bible club and it was an amazing week to see God work. Keep praying that teams will come in to run Jackson more weeks in the future. -Erica

VERNON

    The all girl team from Pickensville came in and did an awesome job at Vernon this week! Monday we set a record with 36 kids! Vernon is such a fun site to work at because it’s small enough to have a ton of one on one time with the kids, but big enough to be super loud at songs! My girls did such a great job of keeping things running smoothly to maximize the kids’ fun at Bible club. It was great to see God work through these young women; seeing their passion for these children was very encouraging and special! “We’re from Vernon couldn’t be prouder…” -Cassie

WHITTIER

 With part of Calvary's Jr. High Team leading Whittier this week, God used the team members in amazing ways. As his vessels, the team members were able to minister to over 40 kids consistently. The week started off strong with just over 50 kids, and the story of Joseph throughout the week allowed the kids to learn that God can bring good things out of what we may think are bad situations. One little boy named Kevin was thrilled about the dreams that God gave to Joseph. He also thought it exciting that "Heaven", where God lives, rhymes with "Kevin", his name. After talking to the site missionary, Kevin prayed that God would live in his heart. Kevin understood that he couldn't do enough good things to get to heaven unless Jesus lived inside of him. Praise the Lord that the minds of the children were receptive to the work that these missionaries were called here to do, and thank you to the Whit-Vegas team from Calvary for being His hands and His shoulders. -Josh

ROSAMOND

     What a great week at Rosamond this week!  Parkway Baptist Church from St. Louis was in town and the Lord brought out over 50 kids.  We had games, crafts, and Bible story this week and the kids had a lot of fun.  It was fun for me to talk to the kids and reminisce about some of the fun things we did the different weeks of the summer and they can remember so many previous team members’ names! Thanks to the Chapel Hill team, the kids were singing “Mercy is Falling” at club and told me they sing it at home as well.  This week the kids learned the stories of Joseph and it was amazing for me to sit down at Bible story and see how many of the kids new the answers to the questions.  We are still continuing to get a lot of children from the apartments and Buchanon.  Thanks to all the teams who worked so hard canvasing those areas! Thank you Parkway for giving the children at Rosamond a fun week! 

NATIONAL 

     Parkway Southern Baptist Church from Indiana came in this past week to pour their love out on these kids this week at National. What a blessed week it was. We grew in numbers each day ending the week with 66 kids which was a blessing reaped right away each day. While others were conversations with kids this week and teaching them about Christ and His Word that I found out about later and what a blessing that is, knowing kids are learning and growing in what faith is and what having faith looks like. It was a blessing being able to serve along side of some of the community from this church and a blessing partnering with them to reach lost souls because they are unreached until they become reached. Thanks for a great week Parkway Southern. –Gaby

JOHNSON

     This week there was a team from Calvary and it was there Junior High group. Many of the kids on the team that were working at Johnson had never been on a mission trip before! They did not know it at first, but they were in for a great week. They pulled of a great Bible Club for their first time, and they were extremely flexible throughout the week. The kids at the Bible Club were excited to see some younger kids that were closer to their age. They connected well with each other, and they had a real passion for the community by the end of the week.One of the cool things that happened this week was one of the kids that received a Bible last week from a team was bringing it with him to club. He also told me that he had been reading it every night. God is doing some very good things in the lives of these kids and it’s sad that we only have one week until the summer is over. This team made a lasting impact on the kids, and they were a blessing to everyone in the community! -Jonathan