Meet Amareion

I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes before worship with Amareion who is a 1st grader at City Impact. I began my time with him by asking Amaerion to tell me a bit about what he had learned that night, and he went on to tell me that he had learned about how to be encouraging to others. I asked him who he'd like to encourage in the next week and he said his cousin Kamara. I asked him why he chose her and in all seriousness he said "because she is 5 months old." I asked him what he was going to say to encourage her and he said he was going to tell her "you are a cute baby."

As we continued to talk I asked him "how do you think God can encourage you?" and he said "you are a good person, that's all I have to say". I said to Amareion "how much do you think God loves you?" he gave me a big smile and said "100%!" I ended my time with Amerion by asking him to tell me a little bit about himself and this is what he said "well I like candy, and I like my friends, I don't know that's all." Later, he also added that he LOVES meat and called himself a carnivore! Amaerion is a very fun loving, free spirited child and even though our time was so short together I got a good dose of his BIG personality!

5th Grade Girls- Impact Journals

What is one thing God helped me do lately, that I didn’t have to do, which showed kindness or sacrificial love to others?

“When I was in Minnesota, I helped my grandma by helping her plant Gladiolas. It felt like I was helping everyone that wanted to plant flowers. I did it because it was hot outside and I thought it would be kind. Next time when I go out there and she wants to plant some flowers I will help her.”--Hope

“Yesterday I watch my baby cuzin while my uncle went out to the bar. I stayed up and watch him all night long from 3pm to 2am. I was hyper at first and played with him all night until he went to sleep. He was supposed to sleep in his crib but I let him sleep in my bed. I felt glad that he got to sleep with me and I know he felt happy because he looked comfortable.”--Javaen

“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.” Romans 12:10

Meet Olivia

One Tuesday evening, I had the opportunity to take Olivia aside for a few minutes to talk with her about what she learned. Well that was my plan anyway, but as I have found things don’t always go according to plan! As Olivia and I began to talk I could not help but smile at her, she is such a sweet little girl and you can already tell she has a soft heart and a heart for God. I began to ask Olivia questions about God and I was almost blown away by how straight forward she was with her responses. I asked her what she thought about God and without any hesitation she said this “he is nice, because he can help us and he can do anything, when we are mad he can make us happy, when we are in trouble he can help us, and when we need him he is right there.” I was thinking to my self “am I talking to a 5 year old or a 25 year old!” In the bible God tells us to have faith like a child and that is what I was encouraged to have after speaking with Olivia. --Evian Schindler, Youth Program Communications Coordinator

5th Grade Boys- Getting in the Word

One thing I really appreciate about City Impact is their passion for children to learn and be in God’s word. Each Bible lesson is centered on verses or chapters in the Bible. The theme of Tuesday’s lesson was encouragement, and the 5th grade boys were going to be reading in Exodus 17:8-13.

Mr.”C” (or Dick Countryman) asked the boys to turn in their bibles to Exodus and as they were turning he asked them if any of them were familiar with “sword drills”. Now I know this had nothing to do with the lesson at hand, but it turned into a time of teaching and excitement. Eli seemed to be the only one familiar with the term "sword drill" so Mr. C went on to explain that when he was younger he used to participate in sword drills at church. A sword drill is done to get children/people familiar with scripture placement in the bible. Mr. C said that people will throw out a verse and you will have to find what book of the bible it is in. I looked over at Ahmaad and his smile was ear to ear, he raised his hand and began to squirm in his chair. Then he exclaimed, "I got it, I memorized a verse!” He went on flipping through the bible to find it. Mr. C decided to move on with the lesson as Ahmaad looked up his verse. So, they went on to discuss the verses in Exodus and encouragement.

When they were finished Mr. C asked Ahmaad to give them the verse that he had memorized and so he did. Ahmaad began by saying "In the beginning was the word and word was with God and the word was God". All the boys scrambled to find the verse, at first everyone thought it was in Genesis but after more searching they found it was in John 1:1. I was so thrilled to see those boys getting excited about finding verses in the bible that I became the one smiling from ear to ear.--Evian Schindler, Youth Program Communications Coordinator

4th Grade Dinner Questions

I had the chance to eat with the 4th grade class on Tuesday and was sweetly surprised at Mrs. Renee’s willingness to engage further in the students’ lives. Volunteers are a big part of who City Impact is and I am overwhelmed over and over again how much these volunteers really care about what they are doing in the lives of the children.

As we began to eat, Mrs. Renee pulled out some questions to liven up the dinner conversation. The first question was one where the students had to finish a sentence; the sentence was, "I wish God would......." Milandra began answering by saying that she wishes God would make other people nice. Mrs. Renee asked her to explain a bit more and came to find out she was talking about a specific person. Mrs. Renee redirected what Milandra was saying and said that maybe she could wish that God would give her the ability to be nice to that person. Linda wished that God would help her to not say mean words, Adrianna and CJ both wished God would stop crime, and Kaprice wished that God would help his uncle. Not only was this an opportunity for Mrs. Renee to get to know the students better but it was an opportunity to give advice and do some further teaching.--Evian Schindler, Youth Program Communications Coordinator

Check it out!!

“Spray for Play”
A Car Wash to benefit children at The Friendship Home
sponsored by City Impact’s Leadership Academy for teens

The Impact Leadership Academy’s Philanthropy Team is a group of urban teens making a positive impact in the Lincoln community. They generated an idea to raise money to create a playground for the children at The Friendship Home.

Come and support their efforts to help young children have a safe place to play!

For more information about City Impact or The Friendship Home,
visit www.cityimpact.org / www.friendshiphome.org


Date: Saturday, July 11th
Time: 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
Location: MiddleCross Church, 29th & O

Date: Sunday, July 19th
Time: 11:00 am - 3:00 pm
Location: Union Bank, 27th & Pine Lake