SUMMER 2023
February Recap
What happened at the HFK Mission in February…
GIRLS TEA PARTY
On the first day of winter break, Erika, along with volunteers Heidi and Mariah, put on an event for girls ages 12-16. FOURTEEN girls came! It went from 11am-6pm….a full day! We had three sessions in the chapel, prayer for each girl individually, a tea party (made possible by Raquel), lunch, supper, a painting session, and lots of getting to know each other!
CLUB HOPE
Each month the kids hear a story about a set of twins that are learning how to be followers of Jesus. In the most recent lesson, the twins learned about David and how he was anointed king over Israel while he was still a shepherd boy and how he faced Goliath with the help of God and conquered him! Since the twins were anxious over an upcoming move, they were encouraged by David’s own words, “I know the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me.” Psalm 16:8
We met new kids, had new volunteers, and had many heart to heart conversations about God that we know will have a lasting impact!
After the event was over, several volunteers stayed for two hours of fellowship and prayer. 🙏
SUNDAY MORNING GATHERINGS
Each Sunday morning we open the building for a prayer and worship gathering of Believers. We meet from 10am until approximately 3pm. After our service in the chapel we continue in fellowship and prayer over lunch. We were thrilled to see two people added to the family of God when they repented and gave their lives to Jesus at one of our services! They are already growing in their new walk of faith and have the support of their new "family".
What's coming up…
We are full on in ICT mode! In case you don't yet know, this part of our ministry focuses on training and equipping teenagers to clearly present the hope of Jesus Christ to kids within our surrounding cities. It begins with an intense + thorough training week and is followed by weeks of hands on ministry events. These events take place in the projects and focus on loving the kids + sharing the message of hope. Pretty neat, right?!
CLUB HOPE: October 2022
Club Hope this weekend was amazing — we hosted kids from all over the city for lunch, an impactful lesson time with Erika, and a super special craft project for this month’s workshop! The kids made daily plan boards that have different verses about how much God loves them to read and pray about every day. We are so thankful for these families that the Lord has connected to our ministry!
Shoutout to Tracy Nault for providing a delicious lunch! Thank you also to First Baptist Church for making van transportation possible this month. Thank you to Raquel, Inna, Kate, Sophie, Cheryl, Laura, Eliza, Dave and Gail for volunteering!
COMMUNITY OPEN HOUSE & CARNIVAL!
Today was OPEN HOUSE DAY! From 1-3pm, the Mission was open for a jam-packed carnival and open house. We welcomed lots of children and families from our community, reconnecting with friends and meeting lots of new faces. We had cotton candy, a popcorn machine, hotdogs and lots of snacks, tons of fun games, craft stations, a bouncy house, resources to introduce families to what HFK has to offer, and a Gospel message from Pastor Matt.
We are so thankful for all who came out to help with this event, and we can't wait to see what else the Lord has in store for the 2022-2023 season here at Hope for Kids.
Our next event is just around the corner: CLUB HOPE is coming up on September 10! Click here to volunteer.
IMPACT CLUBS RECAP 2022!
And that’s a WRAP on Impact Clubs 2022! Our team did an amazing job sharing the love of Jesus with kids in our location last week. We are looking forward to so much more coming for these kids — stay tuned for some exciting updates as we look forward to the next year at Hope for Kids!
IMPACT CLUB TRAINING RECAP: June 2022
Watch this year’s recap video!
On Monday, our teens learned how to share the Gospel with children using the Wordless Book. Tuesday, they put all they learned into action during evaluations! They also learned how to teach Bible verses using fun introductions and clear explanations on a child's level.
We had so much fun in between all of this learning (beach ball soccer, board game nights, and carpet ball) and relationships within our team grew every day. We are so thankful for this team that God brought together for 2022.
And we are so grateful for all the friends who have caught the vision for this summer and have helped us in so many ways! THANK YOU to Faith Baptist Church of Palmer for welcoming our team, Cape Cod Sportswear for donating T-shirts, all who provided groceries and delicious dinners, and all who have donated to cover ICT needs. We are truly beyond thankful for all you have done for us & you are a huge part of what the Lord will do in and through our teens in Springfield this summer.
On Friday, our team presented their demo club: friends and family gathered to watch them put on a practice club, exactly like the clubs they’ll be sharing in Springfield all summer long. Then we had dinner and ice cream and all eight of our teens got graduation certificates before we watched this year’s recap video together! Fridays are always a bittersweet day at ICT: moving on from such a fun week where a lot of learning and team bonding happened, looking forward to getting some good rest when we go home, and feeling so excited for all that is to come as the Lord works through us this summer.
ICT 2022 Photo gallery below!
CLUB HOPE: May 2022
Club Hope this month was amazing! Check out this month’s recap video.
Our kids had a yummy lunch and learned more from Erika during chapel time about how to be a part of God’s family, what it means to follow Jesus and how He takes perfect care of them. Our workshop on Saturday was led by Leah and Kate: all about following Jesus! All the kids had so much fun. Our older girls’ group learned about how God’s Word is a love story—written just for them!
We are so thankful to our amazing team of volunteers. THANK YOU Tammy, Raquel, Ina, Kate, Leah, Nicholas, Tracy, Karen, John, Elizabeth, Laura, and Eliza for helping out this month in so many ways.
CLUB HOPE: April 2022
April’s Club Hope was a super-special Easter event! We had kids join us from all over the city—super thankful to John, Andrew, Tammy and Raquel for being our transportation team this month! This month we had a pizza lunch, learned about God’s amazing rescue plan, broke into small groups, and planted marigolds! Our teen girls’ group learned about Psalm 23 and how God always cares for us. It is such a blessing to spend time with these kids speaking Jesus’ love into their lives.
Thank you to our incredible team of volunteers and prayer supporters: we couldn’t do this without you!
Special thanks to Diane Lyons and New Day Church for donating copies of The Garden, the Curtain and the Cross activity books for our kids this Easter!
Next week we look forward to partnering with Springfield Rescue Mission to give away Easter meals to our families. Please be praying that the Lord uses this opportunity to bring the true meaning of His power, love and resurrection into their lives!
CLUB HOPE: March 2022
Club Hope on March 26 was incredible! Check out the recap video and photo gallery below.
We had kids from all over the city join us at our building for lunch, an impactful Bible time, and a workshop time. This month, kids heard the next part of Erika’s story all about how to come to the Lord in prayer and find Him as their hiding place. They created dioramas in workshop time that reminded them that they can imagine sitting right next to Jesus when they talk to Him—He is with them always! It was awesome to see the kids listening intently and interacting through the story!
We also started a new group just for our teen girls who have been coming to Hope for Kids for years and are now out of the under-12 age range! We made lattes together and talked about the story of why Jesus came to save us. Our prayer for this new teen time is that it would be an open space for conversations and finding the true hope of the Gospel. applied to exactly where they are in life.
Another highlight was having a family of five and their three cousins decide to come to Club at the very last minute! They are super special to us and it was a huge blessing to us that they were there.
We also had six moms stay during the event while their kids participated! Three of them stayed after and prayed with our staff and volunteers, and two of them brought Bibles home with them. Please be praying for the Lord to work in these families! It was beautiful to see volunteers praying and encouraging mothers who stayed.
It was also so special to see kids who were 5 or 6 when Hope for Kids began, now in their teens and bringing their younger siblings to Club Hope. We pray there will be many more years where we are able to consistently bring Jesus to these families and see His work in their life come full circle!
We need to give a huge shoutout to Tammy for driving a 15-passenger van to make pickups! Transportation for all of our North End families is always a pressing need and this was such an incredible blessing. Thank you also to Janet for a delicious lunch! And thank you to Raquel, Tracy, Taisha, Enith and Nyasia for coming out to volunteer. We had a small group of volunteers this month and 31 KIDS from all over the city! Everyone worked together as a team to serve our kids and it was an awesome day.
Looking forward to our next event coming up very soon on April 9! Because of the postponed March date, our next event is already just a week from Saturday. If you would like to sign up to help at our April event, please click here!
