Give Hope Campaign: Goal ahead!



To date, God has provided over $51,000 in gifts and pledges through our year-end Give Hope Campaign.  Just under $5,700 is needed to reach the goal of $56,800.

 

Thank you so much for your generous year-end giving! If you would still like to make a gift, you can do so online, mail a donation that is postmarked by December 31, or let us know that you plan to give a monthly amount throughout the year.

 



Merry Christmas!

 

"...we all have a place in the story, if we only desire it."

- Dr. Edwin Leap

Teen Christmas Event

Teen ministry leaders Ro and Lourdes have very generous hearts.  Here's a little piece of evidence to back up that statement:

 

 

They prepared gifts for the teens who attend Bible study.  Some were quite significant: gift cards, a football, a basketball, and clothes.  Others were smaller gifts.

 

 

Teens were given numbers and allowed to choose gifts in order of their numbers.  If you wanted someone else's gift instead of a new gift, you could steal that item. It got a bit lively towards the end with certain items becoming VERY popular.

 

The evening ended with grilled hot dogs, chips, cookies, hot chocolate, and plenty of smiles.

 

Christmas Cookie Party

Post by our intern Aleisha:

 

Christmas is my favorite time of the year! I love the lights, hot chocolate, spending time with family and friends, and the Christmas cheer.

 

 

These last two weeks have been full of Christmas plays, cookie decorating parties, and just parties!!  Parties are so fun, and I've enjoyed all of them, but my favorite was the time I got together with some teen girls and we had a cookie decorating/pretzel chocolate dipping party.

They helped melt the chocolate for the pretzels, and they mixed the food coloring with the frosting for the cookies (I didn't know that you could make so many different colors and shades till after that night). :) There was lots of laughing and finger licking! We had a lot of fun hanging out, and it was a great night to build relationships with these girls. They had so much fun that they want to have a girls night once a month. So I'm pretty excited about that!

One thing that stuck out to me that night was when I asked the girls what they like about Christmas. Most of them said the parties, presents, and the food. But one of the girls said she doesn't get presents for Christmas. And I felt sad for her! But then she said something that hit me, "...but I have my family and Jesus and that's all I need." Wow! Sometimes we often forget what Christmas is really about when we get all caught up with the busyness of it.

      

Between all the parties and the presents don't forget about the greatest gift of all, Jesus!   

 

Merry Christmas!

 

- Aleisha Boley

City of Grace Christmas Party

City of Grace, a large church with multiple campuses in the Valley, graciously invited Aim Right to participate in their annual Christmas party for refugee families.  Our families are not technically refugees, and it was a special treat for them.  The event served around 1,200 people.

 

 

The first station included coloring pages and crown making.

 

There were quite a few costumed characters walking around, and these lovely ladies had many fans!

 

The next station included face painting and games.

 

 

The third station was a meal.

 

 

Chinese food!

 

Finally, children and their families gathered in the large auditorium for a Christmas program; at the end, the "elves" came forth with a gift for each child.

 

 

Each family was also blessed with a large container of Tide (Can I just say that I thought this was such a wonderful gift?) and bag of toiletries.

 

 

Special thanks to Caleb and Stephanie for organizing this memorable day for so many families!  The party was a beautiful representation of the body of Christ serving together.

Happenings this week...

Aleisha has been splitting her time between Aim Right activities and Aim Right North events.  She organized a hike up North Mountain on Sunday afternoon, and it was a blend of both of those groups -- an Aim Right teen and some Aim Right North girls. 

 

 

Round #2 of our Kids Club Christmas field trip happened yesterday evening, with another outing to see the Christmas play. This time, we had a group of 39 children and staff. Most of the children were deep into enjoying their bags of snacks when these photos were taken. 

 

 



More Christmas events are still to come.  We're grateful for the generosity of churches and individuals who have invited "our" kids and families to parties and blessed them with gifts.

Christmas is not the merriest time of the year for many. This week, a young man was shot and killed at a nightclub; he is a brother of a young woman who came to Aim Right for many years. Also this week, I talked with a mom who shared that their family of nine has been living in a hotel room since being evicted from their home. How is God calling us to act and to move and to love in the midst of these difficult situations?

I believe that this blog post by Shannan Martin is worth mulling over.  Here is an excerpt:

"I hear people talking about slowing down to enjoy the season and honestly, I don't understand what that means. Life doesn't slow down for anything, and I'm not sure it's supposed to. We'll bake our cookies and wrap our gifts and do all of those things because we want to and we can, but arriving at a place where we avoid interruption or inconvenience because we're trying so hard to savor Christmas is not the Jesus way.
My heart this morning is heavy for my neighbors.

It's heavier still for you and me.

We can buy gifts for 'the needy,' hang mittens on the tree at church, pack a shoebox, choose an angel, write the check for an extra twenty bucks for our sponsored child across the ocean, but we resist opening our door to the heaviness of fractured lives. We avoid it year-round, but especially in December."

2015 Bike Party

He's always there, but one is more apt to notice any celebrities he's invited than the man himself.  I think he prefers it that way. There's maybe a 15 second portion of the program where he is recognized, and he usually uses that time to ask the crowd gathered to holler in unison, "Thank you!" to all the volunteers who make the party possible.  But, really, this party doesn't happen without him at the helm.

 

Over the years, well over a hundred children from Aim Right have been able to attend the annual Bike Party, by special invitation. You will see two little ladies quite often in the photos below, since they were my accompaniments for the day and quite excited about any photo opportunity.

 

 

 

 The pile of snow is always a big hit.  Unfortunately, I made the mistake of throwing a few snowballs. Let's just say that Luke 6:38 became evident: "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over."  Our boys have some throwing skills!

 

A little lunch on the lawn as Mickey and Minnie happily take a stroll....

Mr. Max and his dad came along.....

 

....and Stephanie and Carter, as well as the wagon that came in ever so handy in carrying jackets, uneaten bags of chips and cookies, and eventually, turkeys and bags of groceries for each family.

 



 He said that being a motorcycle cop is "the best job ever." I had to ask: "Um...even in the summer?"

 

I believe this was a 1940's fire truck.

 

 

The little guy below does not speak much English yet and was almost terrified when we arrived at a big place, with a lot of unknown people.  Christian took him under his wing, and soon he was enjoying the day like everyone else (having access to sno-cones and ice cream whenever he wanted may have helped).

 

I think this unicyclist has been at every Bike Party I've attended (11 years' worth).  He seems ageless in that he has always appeared just really old, yet he can always ride a unicycle. How is this so?

 

The Suns Gorilla!

 

A fire safety talk:

 

And the reason why we call this the Bike Party:  Every child receives a free bike at the end!