A Helping Hand

Once a year, KeyBank employees volunteer for an afternoon within their community. We here at The Compass were given a helping hand yesterday by some of them. We were blessed to have a group of people give their time and our landscaping looks wonderful as a result.

The next time you go by The Compass, check out our weed-free, newly planted flowers, and new mulch landscaping. We are so grateful for those who volunteered to bless us with a more attractive setting outside. We would like to thank Steve Bell for the donated mulch. We would also like to extend A BIG thank you to our KeyBank volunteers!

Hooray!

We have several things to celebrate at The Compass this week. The children have been commenting on the daily devotionals by giving feedback and asking further questions because they seem to want to understand. We experienced this several times, regarding several devotionals this past week. In fact, one of the children, almost exactly 2 hours later, made a comment about a particular day's devotional. That was exciting first of all, because God provided proof that they were listening and "getting" it. Secondly, we were excited and encouraged because God also let us see He was still being thought about. We gave the illustration of a rain coat, how it shields and protects us from the rain, getting wet, etc. and that God is like a rain coat. He shields and protects His children from the things of this world that try to pull us away from Him, would harm us, etc. We also talked about the fact that just like we have to put on a rain coat when it's raining, we also have to ask God to be a part of our life every day so that He can help us, protect us, etc.

As mentioned earlier, one of the children, several hours later, was talking about that with me. As we sat there coloring together, she decided that it was kind of like coloring. "We," she said, "are like the picture. We are just blah and boring without being colored. But then God comes along and colors us. Even in bad times, He still adds more colors. He's always with us and when He's all done with us, we'll be a pretty picture." Please keep your prayers coming for these children, God is at work!

Speaking of work, we have a work team coming from KeyBank tomorrow. You may notice some pretty flowers and a lack of weeds within the landscaping, cleaner windows, and a stick-free yard provided it doesn't rain between 1 and 5:00. We are grateful to Melanie Weldy for thinking of us and suggesting us to her co-workers. We are looking forward to "hosting" our first community work day tomorrow.

Several of our families continue to comment on their appreciation of the study time we provide at The Compass. They continue to be grateful for the homework time we provide for their children and the family time they experience at home as a result. What an encouragement!

As we finish up the last seven days at The Compass, we pray we continue to be an encouragement to the children, and the children's families, through God's Word, your prayers and ours, and by being the hands and feet of Christ. We are also praying for a continued growth in our volunteer base.

As we share with the Wakarusa Lions Club this evening, please pray for our words to be God's words. Please also pray for any God may be calling from this group to be involved at The Compass, to clearly hear and respond to the invitation.

As you can see, we have many things to be cheering about. We have many things to be praising God for -- and we are, and we do!

Gifts...

We've been receiving gifts at The Compass this past week. We've been given drawings and pictures created and colored for us. We've been given art projects and poems made and written for us. And most importantly, we've been given the gift of sharing.

One of our volunteers had the opportunity to share about God's invention of marriage and that it means waiting for that someone special. They also got to share that God designed marriage to be between one man and one woman. Because of a girl's questions, we were able to explain that we know these things because God's Word, the Bible tells us and His Word is completely true.

We were also given the gift of sharing about the upcoming election. Tuesday's primary sparked a conversation and questions among several of the children coming to The Compass. We had the opportunity to share what each presidential candidate stands for and why we did, or did not, agree with a particular candidate's viewpoint -- again, because of caring about what God has to say about the issues according to His Word, the Bible.

We asked you to pray for teachable moments and for the volunteers not to miss them. God is providing the opportunities and it's been a blessing to share -- thank you for your prayers! Most of the children aren't aware that God's Word "says that?" or "it talks about this too?" concerning current issues we face in our daily living. Please continue to pray that we will seize every teachable moment God gives us for the remainder of the year. Please also pray that the words/seeds of truth planted in these children will take root and blossom into deep living in Christ!