Hey everybody!
Here is the mail-out for April. We ended the school year strong with loads of good activities and several big first-time events. It was an action-packed month!
The first big first of April was our trip to the Tulsa Soul Winning Workshop. The Levy Church of Christ in Little Rock, AR generously offered to send Sarah and I and any interested college students to the workshop. We were so excited! Up to that point, we had never taken students to any kind of conference.
Our students were pretty excited as well, but when it came down to it, we only had one student who was able to come, Rachel Munce. So we rented a white mini van for the trip, but the car rental place upgraded us to this super cool black Suburban loaded with heated seats and all kinds of gizmos. I'm still excited when I get in a car with automatic windows, so this rolling Armada was a treat. It easily accommodated Rachel, Sarah, the boys and I, and all our gear.
Once we got there, we were happy to discover the workshop speakers were fantastic and the singing was incredible. We all had a great time and ended up getting the recordings. My favorite quote from the conference was from a guy named Bob Goff. He talked about how he carries around little award buttons in his pocket and whenever someone does something good, he pauses and gives them a little speech. He says, “You are good, here is why, and here is a medal to prove it” and pins a button to their shirt. Then he talked about the power of speaking good into the lives of the people around you. It made a pretty big impact on me, so I think now I need to go find some buttons.
“Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”
- Proverbs 16:24
We also hosted our first official on-campus, student government-supported, event. We put on a “Chalk Art Fundraiser For The Artemis House.” The Artemis House is a local non-profit organization that helps out victims of abuse and domestic violence. They help folks find new homes and restart their lives. We volunteered to help them in any way we could and they said they could use help moving folks from place to place and they could always use basic living supplies. So we helped them move a bed one day and we threw a little fundraiser for them.
The student government gave us sidewalk chalk and a cooler full of popsicles, so we set up shop outside the cafeteria and started drawing. The idea was to make beautiful art, invite others to make beautiful art, and when people ask what is going on, invite them to participate financially.
We ended up with some beautiful art, some great recognition on campus, and very little actually donated money. However, despite the low amount of donations, I think the event was a great success. Like I said earlier, this was our first on-campus, student government-supported event. There is tons of paperwork and forms and phones calls that go into putting these things together and we somehow managed to blunder our way through and get it going. Now we know how to work with the system in the future.
Besides all that, we had a lot of fun, made some great art, and brought a smile to a lot of people, so that's a pretty good deal too, I think. Here are some pictures of the event. The top one is our school mascot, the Yellow Jacket. Then there is a picture of a glass of milk and some cookies. Then we have Kris and a Pokemon he drew. You can't tell in the picture, but that school mascot was huge. It was more than 6 feet long and the guy who drew it was just a random passerby. He grabbed a piece of chalk in each hand and went crazy. Ended up giving us money too. If nothing else, we definitely spread some joy that day.
We also ended the semester with a bit of fun. One of our students, Gabe, lives in town, and his folks own a little cabin up at Iron Creek Lake. That's about half an hour up into the hills and a lovely area. Last year we talked about having an “End Of The Year Party” out there and it never materialized, but this year we made it happen. Half a dozen students showed up and enjoyed the lake (which was still freezing), the waterfall (which was still freezing), and a bunch of hot dogs and hamburgers (which they cooked, so no worries there). It was a great way to end out the semester and I think we will keep that one around for next year.
Anyway, that's all for now. You have a great day!
-Silas