Update

A few people have asked for updates on one kid on my team, J. He was suspended last week, and technically after the fourth suspension, he is supposed to be disenrolled from the program. My boss and I discussed the issue and decided that he will not be disenrolled. Other kids who have been disenrolled after four suspensions have demonstrated that they are a danger to the other kids and their involvement in the program is detrimental to the other students. We felt like this particular student is not a danger and he desperately needs to be in the program.

Please continue to pray for him, for his mom, and for my boss and I as we try to understand how to help him best. Also, pray for the high school student I have assigned to work one on one with J. Pray that this older male student can be a good influence academically and spiritually.

As always, thanks for your prayers and support!

Hallelujah Fall Festival

On Friday, Park Community Church put on a Hallelujah Fall Festival for the Cabrini By The Hand kids. It went really well and the kids had a blast! It was great to hang out with the kids outside of regular programming. And I won a huge jar of gummy bears because I guessed how many were in the jar! :)

George, first grade (Gold) team leader, working with Ladayza

More group games

Iris--Purple team

More group games

Sack races! (Far left--Gregory and Edward from my team)

Edwin (L) and Jumar (R) from my team doing a football toss game

Cedrick (from my team) bobbing for apples

Bobbing for apples

Dominique after bobbing for apples (she's on my team)

Hunting for candy in the hay

Magic show

Jariel--First grade (Gold) team

Prayer Requests for this week

So things have been getting better, little by little. Sometimes I feel like our class takes 1 step forward and two steps back. Last week on Wednesday, our class had a much better Bible study than we've had in the past. However, when the kids were cleaning up after Bible study and getting ready to go to dinner, two boys got in a fight. It was very frustrating, especially because we talked about fighting during Bible study.

Please pray for Bible study this week. Pray that I will speak the words God wants me to speak. Pray that the kids get excited about learning about God. Also, please pray that the kids are able to focus and listen during this time. Every Wednesday night at 5:30, the devil seems to attack. It's usually the most difficult hour of our programming time.

Please pray for one of m kids, J. He's suspended (again) from By The Hand for fighting. My boss and I actually need to talk about whether or not we're going to allow him to continue, because according to our regular procedures, he should be disenrolled after 4 suspensions (and this was his 4th). However, we really really do not want to disenroll him so we're just trying to understand what would be best to do, especially considering he has been doing a little better in the past few weeks, despite the most recent fight.

Please pray for the Hallelujah Fall Festival this Friday at Park Community Church. The church is hosting a big day of games and stuff for the kids. Pray that that goes well, the kids have fun, behavior is good, and the kids experience God's love more.

On a personal note, pray that I can keep on top of all the tasks I need to do for work. Pray that I am able to meet with some teachers this week to discuss a few kids. I have been talking to teachers a lot through email and some on the phone, but I really need to spend more time talking in person and being in the classroom during the school day. Pray that I'm able to do that in the next couple weeks

I think that God is helping me have some endurance and strength. I'm not quite as exhausted at the end of the day as I used to be, which is great. However, I'm still a bit drained. Sometimes I just find it difficult to spend as much time in prayer and Scripture as I need to because there are so many tasks to accomplish. Pray that I will spend more time in prayer and Scripture, and also pray that I will have the energy to work hard and not be lazy in any of my tasks. Now that we're in the routine of things, I don't want to slack off at all. I want to work hard and do the best that I can; pray that I don't get too comfortable to where I become complacent.

As always, thanks for your prayers!

Prayer for By The Hand Kids

Aelred of Rievaulx, 12^th century:

"Teach my your servant, therefore, Lord, teach me, I pray you, by your Holy Spirit, how to devote myself to them and how to spend myself on their behalf. Give me, by your unutterable grace, the power to bear with their shortcomings patiently, to share their griefs in loving sympathy, and to afford them help according to their needs. Taught by your Spirit may I learn to comfort the sorrowful, confirm the weak and raise the fallen; to be myself one with them in their weakness, one with them when they burn at causes of offence, one in all things with them, all things to all of them, that I may gain them all. Give me the power to speak the truth straightforwardly, and yet acceptably; so that they all may be built up in faith and hope and love, in chastity and lowliness, in patience and obedience, in spiritual fervor and submissiveness of mind. And, since you have appointed this blind guide to lead them, this untaught (woman) to teach, this ignorant one to rule them, for their sakes, O Lord, if not for mine, teach (her) whom you have made to be their teacher; lead (her) whom you have bidden to lead them, rule (her) who is their ruler. Teach me, therefore, sweet Lord, how to restrain the restless, comfort the discouraged, and support the weak. Teach me to suit myself to everyone according to his power of understanding or his lack of it, as time and place require, in each case, as you would have me to do."

Taken from Modern Psychopathologies, p. 36-37

Another week at By The Hand

I apologize for not writing for a few weeks. Things have been pretty busy lately. However, you'll be happy to know that this week went pretty well. I think that the kids are starting to get the hang of how I do things. I'm gaining their respect (at least most of them) which is great. We've even been able to do a few games and fun activities, which we haven't been able to do because of behavior problems.

I think that I'm also simply getting used to the kids and I'm able to be much more calm in frustrating situations (I'm not great at it yet, but I'm getting there). Yesterday, for example, quite a few of my kids were not listening when we were supposed to line up. With God's help, I was able to deal with the situation calmly, without causing further frustration for myself and the kids.

On a different note, school progress reports came out this week. We got a chance to see the kids' grades before the actual report cards come out. There are only a few weeks until report cards, and at least half of my kids have at least one F (mostly in Reading). Several kids have 2-3 Fs and/or other Ds. Please pray that these kids can bring these grades up before report cards come out in a couple weeks. Pray that I'll know how to best help them in the program. It was a bit discouraging to see quite a few of the kids I thought were doing well actually having Fs on their progress report.

On the upside, a number of kids I thought were doing very poorly were actually getting all As, Bs, and Cs!

Thanks again for your prayers and support. Here are a few upcoming events for which you can be praying.

Tonight, Oct. 16—Junior high party

Saturday, Oct .17—Pumpkin carving day at Park Community Church put on by the volunteers of my class and the 1^st grade class

Friday, Oct. 30—Hallelujah Carnival at Park Community Church for all of the Cabrini-Green By The Hand kids.

Please pray that we are able to build deeper relationships for the kids. Pray for logistics and safety, and pray that at these events, we will be able to share God's love with these kids.

Bears Game with By The Hand Kids!

One of the Bears players, Adewale Ogunleye (defensive end), donated 29 season ticket seats to our organization. We split up the games between all the sites, so yesterday, kids from Cabrini went. We took the kids to McDonalds beforehand and then took a bus to the game. It was so much fun! One of Lions players even gave one of our kids a football.

The three kids from my class that went: Janiece, Gregory, and Bettiejimae

U2 Concert

Back in September, Colson and I went to a U2 concert. We had general admission seats, which meant we got great seats (20 ft. from Bono) but we also had to stand in line, and then stand at the concert (totaling about 7 hours of standing).