Merry Christmas Salvation Central this Season
One of the highlights of the summer camp experience is hearinig youth ring the salvation bell throughout the week. This is a giant bell that rings out across the camp to signify a new heart won for Christ. Whenever campers hear it, they stop any activities to dance and shout rejoicing like the angels in heaven that a new soul has come to know Jesus as a personal savior. This year at KAA five of our youth rang this bell. An additional ten youth rededicated their lives to Christ and made a commitment to renew their faith in him. Praise the Lord! One camper named Seth rededicated his life because he learned that to get closer to Jesus
you need to have stronger faith in him. “The good news is that Jesus died for us, he is called the lamb because we put all our sins in him and killed him,” he said. Another camper learned about the power of forgivness. “I learned that if someone does something bad, don’t do the same thing to them, try walking away,” she said. It’s exciting to see the progress these youth have made in the weeks since camp as they are now involved in mentorship. Here they have the opportunity to dig deeper in their faith and ask questions among other peers going through the same struggles.
We took a group to the Houston Food Bank to sort food for a service project. They are great packers and organizers!
Healing from Harvey Hurricane Harvey left a much bigger hole in all our lives than we anticipated. Over 20 trillion gallons of water were dumped on the city within a few days and over 122,000 rescues and evacuations were performed by state and federal agencies. The event caused all of us to band together and help our neighbors to re-build and re-start their lives. It also gave us tangible ways to share God’s love with our community. Overall most of our active youth were
unaffected by the flood in the days following the storm. One was rescued with his family out of the second floor of their apartment. Alumni Brandon and Lakeisha Williams relocated with their mother when water started coming in to their apartment. The most horrific story we heard is of another alumni who put his children in a refrigerator to float them to safety as water started rising in his home.
thank God everyone is physically safe, well, and surrounded by friends and family. Many things lost were precious and irreplacable but in an age where the tendancy is to collect material things we are reminded of Matthew 6:20-21 that tells us to store up our treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.
Several board and advisory council members lost everything they own and are living with friends or have secured new places to live. We
Thank you for continued prayers for our youth, volunteers, board members and their families during this rebuilding season.
Thanks to the Community Allstars program, volunteers and youth were treated to an Astros and Texans pre-season game.
Growing Families Program Director, Marcus Allen welcomed his fourth child and first baby girl named Star into his family on August 9th. Donor and Volunteer Relations Manager, Moriah Hollander welcomed her first baby, a boy named Mason Michael on August 25th on the eve of Hurricane Harvey. She, her husband and new baby made it home safely from the hospital a couple days later and were not affected by the storm. Thank you to those who prayed for both births, babies and for all involved.
G3: Girls Enjoying an afternoon singing and dancing to Kareoke. We have some future super stars!
Cornerstone Connections We are so blessed to be operating out of our new office at the beautiful new Cornerstone Community Campus with Star of Hope on Reed Road. We are housed in the same area as the teens to build stronger relationships with residents and we are not far from City of Refuge Church where large group events are still held. The campus will be the location
for all small group events like college prep and mentorship as well as volunteer meetings. The campus has a chapel, basketball courts and grass field and courtyard that are all available for youth to use. Thank you to
SAVE THE DATE
HFY Annual Gala APRIL 26, 2017
those who helped us explore office avenues last spring, we hope to be in a permanent space across the street in the New Hope Housing building that is under construction until next year.
Financial Update We are so excited to announce that Student Development Coordinator, Sonceri Jones has recently joined the staff full-time. This will allow her to further focus on programs including mentorship and outreach event planning. During the school year HFY needs about $16,000 to operate per month. We run our programs on a very tight budget and rely on inkind donations of venue space, food, entertainment, professional services and transportation.
Here are a few ways your donations impact our youth: • $250 covers food for 75 youth at each Friday Night Live event. • $75 covers a month’s worth of gas for one van to pick up youth. •$65 per month covers all program fees and costs for one youth in all our programs for the year. If you are able to give today please go to:
www.hopeforyouth.com or use the envelope provided.