Kids Club

Kids Club – June 27 – July 8

Why we still do outreach

A mom who grew up as a Kids Club kid called the other day. She told me her girls would be coming for the two weeks of Kids Club after all; she was canceling a trip to Sinaloa, Mexico to visit their sick grandmother. “They’ll kill me”, she said “if they miss Kids Club.”

So here we go. Another summer … I woke up this morning thinking about why we still do outreach. As you know, today we have programs that go deep into lives. Helping with skills development, whether staying in school, GED, Jobs preparation, parenting skills … you name it! And we know thousands of people, having traveled for years alongside many. Yet, here we go again, out to the neighborhoods, looking for the kids, out to the streets, to gather them all in one more summer.

Ezekiel 34:11, 12
GOD, the Master, says: “From now on, I myself am the shepherd. I'm going looking for them. As shepherds go after their flocks when they get scattered, I'm going after my sheep. I'll rescue them from all the places they've been scattered to in the storms.”


1. To reach the next ones

My memory photo file slings picture after picture of hundreds, multiple hundreds of kids who we met for the first time one summer. Junior, Steven, Marissa, Max, Iyanna, Cupa, Angel, Kayla … once they were unknown to us, an unreached child; lost in the worlds of their parent’s drugs and wanderings. We know them now, and love them, and hope to know their kids and their kid’s kids. The programs of this ministry are designed around them and their journeys.

But there is a new to us kid, a kid who has never heard about Jesus, His love, His hope and power. And that kid will come this summer, sort of sandwiched in between the 400+ known ones and their cousins. They will have come from a trailer park or back alley apartment, with issues and anger and a “you don’t know me!” attitude. And we will pray for that one in the small debrief groups every night, hoping they come back.

Read if you have time:
http://www.faithatwork.com/history/Shoemaker/Shoemaker_StandByThe Door.html


2. To remind ourselves that the church belongs on the streets

There is nothing quite like outreach to remind the church of both God’s heart and our mission. I hear the emergent church desiring to be “missional”, desperate to be where God has designed them to be and what he has designed the church for. I look at our summer team, filled with teens, twenty and even thirty somethings and marvel at their capacity to be poured out for kingdom purposes. They want to spend it all for what brings eternal dividends. We BELONG out there, out where it matters, out where the shepherd is searching for the lost, out with Him on His mission. We matter out there. Something in us wakes up when we are out there!

Christ wants not nibblers of the possible
But grabbers of the impossible
By faith in the omnipotence, fidelity
And wisdom of the Almighty Savior
Who gave the command
Is there a wall in our path?
By our God we will leap over it.
Are there lions and scorpions in our way
We will trample them under our feet!
Some wish to live within the sound
Of church or chapel bell
I want to run a rescue shop
Within a yard of hell.
C.T. Studd


3. To train the next generation

The battle ground is just that, a battle ground. Bloody, piled high with the wounded, scary, noisy and chaotic, desperate for leaders who won’t run away and hide. There is a battle for the precious lives who are being rescued from the grip of evil. The enemy doesn’t surrender after we have filled the van with gas and made our organizational plan. He has time tested methods to beat us at our human efforts, our slick schemes. And in a blink, he can take the most novice warrior down.

So, we teach these new recruits how to pray. How to pray and pray and pray. How to decide not to give up, instead how to fall on their knees and not expect defeat, but to believe in the victories promised by the God who can send the enemy flailing.

Ephesians 6:10 ff
God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.
Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own … Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out. And don't forget to pray for me.

And we teach them how to love unconditionally, how to keep going even when it feels as if their faith is so small, how to trust God with good theology, how to wait and watch and learn and study and investigate and persevere.

Almost all of this is learned in the furnace called “outreach”. Who will train the next generation to reach the cities for Christ? We want our hand in the air for this question.


4. To keep ME in the game

I had a really vivid adventure dream last night. In it, we were beginning a fairly dangerous kayaking trip, which would eventually become a long hike into the unknown. I don’t remember the destination. There is a precious 5 year old in our ministry who has been sorely abused. She is beautiful. She showed up in my dream. I took her hand and asked her if she wanted to come along. Usually she is very shy and frightened in real life. In my dream she stood strong and ready, and fearless. “I want to go”, she said. “I told her, “you are not too young”.

I need this adventure as much as anyone. I need to bang at the doors of hell and cry out to loose the ones in bondage. I need to tell stories of today, not just yesterday. I need the pressures, the sleepless nights, the worries, the demanding days … they still make me stronger, just like they did when I was younger. So, for the 19th year, I will be teaching in Kids Club. What a great privilege!


Praying for Kids Club

· For the 82 work crew who live together at Grand Canyon University
· For the 500 or so kids who will come
· For the teachers in classes teaching our “God’s Hero” curriculum
Isaiah 63:1 Who is this coming … Who is this hero marching in his glorious uniform? "It's me, the LORD! I have won the battle, and I can save you!"
· For the worship, activities, skit team, support staff
· For the 20 vehicles (buses and vans)
· safety
· For field trips (we still need 4 more – we had unexpected cancellations)
· For the final work crew meal that is still unplanned (another cancellation)


Answers to prayer for Junior High Kids Club, BEACH CAMP and Andrea Contreras

· Andrea Contreras (one of our summer staff) had a tumor on her pituitary gland behind her eye. She had it removed on June 23. She did very well with the surgery and is recuperating. More later on the side effects. Please keep praying.
· Junior High Kids Club was amazing. The most kids in the leadership class ever (40+); this group will be serving during regular Kids Club.
· Kids came to know the Lord, made decisions to follow Christ daily, and had a wonderful time.

“In this episode I also must tell you the things that happened during Junior High Kids Club! Let me start by saying that it was absolutely amazing! One of the things that I personally learned is that I don't have much faith but God does things to increase my faith in Him. At the beginning of the week I had some problems with a kid who did not want to listen to anyone. After some time in prayer with my debriefing group I saw a radical change in the relationship between this kid and I in the days that followed. Towards the end of the week we became homies and I got the privilege of praying for him and his mom. The other kids in my group amazed me too. The topic for the week was "You can be GOD's hero." During class they seemed that they were not paying attention but when they were asked about class by the teacher they would answer correctly. On Wednesday 2 of my kids decided to ditch and go home to play video games but one of their good friends decided to stay and when I asked him why he said: "Well, today in class we talked about standing up for what is right even when you are the only one standing up and I think that what they did was wrong." I was astonished at his answer and almost felt like crying knowing that he had learned something and when it was time to put it to practice he did what was right. The last day of the camp before going to Slide Rock in Sedona we talked about Jesus and that day the gospel was to be shared with every kid. When we started talking about Jesus and salvation, the kids started asking a lot of questions and all I could do was to answer them. Amazingly all the questions had to do with making Jesus our Hero, Savior, Lord and Father! When I asked the kids who wanted to receive Christ in their hearts I was surprised to see 4 of the 5 lifting their hands, I even asked them if they knew how serious the event was. So 3 kids ended up praying to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord and one said: "I asked Jesus to live in me before but I needed to pray today because I have done some things that Jesus doesn't like." Praise God for these 4 kids and for the others in whom the seed was planted. “

· The slide rock trip started off rocky, two blown tires in a bus on the freeway, another car overheated, the work crew boss lost his notebook with our credit car inside … within a few hours all was fixed and recovered. The rest of the day was beautiful and memorable. We will definitely go back next year.
· Beach camp also started off in trouble … with tough kids spinning other tough kids into fights and conflict. Midway, the leaders were ready to come home. Maybe you were praying … because things turned around, relationships were reconciled and the messages they were hearing of God’s love and forgiveness sunk in. Beach camp has made it into the “we must do this again next year”!

Hebrews 12:1,2
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.