By The Hand needs your help!

Today begins our fall fundraising drive! From now through the middle of December, all the sites will be aiming to raise $50,000. Each team has a huge jug in their classroom where kids, leaders, volunteers, etc. can put their coins. We also try to get churches, businesses, friends, and others involved in the process. Even though the goal is $50,000 for all four sites combined, our site (Cabrini) is aiming to raise $50,000 itself (the Austin site is setting the same goal). It is also a contest between teams, so whichever team at each site raises the most money, that team gets a prize. Sooooo, my team, the GREEN team, really really really wants to win! (I'm VERY competitive).

For those in the Chicago area, I can give you a coin jug thing to take to your places of work/houses. There is a note that explains what the money goes towards and how our fundraising drive works. For those who are not in the area, you are more than welcome to donate as well! We have emails, letters, fliers, etc. that explain everything. I will be posting this information and emailing it in the near future--I just don't have all the materials and details yet.

During this time, we also teach our kids about the importance of stewardship. Staff teach our kids the value of money according to the Bible and what it means to be a good steward of what God has given us.

Feel free to let me know if you want to get involved in creative ways--for example: You can say that you will donate $1 each day for every kid that does their homework on my team. You can do something like matching whatever the kids on my team are able to raise. You can say that for every day there are no suspensions, you will donate a certain amount of money (I have a lot of kids who get suspended, so this might be a huge incentive!) You can say that if the Green team raises more money than all the other sites, you will buy them a prize or put in even more money towards the fundraising. You get the point...I think it's really exciting that we're trying to get our kids involved. Since we're in a lower-income community, not all the kids have change to give, but all of them can help raise money by doing their homework, behaving, etc., so get creative!

Stay posted for more information on how to get involved!

Oh yeah, and if you're thinking a jug for coins is just too much of a hassle, feel free to simply use an envelope for checks instead. :) Hehe....

Go GREEN TEAM!

It can only get better from here...I hope...

So, today was rough in my class. It seemed like everyone in the class forgot all the procedures and rules that we learned last week. Everything went out the window. I had one kid walk in late (which he's not supposed to do--he just showed up himself) and then about 10 minutes later, him and another kid in my class got in a fight. They had each other in a head lock and were throwing punches at each other. I had no idea how strong fourth grade boys were. I had to attempt to pull them off of each other, and it was not going well. A high school guy who is helping out with the younger kids ran in my class and grabbed the one kid while I held the other kid. During this whole process, I somehow got bit a little on my hand and had teeth mark indentations from one of the kids.

After all of this, I had to leave the room with these two kids for a while, which didn't exactly help the rest of the kids stay on task.

I need divine help, that's for sure. Please pray for J. and J.--the two boys who got in a fight. Pray that they'll be able to focus and that they will not be so angry all the time.

Today was rough, so I'm hoping it can only get better from here.

Bears Game this Sunday at 4:15 ET

Be sure to watch the Bears game this Sunday at 4:15 ET (or at least watch the beginning). One of our kids from By The Hand (Englewood site) will be an honorary captain during the coin toss at the beginning.

Prayer requests for this week

A couple things to be praying for regarding this coming week at work:

Chapel: We're starting teaching the attributes of God. This week's lesson is "God is Sovereign". I'm teaching chapel on Wednesday. My coworker (George) and another coworker (Anna) teach Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. Please pray for the three of us as we are all new staff this year and this is our first time teaching the chapel lesson with these kids.

Bible Study: The kids have Bible study with their team leaders every Wednesday night. They are learning the Kids Evangelism Explosion curriculum right now, so this week's lesson is "Heaven". I'm a little concerned because Bible study this past week did not happen as planned, so I'm a little behind. Please pray that we're able to catch up and that the kids grasp the lesson. It seems that Satan wants to do everything possible to distract from Bible study.

Other: There is a fundraiser this coming Saturday; please pray for God's provision financially.

Also, pray for one kid in my class, K. He's the only one who's a little new to the program in my class, and I think he's having a little difficulty grasping all that's going on and how he's supposed to do things. Continue to pray for J. and his family, who I mentioned in a previous blog entry. There are some major family issues there. Hopefully I'll get to talk to his Mom this week and get an update.

Day 3

Thank you so much for your prayers. Today went SOOOOO much better (minus the fight at the end of the night (where a staff member had to tackle a kid) that led us to keep a bunch of kids late afterwards, suspend some kids from the program, etc.) So, not counting the end of the night, things went pretty well. The homework time in my class went so much better. I was more prepared for those kids who finished homework early. I was able to keep kids seated better. I had a great volunteer who was able to take a kid out in the hall and work with him for a while. He had been having trouble focusing on homework, but worked really well when he was away from the rest of the class. I talked to that same kid after he went into the hall and was able to encourage him a bit. I told him that he did a great job, but sometimes he just gets a little overexcited and has trouble focusing on work. He loves to be involved in the activities of the program, but has trouble doing things like raising his hand—he just gets too excited. Anyway, I told him he did a great job today but needed to work on staying focused and raising his hand. And he said, "Yeah, I know. Ms. Jen (his team leader last year) said that same thing." He had a great attitude about it and I'm really excited to working with him a bit more.

I had two girls who got in a little fight and are now suspended for the next day of kids club, but it was not a huge fight. Please just pray for them, especially S., who has a major attitude problem.

My elective class that I'm teaching, which is on world cultures, went okay. It was the first day, so I wasn't sure who was going to be in my group (kids pick which elective they want to go to, and then attend that elective for 6 weeks). Some of the kids had trouble listening today, but hopefully when I am able to make the class more interactive, they'll enjoy it much more.

Thanks again for your prayers. Please keep praying…especially for those kids who were in the fight today, as well as for my boss who had to deal with the kids in the fight.

Second Day

Today went a little better...I'm going to bed.

First Day with the Kids

Well, I'm still alive…with God's help and the help of much caffeine. Yesterday went relatively well--at least that's what the veteran staff said. I had the whole afternoon planned out and didn't really do any of what I planned. We were supposed to go over the rules and procedures yesterday, which I did a little bit. I was attempting to go over how the discipline procedure works, but I found myself having to give up teaching them how discipline works and just had to go ahead and discipline kids. I definitely learned I need to be a lot more firm with the kids, and I probably should have disciplined them a lot more.

We did have a few hitches in the logistics of the day (i.e. transitioning to dinner time, bathroom breaks, water breaks, etc.) but I think a lot of that will get worked out much more easily today and tomorrow. The kids were lined up in the hall before dinner for much too long, so naturally, they start messing with each other and misbehaving (or calling each other very very bad swear words). Anyway, hopefully most of that will be worked out a bit better today.

Please pray for one of the families of one of my kids J. (I'm just going to use initials on my blog). The mom called today with a bit of an emergency in the family, so we're trying to help her as best we can.

Thanks for your prayers for yesterday. If you can be praying for J. and his family, as well as for logistical issues during our programming time, that'd be great. To be really specific, PLEASE PRAY THAT MY KIDS SIT IN THE SEATS THAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO SIT IN AND STAY SEATED, ESPECIALLY WHILE I'M TALKING! I feel like if I can get them to just sit down, I'll have won a huge battle. It's difficult because they've been in school all day, they're testing me as a new person, and our organization takes on the most challenging kids, behaviorally and academically, and puts 22 of them in a classroom with a 23 year old white girl who doesn't know what she's doing. Ugh. But I love my job…