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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!

CLUB HOPE | FEBRUARY 2022

CLUB HOPE | February 2022

On Saturday, we hosted this month’s Club Hope event! We had a full house: kids from all over Springfield joined us at the Mission. Thank you so much to all of our drivers and van helpers—with your help, we were able to make pickups from many different neighborhoods this month! We had a delicious lunch (thank you to everyone who was a part of making that happen!) and our kids got to be a part of an amazing chapel time. They heard an original story written by Erika, all about two twins who go on a scavenger hunt to learn about God’s perfect love that casts out fear! Then we learned how donuts are made, decorated our own donuts and made valentines for friends and family that said “donut forget God loves you”. Such a fun day!

Please keep these kids in your prayers through this month. Club Hope always gives us a chance to hear how kids are doing and pray over needs in their lives. Pray that God will remind them of His love as they walk through whatever circumstances they may be in—He is with them always!

CLUB HOPE | JANUARY 2021

Photos from this past Saturday's event! This month our kids learned about the story of David, and in our lifeskills time they learned about snails and made their own slime. So much fun—we are so thankful for the opportunity to see our kids at Club Hope every month! Thank you so much to all of our amazing volunteers, and thank you to the Manzis for a delicious lunch!

Impact Clubs 2021!

Impact Clubs 2021 just wrapped up for the summer — and what a summer it was! Our team gathered Monday-Friday for three weeks and reached three different neighborhoods in Springfield. Each day, we got to connect with families we’ve known for years in these areas and also met new children every day. We brought snacks, played games and got to know the kids who came out every day, then sat down for club.

At the beginning of club each day, we jumped into song time—our songs this year were No Greater Love by Colton Dixon and Unstoppable God by Sanctus Real! Next up was missionary story skit: this summer, we taught the story of Samuel Morris. Then we shared a Bible verse teaching—each verse centered on the theme of hope! During the Bible lesson section of club, we taught through the entire Bible each week, starting with Creation, highlighting God’s rescue plan through the Old Testament and the stories of Noah, Abraham, Moses and David, and ending with the life, death, resurrection and return of Jesus. Club always ends with a review game, as well as an invitation and opportunity for children to be counseled. We had many children pray to receive Jesus as their Rescuer. We are so thankful for what God is doing! Our team worked so hard this year and we are so proud of each and every one of them.

Check out the photo gallery from Impact Clubs below!

Impact Clubs Training Recap 2021