Community ministry means showing compassion to the hurting and vulnerable people in our neighborhoods. Included are children and teens who are often left to fend for themselves during the summer months. This year our team decided to hold a summer vacation bible club every Wednesday afternoon instead of hosting one for just one week. There were games and food, arts and crafts and most importantly, teachings from the Bible. We met many new children and hopefully we will see them again after school starts for the weekly King's Kids Saturday outreach.
This summer, we hosted movie nights for our King’s Kids and their parents, which included dinner, drinks and snacks. It was held in the World Impact Community Church so that each family becomes familiar with the church. We were concerned it might be our final movie night because attendance had dwindled over the last year. Instead, God moved in a mighty way and we ended up with about 30 people. This group included a stepdad with four children. Of those four children, the two older boys just began attending NCS in the 4th and 5th grades. They've been in King's Kids for three years and we see fruit in them!
Word On The Mound is a baseball camp that teaches the basic baseball skills to kids who want to learn but never get a chance to hold a real glove or hit a real hardball. The day consisted of basic drills, a Bible teaching time on the mound, a time to play a real game followed by a lunch of hotdogs and chips. At the end we all went swimming at a friend’s pool for a pizza party. This year we met a family of boys and their father that are new to our community and they were excited to find a program that they could join for free.
Joe Shultz is a new community minister that is now in charge of leading the youth ministries. Here’s what he had to say: “I'm excited to be joining God in his mission with the youth here in Newark. I hope to carry on the legacy of World Impact reaching the most vulnerable of our young people and introducing them to Jesus Christ through relational life on life ministry. One of the opportunities I’m looking forward to is mentoring in the detention center and praying for the teens who are released.”
Volunteers are very important to compassion ministries. We need their help to show our community that God is at work here at World Impact Newark. We had over 150 people serve during the weeks between June and July. They renovated the gym, poured concrete, installed tile floors, washed hundreds of windows and cleaned up our nearby park. Some of them held weekly Vacation Bible clubs in the park as well. We thank God for their support because we would not be able to transform communities without them.
