Getting to Know Kegan Yoder

Earlier this month, we welcomed another intern: Kegan Yoder, from Ohio (pictured in the middle).  He has already been an asset to the work here, and we're grateful God led him to Aim Right!

 

Here's a little Q & A with Kegan:

• Where you grew up: On a farm in Plain City, Ohio
• Why you decided to become an intern: I wanted to do a gap year after college in a setting I haven't been in, and I felt Aim Right was a good fit [Kegan recently graduated from EMU].
• Countries you've visited: Costa Rica, Haiti, Peru, Morocco, Ethiopia, Kenya, England, Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Austria, Hungary [and he gets to add Mexico as of this coming Saturday!]
• Person you admire: Lecrae.  He's very outspoken about his faith and is a good example to people who listen to his music.
• If money wasn't an issue, you'd be driving a: BMW i8
• Today's children and youth are searching for: a sense of "belonging," both in the local community and broader society.
• Dream job: Own my own business.
• Hobbies and interests: Reading and outdoor stuff (sports, hiking, etc.).
• For breakfast this morning, you ate: gummy bears and a chocolate chip cookie.
• You'd be excited to receive a gift card to: Target.
• Do you have any nicknames? I don't, but the kids here are working on it.
• Most unusual thing you've seen since coming to Phoenix: A house down the street has a 15-foot spider in the front yard.
• What motivates you to serve Christ with your life? I feel like I've been blessed with opportunities and resources and feel like it's my responsibility to use them for God.

Note: Interns love getting mail! If you know Kegan or one of our other interns (Branden and Aleisha), you can encourage them by sending a card, letter, or a gift card and letting them know you are praying for them.

Aim Right North Fall Festival

On October 14, Aim Right North hosted a Fall Festival for Community Night. It was a bit of a collaboration between Aim Right downtown and Aim Right North, as several teens from our downtown campus went and assisted as volunteers. Thank you to Lourdes and Aleisha for rounding up some pictures of the evening!

 

Kids Club Oct. 19

Here are a few glimpses of our most recent Kids Club.  The Bible lesson is presented in skit format. Ro (in the sombrero) really knows how to ham it up.

 

Branden makes an appearance each week as a nutty professor, Professor Wonder. Organization is not Professor Wonder's strong suit, so he usually has a messy desk and has misplaced something important. However, he has helped the children learn a lot about the "Greatest Book in the World," so we'll overlook his scatterbrained ways!

 

We have three classes: 1st-2nd grade, 3rd-4th grade, and 5th-6th grade.  Each class has around 20-27 students. Class time is usually spent recapping the lesson and doing a craft that is linked with the Scripture memory verse for the evening.  We used to serve snacks and drinks in the classes as well, but nixed that when we had a surge in drink spills and cookie crumbs. Now, kids get a small bag of snacks when they are dropped off after Kids Club.  They love those bags!

 

Here is our 3rd-4th grade group. Every week they choose to segregate themselves; the girls sit around one table, while the boys make sure they find seats at the other two tables in the room.

 

This Wednesday is our annual Fall Festival for our Kids Club families. That's when we will pretend it's 65 degrees even though our high is projected to be 95 that day (Summer, you can go away anytime). Please pray that God will bless the opportunities we have to interact with all those who come. While our staff and volunteers do weekly home visits, we don't host very many events at Aim Right that are for the whole family. We are especially grateful for local business The District Phx that is donating hot dogs and buns for the event.

 

Good News



There's plenty of bad news around these days. How about some good news?  Here's a list:

 

1.  Restoration Thrift is open! If you'll recall, our Aim Right North directors (A.J. and Jewel Miller) left in May to move to Ohio. A.J. has been pouring time and energy into a very special project--a thrift store that benefits various ministries, including Aim Right. A.J. is the manager of the store, and if you know A.J., you also know that the store will be both clean and organized. If you are an Ohioan, go by and hunt for some treasures!

 



 

The store is in Orrville, Ohio, at 351 Hostetler Road (next to Save-A-Lot).

 

 

 



 2.  Aim Right's Executive Director Caleb Reed recently completed the Urban Youth Worker's Institute one-year certification program. For the past year, Caleb has been traveling to Los Angeles for monthly classes and has invested a lot of time into the coursework and meeting with mentors.  We are thankful for Caleb's passion for reaching youth for Christ and for investing in training to be the best leader he can be. Congratulations, Caleb!

Caleb and wife Stephanie

 

With Dr. Larry Acosta, the founder of UYWI

 

3.  A group of Aim Right'ers went to a local church's early service (8:00 AM, I believe) on a Sunday and won...a 50-inch television.  The Aim Right group was the largest group of visitors at the service.   Ro and Lourdes coordinated getting the youth to the service (and up early), as it was a church where Ro's family attends regularly.  The best news, though? One of our teens accepted Christ at the service!

 

4.  Rec Center continues to be a happenin' place several afternoons each week. A roomful of kiddos has its challenges, but we wouldn't be much of a youth ministry if there weren't any kids around. We're thankful for all of the children God keeps sending our way.

 

City Night

A teen and Branden

What used to be Teen Night at Aim Right is now called City Night. Here are our intern Branden's reflections about the name and what a typical evening looks like:

Who are we? A question that may seem simple, yet perplexes the mind of even the most intelligent scholar. Over the course of the past month, the youth here at Aim Right have been discussing this question as it pertains to ourselves as followers of Christ and our youth group here.

Hebrews 13:14, which is the main verse for our youth group program (called City Youth), says,“For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.”  So, while these teens are from and are being influenced each day by the city, we are here to try to encourage them to seek Christ and “the city which is to come.” And, while we encourage them, we also strive for these teens to help each other seek the coming city.

A normal City Youth night for myself involves 3 things: basketball (watching, not playing), the lesson, and playing Madden ‘17 afterwards. This, however, is only my perspective. If you would ask any of the other staff what City Night consists of from their perspectives, you would probably get a different response from each and every one of them.

All things considered, there is one thing that I am very sure of. That is that City Youth is a group that can and will be used in amazing ways for the Kingdom.

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