For one full week buses and vans have gone out and over 500 kids have come into this year’s Kids Club. In 10 very packed classrooms, Bible stories of people who encountered Jesus have been told, songs have been sung, bible verses memorized, 1400 cookies and 3500 lunches eaten, and the property has been cleaned up each day. In this whirlwind, leaders have cared for each other and for their own kids. We have gone on daily fields trips, had classes on everything from pottery and cooking to basketball and soccer. We have made countless trips to the pools and traveled to farms and puppet shows. Friday we ended with a great big carnival, the best ever … and all of this is just WEEK ONE.

These hundreds of touches of creativity, wonder, celebration and learning come packaged inside a place where someone takes time to know your name and your story. One young leader, who used to be a kid in the program, said today at church about her Kids Club experience so far, “I almost couldn’t go on. I was starting to believe the lie that I didn’t make a difference; and then one of MY kids reminded me about a Kids Club a few years ago where we all learned to pray. She told me that she still loves to pray. So we went out to the play field and we prayed together. My kid reminded me why I’m here.” Somewhere between this week and the end of next, kids go from their troubles and pain to a relationship with someone who calls them “their kid”. And in the process they run into Jesus, together.

This intensity is intentional. As we all give our lives away to each other, there is hardly anything that doesn’t get exposed. Usually it’s the deep stuff inside us that we need to look at and face … somehow this intensity reveals all that. Just like our young leader we found words to say, we don’t want to give up. We want to believe with you that many children and many leaders are on the verge of a life changing Jesus Encounter. Pray with us, that the love of God we so desperately want our kids to experience flows out of lamps filled to the full.

I’ll keep keeping you posted. Love, kit

One way you can help us with expenses this summer is to purchase your Jesus Encounter t-shirt. The same one we will be wearing this summer.

Visit our online store to place your order:  www.nmaz.org/store