JAMBO! Welcome to Adventure Mountain

‘For anyone who asks receives, for anyone to seeks fa­-i-a­-i-inds, and the door is opened to anyone who knocks…do you believe? I BELIEVE!!” These are the lyrics to the theme song of Forest Home’s Adventure Mountain, the amazing summer camp that hosts our kids for one week of every summer. With a mission statement “To provide a place away from the distractions of the world, where you can hear the Word of God and encounter Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit,” this incredible camp far exceeded its goal in the lives of the Central City kiddos. Our kids talk about summer camp from the day they leave camp until the day we return the following year…and now I know why!

Thanks to the Lord’s provision, Forest Home scholarshiped 3 students and staff to go to the 3^rd-4^th grade camp and 6 students and staff to attend the 5^th-6^th grade camp. With the intention of having one final hoorah with my 5^th graders, who have now graduated to the Teen Program at Central City Community Outreach, we set out on Sunday for the San Bernardino Mountains. After a rather eventful drive up which included throw up and my car engine almost overheating (God is good!) we arrived with much excitement at Forest Home. The younger kids stayed at Indian Village and the older crew headed further up the mountain to check in at Adventure Mountian. The staff joyfully welcomed us and because our kids have been coming up for years, they were so pumped to jump on and hug the returning camp counselors. This familiarity and sense of belonging was huge for our kids!

The vision of the camp was to teach the kids to become detectives- to find the hidden mystery of Adventure Mountain which paralleled the aim of making the kids good detectives of the goodness that lies within God’s Word. The camp was incredibly well run with daily bible studies, crazy activities; skate park, rock wall, target sports (archery, fishing and bbguns), arts and crafts, team sports, acting, cooking, adventuring, etc. Our kids had a blast running free in the mountains, learning more about God, spending all their free time in the pool (they were on a first name basis with the lifeguard), yelling about bugs, learning the dance moves at worship every evening, participating in the camp sports competitions- seriously, camp was so fun! Our kids were incredibly well loved by the camp staff and 2 counselors in particular were very intentional with our kids and loving/serving them as they dealt with home sickness, “I’m too cool for this” and the daily dramas of being an 11 year old.

While I could tell stories for days, the highlights for me were that every one of the girls either accepted Christ or prayed that the Lord would grow them closer to Him.

--Ryan did a great job bonding with the kids (always a difficult process)

--During ‘deck connections’ (1-on-1 talks with the girls) one of my very shy girls opened up to me about some serious stuff going on at home- please pray for her and that her family would find a home. Even though she has so many stresses going on at home, it was so beautiful to see her let go and be a kid this week at camp. She told me that this week at camp was the first time she had ever played an organized game.

--The girls and I slept underneath the stars every night “Miss Eugenia, I like falling asleep to the crickets and the breeze under the stars.” Oh my heart!

--Me: “Girls I’m going to read the Bible before I go to sleep but I will turn the lantern off as soon as I’m done”

Yvonne “Miss Eugenia, will you read us a Bible story from your Bible?”

Me: holding back tears “OF COURSE!”...this tradition continued every night

To tie things up, camp was absolutely life changing. Please keep praying for the Lord’s protection over the kids and that they would continue to ask, seek and knock!

Feel free to check out the camp trailer: http://www.foresthome.org/camps/videoplayer.php?camp_programs_id=3&camp_programs_videos_id=95

Redistribution, Relocation and Reconciliation- UPLA 2010

Friends and Family,

Wow, it has been a while since I updated this blog and what a year it has been thusfar!! I could spend hours telling you story after story about the children at Central City Community Outreach and the student athlete lives the Lord has been touching through Athletes in Action but I believe telling you all about this past month of June might be the best way to sum it all up!

Urban Project-Los Angeles…

Since 2000 Athletes in Action has hosted the Urban Project- Los Angeles in the heart of LA with the vision to teach, train, and equip college student-athletes to engage with and invest in God’s heart for the poor, culture, diversity and holistic community development. In order to practice what they are learning, the student athletes serve at five ministry sites across the city. As the UPLA ministry site coordinator I had the blessing of supervising these sites and hearing firsthand the praises from the staff at each site. Here is a little break down of where our students served:

-Compton Salvation Army: A beacon of hope in a struggling city, this community center aims to re-establish the basic fundamental principles of fellowship, family and discipleship and encouragement through an after school tutoring program, summer child care, basketball leagues, a weight room and worship services. This summer, our students helped the Compton staff finish a recording studio that will be a huge ministry tool for the youth in the community. Writing and producing music is of huge interest to the kids= great tool of expression and empowerment! One of our AIA student-athletes wrote, “While being at Compton, we have had many opportunities to share the love of God and our faith in Jesus with the children. We have already had four children choose to accept Christ in their hearts.” Please be praying for these children!!

-Ramona Gardens: A new ministry site of the Urban Project Los Angeles, Ramona Gardens is a predominantly Hispanic housing project in east LA that struggles with gang activity and violence. Our students arrived with humble “we will help however we can” attitidues and left more blessed than they could have ever imagined. When I went to Ramona for a site visit, the site staff sang the praises of the students; “they were different from every other group,” and how it was very evident that they had a different Spirit about them- it was beautiful to say the least! Please pray for gang peace in this community and that God would continue to raise up leaders from Ramona Gardens.

-Nickerson Gardens: Nicks is the largest government funded housing project west of the Mississippi River. Considered the most violent, drug infested and crime riddled neighborhood in the country, the children have seen and experienced more than one could ever imagine. Through the common language of sports, however, the differences between the students and kids became invisible and bonds were quickly formed. Our student athletes left with Nickerson forever a part of their hearts. Please keep praying for peace among the gangs and protection over the children.

-Faith in Christ: FIC is not only a church but “a ministry in the heart of the city with a heart for the city,” as their motto reads. It has been my honor to be connected with FIC for the past three years and see the Lord provide for the tireless work of Pastor Joe and Gwen Brown. Challenged with a wide variety of tasks this summer, our students went into FIC with servant hearts. According to the students, the highlight for them was assisting in leading the Vacation Bible School programs! Please keep praying that the Lord would provide for the ministry at FIC and continue to strengthen those who tirelessly serve there.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST… what has been going on at Central City Community Outreach

I won’t break this one down too much because this entire blog is about Central City BUT I did want to share about the impact the student-athletes had after working with our kids for the month of June. Aside from the amazing job the students did with homework help and building relationships with the kids, the AIA group organized and executed a bible study titled “Who in the World is God.” Each day the kids traveled to a different country and learned about a new facet of God’s character…God is your Creator, Savior, Father, etc. Each “topic” was then followed by learning a relevant song and small group breakouts to discuss an applicable bible story and what this meant individually for the kids. Our kids learned SOO much about God that week and are still singing the songs and asking questions like “OK, I get that God loves us but then why did He kill His son.” Please keep praying that the Lord would captivate the hearts of all our kids.

In the end, Jesus is all we really need. Thank you Lord for being more than enough!