September 2016

Last Sunday, we had our annual back-to-school church gathering where we lay hands on each young person and pray a blessing over them and their new school years. It is a special day and a new experience for some of the kids. Chris gives a short explanation of the significance of blessing in the Bible and how the opportunity to pray for and bless others is a special privilege to be at work with God in the world. Then each scholar takes his or her turn in the prayer chair as we lay hands upon them and bless them.  We begin with our youngest students (this year two kindergartners) and work our way through to our eldest college students.  (We have more than half a dozen  young people in our ministry in college this fall.) It was a great day and a great privilege to pray God’s blessings over more than a dozen young people in our church fellowship.

Fall is also the time when Chris determines where and how much volunteer mentoring he will do in the Minneapolis schools. Because of his many years of work in the schools, he has a reputation and receives requests from a variety of places and always has to decide which situations seem best. We ask that you pray as he meets with principals and teachers and sets his fall schedule so that the best use of his time and gifts will be made for God’s glory.

It is also a time to consider how our sports teams will take shape this fall. We are grateful that God has opened a door to a partnership with a local agency which makes gym space available to us. Lots of our kids are excited for the opportunity to play AAU basketball, but we don’t discount the positive opportunities we have had participating in the Minneapolis Park and Rec Leagues, as well, so Chris is also praying and sifting through the options for our ministry through sports to decide what our teams will do in this new year.

We had a great treat after church last Sunday to take a larger group from church to the Twins game thanks to our  partnership with Tix for Tots. Through the generosity of 3M we enjoyed the pleasures of a suite complete with catered lunch. The boys enjoyed the baseball game and the great baseball park food from hamburgers to bratwursts, root beer to ice cream sundaes.  By the time you count driving around town to pick up all the boys, our blessing Sunday at church, a little post church basketball and the baseball game, we were going on eight hours with the fellas….so imagine my surprise when a few of the boys started begging Chris to let them sleepover at our house Labor Day eve…a request he quickly vetoed I might add!!

We ask that you pray for our young people this fall and especially for their educations. There are many factors which can negatively impact the ability of a young person to obtain a quality education here in our part of the world and yet, there are  few things that have as much power to open doors of opportunity for them. Please pray that each of our young people would have good classrooms and teachers and that they would apply themselves and work hard to learn and prepare themselves for their futures. We are so proud of our college students and the way they are modeling hard work and perseverance for our younger students.  There are so many obstacles, both financial and otherwise, that can make the college path difficult and we ask that you would continue to pray that God’s help, guidance and favor would rest upon our young people in college and that they would continue to grow in faith and love as they return to their college campuses.