MLK Jr. Day Camp 2019

Each year we enthusiastically look forward to our Martin Luther King Jr. workshop. We are thankful to parents who value what we do and to the kids who invest their time in order to learn about this very important man and his work. Many thanks also to our supporters who directly impacted our ministry by sponsoring a few of the campers who otherwise would not be able to attend.

It is our esteem effort, particularly with this camp, to create an atmosphere of diversity among our group and purposefully teach team building activities to foster community. In order to get the kid's thinking about what it takes to get diverse groups together with the same goal, one of the games we played was a marble run game. It was interesting to see the different personalities, challenges, and problem solving skills that arose. It was our hope to encourage them to work together but also to imagine the difficulties that come with creating, joining, and working toward a common goal. They learned that Rosa Parks was a spark that got the ball rolling in the Civil Rights Movement, but it took effort from many people to actually unified action to accomplish real change. 

A highlight of the day came when we sat together and tried to learn a knot using para cord in order to create a key chain. Together, adults and kids, we helped each other, teaching and re-teaching one another to create this pattern of knots. It was an awesome blessing to hear the kids, some of whom just met that day, helping one another. This simple act of friendship was a beautiful picture of tying knots of togetherness and peace amongst those in our community.  We had volunteers help to fuse different cords together for the kids to make a finished product. While it was time consuming, the kids showed so much patience and determination to get this done. And so we continued this way working on projects together, collaborating with one another, making way for one another. Although the kids didn't leave the camp with many accomplished projects to take home, I know they left knowing they are a key member in God's movement to love, fusing kindness and respect to our fellow man. 

I led them with cords of human kindness,
    with ties of love.
To them I was like one who lifts
    a little child to the cheek,
    and I bent down to feed them. Hosea 11:4

- Nancy Rodriguez

Arts Ministry Director