A Year in Review

After reading Mark's history of working with the community kids (which was VERY good, by the way), I offered to write up what's happened in the last year, at least from my perspective. That should be easy enough, right? I mean it's only been a year. Basically we've added lots of kids, tried to turn chaos into organized chaos, and tweaked a few things here and there. No big deal. Before long I crashed back to reality and realized just how much as gone on since this time last year. I don't know that I'll be able to capture all of it (or even the most important pieces) in this entry, but I'll give it a shot. The rest of you can fill in the gaps I leave.

For me, this last year has taken me from the ever-popular position of complaining about something to finding myself deeply entrenched in a ministry I love that I wouldn't be able to willingly give up (not that the thought has never crossed my mind). Unlike others in this ministry who have spent years dedicating their time to these kids, I'm relatively new to the game.

So let's rewind - About this time last year, Ted and I watched from our very comfortable seats around the table of the Wednesday night meals as the number of "community kids" at those meals rose. We shook our heads when they left their tables a mess, watched in frustration as they ran wildly throughout the gym and thought to ourselves "OUR kids will never act like that." Then we moved on to our bible class and listened to other members lament about those children that ran through the hallways unsupervised. After we got home that evening, we'd discuss what needed to happen to show these kids how they needed to act when they came to "church". And then we'd start over again the next week.

Finally, the chaos at the meals and classes became more than our "fix-it" personalities could take and little by little we found ourselves becoming more involved. I started helping in a 3rd grade class that was full of some rowdy kiddos and became the unofficial elevator guard ("Your legs work just fine. Take the stairs!!"). Ted joined the clean up crew after the meals and ended up more often than not helping out in the youth group class. Suddenly our "suggestions" of what needed to happen got a little more personal and made their way on to a list that was sent out to some people in an email. It was at this point that we found out that many of our genius ideas had already been tried or at least suggested by those who had been working in the ministry for years. However, the elders gave Ted the go-ahead to start organizing a committee and we were off...

I'm going to attempt to highlight some of the events that followed.

1) We had a meeting to figure out what the next steps were going to be. It was decided that our first goal was survival and to do that, we first needed to get to know the kids we were working with. So, a registration system was implemented and we started giving out name tags as their "tickets" to the meal. To help alleviate the dead time between the meal and classes, activities (games, coloring pages, jump ropes, etc) were organized. Last but definitely not least, help was recruited for the Wednesday night classes. And with those changes, we did make it through the remainder of the school year and into the summer where we came face to face with a very important decision...

2) The Wednesday night meals were the reason most of the kids were coming to Levy. Typically, the meals cease during the summer and start up again in early September. The problem with that is that we lose the kids during those 3-4 months. So, the committee had to decide whether to be responsible for continuing the meals or risk losing the kids and the progress we'd seen in the past few months. It was decided that we would continue the meals thanks to some dedicated people who volunteered to be in charge of one meal a month. The focus of the summer meals was to get to know the community kids, but all of the Levy members were invited to come as well (and many of them did). And so the meals continued.

3) But unfortunately, the meals weren't the only issue of the summer. We also had a large group of 7th-12th graders coming who weren't making an easy transition into the youth group class. The reasons why could probably be debated for centuries, but the fact remained that we had many young people coming in with little or no Bible knowledge who did not understand or adapt well to a setting that was mostly singing, prayer, and "devo-style" lessons with limited discussion and interaction. So, the decision was made to offer two classes to all of the youth group. One was the "devo" class and the other was a more "interactive" class. In other words, the kids played youth group games for the majority of class and then discussed the point or lesson at the end. Not surprising, the kids coming from the community preferred the games and short lessons and naturally drifted to that class. And so the summer came and went...

4) As the school year started up again, a few other changes were made. The first was that we again had to address the dead time between the kids finishing their meals (around 6:30 at the latest) and the start of bible classes (7:00). After a lot of thought and consideration, it was decided that we should start letting the kids eat at 6:30 instead of 6:00. Obviously, that was not something the kids were super excited about or overly willing to comply with. So, we set up "fun rooms" in the upstairs portion of the gym with movies, crafts, games and coloring. The kids came in the building and went upstairs to get their name tags. They then stayed there until the mass release at 6:30. Even though this new set-up was not without problems and has constantly needed tweaks, it has helped tremendously in cutting down the chaos at the meals and specifically the problems that were occurring between the meals and classes.

5) At this time we also decided on some rules/expectations and the consequences that we were going to hold these kids to and started to hold "orientations" to go over these rules. After a kid went through orientation, they signed a contract saying that they knew the rules and consequences if they chose not to follow the rules. That allowed us all to get on the same page and also take care of the "but I didn't know" excuse that we were running into a lot.

6) We also took the start of the school year to reevaluate the youth group classes. While the interactive class was great for the summer, we wanted to transition the community kids into Bible classes more similar to the youth group class. However, there were approximately 40 7th-12th graders coming from the community and the option of pushing them into the youth group class seemed to be a recipe for disaster. So, we took the only option we could come up with at the time and offered a girls' class and a guys' class. The Levy youth group class continued to meet and have the devo-style class and all of the community kids were given the option of going into that class or into the split classes down the hall. The guys' class went through a series on God, steps to salvation, and Jesus' life, death and resurrection. The girls' class studied the fruits of the Spirit, women in the Bible, and steps to salvation. For the most part, the community kids have remained in the split classes, but occasionally a few have chosen to be part of the youth group class. Our goal still remains to integrate these classes into one, but we've yet to come up with a painless way to that. We welcome any and all suggestions. :)

7)Some other fun events worth mentioning...
In January, some members took the high school community kids to Harding University for a tour and basketball game. It was a huge success.
Also in January, some of the ladies took six 6th-12th grade girls to Memphis for a Girls' Retreat. Also a great success.
In February, Bill Ehlig came to Levy and presented a Poverty Seminar for all of the Levy members who were interested in attending. Bill Ehlig has worked extensively with Ruby Payne in her work with poverty in the schools and adapted that to the church setting. He had some great insights to offer as far as the hidden rules of poverty and working with the families in our community.

8) A few weeks ago, Levy had it's first annual Community Day. It was huge and really needs to be a post of it's own. I'll get Ted working on that asap :) But the results have been outstanding - 20 baptisms, countless connections and bible studies, and a renewed interest from Levy members in evangelism to those in our community.

Whew...I'm tired. And I know I've left some things out. To the other "authors" of this blog - feel free to fill in whatever I didn't cover.

Our goals for the immediate future - 1)reorganize the 1st-6th grade classes for Wednesday nights to best meet the needs of ALL of the kids in those classes, 2) reach out to more of these kids' parents, and 3)recruit even more help from Levy members. If you're one of those people out there reading this, don't sit and complain before getting involved. Trust me, it's a waste of time :). Just give us a call and we'll put you to work.

I know I've written a lot and if you've hung in there through it all, good job! I'll just end by saying that I believe with all my heart that God has a plan for these kids and even when I'm at my wit's end, I'm grateful that He's included me in just a small piece of the plan. I'm also grateful for those that God has given us to work with in this ministry. May the next year be even more fruitful than the last!

Allison