Victory!

Weeks of planning, my car trunk filled with crafts and games, an inbox full of e-mails, hours in prayer, over 40 different volunteers (just for my two sites alone!) and over 150 kids receiving the love of Jesus = VICTORY!!

The city of Tacoma was filled with youth in red shirts these past two weeks, youth who came for urban missions in Tacoma.  Youth who came to have their lives transformed by Jesus and then out of the overflow, share that with the kids of Tacoma.  We also had the Catalyst Training School http://catalystschool.com/ join us, who are 18-29 year olds from all over here for a summer of training in missions, prayer and restoration and who just left for Cambodia to do five more weeks of missions.  It was incredible to watch all unite for kids in Tacoma under the banner of Jesus!

Week one we partnered with SLAM, a summer program for elementary aged kids who are at the Rescue Mission Family Shelter and Tyler Square (transitional housing).  Our youth were intimidated at first, unsure of how to initiate with the broken kids who were really shut down. By the end of the week, there were even tears saying goodbye from some of the kids who had been so impacted by the love of Jesus that was demonstrated to them.  There were also many kids who responded to receive Jesus in their hearts-praise God!

Face painting

Dance competition

Balloon animals

Preaching the Gospel to the kids

crafts

One of our volunteers being pulled into the water at the Spray Park

Week two we all went a few blocks down the road to the Boys and Girls Club and volunteered with their program and ran three days of events filled with crazy team challenges (like how many cheetos can your partner have stick to your face that is covered in whipped cream), games (like field noodle hockey played with pool noodles and a beach ball), crafts (like moon sand) and a carnival with two jumpy toys, face paint, balloon animals and ice cream.  Most of these kids our SOZO team had not met before and they all had a chance to hear about SOZO Kids!  We LOVE to partner in the community and believe that this partnership will be fruitful for years to come!

Girls hanging out

Making Gak

Balloon animals

Basketball in the jumpy toy

Noodle hockey

Face painting

Trying to get the frozen t-shirt out of a ball during the competition

Frozen t-shirt winner!

Joyful Spirit

I have a precious nine year old friend at SOZO Kids.  She is one of our regulars and is brought weekly by her grandma.  I don't know much of her story as she has been told she is not allowed to share it.  I only know that she has not lived with either parent in a long time.

This past week, I found myself in the midst of many kids yelling at each other and she was right in the middle of it.  It took a couple of minutes to get everyone to stop and I finally was able to pull her away to a quieter place to talk.  She was very angry and ready to do what she needed to do to defend herself.

Whenever there is anger, I know to look for hurt and fear underneath, so I began to ask her questions.  Her anger soon turned to tears as she shared about how other kids were making fun of her. I asked her if she gets made fun of a lot and the tears became stronger as she shared about the things that she is teased for at school--among those things were her name and her size. She also shared how she doesn't feel like she has very many friends.  

My heart ached talking to her...she has been rejected by so many already at age 9, including her parents.  We talked about the power of forgiveness and that Jesus wanted to heal her heart from all of her hurt.  She began to pray with me, forgiving her friends and schoolmates for the teasing.  She then shared about how she got her name; her dad had sent a message to her mom when she was in labor with her name and that it meant "joyful spirit."  She has clung to this story as a connection to her parents and was so hurt that others make fun of her for it.  With tears in my eyes, I told her that her name is true, that she does have a joyful spirit.  I was also able to communicate God's love for her, that He made her well, and that He loves everything about her.  It was a powerful moment and I really believe the truth penetrated to her heart.

I then asked her if she had anything else in her heart that hurt and she nodded, beginning to share how painful it is to not see her parents.  She let me pray over her and I boldly asked for healing, protection and that she would know she was loved by the God the universe and a Dad that will never leave her side. 

I have had many desperate prayer moments...moments where everything in you aches to see the fulfillment of "on earth as it is in heaven" where the fullness of God's power manifests itself.  This was one of those moments.  The world would say she is on the path to many destructive things based on her life story thus far...I believe that God has purchased life abundant for this joyful spirit and am grateful that I get to be a voice in her life telling her this truth.