Summer Fun

                It’s amazing how quickly the summer has flown by! And that is probably because summer “vacation” never really started for us at the after school program. When the kids got out of classes in June, we started 5 consecutive weeks of daily vacation Bible school! The cool thing about it was that we got to connect with the kids on another level. During our regular program we work hard to keep the kids on task in order to finish their homework on time. Most of our time was spent telling kids to sit down or to stop talking to their neighbor. But with programing that included games, songs, Bible stories, and food, we got to relax more and just be friend with the kids this summer.

Working on one of the many crafts we did over 5 weeks.

               I think that the most surprising part of the whole thing was the kids’ reactions to the memory verses. When I originally suggested memorization of scripture, some of the Ecuadorian staff opposed the idea. They believed that Scripture memorization was too difficult for many of the kids. But I believe that children rise to the standards given to them, so we decided to try it.

                The response was awesome! The kids would ask for the Bible verses in their free time in order to memorize. Once they had it memorized, they would sit down with someone else who was struggling and help them learn it. One girl spent her time teaching a three year old how to memorize the verses, and he did it! Another boy, Joel, sat down with Luis, who is 12 and can hardly read or write. Joel patiently read the verse to Luis to have him repeat it until finally even Luis was saying the verses.

                In the final week and a half, our theme was the armor of God. So the Bible passage for the week was all of Ephesians 6:10-17. 8 verses with complex vocabulary. And by the fourth day of the armor of God, about 4 kids had memorized the entire thing. By the last day kids were voluntarily skipping games time to work on the verse, and about half of the kids managed to say the entire thing from memory!

                Since the program ended, I have spent a great deal of time cleaning out the center for the next school year with Erika and Adolfo. We have been prepping worksheets for next year and been working on sorting through all the applications for new kids in September. Last week I was on a work retreat on the coast and got to spend some amazing time bonding with the other team members (and hanging out in the surf  a bit).

                So now we are only a couple of weeks from our start date of September 5^th! I’m so excited for what the next year has in store for us. We want to go in with a strong educational, disciplinary, and spiritual plan for the kids, and we are trusting that God has amazing things in store for them and us.

PRAYER
1. Please be praying for all of our kids as they go back to school. This is a very financially difficult time for most of the families. We have helped every kid with about $30 worth of school supplies, but uniforms and bus fares are another thing entirely.
2. Pray for our team. Adolfo, Erika, and I have developed an awesome friendship which is already an answer to prayer.  But there is still some adjusting to do with my new role and with stricter control of schedule and employee expectations. We need grace, patience, and above all else the discipline to overcome old standards and to meet new ones.
3. Please pray about my finances. Or even better yet, help me with my finances. I wrote an update in June about my new financial reality as I move into full-time staff. My budget has gone up by $1000 per month in order to meet certain requirements for full-time staff (different health insurance, retirement, increased ministry fund, etc). Two people responded with a total of $150 of the 1000 committed per month. Which means I only need $850 more! I know many of you are also in certain financial situations, but if you feel led to support this work by keeping me here, please prayerfully consider supporting at $50, $100, or even $150 a month. If you already support, pray about what the future of your support will look like.

God is doing a good work. And all of you are part of it. Don’t hesitate to write me, to Skype, or to come for a visit (hint hint).
And if you have any questions about what we are doing down here and how you can be better involved or how to better pray for it, I am only a click away (thank-you Facebook).

(This is what the kids memorized! Be amazed)
Ephesians 6:10-17
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Big Changes

               June is almost over which means several wonderful things. First, the kids are almost out of school! Summer vacation was my favourite time of year as a kid and I am so excited that they get to take a break!                Second, our program for the summer is going to change quite a bit. We are going to be focusing on having fun, doing crafts, and teaching the gospel. Most of the parents of our kids work long hours and we don’t want our kids to be left at home alone. So we are going to continue running a modified version of the program through the months of July and August.
               Third, I have officially finished my internship with Extreme Response which means I am moving into full-time staff. With this change comes a change in position. While I had been acting as leader while the directors of our program were not present, I am not officially running the after-school program. This means that I am now the “boss” of two employees and I basically have full autonomy to make decisions about how our program runs on a daily basis.
               The past 6 months have been a learning experience. For myself, for Extreme, and for our kids. I wish I could have shown the difference between our program in January and our program now. Our kids are learning to flourish under the more structured program. There is better behavior. There is more self-confidence. There is far more opportunity to pour into their lives. And the reason this is able to happen is because so many of you have been supporting this work in prayer and financially. And I cannot thank you enough!
               But I also need to be very open about my current financial situation. As I move from an internship position into my role as Coordinator, my budget is being significantly increased per month. I am now required to be putting money into savings, retirement, and ministry funds. All three of those things were almost impossible for me to put money into as before I was living on $400 a month (outside of my rent).
               If I am being honest, my gut reaction to a budget increase is one of dread. It can be very difficult to raise funds, especially when I am so far away from the people who I need to come along side me. And of course, the people who I need to keep this work going are you guys. I have been given an extension on my internship budget so that I have the necessary time to fundraise the amount I am short per month.
               The good news is that this isn’t really my work to do. God is good. And he has shown that he has my back very clearly in the last few weeks. So I am trusting that by August 1^st I will have half of the extra amount I need to work here full time. And I am sure that I am going to be surprised by how God works that out.
               So this is where you come in. I want to talk to you. I want to tell you about what God is doing here. And yes, I am going to talk about finances, and it is going to be uncomfortable. But the reality is that it isn’t free for me to be here in Ecuador. In fact, prices are almost the same as they are in Canada on many things. Perhaps even more expensive.  If you are interested in this work and have not been able to financially support it in the past, I ask you to prayerfully consider supporting it at $50, $100, or $150 per month. Would you perhaps consider working a day for the after school program and donating your earnings? Or work out your coffee budget and choose to donate that monthly? Whatever amount God leads you to, you would be investing in something that has eternal value.
               Or are you already a supporter? Perhaps you can do more? I am asking that you pray about that. Pray about your involvement in the program. Pray about how you can help make this program be the best it can be.
               Also, pray for me as I step into a new role. I have never had to be in charge of employees before. I want to model Christ in my leadership and keep our team united and excited as we work together. We do what we do for the sake of a group of kids who have next to no opportunity in life. Kids who literally eat garbage. Kids who can often not afford the 12 cent bus ride to the program. They need your prayer the most.

Helping our youngest kids with their homework

Doing an English workshop with the kids

               If you decide to support, please let me know how much you are committing to per month. This would really help me keep track of where I am at in my budget.

               Many blessings! And please write and let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I am here to be held accountable by you and to keep you as informed as I can.

Supporting in Canada: https://www.canadahelps.org/services/wa/dnm/en/#/page/6825
Make sure to change the donation from “General” to “Robbie Murdoch-Quito After School Program”

Supporting in the USA: http://www.extremeresponse.org/take-action/make-a-donation/us-donations
Be sure to designate the gift to Robbie Murdoch

How a Circle is Changing Lives

It has been a couple of months since I have written an update that is specific to the after-school program that I am working in, so I wanted to let you all know how it is going.

There are some serious differences between now and when I first got here. The team of people that run this program just didn’t have the time or experience to make the changes that they wanted to. But now everyone seems happier about how things are going.

One of the biggest changes is in the behavior of the kids. When I started here they solved their problems by hitting and kicking each other. If you were to come to our program today you would see that the kids rarely hit each other in an aggressive way. They are far more likely to have an adult get involved when things get serious.

We got a late donation of Christmas bags that we got to give to the kids this month.

We are also paying far closer attention to the individual studies of the students. We recently got their third quarter grades and have developed additional education plans for the kids who are behind and at risk of being held back a year.

The kids are also learning to love God in new ways. We spend a lot of time praying and talking to the kids about prayer. For me it has been very important that the kids do not feel that God is distant or unapproachable. I want them to know that God sees them and cares about them. One of my favourite workshops we do is simply called “the circle.” It is a time to sit down with a smaller group of kids and to listen to them talk. It is the same three questions every time: What is something you have done well recently? What is a problem you have in your life right now? What can you do to fix it? At the end we have time for the kids to pray quietly and ask God to help them with their problems, and then we pray for each other.

This simple format works to improve their lives in so many ways! They learn that their teachers are here to listen to them and that their opinions and stories matter. They learn that the other kids have problems too. Sometimes a kid will share something like, “my dad comes home drunk and beats my mom.” And then another kid will echo that. And before long the majority have discovered that they have the same problem and there is a sense of unity that comes from it that is truly unique. The kids learn that they are not victims, but individuals with the power to make their lives better, and the lives of people around them. If their problem involves something with their parents then we talk about what sort of parent they want to be when they get older. The kids work at offering solutions to each other and the teachers are simply there to facilitate the conversation.

The most powerful thing for me has been seeing how prayer has been what they are learning to fall back on. One boy, Kevin, has shared with us that his parents get into very violent fights in the evenings when he is in bed. The other day he said, “I am so glad that I learned to pray. I just pray and pray when they fight like that.” The solution he offers to other kids during the circle is always to pray. "Oh, you don’t have friends at school? You should pray about that!"

Kevin

We have been going through the Bible chronologically. With the morning kids I have a half hour class every day and we are currently in 1 Samuel. In the afternoon we have a 15 minute class every day and we are in Joshua. Please be praying that God would continue to give us wisdom as we share with the kids from the Bible. I strongly feel that this is the most important part of our day.

As for me, I have been doing very well. I have an amazing group of friends and have started insect collecting again, which is really fun to do in Ecuador.

Please be in prayer about the following things:
1. Every aspect of our after school program. But specifically for the daily lives and salvation of our kids.
2. My health. Last month I had a very long spell of sickness after sickness. I have lost 30 pounds since I moved here in August. Please pray that the Lord would keep me healthy and strong.
3. My financial situation. I am so thankful for the people who have been so faithful in supporting me and the work I am doing here, and now my church is also supporting me. But come July I will be moving to full-time staff and this means that my budget will increase (insurance changes, savings account, ministry funds, etc). I am in need of more supporters! And I am asking you (yes YOU who is reading this right now) to prayerfully consider supporting this work at $50, $100, or $150 a  month. Simply visit the website below and change the donation from “General” to “Robbie Murdoch.” All donations are tax deductible.
https://www.canadahelps.org/services/wa/dnm/en/#/page/6825

Thank you all for your invested interest in this work. Our God is so so good, and he is doing great things!

Earth Quakes, Mountains Tremble

There are a lot of people saying a lot of amazing things about what we accomplished on the coast. It looks pretty impressive.

There are a lot of stories about how horrible and how difficult it was down there.

There are people literally calling me a hero, and, well, I’m really so very far from it.

So I am hoping that this will give the right perspective and not a glorified version of events that makes you think I did things that I never actually did.

At 6:58pm on Saturday, April 16^th, I was standing in a supermarket with two friends. We were grabbing a few groceries to make dinner together and spend an evening eating and watching movies. As we stood in the check-out line with ground beef and ice cream sandwiches in hand, I started to feel something.

Now, for some reason I have a sixth sense about earthquakes. I can feel even the small ones. I looked around and no one seemed to notice, too busy talking among themselves and trying to get through the crowded check-out. “Temblor [earthquake]!” I said to my friend Jen.

“Stop it!” she replied, thinking I was joking around as usual.

“Temblor!” I said louder. People turned and started to stare.

“Stop trying to freak people out!” said Jen, when suddenly the earthquake got a little stronger, and people stopped what they were doing.

It wasn’t that the quake was particularly strong. It may have been a little stronger than the other 4 or so earthquakes I have felt since I moved back to Ecuador in August. It’s just that this one was long.

Very long.

And how did people react? They took out their cell phones and started filming the signs swaying from the ceilings. We all smiled and laughed together. There’s something about experiencing something like that with strangers that makes you forget that you don’t know each other. You talk to people you would normally walk past. You joke and laugh with the person next to you in line. Then, you move on.

As we paid for our food and walked out of the store we joked about the people on their cell phones. We laughed about not even trying to leave the store. We shared a pack of Skittles and went to an optometrist and laughed about the earthquake with him too. Life just went on.

But what I didn’t know was that while we moved on there were literally hundreds of people already dead from that earthquake. And hundreds more trapped in stores, hotel rooms, homes, and their work, walls collapsed in around them. There were people whose entire lives were lost in that minute or so of shaking.

When we got to Jen’s house we started reading the news, and the reality of what happened still didn’t really hit us. It was more something interesting to read, but certainly didn’t feel real to me. We watched as the death toll started to rise. We watched as pictures started to be posted of fallen buildings and overpasses. And then we all went to sleep.

Sunday morning it started to feel different. Ecuador was declared to be in a state of emergency and all public meetings were cancelled (including church). I started posting on Facebook to keep people informed. To let people know I was okay. And then someone commented on something of mine.

“What can we do?” was the question. I thought about it. What can people do in North America? Not much really. Be in prayer. Consider making a donation.

And then someone asked me, “But Robbie, what more can you do besides pray?”

That was the moment I knew that God was going to make this very real to me. That was the moment that I knew I was about to be going to the coast. That was the moment the earthquake was no longer an interesting news update, but suddenly a real event.

So I looked for a way to get to the coast. And after a few options presented themselves it turned out that my own mission (Extreme Response) was planning to go down and do whatever we could to help. Our work was going to focus in places we had connections, and this ended up including a church in Porto Viejo, a church in Manta, and a church in a tiny little town called Pacocha.

The news reports were flying in about how horrible everything was. Several friends were writing me to warn me that the police were not letting people down to the coast. That there was an outbreak of Dengue. That there were bodies lining the streets and volunteers were entering a state of shock upon arrival.

We were told to pack one change of clothes and to bring all the food we would need for 5 days on the coast. We were going to hopefully be involved in helping get people out of buildings. We were going to sleep on the cement floor of a church. We were going to be heroes!

And I really didn’t want to go anymore.

But when you’ve tried running away from God’s plan in the past, you know how futile it is to try it again.

Wednesday morning at 4am we were in the office, ready to go. We prayed together and loaded ourselves into the cars.

As you drive from Quito to the coast you get to see a lot of changes happen. Quito at 4 in the morning is cold and dark. At nine and a half thousand feet above sea level you forget you’re in a tropical country. About two hours from Quito you are in tropical cloud forest. Still cool, but lush and green. As you get a little lower the heat and humidity start to hit. It doesn’t matter if it’s night or day, you suddenly find that your sweater is coming off and the window is opening up.

We all had our eyes peeled for damage from the earthquake. At first I was pointing out everything and blaming the 7.8 beast for it.

“Did you see that tree! The earthquake knocked it over!”

“No, Robbie. It was clearly cut down.”

“But did you see that house? It was all broken up!”

“No, Robbie. It was abandoned and covered in vines…”

But after we passed Santo Domingo we started to see things for real.

First it was landslides. And I’m not talking about one or two. I’m talking about dozens on the road and countless more on the green tree-covered hills of the northern coastal jungle. Huge swathes of red earth were exposed making the landscape look like a bad piece of Christmas-themed modern art.

Then we started to see cracks in the road. Most of them no big deal. Some of them dangerous to drive over.

One of the road we came across later in the trip.

Next were the damaged houses. Oddly enough, most of the poorer communities with wooden houses on stilts were totally fine. It was the houses built with red bricks that had fallen over or had walls missing.

By the time we were pulling in to Porto Viejo around midday, the smell hit us. Maybe you don’t know the smell, but when I was a kid (or teenager….because I’m a dork), I would ask for scrap meat at the grocery store so that I could make it rot and try to attract Turkey Vultures. This was the same smell. It was something that used to be living that was now going bad in the hot sun.

Many of the large buildings in the city center looked like this. No chance of finding survivors anymore

We dropped off our stuff and asked how we could get to work. Our first project was helping get stuff out of a house that collapsed down the street. We all grabbed our tools and headed out to rip that thing apart. Well, four stories of a cement house that has collapsed into four levels of solid cement and rebar isn’t exactly something some sledge hammers make much of a dent on.

The family who lived in this house were all home when the earthquake happened. A mother and father and their adult daughter and son. I spoke with the daughter who was there helping us pull things apart. She had cuts all over her face and a bruise the size of Canada on her thigh. She told me that only a short time into the earthquake the entire house fell down on her. She could speak with both of her parents through the rubble, but her brother, who had been in the shower at the time, wasn’t making a peep.

And then a miraculous thing happened. Within 20 minutes she was out of the house, followed by both of her parents and lastly her brother, who had been knocked unconscious, but was still fine. Looking at that house it was hard to imagine that anyone would have gotten out of there alive.

“I’m so sorry that you lost your house.” Was all I could say.

A huge smile came across her face and she almost sounded like she was talking about getting to go on a cruise as she said to me, “I’m not! I’m so happy to be alive! God is so good!

And so the rest of the afternoon we barely made a dent on cleaning up that house. The only furniture recovered was a few plates and the drawers from a dresser that was totally broken. I got heat stroke (yes, on day one). And the whole time this family was in there with us helping however they could. The elderly parents were bringing us water and asking us how we were doing. And in the midst of the destruction, there I was, being blessed by this family as I failed so miserably to help bless them.

This was how the days went on. There were so many local volunteers I often wondered why I was even there. We would sometimes send 5 or more people just to drop off a few bottles of water or hand out 20 bags of food.

Handing out food was chaos. People would swarm as soon as they saw you open the car.

I would speak with people and find that I had so little to say to them, and I often walked away feeling like they had been sent to encourage me.

We helped stack endless bottles of water and endless diapers, and endless boxes of food. But there were often so many people forming the passing lines I wondered if we were just getting in the way more than we were helping.

Donations this size were coming in several times a day.

We helped make food bags, and had to push our way into the assembly line because so many people were there trying to help.

I was tired. I was hot. I was dirty. I had scrapes and bruises. I wasn’t sleeping well.

And at the end of it all I looked at myself in a mirror and realized that I was so far from being the hero I thought I was going to get to be. I had accomplished so little of what I set out to accomplish. I ate more food in those 5 days (mostly tuna) than I eat when I am comfortable at home in Quito!

This is because from the beginning I wasn’t being sent to save anyone. No. I was being sent to see that the people who were going through this suffering are just like me. Their hearts are huge. Their hands are open. Their faith is real.

God was so deep in this. It’s hard to explain. We never saw a single dead body (which every report insisted were everywhere). I never felt like I was in a dangerous situation (even when the 6.2 aftershock hit on Thursday night). I never felt like I was being emotionally or mentally traumatized (I felt great comfort from God). I was never bitten by a mosquito (even though dengue was supposedly everywhere).

I just became so aware of how huge this thing was, and how little any of us were able to do to help in it. I became aware that I complain. A lot. About stupid dumb things like the heat rash that broke out on my hands or the cut on my knee.

Most importantly, I became aware that it doesn’t matter how little we were able to go and do. It mostly matters that we went and did. Whatever we could. Because standing alongside brothers and sisters in Christ and facing the reality of this disaster together was where the real work was happening. It was holy and it was sacred. And it proved that our God is good.

February and March update

             The last month and a half have been crazy, to put it lightly. Our newly scheduled program is in full-swing and there has been a lot of positive changes, but there are still a lot of challenges.

            Let me begin my thanking everyone who has taken such an interest in the kids and this program. I feel like I have a huge team of support every time I post a child’s picture for the student of the day or post a small update about what has been happening. So thank you so much!

            We were worried as we started the new schedule that the kids were not going to respond well, but we were mistaken. The kids have almost fully adapted to the new schedule and they are now starting to take control of it. They come to tell me that it’s time to switch to the next scheduled event, which makes me really proud. They are getting better and better at listening to the teachers and being obedient. With the fact that there was no order before, we had to come down hard to begin with to let the kids know that we mean business. As they are beginning to be better we are able to loosen up a bit and that’s not just a relief for the kids, but for us too, as it can be hard to constantly have to be a disciplinarian.

About half of our afternoon kids

            While the kids have been adjusting positively, there have still been some struggles, mostly amongst our team. I have been saying from the beginning that it is one thing to change the schedule of the kids, but another thing entirely to change the schedule of adults who have been working here for over a year. The idea is that everyone takes control of what they need to do so that I don’t need to tell everyone every single day what we are going to do next. As of right now, people basically look to me to say the word before things get done. But with time this will change.

            There have also been some struggles between our team who runs the project and the team that runs our office (our bosses). Nothing serious, mostly scheduling conflicts. But it certainly can add to the stress.

            Despite a couple of difficult set-backs, God has been using this work very positively. Kids are getting their homework done far more quickly than they were before. They are learning a lot more too.

Luis is one of our kids who needs a lot of help. His home situation is inexplicably rough.

            We have a Bible time every day for 15 minutes. On Tuesdays we have an hour of Bible time. So we have been working through the book of Genesis with the kids.  We just finished the story of Abraham and the kids have been doing pretty well at remembering the stories we have told.

            All in all, I am giving a lot of praise to God for the way things have been going. It is exhausting work, but the reward is in things unseen, and I know that long term these kids are going to reap that reward.

PLEASE BE IN PRAYER
-We want to be able to communicate the gospel clearly to these kids, which can be hard to do with a group of 30 distracted kids.
-Pray for the kids. I try to post a picture of one kid a day with a bit of information about that child. Maybe take interest in one and pray for them consistently.
-Also please be praying for my financial situation. The Canadian dollar being as low as it is has been hurting a lot. I am still over $700 per month short of my goal. Which sounds like a lot, but if I found 7 people who were able to support me at $100 a month it would be covered.

            Thanks again to everyone who has been so supportive of this work already. And if you are thinking of going on a trip sometime this year, why not make it Ecuador? We would love to see you here!

New Beginnings

                In the 6 years since I visited my first after school program, I have come to believe that this sort of ministry is ideal for children and youth in developing nations. Mission is not about simply sharing the gospel through Bible stories. Nor is it about spending all our time meeting the social and physical needs of the people we serve. Holistic mission is the only true approach to ministry. When we only have words about love, but no actions to show what that love looks like, we look like liars. When we only show love to people by helping them, but never tell them why we have that love, we rob people of the most important words they will ever hear. The most loving words. In an after school program that is properly scheduled and managed, both of these two halves of ministry come together in a very practical and, dare I say, fun way.

                I was contracted by Extreme Response (ER) not simply because they wanted another volunteer. They had an after school program that was suffering. From what I understood before I started, there was a lack of vision, leadership, and creativity. The people who were running it had slipped into a routine that was falling short on every front. Because of connections I have from when I lived here before, ER had heard of the work I had done in south Quito and they hoped I could breathe some new life into their existing program.

                I have now been here for three weeks and I have spent this time observing how the program currently runs. Unfortunately, everything ER had told me was true. In the three to four hours the kids spend here (one group in the morning and another in the afternoon), there is little to no structure and almost nothing that makes it look like a Christian ministry. The routine is essentially, arrive at some point near the start time (with some kids arrive as much as an hour and a half before other kids) and then do what you want/can. Some kids start their homework…sort of. Others sit around and chat or play with a soccer ball in a side room. This goes on for about an hour and a half before the only structured event of the day begins; the meal.

                Every day the kids get a hot meal. This is a crucial part of what ER does. These kids are all from families that make their living by digging through the trash for recyclables. Some of the poorest families go so far as to take food from the trash to feed their families. For some of these kids, the meal the get at the program is the only meal they may get that day. Certainly the only healthy meal. The meal is prayed for (most of the time) and then the kids are maintained in silence while they eat. This is very strict. Anyone who talks or stands up is made to wash dishes afterwards.

                When the meal is done the kids all move into a cleaning time where the entire project is cleaned…mid program (which hardly makes sense to me if they make a mess right after they clean). And when cleaning is done the chaos continues. They play around, they chat with their friends, they take a ball outside, the goof around on the computers. Almost anything besides finishing their homework. And this is how the final two hours of the program run. Pretty much a free for all.

So what is the program lacking most? Well there are several things that are going to be changed. The first thing we are going to begin with is discipline. Many of the kids receive discipline at home in the form of a beating. Others receive no form of discipline at all. Both are very difficult to work with. Currently the kids either don’t care about our punishments because compared to a beating they are nothing, or they literally don’t even listen to us because there is nothing at stake for them. I am going to be introducing a discipline system that teaches the kids that their actions have consequences, either good or bad. The kids will be awarded points for good behavior and they will lose points for bad behavior. These points will be like currency which they will need to learn to manage. Every two weeks I will bring in a “store” of items such as school supplies, hygiene items, and perhaps a few toys that the kids will be able to spend their points on.

                Discipline is not only important for the sanity of the workers. It is discipline that offers structure and security to the lives of the kids. When you live in a home environment that is unpredictable and unsafe, it is hard to relax and feel free to be a kid. By giving predictable consequences for their actions the kids will actually experience more freedom while they are here. This is also crucial for teaching these kids how to behave for the rest of their lives. Kids who grow up in homes that lack structure are far more likely to enter lives of crime. Now is the time for them to learn to submit to authority and that they have the power in their own hands to choose their actions and the outcome.

                The second thing that needs to be fixed which will also help maintain this sense of security and structure is the schedule. The plan I am going to propose will divide the time into simple blocks that will not change from week to week. We will begin with free time while the kids arrive. This gives the kids a needed break between arriving after school and focused homework time. Then we will start our day together with a welcome and a student of the day program (aimed at increasing self-confidence and appreciation for others). After we have one of the kids pray for our day and the food, we will have the meal. My hope is that we can relax the rules during meal time so that the kids can feel free to converse with the other kids around them. After we eat we will use dish washing as a punishment for any kid who perhaps has acted poorly up to this point, and then move straight into homework time, erasing the rest of the clean up time that was here before.

                Homework time is when we will need to be the strictest. The kids currently have no sense of time management or what spaces they should be playing in and what spaces they should be working in. The main room will become off-limits to play at all times and the kids will be given a strict hour and a half to complete their homework. If they do not finish then they will have to finish at home. The only reason they would not finish is due to poor time management, which at the beginning will be difficult. But after not completing their homework the first few times they should start trying to work more efficiently.

                After this we will spend at least 30 minutes doing Bible review, singing praise songs, and telling a simple Bible story. This is a crucial part of what we claim to do with the program and it is what is lacking the most. My hope is to do an overview of the Bible in the next few months and work towards memorizing certain Bible verses and the books of the Bible in order. My hope is that the kids will have an idea of the general story of the Bible by June.

                In the final hour of our time we will have scheduled workshops. So far, we have people committed to come and teach computers and English. We will probably do a cooking class, an extended Bible class, and perhaps maintain a free day to teach a new game. Another hope I have is to do what I call "circle time" at least once a month. This is a program that works to get the kids to think about their problems and their achievements and the part they play in accomplishing both. It also gives them time to pray and ask God to help them in their lives. This is crucial for overcoming victim mentality and making the kids feel empowered.

                We need to work on self-esteem, care for others, not hitting (this is the way the kids currently deal with all of their problems), and so much more. My job is not just changing the routine of 35 kids, but also changing the routine of 4 adult workers who have settled into something that is easy and far less than desirable. Please be praying for us all. Myself and the other workers really need to be covered in prayers as we march forward into new and difficult changes. But more importantly, please pray for these kids. The brokenness of their lives is something we in North America simply wouldn’t stand for. These kids are enduring situations that no kid should be exposed to.

                And if you actually managed to read this entire thing, good for you! And thank you for taking the time to learn more about what I am doing. I am expecting God to show up in crazy ways, and I hope that you will continue to stand beside me and these kids as we seek God.