Brookside Youth Center

This Thursday hubby and I will be spending our day helping members of our church prepare a Christmas dinner for over 200 kids and their parents at Brookside Youth Center. This is the second year that we have done this for the center and let me tell you that the volunteers get a far bigger blessing than the kids!!! These kids come to Brookside every day after school for a meal, mentoring, tutoring and other classes. They live in the highest crime rate and prostitution rate area of Indy. They are bused in and they are also bused home. Most of them only get this meal and the one they get at school. On weekends, God only knows. During the summer, Brookside has a day camp every week day from 9am to 3pm. One of hubby and Is best friends is a member of the board for Brookside. We will start cooking around noon, the kids will arrive around 3:30pm and go to their classes. We will then provide a craft time for them, dinner and each child will receive a blanket, hat and gloves to take home as a gift. We will also have a worship time and singing time. I am looking so forward to doing this and being a part of this great program. These kids need one thing more than even the food, they just need attention. They come from homes that are filled with stress, poverty and parents, usually only one, who just don't have time for kids because they are just trying to make ends meet. It is a very sad story, but one that is growing by leaps and bounds in this time of recession, crime and a Satan filled world. I just hope that we can make a difference, even if only for a short time in each of their lives. We also hope that we can show God's love to their parents. Let them know we are here for them, we are praying for them and that God loves them very much. It will be a very long day, but I already know that I will be filled with the Holy Spirit.