Impact Kids

First, wow! I asked and y’all literally delivered.

These are just a few pictures of how y’all showed up after the last blog post and showed up BIG! In less than a month we are at 4,000 boxes of crayons! We are hoping to hit 6,000 by January. I am blown away by your generosity. If you are still wanting to help please click on this link to find out more!

So why all the crayons? Over the next few months I want to share our current work in Jamaica with GFC (Growing Faithful Children) and our future goals for GFC. This post is to help you better understand our Impact Kids program and what we do. Impact Kids is a program we bring into the local schools of the Saint Elizabeth Parish every summer. Now, don’t misunderstand me, our board is in contact year round with the schools. This is an ongoing relationship. But, until we get to phase 2 (Impact Community) and have a permanent building and presence (we are working on it ;)) we can only run this particular ministry once a year. Crayons are a huge part of that. As you will see below we bring Bible lessons and activities into the local schools. In order to do the activities the kids need crayons and the schools cannot afford to provide them. These crayons are used all year, not just for this program, so the kids and teachers are so grateful.

What is it? Impact Kids is a unique opportunity Growing Faithful Children has to go into the local schools of the Saint Elizabeth Parrish and teach the Bible to Pre-k through 6th grade. Our first year we taught over 2,000 kids. Our second year we taught over 4,000. And this year it is looking upwards of 6,000 kids that will get to learn more about God’s Word.

Every day we are in Jamaica we go into the local schools and teach a 2 1/2 hour program. Yep, you read that right. 2 1/2 hours of learning the Bible. We typically have multiple groups going to multiple schools. One program in the morning and one in the afternoon. Throughout the year I spend several months developing a curriculum and activities for the summer Impact Kids program. Then, starting in January churches help me put all of the ideas together and have work days to help make this possible. I am going to share last years program to show you how this works.

First, we begin with lots of bible songs (the Hippo song is a big hit) and we learn a memory verse. There can be anywhere from 10 – 30 kids in your class.

Next, there is a bible lesson and activity as well as coloring sheets to go along with it. Summer of 2023 the first lesson was about the wise man building his house on the rock. We talked about how Jesus is the rock and we should build our lives on Him and the Bible which is His word. The kids got to build houses and show us what they built! The older kids had popsicle sticks and the pre-k had plastic cups. It was so fun to come around and “blow” the pre-k kids houses down. They would laugh and laugh only to rebuild and hope you blew it down again.

Next, more bible songs are sung and the memory verse is reviewed. We then talked about the fruit of the Spirit. The children learned that if our lives are built on Jesus we are different than the world. Our hearts are filled with “fruit” (love, joy, peace etc.) and it impacts how we behave. The kids favorite activity from this was when they each got to name the classroom “guest” (see picture below) and choose which fruit he should be fed. Each fruit had good or bad things on them. They threw the bad things in the “trash” and fed “Johnny” the good things! When they put the fruit into his mouth it would fall into his heart. We talked about how our actions reflect our heart.

Last, we had a lesson on the Good Samaritan and had more activities and crafts. The Impact Kids program is a work that is dear to my heart. To quote Justin – “If we want faithful adults, it starts with faithful children.” That is the heart of our work at GFC. Yes, we have plans to grow and have a permanent presence. Yes, evangelism and the local church work are important and being done. Our impact on the community and souls are a top priority for us at GFC but we all believe that this is where it starts – impacting kids for the kingdom of God.

So from the bottom of our hearts we thank you. Thank you for helping make Impact Kids possible.