Black History Celebration

City Impact's annual Black History Month Celebration is coming up next week. This year we are paying tribute to young African American Heroes. Each class at Bible Club was an assigned a special project to contribute to the event. The 3rd grade class is in charge of designing a display board, and they chose to use their display board to honor Ruby Bridges. Ruby Bridges was a 1st grade black girl from New Orleans, who was the first kid to integrate in an all white school. Despite death threats and all the white kids in class dropping out, Ruby went to school every day! The 3rd graders were so inspired by her story and courage they decided to write notes of encouragement to her to put out with their display board. When they discovered that Ruby Bridges was still living, they eagerly agreed to send their notes and display board to her after the event! Below is one of those special notes written to Ruby Bridges:

Dear Ruby Bridges,

You are amazing, talented and a brave woman. You have done something I would never do. So small, but so brave.
-3rd Grade Student

4th Grade Prayer Time

Every Tuesday evening, at Bible Club, the 4th grade classroom circles together to spend time in prayer. Watching this class come before the Lord is so special, because at the beginning of the school year they were visibly uncomfortable praying: laughing, joking around, or not saying anything at all. Now, the 4th graders are beginning to see that talking to God is an important part of having a relationship with Him. Prior to prayer time recently, La Monica, a 4th grade student, suggested that during outward prayer the students could pray for each other to do well on their state wide writing test. Outward prayer is when students pray “out” of their own lives about a variety of different situations they need God’s help with. The students anxiously agreed and expressed their worries about the writing test. (The following day LPS was conducting the state wide writing test to 4th graders.) Each student prayed for the person sitting next to them, asking God to help their classmates successfully complete the state wide writing test. What a beautiful thing to watch young people lift one another up in prayer!

3rd Grade Stamp

Dear GiGi,

You are such a good friend. I am so glad you are in my class! You are really nice.
Love, Teagan – Bible Club 3rd Grade

Impact Journal Entry

I promise my Grame and Gramp that I will respect others and rake leaves. So I did it and they gave me 5 dollars and put it on my chore money. Then they changed it to 10 dollars because on conference night my teacher told my Grame that I got all my work done and I was being nice to others. So I got a smelly sticker and I got a brass out of the treasure box. I got all of my chart full. My sticker had a smiley face on it. It smelled like bananas and the color was yellow. It was in October and I got to pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. I went on the hayrack ride, but I got scared and started to shake so I moved seats and sat by my Grame and Grandpa.
-Mickela, Bible Club 3rd Grade

Prior to the Bible Club’s Christmas break, the 1st grade classroom talked about how Jesus is like a present, wrapped in God’s love. The classroom leader explained to the young students how important it is to ask Jesus into our hearts and be with our families over the holidays. The following are quotes from first grade students after their lesson:

“At Bible Club, I learned that Jesus is the best Christmas gift.” –Bible Club Student

“I am going to tell my family that Jesus is our savior and that he died for our sins.” – Honesty, Bible Club Student

The 2nd grade classroom is filled with energy and excitement every Tuesday evening at Bible Club. This young group of students is the opposite of shy when it comes to speaking in front of the class. Although filled with energy, the 2nd grade students did a wonderful job praying to their Heavenly Father.

After the classroom leader, Sherri, explained to the students that God’s people can pray anywhere and about anything, the students were asked to circle up for prayer. Zodell, a 2nd grade student, prayed about being sad because his dad died, but Zodell asked God to be with him. Karis, a 2nd grade girl, prayed that her aunt would come to know God. When the prayers were finished, Sherri gathered the students together and told them how excited God is to hear their prayers. She also reminded the 2nd graders that it is acceptable to pray anywhere, at anytime, and about anything. God loves to hear His children pray.

At City Impact we believe in our youth. We believe like all people, that they were created in the Lord's image and that they are destined to do great things as kingdom laborers! We love getting our youth involved with the planning and development of our programs! We also value equipping our youth with the skills they need to succeed.

It isn't always easy to expect great things from kids and teens, especially when they don't see in themselves all the wonderful things you do. This year we have really witnessed some awesome moments though, as our youth discover the strengths and gifts they have to offer the world.

One way we have witnessed this is through our teen volunteers who help out at Bible Club! Tyree, who has grown up through Bible Club and is now a 9th grader at the ILA, is a strong leader with our younger kids. He helps run and develop worship, leads small group studies with 2nd graders, and helps set up and lead activity based bible studies!

Crystal is another ILA teen who has been part of the City Impact Family for a long time. She is so fun to watch at Bible Club because she really raises the bar with the 4th graders she volunteers with. She helps them cultivate a culture of kindness and love by having high expectations for them.

Tyree & Crystal are just two of the dozen or so teens who volunteer at Bible Club. The Lord has transformed their hearts and they are now Christ's ambassadors, bringing Jesus to our younger students!