Hear from the ILA students on the evenings topic

Sunday night kicked off with a video called “The Role of Dating” and then led into separate classroom discussions on the topic. Many things were talked about including girls’ and boys’ perspectives on dating. Questions like, “Can people change for good and bad in a dating relationship” and “Can a dating relationship become an idol?” Good points were made for instance, “when you are only concerned with the relationship it can become our priority over God” and “our goal is to be whole people in Christ; complete with full well balanced lives!” Many good and important issues were addressed, and next week the students will dive into God’s word and see what he has to say about “The role of dating”. For now lets hear from a few students as they tell us what they learned from the lesson tonight and how they will be using what they learned in their own lives.

Radious (6-8th grade girls) - 1. “I learned that sometimes a boy can keep you away from
friends.”

2. “To listen to your friends.”

Jonha (6-8th grade boys) - 1. “People can change from bad to good and good to bad, and
it is harder for people who believe in Christ to pull
someone who does not believe in Christ up.”

2. “Probably should date someone who believes in God
because it is easier for you to pull them up.”

Jasmine (6-8th grade girls)- 1. “That boys keep you away from friends.”

2. “By not having a boyfriend.”

Each time I find more and more that the students are really interested in making different decisions and that they recognize that it is for God!

The New Addition

I am so excited to share with you the newest addition to City Impact’s ILA program. A few Sundays ago during worship, Mrs. Ashley told all the students that there was a very special person who really wanted to use their passion to lead a dance/arts team with any ILA students who were interested. Mrs. Ashley then called Mrs. Angela Pillow to come to the front and she began to share.

Mrs. Angela is the mother to three of the students who participate in City Impact’s ILA program, and she shared with all the students her passion for dancing and how her purpose now is to dance for the Lord. She has a very strong calling to share this passion with other students who are interested. There were many students who were interested and they were told that if they wanted to be a part of this new team, they needed to show up the next Sunday at 5pm.

When Sunday came and there were a great number of students who showed up, fourteen in all! They started by talking about what they wanted to be as a team, and together they dreamed up a list of ideas. Here are some of the ideas: dance, think of nick names, uniforms, step, skits-message, drill, line dance, jump, hula hoop, beats-make own, cooking, hair, art, painting and many more things. When you ask these students to dream and think big they have amazing ideas!

When the list was completed Mrs. Angela asked the students what they wanted to start working on and all of the students decided that they wanted to work on step.

Mrs. Angela then took some time to share with the students that she believes in God and it is because of him that they are on this team, and because of this everything they will be doing will be for God alone!

Next, Mrs. Angela taught the students 2 scripture cheers, the first was Phil 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” and the second Phil 2:14 “Do everything without complaining or arguing.” She then explained that if anyone says “I can’t” then they will have to do the Phil 4:13 cheer twice and if anyone complains or argues they will have to do the Phil 2:14 cheer. Then Mrs. Angela talked to the students about how important it is to stretch before doing physical activity. So Mrs. Angela led a time of stretching along to some upbeat Christian music. When they were finished stretching they got together in a circle and began to help each other come up with some step moves.


After all the students had left, I stuck around to ask Mrs. Angela a few questions. We talked about why she wanted to get started doing this and she shared that she knows we are able to move and breathe because of Jesus and she wants to do this for him. Also, she wants to make sure this is being done to share a message, and she shared that a lot of prayer has gone into this and she is just trusting God.

It really was so exciting to see all of these students enjoy what they were doing and even better that they are being taught by someone whose passion is to do this for the Lord! Mrs. Angela brings a lot of knowledge and I know she is so excited to see where this all will lead.

Goal: Relational Development

• Youth will develop and maintain long term, meaningful, and authentic relationships with adults and peers

Worship on Sunday began with the verse for the day and then led into a song called “Imagine Me” by Kirk Franklin. I really encourage everyone take some time and listen to that song; to really pay attention to the words! I know it really touched a special place in my heart and from the looks of it on Sunday it touched the hearts of others. After sitting in my chair in the back row of the fellowship hall listening to “Imagine Me”, I happened to look over at Mercedez and her body was bent over with her head in her hands. You could tell she was really upset. Without hesitation 3 or 4 other students immediately put their hands on her to comfort her. As the song went on the students continued to comfort Mercedez and soon after that one of the youth leaders came and sat by her and put her arms around Mercedez. Here at City Impact our core values and goals are worked on all the time and God willing they are achieved. Tonight was one of those nights where I saw a goal being reached and a student feeling the warmth of caring peers and adults at program.

Social Justice Team

It is so fun to watch Mrs. Miriam teach the Social Justice team, because I know she is very passionate about Social Justice. I knew it would be a good night to sit in on the Social Justice Leadership team meeting because they were going to do an intriguing activity and start discussing a new topic. While we were walking up the stairs to the classroom, I over heard Diamond say to herself “I love Social Justice, it’s the best team”.

First off, I would like to tell you who is participating in the Social Justice team for this semester of ILA. The students are Diamond, Dillon, Sevahn, and Cameron. Each of these students brings a special part of their hearts to the team and I know Mrs. Miriam is glad to have every one of them.

On this particular evening, the Social Justice team was starting a new unit on “Access to Clean Water”. To begin, Mrs. Miriam asked the students to think of all the things you use water for in one day from the time you wake to the time you go to bed. The students came up with things like (take a shower, brush teeth, use bathroom, drinking water, wash dishes, wash hands, for cooking, and lots of other things). The students were then told that the average American uses 150 gallons of water a day, and the average person in a developing nation struggles to use 5 gallons! Most of the students were just staggered at the thought, I know I sure was.

Mrs. Miriam had taken the time to write all the things that were thought of for the use of water on a piece of paper in the front of the classroom. The students were then asked to work together to prioritize what things on the list they would do if they only had access to 5 gallons of water each day. After much debate on what would be necessary to use the 5 gallons of water for, the students decided on these things: to brush teeth, to drink, to cook, wash face, and wash dishes.

After the discussion, the students gathered around Mrs. Miriam’s laptop to watch a power point about sanitary water. I was able to help Mrs. Miriam out with an activity by taking 4 glasses of clean water and making one of them look like it had dirty water in it by mixing different colors of food coloring in the glass. The students were watching the power point in the dark and so when each student got their glass of water they could not tell if their water was clean or dirty. She was really trying to drive home the point “What would it be like to not have access to clean and sanitary water?” Dillon actually ended up with the glass of dirty colored water and let me tell you he was not about to drink it! It was really gross looking; a very dark murky green color. Even though Dillon did not drink the water, I know he got the point of the activity.

When the power point was over the students discussed some questions. I would like to share a few questions and responses with you.

Question 1 “Which facts make you sad?”

Diamond- “One in 6 don’t have a choice of what they drink.”

Sevahn- “All the people who die.”

Question 2 “How do these facts change the way you look at water?”

Diamond- “No more long showers!”

Dillon- “Stop using as much water as I am using now.”

Mrs. Miriam then shared ways that her family has saved water. I really thought it was a good introduction into the new unit and I know all the students were interested because they participated in all the discussions and activities. I can’t wait to see where all this will end up!

A journal entry from Tyree

My friends have seen how much I have changed how I follow God and what he mean’s to me and how much I talk about him. When I am with them they always ask me “Tyree what does all this mean?” So I tell them that the Lord does great things you just got to trust and believe in him and that he is your savior and that he died on the cross for all of our sin so we may have eternal life.

Now all of my friends who were not following God go to Church to learn about him. I can see the changes in some of them and that tells me that the Lord is a part of their lives.

Meet TT and CC

For awhile now many of you have been meeting the Bible Club students one by one, little by little, and now it is time for you to meet our ILA students.

When I picked who I was going to do a mini bio on I wanted to do the Hite twins separately, but when I sat down to interview them they were sitting together and when I began to ask questions to one the other would chime in and so I decided I would do a bio of them together!

Vontesaya (T.T.) and Vontesa (C.C.) are twins and 8th graders here at the ILA program. These girls are not only faithful to come on Sunday evenings, they also come on Tuesday evenings to volunteer for Bible Club. I asked T.T. and C.C. how they got their nicknames and they told me that when they were about three years old they just started calling themselves T.T. and C.C.

Both girls attend Park Middle School where they are in the 8th grade. They were born on April 29. They have 3 sisters and one brother. C.C.’s favorite color is blue and T.T. loves pink. When asked what their favorite food is they both said pizza! T.T. and C.C. love track and both participate in the 100m dash and the 4/100 relay. The person they love most here on earth is their mother.

I asked the girls if they knew they only had one more day to live how would you spend that day and this is what each said; C.C. “go shopping, have a party and invite everyone I know!” T.T. ‘spend it with all my family, and I would eat a lot of food cause you never want to die hungry!”