Today you all are getting a sneak peak at an article that will be in the Fall Aim Right Newsletter!
Hope for Sunnyslope!
Sunnyslope is a typical phoenix neighborhood in that it has your below poverty level families, and trash littered graffiti filled parks but, Sunnyslope also has your above average income families who live, in what the kids call, 'castles' on the mountain
sides. The Sunnyslope we know has families living 8 in a 2
bedroom house, it has children raised by there grandparents whom have
now passed away, it has children who's parents leave before they are
awake to go to work and come home long after they are sleeping. The
needs are so evident you do not have to ask, you have only to give and
give again.
Giving of our time is the main way we minister and help these families. Every time
I stop in at one families house I am instantly surrounded by about 3-4
little girls wanting to show me the latest picture they colored or
wondering where I am going...can they please please go with me! We
interact with these kids on a weekly bases picking them up in a big blue
van every Wednesday evening for Kids Church. It does not seem like
enough...We are hoping to continue to connect with them by taking them
on fun outings to not only broaden there experiences but also provide
mentorship and friendship.
~Pray for continued growth in numbers attending Kids Church.
Teens in the Sunnyslope area that we interact with generally have not experienced life outside the city let alone there own neighborhood
and don't know what the world has to offer them other than drugs,
gangs, and violence. If you are a teen girl likeliness of making it to
the 12th
grade without having a baby are seemingly slim to none...Giving these
teens hope is a main goal of ours. Showing them other possibilities for
there seemingly troubled lives through weekly Bible studies and 'Teen
Nights' at Aim Right.
We see hope in one of the teen
girls opening up about her life at school and at home. She shared how
she does not have any friends that she can talk
to and know they have her back, also how she is raising her younger
siblings at home due to her parents working to support them.
We see
hope come in the baptism of 4 of the teen guys. An awesome testimony
for the younger kids watching in awe, to see teens not being afraid to
break the mold. Even when one of the guys was later ridiculed by his
dad for getting baptized.
~Pray for courage and strength!
We have high hopes for Skate Club in the Sunnyslope
area. We have been assisting a local church in facilitating the club
every other Friday night. Results have been above and beyond, From more
than expected showing up the first night to relationships already
growing out of those connections. AJ shows up early and helps set up skate ramps and by the time I get there (still 30
minutes early) there are about a dozen kids there going over ramps as fast as you can set them up. (PTL) We are hoping to make Skate Club a weekly occurrence the beginning of January.
~Pray for willing volunteers to commit to a weekly skate club.
We are continually looking for new opportunities to partner with already existing ministries in the Sunnyslope area. Our newest possibility is partnering with Child Evangelism Fellowship that is already in place as a after school program at the elementary schools every Wednesday afternoon.
~Pray for this opportunity!
Hope
can bring light into the darkest of places. 'May our labor be prompted
by love and our endurance insired by hope in our
Lord Jesus Christ.' (Paraphrased from 1 Thessalonians 1:3b) Will you
pray and hope with us as we continue to interact with the children and
teens of Sunnyslope, Phoenix each week?
We have this Hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure~Hebrews 6:19
Yesterday's lesson was about Moses' encounter with the burning bush and God telling him to take off his shoes, so Jewel brought a few types of shoes for the children to see and try on. 
A.J. has been opening Kids Church with an exciting Bible story and also assisting in the youth class.
Despite a sizzling August, it's apparently never too hot to play outside! 