Joy of Christmas from a Boaz Mentor

Where is the JOY of Christmas!


Christmas for me is a wonderful time of year! I know it is not a happy time for everyone but hope and pray that those people, they will eventually find joy in Christmas. I personally, have gone through a period in my life where I did not look forward to Christmas. I lost my mother to Cancer on December 15th, 1984. That year and for a few years to follow Christmas was a sad time.


However, I’m sure we all can remember the thrill of Christmas as a child! All the lights, excitement and the anticipation of what Santa was going to bring to us. I am now a grand-mother of five (I’m counting the one due in January) but when I was a child,( and even when my children were small) things were much different than what they are now. As a child it was an adventure for us to go to town with Mum and Dad to get the groceries. I don’t think I can remember eating out in a restaurant as a child but do remember someone bringing store cooked pizza to our home one time and how excited I was and how extravagant it was. We did not receive gifts/treats year round; they usually only came on our birthdays and at Christmas. And OH! How thrilling it made Christmas seem! Now, as a society, when we want something, a lot of US (me included), go out and get it. When Christmas rolls around I think most of us struggle with what we will buy for gifts for family and children because they ‘have everything’! And there is such a huge variety of toys, etc., out there now that many children seem to want everything because they can’t make up their minds what they want. And because of that, it takes away a lot of the joy of giving.


Well this year we, my husband Howard and I have had some of the joy put back into our Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, with the exception of when my mother passing away near Christmas, I have and will always love Christmas. I love buying for my children and grand-children but when they already have so much and you are on a budget, it is hard.


However, a few months ago I had lunch with our Youth Pastor, Scott Wood at Morning Gate Church as I had expressed an interest in helping out with the youth. By the time our lunch was over, we both agreed
that I probably would be a ‘better fit’ for Boaz Ministries, a Ministry that Scott had founded. 


I started helping out on Friday nights with a group of local youth and some of their parents. Through the rapport that Scott had built with the parents of these youth, he and some of those parents decided that they would like to see some of these children mentored. Scott then asked to meet with Howard and I and asked us if we would be interested in mentoring one of these youth. After a brief time of thought and pray we called Scott and told him yes. We have committed to spending 90 minutes a week with our mentee, 8 year old Tyisha. We have been out about ½ dozen times now and what a new outlook it gives you. She is a vibrant, sociable child who is very easy to love. She goes between calling us Howard and Brenda to Grampie and Grammie, which we are thrilled with. She is quick to correct us if she knows we are wrong but does it in a very great way. And her smile would win anyone’s heart. She is thrilled to have not only one mentor but two and has on occasion bragged to her sister, Mikayla, that she has ‘two of them’. And now as Christmas approaches it has put the thrill back into my Christmas because we are able to share with Maria and her children, some of what we have been blessed with. I know Howard has noticed more excitement in me this year. 


I am so thankful for being a part of Boaz Ministries and even more thankful that Maria has allowed us to become part of her extended family. We are, truly loving the time with Ty and it is touching our hearts in ways that we could never have imagined. It is one thing to know that there is a need out there and give to it, but it is sooooooo much more rewarding to actually become a part of a ministry such as this. Maria and her family may feel that we are blessing them but she will never know truly, how much this is blessing us. Thank you Boaz Ministries and Thank you Maria for allowing us to be a part of this. The one part of this journey that I do want to mention is this: Howard and I have felt for a long time that, as much as we know we would enjoy going on a Mission Trip to some foreign country, that our mission field was here in ‘our own back yard’. And we feel that through God’s direction it has brought us to Boaz Ministries. We are truly thankful and are so happy that His JOY (Jesus Others You) is in us this Christmas.

Bake Sale

Our good friends at the Goody Shop have partnered with Boaz 


Ministries again this year for our 3rd annual Christmas bake 


sale. 


We have 100 packages of Christmas baking and we are selling them 


for $8 each. You can buy them for yourself or you can make a 


donation to us for a family in need and we will deliver the


Christmas baking to them. Either way, you help support Boaz!

Seasons of change

November has come and gone for another year. It was a great November for a number of reasons, here are my top 3 reasons:
1. I got to stash my Movember stache. I loved growing it for awareness of prostate cancer, but am having to get rid of the hideousness of a moustache.

2. My favorite hockey team the Boston Bruins, never lost a game in regulation. That's right they were 12-0-1!

3. God worked a miracle in the month of November to provide us with a place to do our ministry from. You can read the previous blogs to see how that all happened.

Now the month of December is upon us. For some this is an exciting time, for others it is a time of dread. I have to confess that I love what Christmas represents but I don't enjoy the other trappings of it.


There are lots of gifts you can give people for Christmas. I want to present a gift idea that can make a difference. What if you were to make a donation to our ministry in the name of someone on your shopping list.  For the person who seems to have everything why not give them something that they have never had before and one that can make them very happy. Remember it is much more blessed to give than receive.


The seasons change and we know that is going to happen at certain times. How about changing someones life when they least expect it. You can make a difference and that can give you Christmas joy this season!


If you would like to bless this ministry that blesses others, make a donation on paypal using the link here, or contact us at boazlighthouse@gmail.com and we will give you the information you need.


GO BRUINS!

Home to run Boaz

Update:

God is good. We now have the keys to the duplex on Hawkins St. where the Hawkins Neville Tenants Assoc. operates from. After two meetings with the director and the board of directors for their association, they felt they should partner with us to deliver what we have been doing to their community.

We will be operating our hot meal program on Mondays and Thursdays beginning next Thursday. We have access to the center from 2-7 each of those days. In the afternoons we can offer our tutoring, or teach moms to cook or do counseling or book studies or whatever we desire to do. We will then serve the food from 4:30-6:30 ish.

We have been given their blessing and permission to rearrange the building to suit our needs as we will be using the building more than they do. The cost to us is $0, that's right we have no power bill, phone bill, mortgage or rent payment. I suggested that once a month we could make a donation to their tenants association.  They were ecstatic!

More details to come but we now have a place to operate from indoors and we will be there beginning Dec 1st, the same date we would have had the home for on Neville. But we do not have all the overhead. Praise the Lord!!!

Scott

Teaching moments

I always love when God gives us moments in our lives that are clearly teaching moments. I have had many of those over the last number of days, and I want to share one of those right now.

As we have been praying over the purchase of the house over the last number of weeks, I have been very careful to pray a certain way. My prayer has been, "God I want your will to be done in this situation. I would rather have your will done than mine because I know your will is much greater." This is not a prayer showing a lack of faith, this is a prayer full of faith acknowledging that He is able to do best. He knows what is best! He is so good!


I have been thinking even more about how we come to God. We come to God, and maybe pray for patience! So He gives us opportunities to stretch our patience and we get mad at him or others. We ask for more faith in life, so He puts us in places where we have to stretch our faith, sometimes radically and we get angry with him for not answering our prayers a certain way.


When I got the phone call telling me that the house was not going to be available to us anymore, my first thought was, thank you God. Not that it wouldn't have been nice to have that house in that location but because He answered our prayer very specifically. It was the right answer, maybe it wasn't what I would have wanted but it is what He showed us in response to our prayer.


Maybe you are going through a situation in your life where you are asking God for direction. Can I suggest that you cast all your burdens on Him and ask Him to work out His perfect will for that situation. He says that we are to cast all our cares on Him, because He cares for us." He really does care, sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes it is no and sometimes it is not now. Whatever the answer is, the reality is He cares and He has what is best in mind, even when it is not what we would choose.


Thoughts...

Answer on house

As many of you have been observing and reading, our ministry put in a bid on a house in the area where we do much of our ministry on the Northside of the city. We had settled on a price and had a written agreement in place to purchase.


Early in the week we had a home inspection done and it turned up a number of problems that greatly effected the value of the house. It turned out that we would need to spend close to 10,000 to fix the issue. We then offered a new amount today, $7500 less than the original offer. Our offer was rejected and the whole deal was scrapped as the seller sold the home to someone else.


I appreciate all your prayers in this matter. I am not disappointed as my prayer has been all along that God's will would be accomplished and that if this was not for us, then He would clearly show us. I believe we got our answer.


We will press forward in our work there and other areas and trust that in His timing we will have exactly what we need at the right price.


God is good and I trust Him. He is the leader of this ministry and He is in control!

Christmas giving

Want to send a Christmas gift to someone?




 How about making a donation to Boaz in the name of that person? Lots of people already 


have lots of stuff, so maybe this would be a great time to give them something that truly makes a 


difference. We would love to make that happen for you and you could change the lives of others


 at the same time. We will send the card to them from our ministry and send the tax receipt to 


you for your donation! You can make that donation right here on the paypal link.




We also now have wristbands you can buy for people at $5.00, they look awesome and say 


"James 1:27" on one side and "Boaz" on the other. 

Mentors and mentees

I wanted to invite you into our mentoring ministry and help you understand the power of mentoring. This is the report from one of our mentors:

Today my mentee and I had our first official mentor hang out time! I had called earlier this week to schedule the time and what we were planning on doing and called to confirm the night before. So today, November 16th I picked her up at her home. We went to the clay cafe and painted some pretty rad pottery! I thought clay cafe was a good fit for our first hang out session. It was relaxed and made it so we didn't have to focus solely on the conversation, it was a good setting. She tends to be pretty quiet in groups with a lot of people around but as soon as she had the opportunity to talk we had some great conversations!It also gave her the chance to ask me all about myself. It was fun, she's a sweet girl! 

One thing she talked a lot about was school and some of the different work she was doing. She told me about a story that she had written and received an A+ for! After we were done painting we went back to her home and it was about 8:00. I walked her in and wanted to speak with her mom for a minute about next week and to tell her about our time together. Once inside my mentee brought her creative writing to me and let me read it, and then she showed me more of her schoolwork that she had done well on and it was so sweet to see how proud she was and be able to encourage her and build her up! I stayed at their home for about a half an hour, this was a good opportunity for me to talk to her mom more and let her get to know me! I had a great time and I really love this family and can't wait to get to hang out with my mentee more! 

Thanks for blessing me and allowing me to be a part of this ministry!


We would love to have you invest your resources in Boaz. Right now we have 12 kids involved in the mentoring with more waiting on mentees!

Now at 55%

Update:


We are making progress on raising the needed funds to purchase the home we feel we are being led to in our ministry. We now have less than 48 hours to get the funds raised.
As of right now we have a commitment for 55% of the needed amount. Please join us in praying for this miracle or get involved by making a donation. It will be a great investment in the lives of people.

Important update...praying for a miracle

My name is Scott Wood and I am the founder and director of Boaz Lighthouse International Ministries, Inc, (Boaz) Boaz started as a result of a vision from God and a prophetic word spoken over me. we are a registered charity in Canada, receiving our status in April 2011.

We have been active in minsitry reaching out to hurting teens and families for over two years. This past June we felt led by God to begin an outreach in one of the underprivileged areas of our city the Hawkins/Neville St location. There are many hurting, impoverished and hungry people who we have come to love. We have been feeding close to 150 people each week for almost three months, have purchased school supplies for 30 children, provide tutoring for kids and within the last week have launched our mentoring ministry to 14 children/teens in the Neville /Hawkins location.

Winter is quickly approaching and up to this point we have been doing all of our ministry outside in a community park on Neville St. we began to pray about purchasing a home in the area, and a home became available right across from the park we use. We felt led to make an offer on the home and we have a written agreement from the homeowner to sell us the home for the price of $102,500. We have until the 18th, this Friday to show that we have the financing in place.

Boaz Ministry needs people who will commit to funding over the next few years and especially needs some one time donations right away. We have one family already committing to $750/month for 5 years and will also provide an up front donation of $5000. We have another church seriously praying about committing $10,000 right away. Please consider partnering with us to make a difference in the lives of this community. God is already doing amazing things and we know He has great things planned for us in this house! All donations receive a tax receipt from the ministry!

Thank you,

Pastor Scott

Boaz Lighthouse International Ministries, Inc

The final push...needing a miracle

Our ministry has been very active in making a hands on difference in an area of our city called Neville/Hawkins. We  feed up to 150 people/week, provided schools supplies for kids, deliver groceries to families, tutor children, counsel families and recently started a mentoring program with 14  amazing kids.


The reality for us is that almost all of this has taken place in a park on Neville St. The weather is making it much more difficult to operate outside. To this end we found a home to purchase on the same street. We made an offer on the home and after some back and forth we settled on a price. Our offer was conditional on 4 things: 1) home inspection being completed (done) 2. Insurance in place ( will be done by today) 3. Zoning changed (in process) and 4. Proof of financing (need your help)


I started this ministry by faith and God has been faithful. We know that He uses people to accomplish His purposes and we know that this is one of His purposes. We are looking for people/families that would commit to monthly support over the next five years or to a one time gift. We already have  two commitments so we are praying for many moremore before Friday when we reach our deadline.


If you may be interested in helping us out to deliver quality hands on ministry to those in need, please email me at boazlighthouse@gmail.com.


To find out more about what we have been doing read a few of the other blog entries as well. I pray that you will consider helping us help others.

Just enough poutine!!!

I am constantly amazed at God's provision. I shouldn't be, but it is His creativity that makes me smile. Let me share with you another example of this.


Yesterday morning I was having my quiet time with God and I was praying and thanking God for many things. I love to just sit in His presence and listen and pray. I was praying specifically for our drop in last night and was thinking about the food, which is always popular among our friends there. 

One of the little girls had asked if we could ever bring poutine, because that was her favorite food. I told her that I would try to do that sometime soon but couldn't make any promises. As I was praying I felt like this was the night to do it but I was unsure how to best do it and at the same time keep it warm. I asked for some ideas on facebook, and good ideas were sent to me.


It was now 4:30 and we head to the outreach site and set up for 5;30 and I received a facebook message from a friend that indicated a local restaurant that had great poutine. I replied that it would be great but on short notice I didn't know if the restaurant could get the poutine ready and that it would be very pricey to buy poutine for 35-40 people at that restaurant. She replied, don't worry about it, I will order it, pick it up, drop it off and pay for it. 


Just like that my prayer was answered and God provided. He did it by putting the need on someones heart and they wanted to bless us and the people we minister to. By the way we had enough food to cover close to 40 people and some had seconds and thirds.


It was also supposed to rain last night and the night before. On both occasions the rain let up for a couple of hours for us to do what we are called to do there and then began to rain as we were leaving. I love God's provision as we wait on Him before we get a house to move into. 


Please keep praying. God is providing for us and we continue to wait on Him for future provision. I am reminded everyday that this is His ministry that He called into being. He is the Sustainer and Provider and we are simply His hands and feet.

Immediate prayer request

I am praying for something specific today and I want to share it with you, I hope to have as many people joining me as possible.


Many of you know we have a powerful presence in our city in the Neville/Hawkins area. we have incredible favor with families, not just teens and kids but their parents too. We love them and they love us and it is a true gift from God. they are like extended family. We are able to provide food, fun, and friendship as well as love, acceptance and genuine concern for each other.


We have found a home to purchase right on that street but our challenge is that it is not zoned properly. We have been in contact with a city councilor that is trying to help us attain a temporary rezoning which would be good for a year. We need this to happen. Would you pray for this favor and a speedy resolution.


Once we have this we also need our offer to be accepted for the home. I am suggesting that we offer a rent to own for a period of time until we can get the zoning done permanently. We need the favor of the homeowner to consider this request.


We believe that this can be done through the power of prayer, please join me and specifically pray for:

• favor with the local zoning committee
• favor with the present homeowner

This ministry was started as a result of a vision from God and requires faith for what seems impossible. God is able! Join with me in pressing into Him, He is very creative!

If anyone would like to make a donation to the ministry you can do this on this site through paypal, all donations will receive a tax receipt as we are a registered charity in Canada.

Thanks

Scott

My letter to God

Our youth group just finished watching the movie "Letters to God",  http://letterstogodthemovie.com/the-movie    if you haven't had the opportunity to see it, well you should. It is based on the real life story of a young boy who is battling cancer and how he writes letters to God to express himself. He does this as his communication with God about what concerns him.


I have been thinking about this movie and considered what I might write to God. As I look back over my journey with God their are times when I would have shared my joys and victories. Other times I would have certainly poured out my heart in despair and lonliness. At this point in my life i have learned that God wants to hear both from me, and that I can tell him whatever I want.


Here are some of the things I would write to Him now:


Hey friend,


I am so glad that you are a vital part of my life. You know me better than anyone else and that is both good and bad I guess. It's good cuz you know my heart, but it's bad cuz you know sometimes I fall way short of what I could be. I don't want to fall short, but sometimes I get soo tired.


God if there is one thing I wish you would change for me personally, it is that I am so tired of being in pain. I know my pain is small compared to what others have to endure, but I think if I wasn't so exhausted from it I could do much more. It just wears me out.


I have a request for my family too. Lord you know all of our physical struggles with pain and mental illness, I would love for you to set us free from that. I am thankful Lord that one day none of us will have pain, and that keeps me going strong with you.


On a ministry level, I  would ask God that you go before us and level the mountains that are before us. Sometimes the challenges seem too big for me but I am grateful that they are not too big for you. God I am thankful that you have all the resources we need and that you are raising up people to come on board and support your ministry thru Boaz.


I am so blessed when I think of all the families our ministry has impacted and I pray God that you would continue to meet their needs. You know their frustration and how much poverty has impacted their lives. Help us to be your hands and feet to them.


Finally, I would say. God all of my hope, my trust, my future and my desire is in you and for you. Thanks again for being my closest friend, one that gives me unconditional love. Jesus I love you and I desire for others to come to know and understand you and receive your gift of salvation.


Your friend and servant,


Scott

Without food in our city, unacceptable

It has been another productive week for Boaz. Thursday night we arrived at Neville St. on an extremely chilly night. We had lots of kids present as usual and we had a special gift for the kids. a friend of our ministry donated some brand new hats and gloves to us and we distributed these things to every person that came out. Every child, teen and parent present was blessed and warmed up. It was another practical way to meet a felt need.

Friday night the weather had warmed up and we had a good turnout once again. We went through so much food again and we gave away the last of our hotdogs we had been able to get ahead on over the last couple of months. It seemed like people were really hungry. One particular family was.

As we were serving, one of the teens we have come to love asked if she could talk to Ashley and then myself, She proceeded to tell us that her family of five had no food in the house. She shared how desperate things had become the last few days. I went to her home and talked to her mom. As her daughter had stated their fridge was empty as was their freezer and cupboards too. Heartbreaking.

I was able to give them a gift certificate that night as I had just bought some through the benevolent ministry of Morning Gate. We also made a commitment to help and of course we enlisted the help of facebook to make people know of this immediate need. People have responded. One family went out and purchased a load of groceries, another family bought a gift cert. and some other foods and one other lady bought and prepared a turkey and turkey dinner for them. Beautiful.

Once again I am reminded why we have this ministry. Through this simple act of trust we have built with this teen, she was able to share her families need with us. We were able to respond and now this family has food to eat and even more important know that we are about more than just talk, but we love them.

Warm, fresh bread!

 "If we are going to make a difference in the world we have to become more passionate and focused on what happens outside of our walls 24/7 than we are on what happens inside our walls 1.5/1."

I love this quote from a friend of mine named Karl, he really gets it and is living his life like this. Beautiful!


I love when people use their talents to help others, especially helping those outside the safety of the walls of our churches. Yesterday was one of those days, when something practical and simple was done that had a huge impact. Let me share!


A friend of mine from our church took time to make us homemade bread. It was delivered to us right out of the oven and we took it with us to do our ministry on Hawkins/Neville. When we arrived on location people were already gathered and were waiting for us to start serving. We were blessed with chili, goulash, garlic bread, cinnamon buns, chocolate macaroons all which was donated from friends of our ministry.


All the food was amazing as always. I am so grateful for all of it and for the time invested to prepare it and for the resources spent to purchase it, and for the people who serve it. But for just one minute I want to focus on the bread, the warm fresh bread.

I don't know how many comments I heard about the bread. I loved the look on the faces of the people who bit into the bread and experienced the bread just being so freshly made. Many times I heard,"we have not had fresh homemade bread in a long time." At the end of the day I had one loaf of bread left, that was perfect!


I took that loaf of bread to a family I care about. The mom could not make it to the park for various reasons, but she heard about the bread from her daughter and a friend. I told her I had brought her a loaf and it was for her and her family. Her eyes lit up. It was awesome! She had just told her friend how much she wished she could have had a piece.


Wouldn't it be amazing to be able to help those who love the taste of this bread to learn to do so themselves so they could bless their own families? Wouldn't it be incredible to supply families with bags of flour and all the pans and ingredients needed to do this too!


The same could be said about all the types of food we brought. I am sooooooooo thankful for all the amazing people that bless us and the families we serve with their time and talents. It is so refreshing to see it being done for people outside our walls.


Keep making that food and keep making a difference!

Mess Up, Fess Up

Influence is a big thing. Trust is an even bigger deal. If people trust you in life, if people believe that you are in support of the things they believe in, then you can have an impact.


I was talking to one of the amazing moms who come out to our Thursday night hot meal program about her daughter. She has been having a few challenges with her daughter and has had to prevent her from hanging out with people that would bring her daughter down.


She then talked about how she really wants her daughter to be around us as we reinforce the values she wants her daughter to learn. That is so powerful! We want to support families and teach the teens and children to respect their parents, especially when we know those parents really are striving to make their kids lives better.

Trust is so important as I said earlier. I have felt horrible this past week as I made a promise to a family that I didn't follow through on. Last week one of the precious families we have come to know was facing a major medical challenge. I made a promise to come by and pray with this family on Wednesday as they were heading out of town for surgery on Thursday.


I was just about to crawl into bed on Wednesday and realized I had not followed through. It was not intentional, I simply forgot. I got up early that Thursday morning and drove to their home but they had already left town. I was deeply saddened and disappointed. This is not how I want to operate, I want to deliver on what I say!

Tonight I went over to the house of the family and made an apology. I expressed my sincere apology for not coming by when I said I would. I did not make excuses, I simply said I had let them down and I was sorry. This mom told me that she forgave me and that she was glad I came by to visit. Even though we were just there for a few minutes, I felt so much better when we left.


As we build relationships, we need to be faithful to our word. When we mess up, we need to fess up! I am glad people believe in us and I want our words to be sincere! I value greatly the amazing people God gives us the honor of serving!

Awesome few days

Wow, the last few days have been amazing, tiring and fulfilling! 


I continue to be amazed at the favor God provides us as we reach out to others. I am continually reminded that I need to spend time in His presence seeking His intervention in the future and present. I know that He holds the keys to any door that needs to be opened up.


Yesterday was so much fun! We started the day by taking a bunch of teens to a park where we handed out food and drinks and ate lots of watermelon. Our teens played with lots of kids they had never met before and saw the joy in just being available to kick a soccer ball or push a swing. I think a few of them caught the importance of serving others.


We took a short break and went out for wings at one of my favorite places in the city on a Sunday, Jungle Jim's. They have incredible wonderful tasting wings. Eight of us had a great meal and even better fellowship together as we relaxed and enjoyed each others company. Of course we got to do this in front of the big screen TV with NFL football  on.

After our fill of wings, I took three teens who had been with us all day to another ministry in town. This ministry makes sandwiches for 320 people and goes door to door as they deliver the food to needy families. I so love what they do and the heart they do it with. They would agree that they are just touching the tip of the iceberg when it comes to meeting the needs in our city. 


What is the biggest priority for the Boaz ministry this week? We need to get a home for Boaz to operate from. We have now looked through one particular home on Neville St. for the third time. A close friend of mine that is a real estate agent is working very hard for us to try and make this a reality. We are praying once again for incredible favor from God, and that He would go before us and level the mountains. 


Please pray for us and the ministry as we have four meetings set up this week with a number of different individuals, including government officials, other pastors, potential donors and meet with our board. Would you join me in praying specifically for the home on Neville St. that God would do the miraculous that only He is capable of.

http://www.homelifefredericton.com/4a_listings.php?MLS=&street=Neville+St&city=&price_from=&price_to=&bedrooms=0&bathrooms=0&property_type=0&status_default=354&status=35

In closing I want to share a song I recently came accross, you can watch it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjAmdzsOR7w  I think it describes our heart for people!

What can I do?

We pulled on to to our drop in location at 6:00 and was greeted by one of the kids who loves us being there to spend time with them. She said, "I was wondering when you would get here, I have been waiting for five hours." The reality is she got off school at 3:00 so it had been just three hours, but the point was she was waiting for us. It gave her something to hope for.


Friday night was incredible once again as we had about 30 kids/teens out. This happened to be the same night as the  local exhibition was giving reduced rates for kids, so we were missing quite a few regulars. At one point Drew and Scottie grabbed a football, formed up two teams and played a game with the teen boys until dusk. One of the boys said that he was glad he never went to the exhibition because this was much more fun. I agree we have fun and the cost for people to come to what we do is free. It is also relational!

The reality for us is these types of nights can't happen unless we have volunteers. I am so blessed to have so many young adults helping us out. They are as passionate about these kids and families as our staff is. They sacrifice their time to make a difference. The kids are also smart enough to tell the difference between someone who really cares and someone going through the motions of caring. Our staff and volunteers really care.


People are wondering what they could possibly do to help out and get involved. There are a few things but one of the simplest is to just be there. Having a consistent presence in kids and teens lives goes a long way. If you can push a swing, flip a hotdog over on a grill, listen, pour a kid a cup of juice, kick a ball, listen, pick up trash, pray, listen, did I mention listening. One little girl talked to Karla and told her how her day went. Then she asked her when she was coming back so she could tell her how that day went.

Get involved, it will change your life. What are you waiting for? You could have a huge impact on someones life today.