How do you motivate children?  Well, one of the ways can be the promise of a reward (especially something food-related that they like!).

Tutoring students were presented with a Spring Reading Challenge several weeks ago and needed to read at least 150 pages each to be rewarded with an Ice Cream Sundae party.  Since students are only in 1st or 2nd grade, most of the books they read have quite a few pictures and large text, but the challenge kept them interacting with various books (students could only read the same book once for the pages to count) and READING, which is our focus with tutoring!   

Two girls tied for first place in total pages read, since one had read 277 pages and the other 278.  I didn't get photos of them, but they both got an Adventure Bible as a reward. 

Former intern Joel Roby is visiting and stopped by to help with tutoring.  What a treat for the kids who remembered him!

I am used to seeing this often as I walk through the neighborhood:

But until a few days ago, I didn't realize that the innocent-looking ice cream trucks sold these:

Do you know what they are?  They're called puff cigarettes, and when kids "smoke" them, they produce a little puff of "smoke" at the end.  There was a trio "smoking" these as I was visiting kids yesterday.  Two were around 5 years old, and the other was around 10 or 11 years old.  Apparently these puff cigarettes -- or the ones in candy form -- have been sold from corner stores and ice cream trucks for years.  Since I didn't grow up in an urban area with a corner store or an ice cream truck, I thankfully missed out on the trend.

I don't know why I was so saddened to see this, because I know that marijuana is accessible at almost any elementary school in the area.  But how crafty is Satan, to lure them [us] in with just a pretend puff here and there, until one day a habit has formed that has led to bondage. 

God, help them [us!] to recognize the devil's schemes and stand strong in the armor of God to stand against him!

What Are You Afraid Of?

If you asked a roomful of teens what they're afraid of, how do you think they would respond? If you asked them to write down a prayer request about a hard or scary reality in their life, what would they write about?


If they're really honest, they might let you know that they're scared of being bullied at school, that they dread going on to high school, that they want better grades and relationships with their teachers.

They want to say yes to God, to get back to a close relationship with Him. They want to know to know that there is hope even if a mom or dad or brother are locked up. These are some of the prayer requests teens wrote down on Friday evening.


This teen bravely took on the "mystery can" challenge and put her arm down the can to discover it contained....

OATMEAL! (How scary is that!)

Other teens got "mystery cans" that appeared to be soda pop cans. To drink or not to drink??? Hmmm....

After the teaching time by Caleb, the painting table was a popular spot to engage in something creative.

Easter Program

Here are a few photos from the kids' Easter program last week. I wish I had captured more images, but when there's real-life action to tend to, photo snapping goes by the wayside! Tiffany's kindergarten class creatively designed their E-A-S-T-E-R letters on poster board using various kinds of paper and stickers, and then had a poem they presented while they held up the letters.
Some fifth and sixth grade girls:

Seth and the 2nd graders:

And one more view of the kindergarteners:

Team FUN 3.30.12

Team FUN met on Friday evening to learn about respect. Probably one of the more meaningful exercises for the teens involved completing statements such as these:
"I show respect for my parents when I ....."
or
"I show disrespect for my teachers when I ....."

Some photos of the group: