Feeling the Growing Pains

Written by Lindsey Bokach, Summer Intern

This summer, I have been learning a lot. I can feel the ache of growing pains as the Father has been molding my life.  It seems that everything I've been learning has a resounding theme; God's love must be expressed in its fullest through an incarnate life. 

Through life shared with our community, this new found truth has been utterly exposed. You see, incarnation isn't nuclear science. It's being present with people. It's taking kids to get ice cream at McDonald's and listening to what's going on in their lives. It's simply loving people where they are and for who they are.

I believe that if we want to bring restoration to our neighborhoods, we have to love others authentically. We must be willing to let down our guards, open up to our neighbors, and build friendships on the basis of God's love. Friends, if we forget to love, how on earth will shalom be brought to our lives and the lives of our neighbors?

Yet, I must warn you; loving people is not for the faint-hearted. We are a broken people and life gets messy quickly. The thing is, we shouldn't shy away from sharing life with people because of this brokenness. Why? Because it is in these vulnerable, interdependent friendships that God shows up. It's in the midst of sharing life together that He reveals our need for Him and stands in the gap with His grace.

So, dear friends, embrace your neighbors. Love them truly and allow the redemptive grace of God to bring restoration in your lives. May God be with you. 

In other news:

• ‎"I can't _________." The Lord led Teens Adelante at summer camp last week to fill in that blank. Confessing their fears, they are now saying, "I give it to you, I trust you," in areas they never have before. Please pray for the journey for the group in overcoming the areas in their lives that they are holding fear, where they have been saying "I can't" for a long time. They are trusting that "I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength." Phil. 4:13
• We are praising God for meeting the genuine need of a couple of families in our community for air conditioners over the past week through our network of contacts and in ways that dignify the recipients.  Each week brings many opportunities to demonstrate compassion, and we're committed to promote immigrants' dignity in everything we do.  A great book that informs the way we minister is Toxic Charity by Robert Lupton.
• All thirteen Latino kids (8-13 years old) that were invited to apply to participate in Leaders In Training did so, and Latino Children's Ministry Director Megan McDermott is really eager to begin the year with them.

Prayer needs:

• Praise God for keeping all the teens and sponsors safe and free from injury last week at summer camp.
• Please pray for a young man that graduated high school this spring to receive the financial aid that he needs to begin attending Donnelly College next month.

Current needs:

• Wireless Internet-capable laptops for use by our Leaders In Training during the upcoming school year.  It's okay if the battery doesn't work!  Contact Megan McDermott at meganm@missionadelante.org Kristen Maxwell at kristenm@missionadelante.org if you can provide one.

• Ten 60"x102" rectangular felt-backed plastic tablecloths.  We spread them on the floor to use them as "activity centers" for our Bhutanese Children's Outreach.  We've recently seen them on clearance at discount stores.  Contact Kristen Maxwell at kristenm@missionadelante.org if you can provide any of them.

• Thank you, everyone who has donated items to our Resource Center, which distributes clothing, household goods, and food to immigrants in need.  If you have items to donate, please contact Molly at  913-281-6274 x5 in advance to schedule a time to make the drop-off.  Calling ahead will help us tremendously to keep things orderly around here!

Important dates:

• July 24, 26, 31, August 2:
 Observation nights.  Ever wondered what goes on here on a typical evening of programming?  Come on up on a observation night and find out!  Tuesday evenings are Bhutanese outreach, Thursday evenings are Latino outreach.  Come to 22 S. 18th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102 between 6:30 and 8:30.

• August 12: Summer Parties at Wyandotte County Lake Park, 91st and Leavenworth Road, Kansas City, KS 66109; afternoon.  More details TBA.

Gatekeepers to the Children We Love

Written by Sarah Winston, Operations Director

Last week at Kids Adelante, I was assigned the post at the front door of the kids’ room.   My job was to make sure that once kids were signed in and entered the kids’ room, they stay there safe and sound and out of mischief until programming started —the gatekeeper, it you will.  Before the kids arrived, I was messing around with other staff, making gatekeeper jokes.  I playfully took a broom, pounded it to the floor and in my best Gandalf voice shouted, “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!”

For those less geeky than myself, I should note that this was a reference to a scene in The Lord of the Rings.  The wizard Gandalf was fighting off a demon-like creature from deep inside the mountain while the rest of his companions escaped across a narrow rock bridge to safety in order to continue their quest to destroy a magic ring and save the world from total domination by the evil power that sought the ring.  While the “You shall not pass” line is the most famous and memorable line from that scene, I looked up what the rest of the dialogue said.  It is interesting that Gandalf began with his declaration of his identity, “I am a servant of the secret fire, wielder of the flame of Anor” and established authority over the dark power that the creature wielded.  He then asserted its boundary which climaxed with “you shall not pass.”

Okay, all geek-ness aside, isn’t that the role of believing adults in the lives of children they love? At least for our own children, while they are young, we serve as gatekeepers. We long to guard against anything that would seek to destroy them.  Of course, with kids we only see once or twice per week, we really can’t shield them from the evils of the world or the sometimes harsh realities of living in an under-resourced neighborhood.  But what we can do is pour love into them and teach them about who they are.  Our hope is that in investing  in them relationally and giving them the scriptural foundation of their identities in Christ they will grow to take authority over the things in their lives and community that would seek to harm them.  They can say to poverty and hopelessness, violence and prejudice, immorality and anger, “I am child of the most High God, purchased through the blood of Jesus.”  They can begin to confront the injustice that seeks to encroach on their lives, their families, and their community and declare “You shall not pass!”

In other news:

• Twelve Latino teenagers and five adult volunteers are at summer camp at Point 11 Camp on Table Rock Lake this week.  We'll be eager to find out how it went when they return on Saturday--without their phones and Internet access, there are no Facebook posts being shared this week!  Funds are still needed to provide partial scholarships for the teens. You can scholarship one teenager's trip to camp for $200.
• Lauren Timberlake, Bhutanese ESL Director, is pleased with some produce she purchased earlier this week from Bhutanese refugees who had grown it through the New Roots for Refugees program.  At least two of our former ESL students have successful businesses. CSA (community supported agriculture) shares are available for the entire season, and many farmers also sell at the weekly markets around town.  Click here to find out at which local farmers' markets they sell, and to learn more about New Roots for Refugees.
• Jarrett Meek, Executive Director, returned last week from another successful leadership development trip to Qba.  While there, he got to celebrate with the discipleship ministry with whom we partner there two years of ministry.  Praise the Lord for the way he's working in people's lives there, and for the privilege we have to call them family!

Prayer needs:

• Please continue to pray for our Latino teens at summer camp this week; for God to  speak to them through what they're learning, and for their safety during sports and activities.
• Please ask the Lord to provide encouragement to, and endurance for, our staff, to finish out the last three weeks of our summer trimester well.  Also, as we begin recruiting volunteers for the fall trimester, pray for us to trust in God's provision.
• Pray for new seeds of the Faith that are being planted in the heart of a Bhutanese friend to grow.  Also, pray that God will help some Bhutanese teenagers to deal well with conflict.
• It is our vision to transfer much of the ownership and execution of our end-of-trimester parties to our immigrant friends.  Beginning with the parties coming up on August 12, pray that we'll be brave and trust our friends to begin leading, even at the sacrifice of everything running smoothly.

Current needs:

• Wireless Internet-capable laptops for use by our Leaders In Training during the upcoming school year.  It's okay if the battery doesn't work!  Contact Megan McDermott at meganm@missionadelante.org Kristen Maxwell at kristenm@missionadelante.org if you can provide one.
• Ten 60"x102" rectangular felt-backed plastic tablecloths.  We spread them on the floor to use them as "activity centers" for our Bhutanese Children's Outreach.  We've recently seen them on clearance at discount stores.  Contact Kristen Maxwell at kristenm@missionadelante.org if you can provide any of them.
• Thank you, everyone who has donated items to our Resource Center, which distributes clothing, household goods, and food to immigrants in need.  If you have items to donate, please contact Molly at  913-281-6274 x5 in advance to schedule a time to make the drop-off.  Calling ahead will help us tremendously to keep things orderly around here!

Important dates:

• July 19, 24, 26, 31, August 2: Observation nights.  Ever wondered what goes on here on a typical evening of programming?  Come on up on a observation night and find out!  Tuesday evenings are Bhutanese outreach, Thursday evenings are Latino outreach.  Come to 22 S. 18th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102 between 6:30 and 8:30.
• August 12: Summer Parties  at Wyandotte County Lake Park, 91st and Leavenworth Road, Kansas City, KS 66109; afternoon.  More details TBA.

The All-Star FanFest and Relational Ministry

Written by Blake Johns, Summer Intern

This summer, I get to work with the Latino kids, which has been a tremendous blessing! In addition to weekly house church meetings and our Thursday night kids program, my main job is to build relationships with kids in our neighborhood. There are two boys in particular on whom I've tried to focus my time: German and Felipe, but because of Summer break last week and the three weeks of Kids' Camps before that, I haven't had nearly as much time to spend with them individually as I'd like. So, at the beginning of this week, I was pretty excited to finally have some free time in my schedule to devote to them. On top of that, I was fortunate enough to receive two free tickets to the All-Star Game FanFest (!!!), which provided the perfect opportunity to connect with one of the boys.

I decided to surprise Felipe with the ticket, and immediately was energized by the light in his eyes when he found out where we were going. He ate up every moment as we walked around the Kansas City Convention Center, trying to figure out where all the best free stuff was -- we missed out on the foam Mohawks and Taco Bell tacos, but snagged a small treasure trove of foam baseballs -- and trying to decide which ‘main events’ were worth waiting for. Even before our series of Kids Camps began, I hadn’t been able to spend hardly any time with Felipe one-on-one, so getting some light-spirited quality time with him was refreshing, to say the least.

We were only there for two hours or so, but that time very tangibly reinforced my established purpose and vision for the summer. We are here to love to the highest degree, and while seeing this boy’s delight at hitting a 400-ft. home run on a simulator couldn’t have been sweeter in the moment, the taste for a greater love was reawakened in me. At Mission Adelante, we believe that ministry is a relational endeavor, and as such, building and maintaining relationships are an essential part of any ministry we undertake. However, while events such as the All-Star Game FanFest provide a unique opportunity to develop relationships, they cannot be the end for which we are striving, only the means. In Colossians 4:2-4, Paul asks for prayer that “God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ…that [he] might make it clear, which is how [he] ought to speak” (emphasis mine). I shouldn’t strive to be an activities coordinator. I should strive to plainly show these kids the love that I have for them in Christ, and how His love has guided me to them. Pray that Christ’s love would be explicit in my ministry, for that is the greatest love we can offer.


In other news:

• The '12-'13 school year is just around the corner.  For Latino Children's Ministry Director Megan McDermott and Bhutanese Children's Ministry Director Kristen Maxwell, that means it's time to gear up for Leaders In Training, our after-school leadership development program.  Megan has identified which of last year's students will return to the program, and this week she's extending invitations to a handful of "new kids."  Kristen is mailing acceptance letters to the 11 Bhutanese students that applied to participate. 
• Twelve Latino teenagers and five adult volunteers are going to summer camp at Point 11 Camp on Table Rock Lake from July 16-21.  It will be the first time for any of the teens to experience summer camp.  Funds are still needed to provide partial scholarships for the teens. You can scholarship one teenager's trip to camp for $200.

Prayer needs:

• As the Latino teens go to summer camp next week, pray for God to use it as an opportunity to speak to them, and for their safety during sports and activities.
• A member of a Bhutanese family to whom some of our staff have grown close is in need of a lung transplant.  The family must move to St. Louis in order to gain access to the means for the transplant.  Please pray for God to take care of the family and to provide for all of their needs.

Current needs:

• Wireless Internet-capable laptops for use by our Leaders In Training during the upcoming school year.
• Thank you, everyone who has donated items to our Resource Center, which distributes clothing, household goods, and food to immigrants in need.  If you have items to donate, please contact Molly at  913-281-6274 x5 in advance to schedule a time to make the drop-off.  Calling ahead will help us tremendously to keep things orderly around here!

Important dates:

• July 17, 19, 24, 26, 31, August 2: Observation nights.  Ever wondered what goes on here on a typical evening of programming?  Come on up on a observation night and find out!  Tuesday evenings are Bhutanese outreach, Thursday evenings are Latino outreach.  Come to 22 S. 18th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102 between 6:30 and 8:30.