Check out the recap video from this year of Impact Hope!
Here is the photo gallery from our August week of clubs!
Impact Hope RECAP and Clubs Week Five!
Impact Clubs Training 2019 RECAP
What an incredible week at Impact Clubs Training this year!
On Sunday, twelve teens arrived at First Baptist Church and settled in for what would be an action-packed week. We had six new team members this year and six returning summer missionaries.
Monday was a long day for everyone as we began going through a lot of new material, including an introduction to this year’s Bible lessons centered around the life of Gideon. Our team tried out teaching bible verses, games, songs and more. Kiannah and Hannah did a great job choreographing all three of our club songs this year so the team could start learning the motions!
We also started putting together Day 1 of our Hudson Taylor skit. Each day of the skit is about five minutes long and ends with a cliffhanger! This team is so creative and blew us away with the way they worked together.
Tuesday was when the week started to absolutely fly by. Each teen had a certain number of evaluations they needed to complete during the week. They would study a Bible verse, Bible lesson or the Wordless Book gospel presentation and then teach what they had studied to a staff member. Evaluations can be very intimidating, but this year every team member attacked their evaluations with energy and clarity! Everyone on the team got an evaluation knocked out by Day 2 and we’re so proud of them.
Cam and Jeb put a lot of thought into leading game practice time. Each day of ICT they had a different game set up that required lots of teamwork while incorporating elements of actual game times the ICTers will experience with kids at clubs this summer.
Wednesday came and our Impact Clubs shirts finally arrived! Due to shipping confusion we didn’t have our gold shirts or dark shirts for Days One and Two but by Wednesday we finally had our red shirts.
Fun moments from Wednesday:
We were blessed by God’s people in so many ways this week! Every day a different friend of Hope for Kids brought lunch and dinner for our whole team and our whole kitchen was stocked with food donations for breakfasts and snacks. God provided for us in so many ways!
Pastor Matt taught Regroup devotions every night. We are so thankful for his wisdom and example!
Thursday came and we couldn’t believe we were already nearing the end of the week. More fun game time:
We made so much progress on our skit! We can’t wait to share this with all the kids we will meet this summer.
We had Hope for Kids board member Raquel come out to lead one of our classes. Such a blessing!
Friday was a great day as everyone finished out their evaluations, put on a practice Impact Club incorporating everything they learned this week and graduated from camp. We are so incredibly proud of them. New team members caught on to all the new material so quickly and returning team members tackled this year with more excellence and energy than ever before.
God is going to use these teens in amazing ways this summer, and we are so proud of every one of them. We’ll be heading to this year’s first week of clubs in just a couple days—stay tuned for lots of pictures and updates from Impact Clubs 2019!
Check out this year’s ICT video to see the team in action, and check out this link to see daily photo galleries from this whole week!
Impact Clubs WEEK TWO!
Another incredible week of Impact Clubs! Thank you for all your prayers over this week. We're in this together! This weekend, please be praying for our upcoming week of clubs--this will be our first strategic outreach into the Indian Orchard area near our new building and every family we connect with will likely be brand new to Hope for Kids. God has so much in store for our team and our ministry and we can't wait to see what He will do next week!
Check out this week's photo galleries and daily recaps below.
DAY ONE
We had an amazing time reconnecting with a lot of kids we know at this location and meeting some new families. Our team did a great job leading this club despite many distractions and a couple technical difficulties and we are so proud of them! One little girl gave her life to Jesus and all the kids who attended heard about how much God loves them.
DAY TWO
Fourteen kids came to hang out with us during club and even more showed up to play basketball and jump rope! This location is another place we have been for several years and yesterday we got to talk to a few parents we've met over the years. These clubs are one of the best ways for Hope for Kids to build credibility with the families as we show up right in their community and show God's love to their children!
Your prayers were answered and there were a lot fewer distractions at this club--although at one point in our club there were firecrackers being set off on one side of the neighborhood and a metal trashcan being hit with a hammer on the other side! 😂We're working with a lot of younger kids at these clubs and their attention spans tend to be a lot shorter, but we serve an awesome God who can work out all the details for the truth of His Word to sink into their little hearts!
Day Three
Our Day Three club was quite chaotic, but amongst all the distractions, we are praising God for two salvations yesterday, and many more children who heard the Gospel!
Day Four
So many children came out to our club on Day Four--there were about 30 children and parents listening during the Bible lesson and Gospel presentation! God answered our prayers, removing a few of the distractions and drawing so many kids to hear about Him. Our friendships with these sweet kids are continuing to grow and we are so thankful for all God has done.
Day Five
The final day of Week Two was awesome! This week was definitely a little tougher than the first week for a lot of different reasons, but God is working in this neighborhood. We met so many new kids who can't wait to get connected to Hope for Kids through our weekly church service and our school year programs!
Impact Clubs WEEK ONE!
What an amazing first week of Impact Clubs! Check out daily recaps and photo galleries below!
Day One
Despite the hot weather, we had ten kids come out to our club and two salvations! Praise God! As soon as we arrived at the club location, a mom saw our parachute and matching T-shirts and yelled to her kids that "Hope for Kids is here!" It's so awesome to be recognized by the community we are reaching.
Day Two
As we pulled into our location for the week, kids and teens came from every direction waving at our cars--all it took was one day for the word to get out that we are here!
It was even hotter than yesterday as we drove to Club, and Kiannah prayed for a little rain to cool us all down. Her prayers were ANSWERED. After only half an hour of hanging out and playing with the kids, we started to get hit with raindrops and heard thunder in the distance but we weren't ready to leave yet! Even when the rain picked up and started steadily pouring, we powered through our club with a song, prayer teaching, and an amazing Bible lesson and skit. A bunch of the leaders held a parachute over the kids' heads which soon turned into two layers of parachutes and then three when rain kept leaking through! It was nice that our actors' skit costumes (which are made out of dollar store tablecloths) also double as rain ponchos--but everyone was completely soaked by the end of the Bible lesson.
Before we left, Josh and Jeb gave the Gospel to several new kids. Jeb found the registration table for shelter from the rain and our leaders held a kiddie pool over Josh's group! Despite all the distractions, two souls were added to the kingdom of God today--there was definitely a reason we needed to stick around today!
Day Three
We had the most kids yet turn out to be a part of Club, and three of these sweet kids got saved. Praise God! We're learning that our new Bible lesson format helps these kids stay super engaged with what we are teaching! Maddy did an awesome job teaching today's Bible lesson. Several of the kids we hung out with while the older guys played basketball could quote almost word for word what they were learning about the story of Joseph! All the time and effort the team put into learning lessons and practicing skits is paying off.
Day Four
Caleb finished out the story of Joseph, we hung out with these awesome kids, and the guys did an awesome job playing basketball! One little boy gave his life to Jesus. We are so thankful for all the salvations this week--these children are experiencing true hope and all the glory goes to God! Thank you so much for your support of these clubs. Our team can't wait to head to a new location on Monday and flood another neighborhood with God's love and hope!
ICT 2018: last day!
DAY FIVE of Impact Clubs finished yesterday and with that, our summer ministry training camp for this year came to a close. We are so unbelievably proud of this team. We had a practice club yesterday attended by kids from First Baptist and Hope for Kids, and our team hit it out of the park! All their training this week has already started paying off, and we are so excited to head into Springfield with our Impact Clubs program in just two days. Please be praying for the team as they continue to pour themselves into ministry this summer. Check out this year's training camp video and Day Five's photo gallery below!
Impact Clubs Training Day Four!
Day Four was the best day yet at Impact Clubs Training! Some highlights of today: our awesome skit practice (watch it here!), tons of completed evaluations from our hardworking team, a heart-to-heart testimony time in our Regroup devotions tonight, and watching Joseph: King of Dreams as a team! This team has been put together by the Lord with an amazing purpose for this summer and there is no doubt about that.
Impact Clubs Training Day Three!
Day Three was amazing! It's been so cool seeing this team work together. Our team practice time, lessons, skits, Bible verses, songs, and everything else we've been working on has been coming together so well! Today was jam-packed: a Bible class from Brianna and Josh, teamwork-building obstacle courses in game class, an ultimate frisbee game, tons of completed evaluations for Bible lessons and verse teachings, an incredible dinner from our friends the Hoods, an awesome devotion time with Pastor Matt, and a dance-off! (Keep an eye out for the video at the end of the week for proof!)
Wednesdays can often be a stressful day of ICT, but today was blessed with so much peace and unity within our team. Thank you so much for all of your prayers! Please continue to hold us up as we finish this week strong!
Impact Clubs Training Day Two!
DAY TWO of Impact Clubs Training is over! The team worked so hard today, completing more evaluations, working on skits, choreographing songs, and building relationships with each other. What an awesome couple of days this has already been--we can't wait to see what God has in store for the rest of this week and this summer! Thank you for keeping our team in your prayers!
Impact Clubs Training Day One!
Impact Clubs Training Day One is in the books! These teens and young adults got evaluated on their Wordless Book presentations, learned how to act out a Bible lesson, and had an amazing lunch from Chick-Fil-A of Chicopee thanks to Hope for Kids board member Robert Hewes!
We are so thankful for each and every one of these "ICTers". They are pouring their energy into learning tons of new teaching material this week and will be giving so much of their summer to reach Springfield with the Gospel.
Kids Club at the Hope for Kids Den!
We had such a great time this past Thursday at the last week of our brand-new Kids Club program! Teens from Pioneer Valley Christian Academy provided dinner for everyone and helped lead the event, and we were able to give away huge bags of popcorn to all the kids thanks to a generous donation from the Springfield Rescue Mission! We are looking forward to running this Kids Club again beginning in the 2018-2019 school year. Check out pictures from this awesome night below!
