MVPF Update: Wise Guys groups have started

The Miami Valley Partnership for Fathers is off and running, and SCYM has started four "Wise Guys" groups for middle school guys that are aimed at teen pregnancy prevention. So far 30 guys are participating - some from health classes at Schaefer Middle, and others are basketball players at Clark Middle. Facilitators Chris LeMaster and Ted Rastatter are doing a great job with the groups, and we hope to get a close-up report from them up on the blog soon.

We've collected some data from the groups so far, and while some things were not surprising, a few figures were startling to me.

• Only 12 of the 30 guys, or 40%, live with their fathers. This includes some boys who live with their fathers part of the time.
• 6 of the 30, or 20%, live with their grandparents or another guardian - not with either of their biological parents.
• Of these boys who do not live with their dads, or even with their moms, they were much less likely to report that they have an adult to talk to about girls.

These statistics, while troubling to me and I hope to you, too, tell me that we are in the right place doing the right thing. How desperately our city's young men need mature, responsible adult men who will invest in them and model for them what a healthy relationship with the opposite sex looks like. How passionately our God, who calls himself a "father to the fatherless," cares for these young men and calls us to reach out to them in his name.

We're so grateful for all the partners who pray and support SCYM to enable us to be "in the right place doing the right thing"! God bless you.

Faith Bosland
Executive Director

Christmas and Consumerism

Please note, the following is not an appeal for money or really about SCYM at all - just some things I've been pondering this weekend.

I don't know if this is the first year it happened or just the first year that I paid attention, but you knew it was coming. As the doors of a Wal-Mart on Long Island opened at 5:00 am on Black Friday, a maintenance worker was trampled to death by a bargain-seeking crowd. Not only did frenzied shoppers step past the injured man, reports stated that many customers became irate when told the store was closing early due to the man's death.

Sickened. Shocked. Saddened. I am, and I hope you are too. Neither you nor I were there. We did not take part. I like to believe that we would have acted differently. We are not responsible. And yet - why do I feel in part responsible? Why does my gut say that our culture of consumerism is in part responsible? Why do I grieve over what we have become? Because while it's easy to point fingers and say, "How dare they," when I examine myself I realize that the same ugly impulse, the impulse to get and to clutch, is found deep within me.

There is nothing wrong with things. The Bible makes it clear. There is even nothing wrong with the pleasure that things can bring. I truly believe this. But there is a sickness in a culture that says I must get, I deserve things. I deserve things I cannot pay for. Once I have the things I deserve, I want more things. Because consumerism at its worst puts its death grip on our soul, choking out the life of Jesus in us, and we don't even realize it until we see the horrible extremes it can reach in an angry crowd.

It's in me, this sickness of discontent. Much more than I want to admit. It shouldn't be, but it is, and I suspect it always will be. I confess that I often think things like:

My six-year-old coat is starting to look a little shabby. I deserve a new one.

My kids wear a lot of hand-me-downs - clothes that look great - but they're not clothes I picked out myself. I deserve to buy them new things, so that they look even cuter.

Our kitchen is outdated looking - why not redo it now and pay it back later, so that we can enjoy it?

The angry crowd reminds me of what I have potential to become, if I let these thoughts go unchecked. They are far from God-honoring; in fact, the greed and discontent in them keep me from being sensitive to his voice. So, for this holiday season, I am resolving a few things that will help fight the chokehold of consumerism in my soul, disciplines that I hope will put my spirit more in line with God's:

I will be content with the coat I have for another winter. In fact, I may even get out the leather reconditioner and see if I can touch it up.

When I go out to eat this holiday season, I will order less than I want and tip more than I need to.

I will give to someone who needs it.

I will be glad for my kids' hand-me-downs and the people they came from.

When I am shopping, I will smile at store workers and thank them when they help me. I will not roll my eyes at the customer who is too slow, the person who takes my parking spot, or the person in front of me with too many items. These people are all my neighbors.

At least once, I will put paper money in a red kettle, not coins.

I will publish this list, to hold myself accountable.

May we all know and hold onto the one who came to serve and to give this Christmas season. May we all slow down, breathe deep, thank God for what we have, and give generously of ourselves.

Faith Bosland
Executive Director

GirlPower

These past two weeks have probably been the most rewarding weeks for me. The girls are beginning to respond and truly bond with some of the volunteers, and it’s such a blessing to watch. Thursday, after our basketball clinic and in light of the upcoming holidays, we all listed one thing for which we were thankful. One of the girls brought a smile to my face when she said, “I’m thankful for GirlPower and for all the new friends that I made.” Another girl again lifted my spirits when she commented, “I’m thankful for GirlPower because it helps me get my priorities straight.”

All of the girls are working hard towards their Girls Night Out on December 6^th. In order to attend the Girls Night Out, they have been challenged to complete a star sheet. They receive stars for attendance, helpfulness in the kitchen, improved grade reports, meeting goals, meeting that week’s challenge, or anything else they believe I will reward with a star. The Girls Night Out will consist of a fashion show, put on by them, at my house. But, ssshhhhh, they don’t know this yet. I’m currently taking clothing donations from girls on Wittenberg’s campus so that each girl can go home with a new piece of clothing. All of the volunteers will attend the Girls Night Out and serve as the audience as well as fashion consultants.

I’m so thankful for those who pray for the program and for the girls that come. Keep praying! The girls are becoming more and more at ease and love to receive advice from the volunteers. Likewise, pray for the volunteers. Pray that we all heed wisdom in our guidance and answers to some of the girls’ life questions. It’s been such a fantastic semester, and I’m looking forward to all of our new plans for the spring semester.

Aubrey Herbst
Girl Power Director

Stand in the Gap

I was blessed with a strong Christian upbringing. My parents instilled in me good morals and the importance of living a Christ-centered life. Now that I’m an adult, I am more aware of the world’s hurts. I am heartbroken for the breakdown of families. I see on a daily basis the aftermath of abuse, neglect, and addictions. Children’s lives are being turned upside down and they are being discarded. The world is a cruel place but there is hope.

Christ is at the center of this hope and He is calling us to help. We need to stand in the gap and mentor these hurting souls. That’s why Springfield Christian Youth Ministries was founded. We have the platform to make a stand and to change lives! I count it a great privilege to love and witness to these students. I’ve seen first-hand the positive influences that we (through Christ) have made. I am thankful that I have the opportunity to help the hurting and lead students to the Lord. If we all make the effort to step out of our own comfort zones, we can make a huge impact for the Kingdom of God!

His Servant,

Angie Bishop

STARS and Summer Day Camp Director

Anger Management Groups

This semester I have had the opportunity to sit in and help with an anger management group for 6th grade students at Clark Middle school. Chris has done a great job leading the group, and he has been a great example to me of how to patiently work with this challenging age group. As we continue to meet each week, the students are starting to open up and share their lives with us. It is a sad but true reality that most of these students come into the anger management group with much on their shoulders. Problems with broken families, peer temptations, and the common hardships of the middle school years are the real issues that need to be discussed and worked through at group. When we start to get to know these students and find out about their lives, it is not a surprise that many of them deal with anger issues.

Even though we have only been meeting for a few short weeks, I have seen improvement in the students’ attitudes already. Chris provides great opportunities for the students to use different activities and games to help express their feelings and emotions. I look forward to seeing more improvement in the attitudes and actions of our 6th grade group, and I hope that all who read this will join with all of us at SCYM in praying for the youth of Springfield. God is doing great things at Clark and Schaefer Middle schools.

Kevin Napp
SCYM Volunteer
Junior, Cedarville University

Miami Valley Partnership for Fathers

SCYM is excited to be part of a grant from the state of Ohio for the next seven months, centered on strengthening fathers in our state. Our "piece of the puzzle" is premature fatherhood prevention for middle school boys - basically helping these kids understand why it's a bad idea to get their girlfriends pregnant in high school, and how they can avoid that.

As we see it, there's not a lot of programming out there that's just for guys - and if you wait until the later high school years, this kind of thing comes too late. Middle school is really a great age to be working with at-risk youth, because they have not yet made disastrous choices that are bringing them down.

So for our MVPF programming, Chris and one or two other group facilitators are going to be leading small groups in city middle schools going through a curriculum that talks about identity, masculinity, and the risks of premature fatherhood. (In words that middle school guys relate to, of course.) Please pray for us and the other partners (Urban Light, FYI, and PowerNet of Dayton, who will all be working with dads), that the programming we're starting will really make an impact in changing the cycle of premature and absentee fathers that has shaped far too many kids' lives.

Faith Bosland
Executive Director

join us in prayer

Every week in my Anger Management groups at Clark and Schaefer I ask the kids to answer 3 questions:
1-How do you feel right now and why?
2-What is one good thing that happened this week?
3-What is one not so good thing that happened this week?

It's amazing how many times the kids' feelings about their week are dictated by their fathers. Often, a boy or girl will say they had a great weekend when they got to see their dad. A high percentage of kids, I'd guess 70%, hardly, if ever see their dads. So the answer sequence will go:
"One good thing that happened was that I got to go over to my dad's house, and one bad thing that happened was that I had to leave and when I got home I got in a fight with my mom/brother/sister."

It's sad. I can see clearly the effects of the broken homes in our city. Not having a positive male figure in their lives creates an emptiness in their worlds, a sense of powerlessness. I truly believe that their emptiness can only really be filled by their heavenly Father.

As you finish reading this I ask that you pray for these kids. Ask God to make Himself known to them in real and relevant ways. And pray that SCYM can be used to show them His love in practical ways, ways that reach into the emptiness and give them hope.

Chris LeMaster
Associate Director

Teaching About Real LIfe Issues

During my small group time with the girls one week at Young Life, I took usual requests for prayer. The girls told me they had just had a classmate commit suicide, and they were taking it hard. When I later asked them what I should speak on the following week (it was my turn to speak) they all agreed that they wanted to talk about suicide and why so many of their classmates say they hate themselves. Wow. I spent all of the next week praying and researching. I felt very unqualified to talk about this, but knew this was an opportunity to really bring God into their world.

That night, nothing seemed to be going right. Kids were getting hurt, fighting, and our older kids who had been great leaders before were being uncharacteristically difficulty and disrespectful. I felt defeated before the talk even began. But Chris LeMaster came over to me beforehand, and reminded me that what I was speaking about was so important, and this a good sign that someone didn't want tonight to happen. With that in mind and one last prayer, I began to share with the kids what reasons teens commit suicide, and what I believed the real underlying reasons were. I talked to them about how God wants to take their feelings of hopelessness and lack of purpose and give them something to live for. I reminded them that no matter how bad things got, God promised to never let them endure it alone and that nothing can separate them from His love. I finished the talk with a video of a skit done to the song “Everything” by Lifehouse, in which a Christ character takes on temptations and trials that try to come between us and Him. The kids were speechless. Once we broke into our small groups, it seemed the walls were down. Even the boys were moved and had much to say about the movie and topic. It was a good night after all, and I praise God for allowing His truth to be shared.

Chelsea Howard SCYM Volunteer

How to Pet a Lion

We took our kids to the Columbus Zoo this weekend - not that the little guy cared at all, but we figured it would be a great time for our 2.5-year-old, Ada. I realized things weren't going exactly as planned somewhere around the elephants, when her serious little face just wasn't registering the euphoria I thought it would.

We made our way to the lions, where lo and behold the male lion was camped out close to the viewing area. I hoisted her up so she could see him in all his lion coolness. She took it all in, and then very matter-of-factly said, in a voice loud enough just about anyone could hear:

"I wanna pet the wion."

This was the theme of the day - I wanna pet the elephant, I wanna pet the bear, I wanna pet the monkey. Not "Wow, look at all these great things I can see," but "What can I experience firsthand?" I have no doubt that Ada's favorite moment at the zoo was climbing on stuff, and she has far more fondness for the stuffed lion we brought home than the real one.

As I reflected on Ada's toddler entertainment values, it struck me as parallel to the kids we meet and their perceptions of God. Most kids I know are unimpressed - or more accurately, unchanged - by a God they see only from a distance, no matter how great and impressive he is. They are craving to experience God - not just for a moment, but in the real life of every day, in the gritty, unglamorous world they inhabit. No matter how great we think the view is, if they are not changed, then the view is not enough. Many of these kids already believe in God - but what does that mean when they feel like punching someone, or like they'll never amount to anything?

How do kids experience God up close - how do they "pet the lion"? Through people who have Jesus in them, who are willing to get up close with kids. The grandparents, college students, moms and dads, ministry workers who will befriend a kid, show up, walk with them through daily decisions, share their life story, and shine the light of Jesus on the chaotic world we live in.

It's not that kids just want to pet the lion. They need to pet the lion. You heard me - they need to. I can't help but think of Aslan the lion, the Christ figure of the Narnia Chronicles. "Safe?" says the Beaver, about Aslan. "Oh, he's not safe! But he's good."

So many kids need to experience the fierce goodness, the life-changing power of God. Not see it - experience it. It does not happen in a flash; it happens in common, everyday moments. But when it happens, that is when kids truly begin to grasp and own what it means to have faith in an awesome, powerful, kingly, yes - lion-like God.

Faith Bosland
Executive Director

GirlPower

Along with several other SCYM programs, GirlPower kicked off this past week for Clark and Schaefer Middle School kids. This is the fifth session (summer or semester) we've run the program, which is a partnership with the YMCA and focuses on health, beauty, fitness and self-esteem. I remember when the idea for GirlPower first came about, and I sensed right away it was a "God thing," just a gut feeling that this was a program we needed to create. The previous school year, I had met so many kids from Clark who had suffered the loss of a parent or loved one, it was almost unthinkable. Only in middle school, these kids were already bearing pain from accidents, illnesses, sometimes just really bad decisions - drugs, alcohol, recklessness. The saddest part to me was how many of these situations were avoidable, if only the person involved had had a healthier lifestyle.

It's almost always on my mind that these kids are, statistically speaking, going to repeat the mistakes of their families, unless somebody helps them find something different. That's how GirlPower came about. The thought was, what if we help girls develop healthy lifestyles - not just learning how to exercise and eat right, but also make good decisions and have healthy relationships, all from the foundation that they are a person valued by God.

So, twice a week, a group of middle school girls gather with a bunch of volunteer leaders from Wittenberg University to exercise, cook, talk, journal, work out problems, have fun together, and a host of other great activities. Aubrey Herbst, who's our new GirlPower Director this fall, says "The pressures of middle school kind of just disappear when they're at GirlPower." Girls who have learned to deal with relational problems by arguing, fighting, and spreading rumors instead find a safe place to talk things out and bond with others that they normally wouldn't hang out with.

Can you tell this program has a special place in my heart? I hope we can bring some more good stories over the semester about cool things that are happening at GirlPower. This is the kind of stuff that we're all about, making a real difference in one life at a time. The impact happens little by little, over time, and it doesn't always work out the way you want it to. But I truly believe that we're in the right place and doing the right thing.

Faith Bosland
Executive Director

Ox Roast update

So, last Saturday was our infamous Ox Roast. It went really well. Over 340 people, great weather, and just an overall successful end-of-the-summer party (minus the OSU slaughter). This was my first Ox Roast and I am truly thankful for the many people who sacrificed their time to help out. In the end, the Ox Roast is not about the Mule Skinner band, or 30 ft. Moonwalkers, or even the delicious smoked beef. In the end, the Ox Roast is about communities coming together to support Kingdom work. There was a point in the evening when we began to run out of water bottles. With only a few water bottles left and a line stretching out to the parking lot we knew we needed to get some more. Thirsty people with no water. In a lot of ways that sums up the situation and life experiences of many of the kids we reach out to, thirsty and in need of water. Like Jesus said to the crowds that gathered around him, we know that physical thirst comes back only a short time after it is quenched. A spiritual quenching is different. Jesus says that he has spiritual water for these kids that will satisfy their souls forever. When we ran out of water at the Ox Roast a few people rallied together to take care of the situation. This is exactly what we are trying to do at SCYM, work together to see the love of God transform lives. It is not like selling merchandise and it takes more foundation than building a house but we believe that God can bring new life to the kids of our community and quench the spiritual thirst in their souls forever. Amen.

Chris LeMaster
Associate Director, SCYM

Ox Roast Images

OX ROAST 2008

Save the Date for SCYM's annual Ox Roast - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13,
5:00-7:00 pm in Northridge! Featuring ...

- DELICIOUS ROAST BEEF slow roasted on site, with mouth-watering sides provided this year by Rudy's Smokehouse Bar-B-Q.
Hot dogs available for kids.

- LIVE MUSIC by the Muleskinner Band and Singer/Songwriter Jill Potter

- INFLATABLES AND FACE PAINTING for kids, starting at 4:30 pm

- SILENT AUCTION items including YMCA family membership, P. Buckley Moss print, Cleveland Browns tickets, Buckeye Basket, and more.

- TAKE-OUT AVAILABLE - OSU fans, come grab dinner before the big game at 8:00!

Join us for a great night of family fun, with all proceeds directly supporting SCYM.

TICKET PRICES: $8 adults, $4 kids 4-10, kids 3 and under eat free

LOCATION: Faith in Christ Lutheran Church, corner of Ridgewood Rd E and Moorefield Rd in Northridge (across from BP station)

Rain or shine, the Roast goes on - there is lots of room indoors.

Thanks for spreading the word, and see you there!

REACH

REACH is a leadership development camp that I and Wes Stevens (from the YMCA) dreamed up in the spring and have been offering throughout the month of July. Fifteen kids have been involved throughout the summer.

Tuesdays are our ‘practical experience’ day for REACH. One Tuesday, the kids were put into teams and given the task of coming up with their own plan of action. We sent 2 teams out with designated leaders to try to serve someone in our East side community. The kids were having a hard time coming up with something to do. After a frustrating start for one of our teams, we came upon a small business where an older man was out cleaning up the property. We hurried over to the man, and without asking who we were or explaining who he was, he immediately assigned us jobs. Within a few minutes found ourselves scraping walls, picking up branches, and cleaning windows. We, as leaders, were amazed at this opportunity to serve that we had just stumbled upon.

The God connection, which we didn't realize until half way through, was that we were helping The Pregnancy Resource Center, another Nehemiah Foundation ministry. The man had been expecting a team from a Cedarville University Camp who had scheduled a work day there. He assumed we were them, which is why he put us to work as soon as we arrived! During our debrief at the end of the day I was able to share with the team what the Pregnancy Resource Center does and how they serve women in Springfield who are in hard situations. I then was able to explain the God factor, His timing, and the way He often uses us to bless others. I was truly thankful that God gave me the gift of a teachable spiritual moment when our kids where ripe to hear the way our God loves us and serves us in practical and uplifting ways.

Chris LeMaster
Associate Director

Introducing the newest:

Willem David Bosland ("Will") has arrived!

He was born Monday morning, July 14th, weighing in at 7 lbs. 3 oz. Everyone is doing great.

Congratulations Faith and Keith!

We are online!

SCYM is launching a new website: www.scyministries.org.

We are also excited about starting this blog! Check in often to get the latest information on the staff and ministry. A staff member or volunteer will update it at least once a week. Thanks for your interest in this ministry!