Ohlin's Outside the Box: October 2011

I have been so blessed for the past year to be overseeing our Neighborhood Kids Outreach ministry. We have been pleasantly surprised and blown away how it has really taken off over the past few months. For all of the last school year I lead it while incorporating students from my Service Leadership class at Logos. We were thrilled when we had 2 dozen neighborhood kids show up. We would share a story with them, play with them and occasionally have them swim in our pool. Then over the summer some of our short-term teams engaged with the outreach and some of the Khmer teaching assistants from Logos really plugged in. That is when it took off. We are now having on average 140 kids come every Saturday. What a blessing!

Here is what a typical Saturday looks like during the outreach:

• 12:30 - our volunteers begin arriving.This is when we pray for the day and and talk through any changes. Simultaneously dozens of kids are lining up outside our gates.

• 1:00 we open the gates and a flood of sweet, smiling faces begin to swarm in. There is so many smiles and so much laughter. It is amazing to watch.

• 1:15 we corral all of the kids into the gym. We divide the kids into 3 groups which are roughly categorized by age/size. Some kids aren't sure exactly how old they are. Grades levels aren't a sure-fire way to divide kids either since in a 3rd grade class you might have an 8-year-old studying along side a 14-year-old. During this time we sing some songs and do some quick participation contests. This time really gets all of us energized.

• 1:30 each of the 3 groups go to their first "station". We have 3 stations: Bible/English in the gym; games and soccer on the playground and soccer field; swimming in the pool. At 2:00 the groups rotate to the next station and then again at 2:30. These activities are such a blessing to the kids. They rarely, if ever, get to play soccer on grass. It is either dirt or concrete. Similarly, the option of swimming in a pool is nearly non-existent for them. It is so fun to watch their enjoyment. We also provide them with shower facilities and soap before the pool time. For most of them, that is the only time all week that they can get cleaned up in a real shower.

• 3:00 all of the kids have now been to each of the 3 areas and have hopefully felt loved on and cared for.

• 3:10 after having the neighborhood kids line up and giving them any instructions they may need for the following week, they are dismissed to leave...until next Saturday.

An exciting new development from this outreach is a SIS (school in school) at Logos. It is a program run by our Khmer TA's that helps some neighborhood kids get caught up to where they should be in their education. We offer it free of charge from 5:00-6:30 Mon - Fri. The focus is the Khmer language but many academic subjects are addressed. It is just another way we are trying to love on those around us. God has blessed us so we want to spread it around. Hope you enjoy the pictures.