LNO Retreat

This past weekend Ladies’ Night Out went on our annual Love Retreat! We headed out to Camp Carl to give the girls a more rustic experience. They seemed like the cabin minus some feared being by woods and Amish people.. 

The retreat was filled with food, activities/games, lessons, and crafts. We had two lessons. The first we talked about what love actually is verses the love they see around them and on TV. Jamey, a leader at LNO, led the second lesson on how we give love to our friends and those around us. She walked them through the story of the good Samaritan. The girls really connected with the story. I felt like they were able to connect so well because the violence that some of them have been exposed to. They were pretty honest about situations at school where they have witnessed themselves and others “pass by” the hurting. 

One of the favorite parts of the retreat was an activity where we had one girl sitting in the middle of the circle and then gave 2 students and 1 leader an opportunity to say affirming things to her. I realized quickly when many of the girls got teary eyed (and some even vocalized) that they don’t hear encouragement very often from the people around them. It was such a unifying experience for them. 

I am really looking forward to follow up conversations and seeing how the trip has  bonded the group closer together. Thank for you the prayers! God is doing so really cool things in the hearts of the girls!

Flexible Week

In response to the week of prayer First Glance had two weeks ago, the FG staff had a “flexible week” last week. This looked like being flexible in ministry to whatever we felt God was leading us to do. It was pretty awesome experience!

One of my experiences was early on in the week, I got to take 2 girls out for lunch. They helped me do some shopping for Ladies’ Night Out, and then we painted Emery’s dresser. Katie* and Kayla* have been coming to LNO now for 2 years. They are two of my youngest girls that I actually found out were sneaking into FG in 5th grade. God has been showing me how the younger girls at FG are some of the girls that I can influence the most in my ministry, and I need to be investing in them. Unlike some of my older students, they aren’t stuck in their ways. I was excited that I got to have a good conversation about church and family. Kayla’s dad recently told their family he wanted them to start going to church all together. I realized through our conversation that both Kayla and Katie believe in God, but aren’t acting on their belief and are content where they are at in their faith. I desire for them to wholeheartedly pursue Jesus and for them to find their worth in Him. I am looking forward to more conversations with them. Thankful that they were vulnerable about life and asked a lot of good questions. Please continue to pray with me for these girls. Please pray for the Ladies’ Night Out Retreat that will be having a week from today! 

*Students named changed to protect their privacy. 

Ready to paint!

Update and Prayer Event.

Sunday morning the staff heard about a shooting that took place in Akron on Saturday night. The shooting took a pregnant teen moms life and has left another young female in the hospital, her condition is still unknown. Although these girls did not attend First Glance programming, many of our students know these girls well. Sadly, the shooter is family to many of our students. There has been many verbal attack on these students that are related to the shooter due to the intense anger the students are feeling. 

Please pray for the staff and leaders as we minister to the students affected by this tragedy. 

In positive news, First Glance is hosting a prayer event again this year! This year we have had such excitement and demand that we are actually going to be hosting TWO rooms!!! So 2 rooms times 165 hours straight means we have 330 hours to fill So if you would like to be part this year, here's some options as to how:
-Saturday, January 12th at 7:00 worship & prayer service at First Glance.
-Sign up to pray for an hour, AT FIRST GLANCE, for any of the time slots opened during that week, click here to sign up. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnvVDzPEvaB_dGI0aHAzZmxvaFdaVjF1d2JVMnJTNkE#gid=1 (Please note the two different rooms).
-Fast along side of us during that week (doesn't have to be food, could be TV, FB, etc.)
-Saturday, January 19th eat with us at 6:00 and/or join us for a closing worship and prayer service at First Glance.

Thanks for joining First Glance in praying urgently and fervently for this community to know Christ! I truly believe that our prayers for this community does change things!

Christmas Marathon at FG!

       The week before Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year at First Glance. Like I have said in previous blog post, holidays can be challenging for our students as some of them come from low income and broken families. The holiday season is for some of them a reminder of their constant battle and struggles. At FG, we make it our mission during the season to make the students feel loved and blessed while pointing them to Christ who loved us first. For many of our students, we are their family and main support system. So, it is important to us to celebrate with them! The week is filled with showering our students with blessings!
On Tuesday night, Ladies’ Night Out had our annual Christmas party. We were able to make them a nice Christmas dinner. We were able to the girls socks, scarves, hats, and gloves, which differently meets their needs. They were so excited and thankful for the gifts they received. We also played our annual musical chairs game and decorated cookies! It was a blast!
Our Teen/ Young Moms Program does an annual boutique every year where we collect used educational toys, clothes, blankets, and variety of other gift options to meet their needs. The moms then have the ability to use their points that they have been earning and saving to Christmas shop. For many of them, this is their only opportunity to get their children gifts. They then wrap the presents as a group.We also had a Tiny Glancers leader buy each of the students a present from their wish lists!  It blessed me to be able to see the joy on their faces as opened gifts and as the teen moms were able to provide Christmas presents for their children in such a tangible way. 

This year for our large Student Christmas party we did things differently. Noelle Beck, Executive Director of FG, is an amazing leader and visionary. She had the idea of having a very large and nice Christmas dinner/evening for our students. All the food was donated, and we were able to recruit over 100+ volunteers from different churches volunteer, so our regular leaders were able to sit down and enjoy dinner with the students. We invited all students that attend FG programming including our teen/young mom programming along with our young adults.
The students came rushing in the door and were greeted by leaders who lead them to tables. The girls were presented with flowers. We then enjoyed a family restaurant style dinner where the volunteers acted as waiters and waitresses. The girls that were sitting at my table were in awe! Noelle was able to talk to our students over dinner and explain to them why were doing this for them—because we loved them and wanted them to know the love of Christ. We then had Christmas karaoke, a dance party and had an inflatable set up for them to play on. Through the generosity of the community, we were able to give every student a $5 gift card to Subway and a candy bar.
It was truly an amazing night that couldn’t have been done without God’s hand and the vast amount of volunteers and generous donations that were made.

Thanksgiving

The holiday season can be a tough time for many of students, some of them lacking stable homes or the ability to have a holiday dinner. Every year the Kenmore Ministerial Association partners with local churches and organizations to host a free community Thanksgiving dinner. The dinner was hosted last week, and 535 meals given out! The event wasn’t suppose to start until 5:30, but people eagerly showed up at 4 to wait.  It was such a fun environment; there was even cookie decorating and face painting for the children!  The Ladies’ Night Out students and leaders were able to all sit and eat together. Our Teen Mom, Young Mom and Student Leader programs helped to prepare and served meals.  It was  beautiful sight to see the community gathered together serving and enjoying a meal together. I feel so blessed to be able to call Kenmore my community. 

Rock the Road 2012!

Every year First Glance takes a trip called Rock the Road. It’s a 48 road trip where only the few people planning know the destination. This year we took the students to Pittsburgh, PA.. A really neat part about the trip is that many of our students have never been out of state of Ohio or ever stayed in a hotel. I love the privilege to get to see their faces light up as we cross the state line! This year, we did a variety activities from going to play laser tag, bowling, the Carnegie Science Center, and going on a safari ride. Overall, the trip was a blast and a great success.

The theme of the trip was focused around being grateful for what God has given us. The last day of the trip we were sitting in groups talking about ways that God has blessed us.  Kandice* is an younger student that is full of energy had been attending FG’s programming regularly and is a believer! Kandice made our group aware that her family has been going through a financial issues where they were being evicted from their home and were going to be entering into a local homeless shelter the next day. Kandice’s ability to rejoice and be thankful in this midst of her circumstances challenges my faith! She spoke about how thankful she is for her mother and how she has tried her best to put food on the table. She was so quick to also list all the blessings in her life. The following scripture came to mind when thinking about her situation:

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again” Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understand, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:8-9

It is evident that God has been guarding her heart, and instead of her being filled with anxiety and fear, she's filled with thankfulness. This week I received an update that Kandice’s family is still in the shelter but is doing well. Her cousin told me that she is really happy that she has not only her own room, but she has her own bed. Once again her thankfulness is so encouraging. Often times I go into the trips thinking about how we are going to teach them so much about faith and Jesus, but it’s amazing how she equally taught me how to rejoice and the importance in trusting God. 

Ladies' Night Out Sleepover!

Last weekend Ladies’ Night Out had a sleepover at my house. Eight girls showed up, which was the perfect number to eliminate some of the chaos that happens when you have jr. high and high school aged girls all together. Friday night we played games, stayed up late talking about life and laughed a lot! Saturday morning we woke up ate breakfast and headed to Hartville for the day. 

One of my favorite parts about my job is the opportunity we have to expose our students to different cultural experiences. We took them to the Hartville Flee Market and they were in awe! We gave them each two dollars a piece to spend on whatever they liked. I was surprised that the majority of the girls actually spent their two dollars on things that they knew they would need for the winter. Many of the girls bought a blanket, gloves, or a winter hat. 

The next adventure was off to a corn maize. The one we went to was 8 football fields long. They were again amazed by it all. The maize offered different games and clues that you could play throughout. The girls were relentless about finding all 35 clues, which was a lot of walking! But they LOVED it more than I could have every thought!  We then took a tractor ride, which provided a some down time for intentional conversations. Kaitlynn* is a student who I have been investing in for about a year now. She started attending church last winter and was inconsistent until recently. As of lately, I have seen a pretty significant change in her life. I told her that I have noticed she has been attending church recently and asked her what made her decided to do that. She proceeded to tell me that something happened last January to her and she knew she really needed Jesus. She went on to tell me how recently she decided to be all in!! SHE’S A FOLLOWER! I am so excited and glad I get to be apart of her faith journey. I can tell that God is doing a work within her heart and it’s beautiful. The conversation allowed many of the other girls to open up and talk about struggles and the churches they have attended in the past. 

       It was such a great weekend with the girls. Looking forward to what God is going to do through the conversations that were had plus the level of trust and vulnerability that was built of the weekend. Please pray for Kaitlynn that God would guard her heart and mind as she begins this new journey. Pray for the leaders that attended that we would be bold in having follow up conversations. 

*Name changed for privacy. 

Financial Need: Last month I lost a $50 a month donation. Cody and I really do rely on that donation to meet our financial needs and at this point we really can’t afford to lose it. Please consider financially partnering with me! Here are the ways below:
-Write a check: 
Make checks payable to First glance (943 Kenmore Blvd, Akron, Ohio 44314)

-Automatic Payments
Set up a “bill pay” through your bank online. It’s free and will send a check every month to FG. We would be happy to help you with the process of setting this up.

-Use Paypal (credit card)
Visit our website: www.firstglance.org