Leaving a legacy...

We have been having a great year at The Compass!  We have a great mixture of new kids and old kids, and the ages are spread out pretty evenly this year.  Everyone seems to be getting along really well, which is always a great blessing!

In the past couple years, we have trekked through the Bible, learning about the different Bible stories.  This year, we've switched gears and are focusing a bit more on how Jesus would want us to live. 

This has been a lot of fun and we're able to tie in different Bible stories too.

I am really excited about another new thing we are doing this year!  We are memorizing verses this year!  Every month the kids will get a new verse to memorize.  If they are successful in memorizing it, they get a reward.  They sure think getting rewarded is great, but I try to remind them that the "heavenly" rewards are much greater than anything we get here on earth.  I'm not sure that they quite understand that now...but I pray that by memorizing these verses now, they'll understand it later!  I'm not requiring that they memorize the verses, but encouraging them to.

At first I was a little disappointed because no one seemed interested...but as we got towards the end of September, there were a lot of them that were really eager to memorize it...one of the boys got it memorized in a couple of minutes!  One really neat thing that happened...one of the older boys decided to help out a couple of the younger kids that can't read very well yet...and he kept practicing it with them over and over...and they both got it memorized!  It was so enouraging to see that! 

September's memory verse: 
"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  John 3:16
October's memory verse:
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."
Mark 12:30

I'm excited to see what else God will do this year at The Compass and what He will continue to do in the lives of these kids!

I often think about what it means to leave a legacy...it first makes me think of the Nichole Nordeman song and then that's in my head, but it also reminds me of Lisa.  Lisa was one of those really special people that truly make this world a better place...Lisa left an amazing legacy.  Lisa loved Jesus...and if you knew her, you knew that.  I often think about Lisa...and I miss her...but her legacy certainly lives on...in Jeff...in their two beautiful daughters...in everyone she knew...in The Compass...

Are you leaving a legacy?

And away we go.....

Wow!  Another school year begins here at The Compass!  Summer flew by this year...hard to believe it's already the second week of school! 

I am really looking forward to another year here at The Compass!  At the beginning of each school year I am always eager with anticipation to see who will be coming back or who will be joining us for the first time.  Each year has been such a neat blessing. 

This year we have a handful of kids that have returned...sad to see others go...and excited for the new faces that have joined us!  We are over halfway full already and I am anticipating more kids joining. 

One new thing this year, is the early release on Wednesdays...an extra half hour for us at The Compass...so we decided to plan an extra activity time for the kids and mix it up each week...

Please keep The Compass in your prayers...the kids, families, volunteers...

Always looking for more volunteers...if you are interested or know of anyone else who might be, please let me know!

2010-2011 school year

Summer is almost over! What?! It's hard to believe that school will be starting up again in just a few short weeks! I've realized that I never really summed up the previous school year. I am not much of a "blogger"......just in case you haven't already noticed! I created a blog for our family and haven't done the greatest job at keeping that up-to-date either.

Nonetheless, I will try to fill you in on last school year. What a great year it was! Remembering back to the very beginning, I couldn't believe how tiny the kindergartners were! They were just so sweet and innocent...not really knowing exactly how to write their names. It was incredible to watch them grow and learn knew things throughout the school year! The older kids who have been a part of The Compass for a number of years now, are also improving too! It has been such a blessing to watch them change in all sorts of ways.

This year we had a lot of new students start at The Compass. In the beginning I wasn't sure how they would all mesh. But they did such a great job! God really worked throughout the whole year...it was great hearing the different questions the kids had and seeing how they remembered different stories that we talked about.

This school year was so great! I can honestly say it was one of my favorite years here. We all had such a great time and I am looking forward to this next school year and what it will bring!

Change

One thing I have noticed since I've been at The Compass is that a new year brings change. It seems that after the blur of the holidays and break we always lose a few people. Whether it's kids or volunteers, it's a pattern that I've seen. We have some volunteers who relocate to Florida for the cold winter months and others who are involved in sports. Sometimes kids have older siblings who are around to watch them, while others have lives that I can imagine are pretty chaotic and get moved to different schools. Change can be good or bad, but mainly it just makes things different. I'm trying to embrace that.

A sad change that one of our families experienced this year was that their home was destroyed by fire. Fortunately no one was injured...but I can't imagine the strength it takes to pick up the pieces after having something like this happen. They have found a new place to live and are living with family until they can move in. Unfortunately for The Compass, this family will be in a new school system. We will miss them a lot! I am thankful to the families who pitched in to help this family out!

On a lighter note...we experienced some really fun changes for the kids this year! Through a donation, we were able to purchase new electronic equipment for the kids...tv's and video game systems! They are really having a blast with the new games...and the adults are too:) We've also received other donations that have really helped us to provided new activities for the kids.

I am a person who doesn't care much for change...but I know that sometimes it's a good way to grow. I am trying to see the positive things for The Compass, that can come out of change. I am thankful that God can open my eyes to those changes!

Please continue to keep The Compass in your prayers!

A New Year

I can't believe that we have already begun a new semester at The Compass! Christmas seems like ages ago! But we had a great time celebrating Christmas at The Compass. The kids were able to a whole bunch of activities and crafts...thanks to one of our volunteers, Caroline Weldy! She brought in lots of crafts for the kids to do......from making little turkeys out of cookies for Thanksgiving, to decorating Christmas ornaments with their pictures, and of course, decorating Christmas cookies! Most of the cookies looked like little mountains of sprinkles! The kids really enjoyed it!

It's always a fun time of year to be able to really focus on Christmas and the reason that we celebrate. We have a lot of new kids this year, so we don't always know what they've been taught. But it was great to hear them talking about Jesus being the real reason for celebrating.

As we are beginning a new year, I am excited to see how God will work. It's always hard to tell how kids will get along and how things will go, but this school year has really been a fun one! It's been great so far getting to know the newer children and keep deepening relationships with the kids who have been coming a little longer. It's great to see God at work and my prayer for this year is that we see the kids come to a deeper understanding of who He is!

Remembering Lisa...

Today I was thinking about a devotion we did the other week. I'm not sure where the question came from but one of the kids was trying to understand the idea of God being the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I knew this was something I wanted to talk about at some point, but wanted to figure out just the right way to explain it. So when this question was asked, I needed to come up with something quick!

Next to me, sat my water bottle...and God just gave me the idea to use that as an example. So I explained to the kids that this was one water bottle, but it was made up of 3 parts...the bottle itself, the cap, and the water inside. Since most of them are so young, I'm not sure if they completely understood, but I was just so excited that in that moment, God had given me an illustration to use! I'm just praying that God will bring that to their minds again sometime!

So, this morning as I thought about this, and how neat God works at times, I was reminded of Lisa and something she once told me that has always stuck with me. She told me, "God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called." That is something I will never forget...because there are certainly some days when I feel less than adequate. I love that God puts people in our lives that point us to Him...and that's just what Lisa did for me...her words still do that today...and for that I am so thankful.

God supplies our needs...

We are almost a month into school now and The Compass has been a lot of fun! It has been so neat to be able to meet the new families that have started this year. As I mentioned in previous posts, we have so many young kids this year, which has been quite an adjustment!

It has been interesting to figure out ways to keep the kindergartners occupied during homework time since they usually don't have homework. Last year one of the volunteers had given me a stack of worksheets that were perfect for kindergartners but I had no use for them and tucked them away. I came across them during the first week of school and it's been a great teaching tool for them this year! Praise God for how He supplies what we need just when we need it! I love how that works!

The new children have really adjusted well to The Compass schedule and are really fitting in well with the other children. The kids continue to ask good questions during our devotion time and sometimes I'm blown away by how they think. Especially when you share Bible stories like Lot's wife turning into a pillar of salt! The kids also really enjoy watching Veggie Tales, which we sometimes watch for devotions on Fridays.

I've really been grateful for the different people who have stepped forward to volunteer this year. This will allow us to take on our full capacity of kids! Again I see how God supplies our needs. How awesome He is!

As I watch the kids and parents come and go each day I am so thankful for this ministry and the impact we can have on the children and their families. Please continue to pray for The Compass and let me know if you would like to volunteer!:)