Be a hero to a kid this fall!

Our fall programs are ramping up to serve Springfield city elementary and middle school kids once again, and we need many "heroes" to invest an hour or more a week in a kid's life! Would you consider joining our awesome team of volunteers this fall?

Here are some of our opportunities to connect with kids:
STARS Afterschool Program Mentor/Tutors: Mondays, Tuesdays, OR Thursdays, 4:30-5:30 (STARS Ramp-Up Day Meeting for all volunteers is Monday, September 12 OR Tuesday, September 13 at 4:00 pm, held at High Street Nazarene on Monday and Westside Christian Community on Tuesday) Contact: Tyler Worley, tylerworley33@gmail.com.

One-on-One Mentoring: Mentor a 5th-8th grade Springfield city student on your own schedule, one hour a week commitment for one year. Mentors must be 18 or older. Contact: Faith Bosland, 206-7812, faithbosland@yahoo.com.

GirlPower leaders: Help city middle school girls develop confidence and learn healthy habits on Tuesdays OR Thursdays, 4:00-6:00 pm. Contact: Angela Boblitt, 207-9463, angelaboblitt@gmail.com.

Training is offered for all volunteer roles. It doesn't take special superpowers to change a kid's life -- just availability!

Celebrate Kids with SCYM this fall!

We're excited to announce a new event coming Saturday, October 8 -- Celebrate Kids! Held from 5:00-7:00 pm at Maiden Lane Church of God, Celebrate Kids! will feature a musical showcase of local children's and youth choirs and groups, a $5 roast beef dinner, fun activities for kids, and the chance to join together to celebrate our community's kids. Springfield Mayor Warren Copeland will be joining us as "celebrity host" for the evening's events.

SCYM is seeking to raise $15,000 in individual, church, and business sponsorships for Celebrate Kids!, which will help 250 Springfield kids "crush the odds with the love of God" through SCYM's year-round programs. Would you consider partnering with us as a sponsor of this event? For businesses, we're offering the following promotional opportunities:

Standing Ovation: $1000.00 or more
• Sponsor logo/name acknowledged on SCYM website and newsletter, event Powerpoint, printed program, postcard mailed prior to event, and 4x8 banner displayed prominently above performance area
Three Cheers: $500.00
• Sponsor logo/name on SCYM website and newsletter, event Powerpoint, and printed program
Round of Applause: $250.00
• Sponsor name on SCYM website and newsletter, name/logo on event Powerpoint
High Five: $100.00
• Sponsor name acknowledged on SCYM website and newsletter

If you'd like to participate in this great opportunity, and support Springfield kids at the same time, you can contribute online at our website, or by mail to SCYM, 1500 Broadway St., Springfield OH 45504. (Just write "Celebrate Kids" in the memo line.) Feel free to contact our office for more information, at 937-325-6183, or SCYMinistries@gmail.com. We hope to see you October 8 for a great night!

Kids Can! Summer Day Camp 2011

What a great four weeks it's been at Kids Can! Summer Day Camp! This year's camp for 3rd-6th graders in Springfield City Schools focused on helping kids develop their creative writing skills while getting to know the Author of Life. Camp director Tyler Worley and assistant director Rhonda Fellows have done a great job leading the kids, along with many volunteers who have given hundreds of hours to help kids grow in their faith, their knowledge, and their relationships. THANK YOU to everyone who's generously given time and resources to make this year's camp possible and affordable for so many kids!

Alongside daily chapel time, creative writing and art activities, kids have also trekked to Carriage Hill, Cedar Bog, Freshwater Fish Farms, the Air Force Museum, and the Columbus Zoo (coming this Friday, the camp's final day); and choices of specialty activities like "backyard camping," fishing, hikes in the Snyder Park woods, gardening, basketball, soccer, wiffleball, watercolor painting, photography, and music. Here are a few of those moments caught on camera:

Our office, the week before camp. Yes, that is a ping-pong table and a basketball hoop!


Patty Rose and kids from Maiden Lane Church of God led the camp in worship:

Kids revved up their imaginations with daily writing activities:


Kids made some cool "illuminations" during art time led by local art teachers:

A photo taken by one of our campers during a photography session led by Thor Bisher:

During "backyard camping" week, kids learned how to build a campfire (and of course, toasted marshmallows!)

Want to drop a grace grenade?

Recently in our staff meeting we discussed how "transactional" our society gets, and how it colors our relationship with God -- the mindset that I'll do something for you, if you do something for me in return.

But when you start looking at Scripture, you realize that God's love is not transactional at all. In fact, a better word for God's love is extravagant -- a flood of grace and blessing in return for the small tokens we can give him.

This got us thinking: Could we plan some moments at our upcoming Summer Day Camp that go far beyond transactional -- you signed up for this, so we're going to do what we said -- to extravagant? Could we drop some "grace grenades"?

So we're looking for help. Are any individuals or small groups out there interested in pulling off an extravagant surprise for our day camp kids -- like a fancy breakfast, an amazing experience, a gourmet snack, something that they may have never experienced before? We'd like to pull off one grace grenade a week, for the four weeks of camp.

Give us a shout if you think you can help. (And it doesn't get any more "feel good" than this -- just make some kids feel special and loved!)

Blake Shaffer wins "Celebrity" Dance-Off for SCYM!

Accountant, SCYM Board President, and newly-minted dance champion Blake Shaffer "crushed it" on the dance floor to help SCYM kids crush the odds last Friday! SCYM was selected to participate in the 3rd annual Dancing with Clark County Celebrities with six other charities, and with Blake's drive to dance (and the votes of many), he took home the Audience Favorite award.

Most importantly, SCYM raised well over $4,000 to keep investing in the lives of Springfield city kids through our year-round programs. Thanks to Blake, his family, and all who came out to support and vote for him!

A special thanks goes to all of our Dancing sponsors as well -- thank YOU for helping kids crush the odds with the love of God!
LWS Tax and Accounting
Springfield Smiles Family Dentistry
Team Title and Closing
Richards, Raff & Dunbar Memorial Home
Jerome Vinson - Broker, Stegall & Associates
ADP Small Business Services
Jenks Electric
Courtyard by Marriott

"It'll take a miracle"

Perhaps it's my inner 12-year-old, but one of my all-time favorite movies is The Princess Bride. (Or perhaps I just haven't seen that many movies.)

One of my favorite scenes in the movie comes when a ragtag band trying to thwart the evil Prince Humperdinck visits the village miracle man, Miracle Max, to bring their leader back to life. Max (played by a young-ish Billy Crystal) coats a magic pill with chocolate, gives it to the visitors, and sends them on their way. "Bye bye, kids!" he and his wife yell as they leave. "Do you think it'll work?" she asks Max under her breath. "It'll take a miracle," says Miracle Max dryly, as they cheerfully wave and call, "Bye bye!"

"It'll take a miracle." As best I can define it, a miracle is a transformation that can only be explained by a supernatural act. We think of dramatic healings, resurrections, reversals of the inevitable, as miracles.

Yesterday at our staff meeting, we reflected on how important it is to remember that true transformation of lives - whether the urban kids we serve at SCYM or anyone in the human race, for that matter - happens the way Miracle Max said it: "It'll take a miracle."

It's like the seed that the apostle Paul wrote about in I Corinthians 3:6-7 - "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow."

We work alongside kids - loving, encouraging, challenging, listening. We help make the conditions - the soil - conducive for growth and change. We faithfully wait, we water, we pray. But ultimately when life springs forth in a seed - something that is mysteriously dead but yet possesses the potential for life - well, it wasn't us.

It's a miracle.

The young man who has anger bottled up inside, but who is learning how to forgive and love others? Miracle.

The girl who didn't care about her homework, her education, her future - or, frankly, herself - but who is beginning to care? Miracle.

The young men and women who have had lives full of conflict, violence, and fighting, but who make a choice to walk away from a fight for the sake of a future goal? Miracle.

As we work alongside young people who have faced many challenges in their lives - far more than most of us have had to face - we humbly recognize that any lasting change, any inner transformation, any community that begins to turn the tide of generational problems - does not come from us.

It'll take a miracle. And we rejoice to know and serve the God who delights in miracles.

Faith Bosland
Executive Director

Think Summer!

We know, we know - spring is barely here, but at SCYM we're hard at work planning for our 8th year of Kids Can! Summer Day Camp, scheduled for June 20 to July 15. Around 40 kids from city elementary schools will gather each weekday on the grounds of Zion Lutheran Church for five hours of fun, faith-building, learning, field trips, and good old-fashioned camp stuff.

I am amazed each year at the huge amount of donated resources and time that are poured into Summer Day Camp, enabling us to make it extremely affordable for kids from low-income families who would otherwise be sitting at home for four weeks. We don't just want to offer these kids "something to do" - we want to make it an amazing camp experience for them!

To this end, we need a lot of people and a lot of stuff. Can you help us make this year's camp another great one for city kids? Here is our current camp wish list:

Volunteer Wish List
- Folks (from 7th graders to grandparents) who can assist daily, weekly, or occasionally in all kinds of roles
- Field trip drivers and chaperones (Fridays only - June 24, July 1, July 8, July 15)
- Teachers for learning activities (mornings, 10:15-11:30)
- Lunch and snack preparers and servers
- "Janitors"
- Leaders for special activities such as archery, fishing, tennis, art, photography, woodworking, music, drama, crafts, chess, card games, board games, martial arts - or give us an idea! What did YOU love doing at camp as a kid? (afternoons, 12:00-1:30, one time or up to four times in a week)
- Two more summer ministry interns (10th grade and older) who will work with us from June 13 to July 15, daily from 8:00-4:00. If you know a mature high school student who loves kids, send them our way!

Items We'd Like to Borrow for 4 Weeks
Archery set
Tennis equipment
Fishing equipment
Cornhole
Horseshoes
Digital cameras
Foosball table
Ping-pong table
Board games
Chess sets
Karaoke machine
Badminton set
Croquet set
Bocce (lawn bowling) set
Portable basketball hoop(s)
Kids' hockey sticks


Items We'd Like to Have Donated
Art supplies
Craft supplies
Games of all kinds - cards, board games, puzzles, brain teaser books, mad libs, chess sets
Tie dye materials
Snacks of all kinds
Lunches for volunteers

We're excited about these four weeks and praying that God will use this camp to change kids' lives. Summer day camp is just one way that SCYM is "helping kids crush the odds with the love of God!"

Faith Bosland
Executive Director

Creating a Kindness Commercial

I just returned from a city elementary school, where the 5th grade girls in the group I work with each week are very excited about a project. I asked them, "What is one thing you wish kids in your school would do differently?" and "What is one thing you've learned in our group this year that you wish you could teach other kids?"

Their responses used different words but had the same message: They wish that kids would stop bullying, picking on, and spreading rumors about other kids, and instead start treating each other with respect and kindness like we do during group time.

The girls then started working on developing slogans to promote kindness and respect to their classmates, and developing a role-play "commercial" that they're going to present to other classes. As we left the group, girls were talking excitedly about plans to write a song or a rap over Spring Break to promote their message of respect.

As we brainstormed slogans, one girl looked at a slogan that read, "Fighting takes you down the wrong path," and said, "Yeah, that's right! I used to do that but I don't anymore." In these girls' world, where fighting is an acceptable solution to many problems, that is a major victory!

I'm excited that not only are these girls really getting and owning the message about kindness and respect, they're ready to spread the word. In "youth development speak," this project is helping the girls develop school bonding - a sense of belonging and empowerment in their school. School bonding may not be something we think of often, but researchers like the Search Institute have identified it as a powerful asset that helps kids succeed.

Thank you for helping SCYM be present in groups like this! There is more we would love to do, and so much opportunity. Pray that God would continue to open doors and provide resources to help even more kids "crush the odds" through these groups.

Faith Bosland
Executive Director

New Opportunities for Mentors

Have you wanted to mentor a Springfield child or teen, but have a changing schedule, or only have time on weekends or evenings? SCYM now has opportunities for mentors on a flexible schedule. Mentors need to be 18 or older, and be willing to commit to a one-year mentoring relationship.

To get involved, contact our office at SCYMinistries@gmail.com, or (937)325-6183. There is no better way to impact our city's kids, than one kid at a time!

Offering forgiveness

Last fall I began meeting with a group of 5th grade girls at a Springfield school. These girls are considered at-risk of not graduating because of their low state-mandated test scores. Each week we talk about respecting and listening to others, setting goals, and other activities designed to help them learn social and emotional skills and bond with their peers and school.

I soon realized that a girl named "Danae" was what I call a "pot-stirrer". Disruptive and confrontational, she often made the group challenging, and once made another girl cry during group time. I had several talks with her after group about how her behavior was hurting others, and how she could do better.

As the months went on, I began noticing Danae softening, and while she was still disruptive at times, she often had a positive attitude and much healthier things to say in her "disruptions".

After Christmas break, we met again, and as we were working on an activity, Danae said, "Ms. Faith! Ms. Faith! I did one of the agreements during break, and it's one that I never usually do." The agreements are principles that our connector who co-leads the group has written on the board - such as respect, no put downs, responsibility, etc.

Danae told me that the agreement she had acted on was "Amnesty - offer forgiveness." She went on to tell me that last year, her cousin had shot her uncle and killed him. The family went into turmoil, taking sides with different family members, and Danae was part of this drama. Over Christmas break, the family had been together, and Danae chose to forgive her cousin for killing her uncle.

First of all, what amazing things is God doing in Danae's heart. Second, how much does this story reveal about the circumstances that have made Danae the way she is. Please join me in praying that God will help her do a "180" and channel her leadership potential in the right direction! And would you also pray that we will find a mentor for Danae, who can walk with her and provide stability in her life? We are so privileged to be "in this" for kids like Danae!

Faith Bosland
Executive Director

How God brought me to SCYM

A big shalom to you from here at Springfield Christian Youth Ministries. My name is Tyler Worley I'm the new associate director at SCYM and director of the STARS program. Before coming to SCYM I was a chaplain with Public School Outreach for Christ(PSOC). The main school I served at was Simon Kenton Elementary. I really appreciated my time at PSOC and the opportunity to serve with Erv Holland (Chap), founder of PSOC, as well as other great chaplains to bring the gospel to the city schools. This past fall God, in His wisdom, had new plans for me. I talked with Chap about leaving PSOC to come over here to SCYM and he and I felt peace with it and he blessed the move. I started my new job here January 10, 2011 and have had a great time getting to know Faith and Tim and the great kids God has entrusted to us in the programs. My wife Krista, my one year old son Cyrus, and I are truly blessed to continue serving the youth of Springfield in Jesus Name!

+ thanks
Tyler

2011 SCYM Spring Dessert

Please join us for our annual spring dessert! This is a great opportunity to get caught up with what's new at SCYM, meet staff and kids, hear from guest speaker David Mahan, and enjoy some delicious desserts provided by local restaurants. There is no charge for the event, but there will be an opportunity to donate toward SCYM's work with Springfield youth.

When: Monday, March 21st. 7:00pm

Where: Courtyard Marriott, 100 S. Fountain, Downtown Springfield

Who: David Mahan, CEO of Frontline Youth Communications



For the past 14 years, David's passion for reaching his generation has led him into the front lines of the war over the hearts and minds of today's youth. He impacts thousands of teens each year while serving in the trenches of schools, churches, detention centers and city streets, both in the United States and abroad. His message about leading teens into personal responsibility is one no one should miss.

RSVP to: SCYMinistries@gmail.com or (937)325-6183, by March 14. We hope to see you there!