Trip to the Library

We just took our first field trip with The YC students tonight. The public library in town was having a grand-reopening party with food, live music, and caricature drawings - and we thought it would be a great opportunity to get our kids acquainted with the library resources. We weren't sure at first if the kids would come with us, but we made an announcement and shut The YC doors for 2 hours and told the kids to walk with us a few blocks over to the library, and they actually came! While we were walking the kids looked at us and said, "This is weird, walking with you guys." Apparantly we are much cooler to hang out with when we are inside a building vs. being seen

We made it to the library, the kids signed up for library cards, several found books to read and we all got caricature drawings made. The field trip was a success - what was I worried about, who doesn't love a party thrown at a library? Maybe we should take them more often!

The YC Christmas Party

We just had The YC Christmas party last night, sadly not all of our kids could show up because of the horrible weather we've been having lately. So far they say this is the worst winter storm to hit our area in 30 years, currently we have a few feet of snow on the ground.

The Christmas party was great, we played games, had hot-cocoa, ate cookies and brownies and best of all we were able to give a gift to every single kid that showed up. Earlier this month each student from The YC filled out a Christmas wish list and a local youth pastor named Binky and his wife Liz found families to sponsor each and every single card! It was incredible. The women's ministry department of another church brought us twenty or so generic presents that we could hand out to kids that hadn't filled out a list. Thanks to both of these churches every student went away with a present. For some of these students they would not have recieved any present at all this Christmas if it weren't for these two churches. It was incredible to see our kids faces as they opened their gifts around the Christmas tree, they couldn't believe some of the eloborate gifts they recieved.

Thank you to everyone who worked to make Christmas special to so many youth! We are so blessed to be surrounded by such generous hearts.

Miracle Backpacks

Last week The YC we were visited by a miracle! Our miracle was delivered by a group of men from Reality, a local Olympia church. We were getting ready for closing time when the group of men showed up to our building each carrying several heavily filled backpacks. The men just kept coming through our door, one after the other, each with several bags, each bag a different color and style. When the delivery was done the final count on backpacks was 44! Now, these bags were not just backpacks, no, that would have been amazing enough, but each bag was STUFFED full of school supplies to be given to 44 of our students at The YC.

One of our staff members, Drew, had stopped by an evening service at Reality church and spoke about the work we were doing at The YC and talked about the need for backpacks and school supplies for some of our students from low-income families. Families at Reality promised to bring us 15 bags, but in the end the loving families gave us the gift of 44 bags.

That evening the staff was able to pray over each bag and the student that would receive it, a student who now will walk with a little more confidence at school. We were also overwhelmed to see that several families had even written cards or letters to our students, sharing encouraging words and some even included a family picture!

Watching students receive backpacks throughout the week has been the best part of the miracle. It is amazing to see the excitement on their faces as they pick out their favorite bag and then begin to explore the supplies within. It has been Christmas all week long. Thank you, Reality for showing the love of God to our students in such a real way.

God is good, and He provides for His children!

The YC

I thought I would introduce you all to The Youth Connection, better known just as The YC. This is what brought Vince and I up to Olympia, WA earlier this month. The YC is a local nonprofit in downtown Olympia that works with at-risk teens, providing a safe place for youth from the city to hang out, find food and clothing, get connected with resources and have positive role models. The ultimate goal is to help these kids develop the confidence and skills they need for a productive future. The YC has been open just under a year now and part of Vince's role here is to start up support groups for the youth, make connections with the local high schools, and start new programs for the constant needs that are uncovered every week. At the moment, I have the privilege of offering some administrative support to The YC while I am looking for a job. After I find a job I'm excited about continue to volunteer time in the evenings working with the youth.

The staff, volunteers and youth at The YC are an amazing group and we are so excited at the opportunity that was given us to work with them. Vince and I have been praying and dreaming about a position like this and at just the right moment God opened the doors, we couldn't have planned this better ourselves.

Here is the link the The YC website so you can learn more about what we are up to.

Welcome to Washington

Vince and I made it safely to Washington and to our new home. This is the view I had all the way through California, Oregon and on into the beautiful (and rainy) state of Washington. Needless to say, I am glad to be out of the car!

We moved up earlier this month and right now are working on getting out new apartment set up and unpacked. For those of you who haven't heard, Vince took a job working at The Youth Connection in downtown Olympia. The YC is a new non-profit that works with at risk teens. We couldn't be more excited about the work we get to do here, but more about that later.