Adventures Ahead End-of-Summer Celebration

The kids loved their field trip to the Reagan Museum in Simi Valley. Having a chance to get out of the city and into the hills made even the bus ride exciting. Thank you for praying! Everyone behaved well and had a wonderful time.

This Friday, July 31, we will be hosting the End-of-Summer celebration. The older kids will present their science projects to their families while younger children sing a song about airplanes and demonstrate the scientific forces of flight. Everyone will enjoy carne asada, games, and a chance to meet other families and neighbors. This evening is also the opportunity to thank and say goodbye to our wonderful LAUP Interns who have taught the students all summer. Most of all, we hope it will be an opportunity for families involved in Adventures Ahead to form lasting relationships with other families from the church and neighborhood.

Please pray for this time! Here are a few specific things you can pray about:
•logistics -- set up, planning, BBQing 40 lbs of carne asada. . .
•attendance -- pray that all of the families would come!
•pray that the event itself would go smoothly and be fun
•Good relational connections -- pray that families and neighbors would connect so well at the event that they are able to continue a relationship of visiting each other's homes. Let's even ask God that some families would come to church for the first time as a result of an invitation at this event.

16 youth, 7 adults, 2 nights in the mountains...

1 amazingly good and faithful God who took such good care of us all on our first ever youth retreat. Here’s a monster post testifying to the goodness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

- All 16 youth showed up to depart from Los Angeles at 4 pm on Saturday and after stopping at In-N-Out Burger on the way, we arrived at camp as planned at 7:30 pm.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name!

- Throughout the weekend God kept us safe and healthy. The four cars made it up and down the mountains without incident. 16 youth, adrenaline pumping through their veins (the first morning, more than ½ the kids got up at 5:30 to sign up at the book store for activities), played paintball, flew down a zip line, fired arrows from bows, dove and cannon-balled into the swimming pool and kicked butt in human foosball SAFELY. In fact, I might have had the worst injury of the weekend after tripping and scraping my knee in paint ball.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not his benefits,

- God prevailed over two incidents that Satan could have used to really make the weekend difficult.

In the first, rain came pouring down during lunch on Saturday and threatened to cancel all of the afternoon activity time. The youth were clearly sad, some borderline angry and resentful that they had even come. I felt terrible that their chance to play outside in the mountains might not come. I feared that bitterness might harden their hearts.

But even as the rain and thunder continued, something miraculously shifted. The activities still cancelled, all 16 youth headed out together and made their own fun – taking over the sandy human foosball court with glee. They kicked and scored, whooped and hollered for nearly an hour as rain fell and thunder rolled.

It was a miracle that their joy was not stolen by the Devil and perhaps another miracle that a single activity could hold the interest of 16 youth, boys and girls, 12 year olds and 18 year olds, latino and black. I almost cried when I saw it.

Who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,


- During the human foosball game an innocent incident turned ugly. One boy harmlessly kicked sand at another. The other responded by playfully throwing a fistful of sand back. The first boy was then enraged, attacking the other throwing punches. It was a shockingly rapid escalation to violence.

We talked to both boys individually. One seemed remorseful, but the other, the one who had thrown the punches was not. He said he didn’t want to be at camp anymore. That he wanted to go home. That he didn’t care if everyone was playing paintball later. That there was no way he was going to apologize to the other. This was the same boy whose mother once told me, “yeah, I tell him to hit back. He’s got to be a man.”

Two hours later, the boys had reconciled. Apologized and forgiven, face to face. And let me just say this is a rare thing in our world and an even rarer thing in the inner-city. To admit that you were wrong, to apologize, to forgive – these were miracles of God rooting out further bitterness and violence. Later in the day, these same two boys waited for one another so they could go out to paintball together. In the evening as they prepared for bed the two boys playfully and good naturedly engaged in a bed farting war. Forgiveness, Friendship and Farts – the gospel of Jesus.

Who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

- God worked powerfully through our speaker, Alberto Oros. His life growing up resonated with many of our youth and his story of first encountering Jesus really opened their eyes. Several of them commented in amazement that they didn’t know Jesus could be so real. God kept their hearts soft and open to receive God’s word through Alberto on Saturday afternoon despite their fatigue and disappointment with the outdoor activities. (In the end, the weather cleared up for the last hour of activities so paintball, swimming and zip line were enjoyed by the youth).

Later that evening we asked the youth to reflect about Alberto’s story. In doing so several of our less outspoken youth shared stories with the entire group about Jesus.
o Jose shared about Jesus NOT answering his prayer and protecting him through that.
o Joseph shared about Jesus healing his mother who had complications in her recent pregnancy
o Flor shared of Jesus caring for her and miraculously discovering a defect in her heart that she will have surgery for shortly.
o Our three youngest girls Gladis, Sarah and Karina shared a desire for Jesus to heal others in their family. They want to see Jesus come through in a real way.
o Gerson shared of Jesus’ protection and provision on a bus ride home where he became stranded and a complete stranger gave him bus fare to get home.

One of our youth commented afterwards – “wow, that was intense. I was really touched by that.” Our youth not only received from Alberto, but also received from each other.

who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

- God gave the adult staff enough to love, pastor, play and serve the youth over the weekend. We are undoubtedly exhausted (getting woken up at 5 am and staying up until 1 am will do that) but it seems a contented, satisfied exhaustion. It was joy to partner with one another!

Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul!

Thank you for your prayers and partnership – they were deeply and intensely felt over the course of the weekend. Please continue to pray in particular for the next month or so for our youth. I find myself concerned for their well being post-retreat but know that our God is faithful and good.

In August we are partnering with Street Lamp Studios for “When Justice and Peace Kiss” and appreciate your prayers for this project. The youth have created some amazing art in the past and it’s my prayer that this will lead to deeper faith in Jesus for them.

Grace and Peace,
Elliot

Justice and Peace Shall Kiss

The expression of truth is rarely as keen and raw than from the hearts of our youth. They possess an innocence and freedom to feel what the feel and think what they think with little inhibition. The members and interns of Streetlamp Studio hope to create space for love and truth to meet so justice and peace may kiss, as expressed by the Psalmist (Psalm 85:10), during our annual summer program, When Justice and Peace Kiss.

When Justice and Peace Kiss begins this Wednesday evening with the first of three workshop nights leading up to our big performance on August 16th. Youth aged 12-18 are welcome to participate. They will be led by our six Streetlamp Studio interns in a discussion of this years theme, in getting all their thoughts on paper and in molding all these thoughts into a performance piece. In years past, the poetry has been put to music, made into raps, or performed as spoken word pieces. But this year, we hope to include a little bit of dance as well.

The interns have spent two weeks planning and preparing for When Justice and Peace Kiss in addition to receiving teaching on the theology of art and God's love for justice. Each of the six come from wide array of artistic backgrounds and training--they can act, sing, play instruments, dance, rap, draw, paint, you name it--but what they have in common in an excitement to pass on whatever skills they have and help the youth express their truth and be heard.


Please come along side us by calling on the Lord for the following:
1 - Please pray that youth come, and also that they keep coming and are able to perform.
2 - Please ask that the Lord provide wisdom and discernment for the interns as they plan, lead and guide.
3 - As we are still working out details with respect to our performance space and the like, please pray for blessing and provision so that the youth may be loved through a quality experience in terms of the practicals.
4 - Please also praise the Lord for allowing us to have six wonderful interns, for the opportunity to take this project on for the third year in a row, and for being with us in this process.

Thanks!

Interns with leader and founding Streetlamp Studio member, Jenny Hall
(left to right, Megan, Jenny, Aimee, Johanna, Jen, Ben, Scott)

Take A Walk Update

On 27th St, between Normandie and Kenwood Ave

The picture above is a microcosm of what we encounter daily when traversing the sidewalks in our neighborhood. Jacaranda trees may look great and provide much needed shade in our urban environment, but bulbous tree roots are the #1 cause of raised, broken, and sometimes even MISSING segments of sidewalks. Strollers and wheelchairs were not designed to hurdle such yawning gaps. 

Patch-up jobs of filling cracks in the concrete with asphalt (re: above) is not a lasting solution--it is like putting a Band-aid on a deep gash in your arm instead of getting proper stitches. No, these troubled areas have to be repaired for the long-term: partial removal of the intrusive roots, leveling of the base foundation, new concrete cast-in-place. We are hoping that stimulus funds allocated to the City from Washington DC would be designated towards repairing our walking, strolling, and wheeling infrastructure. (While of course preserving the lovely jacarandas and other innocuous trees; they know not what they did to our sidewalks.)

In the past month and a half, a band of surveyors have braved these sidewalks to record all instances of brokenness. We now have a comprehensive list of nuisance sidewalks, from 1-inch bumps, to 3-foot long valleys, even 12-inch monster peaks. Praise God for these volunteers from Church of the Redeemer (COR) who participated in this early phase of the project!

The next step of the project is crucial: outreach and organizing neighbors. This involves fanning out across our target area again, honing in on sub-areas where broken sidewalks were detected in order to engage residents in the project's mission. We want Take a Walk to be truly a COMMUNITY project, not just an RCP pilot. 

During the surveys, we sensed some initial enthusiasm and heard some moving stories from neighbors that we came across, all of which we would like to channel into formats that would be presentable and convincing to the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and the office of our Councilman, Bernard Parks. These formats include petitions, stories, letters to our politicians, and ultimately a 'PhotoBook' that encapsulates the stories and photos that would hopefully compel the leaders of our neighborhood and district to make sidewalk repairs a priority for the stimulus fund allocations.

Would you pray for:

• God to open doors and hearts to our volunteers to share their sidewalk stories as well as their lives. We don't mean for this project to be a one-time deal; rather, we hope that it would be just the beginning of deep relationship among neighbors.
• More volunteers from both the COR and from the neighborhood to sign up to go door-to-door.
• Favor from the councilman's office and continued favor from the CRA.

For more updates, photos, and such, please visit the Take a Walk blog.

More Prayer

Dear Praying Friends,

Two nights ago there was a bad situation at the homes of one of our youth - as a result, the youth left the home and has spent the last two nights elsewhere. The situation with his mother is still unresolved.

Last night a former member of our youth group was arrested by police for assault with a deadly weapon. It was his mother that called the police after the youth attacked a member of their household.

I don't know exactly what to make of this, but it feels a lot like Spiritual Warfare from the enemy. It feels a lot like the enemy would like to confuse, discourage and attack prior to our youth retreat. Please pray for protection from this for the youth and our adult staff. Please pray for us to stand firm in the truth and goodness of our Lord.

grace and peace,
Elliot

Youth Group Retreat

This Friday the Church of the Redeemer Youth Group will be going on its first weekend retreat! The adult staff and youth are both excited for the chance to get out of the city to have fun and experience God in the calm of Big Bear Lake, CA. As we prepare to head out this Friday, we welcome your prayers:

- Please pray for our retreat speaker Alberto Oros as he prepares his talks for the weekend. Pray that God would use Alberto to really speak powerfully into the lives of our youth.

- Please pray that nothing would hinder the youth from making it on Friday to our scheduled departure at 4:00 pm. Thus far we have 15 youth who have paid and submitted their forms to come, praise the Lord!

- Please pray for God to soften the hearts of the youth. Our hope is that the time away from the city will allow for a deep experience of God that leads to deeper relationship with Him when they return to LA.

- Please pray for safety in travel and and camp

- Pray against the work of the enemy and anyway in which he may discourage or confuse or hinder the work of God this weekend

- Please pray for our adult staff to have energy and joy as we serve, pastor and play with the youth this weekend. Our adult staff include: Richard Louie, Casey Taylor, Stacie Paz, Eddie Ko, Heather Fong and myself, Elliot Ling

- Here's also a listing of the youth by name in case you're interested in praying for them specifically: Justin Wiley, Damio'n Horsley, Jamie Francia, Robby Soria, Gerson Hernandez, Elizabeth Hernandez, Gladis Belloso, Flor Hernandez, Carina Carvajal, Jamal Hopes, Joseph McCullough, Jose Palacios, Anthony Valenzuela, Carlos De La Roca, Sarah De La Roca and Carla De La Roca.

I'm looking forward with anticipation and excitement - thanks for your partnership and prayers!

grace and peace,
Elliot

Rocket Launch!

This week has been an exciting time at Adventures Ahead as the students built paper rockets and launched them in the park using a special rocket launcher Lauren built in our living room using PVC pipe from home depot.









The rockets are able to go really high (one got stuck on our roof during a test launch). And the students love seeing exactly how far they can launch them. In the spirit of scientific inquiry, they have even come up with ways to tweak the rockets and test their predictions. What will happen if we launch two at once? They are also learning record-keeping techniques as they record and chart the distances the rockets have flown.




This week teachers will focus on bringing together all of the flight principles the students have learned to explain how an airplane flies. On Thursday the class will take its biggest field trip yet — to the Reagan library in Simi valley, where they'll have the opportunity to tour a previous version of Air Force One! Please pray for this trip -- logistics, patience during the long bus ride, and lots of learning and fun.

Good news on the sidewalk front

Earlier this month we launched a campaign to call attention to broken sidewalks and intersections lacking curb cuts. Our hope is that the city will designate some of our federal stimulus funds to making sidewalk repairs on our streets. Following some initial survey work, the "Take a Walk Campaign" team is starting to gather personal narratives about the hazards of unmaintained sidewalks. As we interview neighbors who travel by wheelchair, it is clear that everyone has a story to tell. You can read one of these stories, from a man named Philip who was wheeling down Brighton Avenue, on the Take a Walk blog.

During the first three weeks of the campaign Richard contacted two political bodies whose support would be necessary to get funds allocated: our local councilman's office and the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA/LA). For a time we did not receive any reply. But at the end of last week Richard reached a CRA project manger, Billy Chun, who was very receptive to investing in sidewalk repairs and curb cuts. There is a meeting next Thursday for the project area we live in, and Mr. Chun says he will present our campaign to the other elected board members. If the idea receives a positive reception then he wants to approach the Council office. Meanwhile he plans to contact the Department of Engineering and other project managers who have carried out similar projects in CRA areas to gather cost information.

From the beginning we have hoped to address this need in partnership with the city, not in conflict with it. An ally in the CRA is great step toward this. Please pray that we will continue to find compassion and responsiveness among the officials, agencies and committees who wield decision-making power.

How it used to be

Thank you everyone who prayed for the Normandie/Brighton/Halldale Neighborhood Association last night. We had a really wonderful meeting. Fourteen adults and four kids gathered in our living room. Our senior lead officer was on vacation but we looked at the crime report together and talked about ways to improve policing on our blocks. One possibility is to stock a fridge at our local park with sodas and snacks, encouraging officers to come do their paperwork here!

God answered our prayers for a gathering that more fully represented the community here. Last night we had three attenders who spoke primarily Spanish, and our neighbor Ms. Eti provided translation for them. Please continue to pray for our group to work well together bilingually. Among the other attenders we had a good mix of bilingual Latin Americans, African Americans, Anglos and our housemate Heather representing for Chinese-Americans.

I think the most significant part of the meeting came after our discussion of crime, policing and upcoming local development projects. Our neighbor Louis, who has lived on Brighton for decades, shared about a recent interaction with a family at the end of his street. He had initiated a conversation with a young boy and the parents reacted with a lot of wariness. The conversation in our living room went something like this-

Louis: Back when I was a kid it was so different. Everyone knew everyone, and we all looked out for each others' kids.
Sandra: I think the closest we've come to that was the Harvest Carnival this year. That got everyone out doing something together.
Ana: I think getting together here tonight is a good first step.
Louis: But there's a lot more people who need to be here!
Ana: Well, what if we throw a potluck and invite everyone to come get to know each other...

So on September 14th our block club will be serving up hamburgers, hotdogs, chips and ice cream for anyone who wants to come. We were so encouraged by the group's eagerness to build a new kind of community here, and we're excited to see what will happen in September. Please keep praying for all of us who are part of this endeavor!

Neighbors vs. Crime

Tonight is the second meeting of the Normandie/Brighton/Halldale Neighborhood Association. Yesterday evening Richard and our housemate Nancy went up and down the block distributing fliers and asking our neighbors to attend. In a post from last month we asked you to pray for this association to be inclusive and welcoming for EVERYONE on the block. We were surprised when everyone who attended our first meeting was a fluent English speaker. We conducted the whole meeting without translation, a rare phenomenon in this community. During the organizing process to close the alley between Normandie and Brighton the key participants were most comforable interacting in Spanish, and our translator's role was to help the English speakers follow the discussion. We had expected this initial group to be our "founding members" for the new block club, but in fact a whole new set of people jumped in. We are thrilled by the eagerness of this new group, made up of our African American and second-generation Latino neighbors. But we want to get everyone around the table. Would you pray for our meeting at 6:30 tonight that God will gather a broad group of residents and help us partner together well?

On the agenda tonight is a report of recent criminal activity and discussion with our LAPD Senior Lead Officer about strategies to curb it. We've drawn a perimeter extending 6 blocks in each direction from the 2700 block of Brighton, and we chart reported crimes in this area. Crime is known to increase during the summer months, and the numbers for June demonstrate this trend. Would you pray for God to guide and bless our efforts to make this neighborhood safer?

Here are the June numbers that we'll be looking at:

Homocides-1 (2 since January)
Aggravated Assaults-13 (38 since January)
Violent Robberies-3 (10 since January)
Grand Theft Auto-10 (40 since January)

Most concerning to us are the aggravated assaults, defined as "an attack for the purpose of inflicting severe or bodily injury, usually accompanied by the use of a weapon or means likely to produce death or great bodily injury." Just one of these would be a frightening number, but 38 is overwhelming. Additionally, the 13 incidents in June represent a big spike, more than double what has occurred in any previous month. Please pray that God will protect the families on our blocks from violence, and will reverse the trend we are seeing.

Treasure in a Brown Bag

The young adult small group spreads PB and J

A big challenge of running the Sky's the Limit camp is how to feed 40 hungry kids each day. So Lauren was thrilled when four small groups from Church of the Redeemer took this on as a ministry. For the entire month of July, each group is spending one night a week (in addition to their regular meeting) making sack lunches for Sky's the Limit kids and teachers.

At my own small group this week we studied Acts 2 and talked about the depth of shared life that characterized the early church. As we shared ideas for deepening trust and friendship among ourselves, one member reflected on the joy she found in our sandwich-making night--the challenge of assembling large numbers of sandwiches, the last-minute emails seeking "a sponsor for this week's cheese," the shared triumph of setting a new speed record. Through this small gift we decided to give the kids, we realized that we were becoming more of a family to one another. You can never out-give God!

Another sandwich-making team is a newly launched Bible study for young adults. A leader from this group writes, "This past week, we finally are seeing the beginnings of a community being knitted together that is excited about learning and doing--with much of the excitement having to do with being able to serve the summer program together. This week we had our most encouraging Bible study on Tuesday, where group participation was at an all time high (we studied John 13 and washed each others' feet), and folks were again eager and excited on Tuesday night to make sandwiches."

Praise God for the love that he is pouring out to kids through members of Church of the Redeemer. And pray that these small groups will continue to uncover the treasures of Christian community as they serve together.

A tale of two neighbors

The cast: Dami'on, Jenny, Andrew, Malika, Anna, Kristal

Last night Streetlamp Studio unveiled the script for their upcoming play. The cast gathered at the tutoring center for what they call a "table read." This means they read through the script together in character. A small audience gathered with them to hear the script performed this first time. Our job was to offer our personal reactions to the characters, storyline and dialogue. The play tells the story of two neighbors traversing barriers of culture and background to build a friendship. Those of us listening last night are each on our own journey with intentional, cross-cultural, barrier-crossing relationships. The Streetlamp team wanted to hear how the story they created and the characters they were portraying connected with our own experiences. What a honor to be included in this way!

The title of the play is Next Door and performances will be Fri 8/21, Sat 8/22, Fri 8/29 and Sat 8/29 at 8:00pm. Check the Streetlamp Studio website for location and ticket information. And please pray for the production process. The cast will be rehearsing at the tutoring center today, and during many weekends and evenings for the next 6 weeks. Pray for God to bless each castmember and director as they work and for God to speak challenge, hope and courage into the lives of all who attend the performances!

It is rocket science actually.

Today is prep day for Sky's the Limit. After covering rotors and parachutes last week, our interns are now preparing to teach about rockets and thrust. Pray for Riley, Eric, Emilie, Teresa, Grace and Esther today. Ask God to lead them as they make their week's lesson plans for reading, writing, math and computers as well as the next set of science experiments. Imagine yourself preparing to teach 6-10 kids for 6 hours a day and bring before God whatever things YOU would hope for, worry about and need from God in their shoes!

It takes a Village

Thanks to everyone who prayed for the Sky's the Limit field trip today. Our kids made the 1.5 mile trek with energy to spare! More importantly, no one was lost, injured or otherwise imperiled. That is your prayers at work.

After splashing a little in the Rose Garden fountain our kids divided into teams for a fact-finding mission through each exhibit of the Aerospace museum. They launched gliders with different shaped wings to see which flew farther, sat in the cockpit of a police helicopter and learned that a monkey had once gone into space. I think everyone had a great time and went a little deeper in understanding how flight works.

One thing that struck me today was how easily the kids have formed friendships and how different it is for us grownups. A young girl approached me at the museum today and announced, "I'm your neighbor." I recognized her as one of three sisters who live across the street from our house. But to my shame I could not remember her name and have only rarely interacted with her parents. I watched two boys playing ball and learned that their families live in the same fourplex apartment building. But because of friction between their parents over pets and other housekeeping issues they rarely, if ever, play together at home. I introduced myself to the sister and auntie of a girl in Jordan's class. I found out that they had lived just a few doors down from the apartment that Richard and I rented when we were first married. They knew our landlord, but somehow our own paths had never intersected.

So that brings me to our prayer request for today:
Adventures Ahead tutoring has never been just about academics. A primary goal is always to bring families together into mutually supportive relationships. In a big city it is so easy to live without any connection with your neighbors. We enfold our children in virtual villages of hand-picked friends and relatives that meet our needs for community. But how much richer is an old-fashioned lawn-to-lawn, curb-to-curb, cup of flour borrowing network of neighbors? We believe this can be built here, even across the urban faultlines of race, class, country of origin, generation, language, religious practice and whatever things each of us does that bug others of us. Our neighbor Walter called at 8am this morning to warn us that our car was on the wrong side of the street (a $50 ticket on streetcleaning day.) Would he call in a few years to warn us if Jordan was cutting school, driving recklessly or hanging out with a crowd he shouldn't be? I hope the answer is "yes", not just in this one case but among many of the thirty-some families who have joined the "urban village" that Adventures Ahead hopes to become. Pray with us that this will be so!

Field Trip!

Sky's the Limit science camp is hitting the road today. Well, hitting the sidewalk. All forty kids are going to walk to the Aerospace wing of the California Science Center about 2 miles away from our tutoring center. The museum has some great interactive exhibits ranging from a Wright brothers simulation to a launching device for balsa wood model planes. They can also see a replica of a space capsule and lots of astronaut suits. Lauren has created a scavenger hunt of sorts which requires kids to hunt for objects and information within the museum's exhibits. Please pray for a fun learning experience! Also, pray for safety and endurance during the long walks to and from the museum.

Updates from Lauren

See that smile on Lauren's face? It's because she is seeing God answer your prayers! Here are some of the things she has shared...

1) All three computers at the tutoring center are now running Word and Excel. This means the kids can chart the data they've been gathering this week, mostly related to how long their homemade parachutes and helicopters stay in the air. The older classes are also using Word to type up their writing assignments each day.

2) The temperature in the back classroom has stayed reasonable, despite some hot afternoons. The new strategy has been to run the AC and the fan together, which seems to keep the cool air circulating.

3) The all-day prep session on Friday paid off enormously. Our interns started the week with a more energy and confidence, despite two of them getting sick over the weekend. Their day is ending around 4pm now instead of five, and they haven't needed to bring work home in the evenings.

4) The team also got a big boost this week from fourteen classroom assistants and one "creative project specialist,"a veteran preschool teacher whose sons graduated from Adventures Ahead years ago. Kathy has been supervising messy endeavors like painting propellors, where her years of experience make a huge difference. The classroom assistants are a high school mission team from Tucson assigned to us by the Center for Student Mission. This wonderful organization will send us teams each week for the rest of the summer. We were a little nervous about adding so many extra bodies to an already tight space. But the added attention and supervision they bring has been transformative. Our teachers feel liberated from the need to constantly discipline and are gladly investing more of their energy in actual teaching.

Go forth and multiply...

Ms. Teresa, pictured above on the right, will enter her final year at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo this fall. Her Sky's the Limit students will enter the third grade. This week Teresa is teaching multiplication during her math hour. She started yesterday by creating a "number wheel" that the kids could walk around, advancing by 2's, 3's, 5's or whatever increment Teresa asked. They quickly mastered the "number walk" and now she is helping them transfer this very physical experience with numbers to problems written on a page.

California's math standards for second grade include "counting by multiples to do multiplication." So walking around the number wheel should have been review. But in third grade these standards will require them to "memorize to automaticity the multiplication table for numbers between 1 and 10" and "solve simple problems involving multiplication of multidigit numbers." Third grade is considered a flagship year for math, and lays a critical foundation for algebra later on. We want our students to be ready! Teresa's lessons are meant to give them a crucial leg up. For a couple students who never really mastered second grade multiplication this week's lessons are a second chance. For those who "got it" the first time around we're reinforcing the skills they gained and nudging them steadily forward. Please pray that God will empower Teresa to teach well, and that her students will find themselves mulptiplying with confidence!

Not much leg room and a few mechanical problems but what a great crew!

We just finished Day 4 of our Sky's the Limit science camp. The kids have been busy observing, hypothesizing and measuring...how much air weighs, the time it takes objects to fall to the ground, etc. Lauren described this week's lessons on air and gravity as "the things you have to overcome in order to fly." After four days of camp we also have a list of things for God to overcome in order for our kids to fly. So please pray!

1) We have 40 children attending camp, divided into five classes. Those of you who have visited our center know that it is not spacious! Every square inch is getting used, and classes take turns walking to a local park to conduct their experiments. Praise God that after some trial and error the space is working. Please pray for a spirit of peace to rest upon every part of our full-to-bursting facility.

2) Our six summer interns are doing a GREAT job teaching reading, writing, math and science. But they are also very tired. They teach from 9am-3pm, plan from 3-5pm and have been taking more prep work home each evening. Fridays are set aside to plan for each coming week. Please pray that they can get enough done tomorrow that next week won't feel so crazy. Pray too that God will make Isaiah 40 true for them all summer: That they will mount on wings of eagles...run and not grow weary...walk and not faint.

3) Of the six computers in our tutoring center, only 3 are functional right now. And two of those three do not have Microsoft Office loaded. That leaves just one machine that the kids can use to chart this week's measurement data in Excel. Would you ask God to provide 2 or 3 new machines for the kids to use?

4)The air conditioner that cools our front room is working beautifully. But the one in our back room only cools the few inches of air directly in front of it. So far a fan has been doing the trick. Please pray for mild weather between now and the end of July so the kids can work comfortably.