Street Reach 2015

Last week was my second year of going to Street Reach.  In case you missed out somehow, this is a week when our youth go to the inner city of Memphis and give bible clubs for the kids in the neighboring areas.  Brinkley Heights Urban Academy is the school that targets high risk students and takes them in.  BHUA is where we stay through the entire week, and they own about fifteen different sites nearby, that we go and use for the bible clubs each morning.  Out of everything our youth does, this is my favorite.

Here is our week, in pictures.

This is the school.  When you stand where I took this picture, this building houses the cafeteria, school offices and classrooms.  To the right is the gym.

Our church had two sites again this year.  The one below is Club Que Que (pronounced Cway Cway).  The second site was at Treadwell, right behind the school.  We would have a morning send off from BHUA, then would meet at the site at ten.  The students then got their walking routes, and went to knock on doors to gather kids to bring to bible club.  We met at the site again, at around eleven, then we would have worship and the bible story.  The kids ate lunch after that, then would rotate to different stations.  The rotations were craft, bible reinforcement and recreation.  The worship team and Jonathan (who told the bible stories) traveled to each site every day.  I drove them.  So we would start here at Que Que, then go to Treadwell.

The bible clubs lasted from ten to twelve thirty.  The youth would take all the kids back home, we would break down our site equipment and head back to BHUA.  We ate lunch at one and at two, we would go do an afternoon service project each day, except for on Wednesday and Friday.  The picture below was at Urban Farms, where we cleaned up a greenhouse.

These were my sweet little friends.  Dominic is the one in my lap.  These sweet babies just wanted to be held constantly.  They don't get much of that at home, so we all were constantly swarmed with these angels.

These two little cuties are named Jennifer and D'Korian.  Jennifer and I decided that we were best friends forever, because our names are the same.  And D'Korian is one from last year.  They still have my heart.

Busted!  I caught Drew and Madison taking a selfie.  She was precious, and this was on Thursday.

Jennifer has a sister who is a year younger, named Selena.  They about tackled me when they saw me on Thursday.  I *might* have cried after the taking of this picture.  Jennifer told me that Thursday would be her last day, they had to go to the dentist the next day.  She begged me to go with her.

Here's the thing about Street Reach that I love.  Well, there are several things I love.  I love that it's in our city.  You don't even have to leave the city for a mission trip, folks!  I think it's great that people do, but it's not necessary.  The need is great within this city I live in.  These kids come from families with lots of kids, usually, so by the time Street Reach starts, they are craving love and affection.  They don't get that from home.  Even the ones who act out, they are craving the same thing, but they act out to receive that attention they want.  They long to be held.

My prayer for this week was that God would bring the kids, and boy, did He ever!  It was awesome.  I also prayed that our eyes would be fixed on Him.  There was ZERO DRAMA.  That did not happen last year.  I prayed that we would be totally spent at the end of each day, and we were.  God was so gracious to have moved in and through all of us, and we saw Him answer prayer after prayer.  It was an amazing week.  And we have some pretty amazing students.  I am so fortunate to have been even a tiny, tiny part in all of this.  I praise God for His goodness, and I thank Him for the opportunities He presents me with.  I love our youth so much and I love helping lead them.

Now for the other part of Street Reach that I love.

Our students.

They are so much fun!  I am reliving my childhood through them, and I am reminded, often, of how much I still love sleepovers!  It's the weirdest thing~after a whole five nights in a row with them, I miss them all when I come back home.  I mean, I love my family, don't get me wrong.  But I love being with teenage girls.  I feel so thankful to be a part of them.  We had an amazing week together.

If you were part of ones who prayed for us, thank you!  I can't say that enough.  If you made it all the way through this blog post, bless you.  It was long.

Love to all!