Up 2 Hope 2010

Up 2 Hope is our eight week summer camp for girls ages 9 and up. Our theme verse was Luke 10:27- “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind….” The fifty-six girls we had registered were an absolute joy to work with and teach. We had seven summer missionaries who with the guidance of the staff helped make this summer a huge success. We are thrilled to share that four girls made the decision to accept Christ over the course of the summer.

As a preventative program, the activities completed during Up 2 Hope are designed to teach the girls life skills that will help them become successful women. During craft, the girls learned to sew and make aprons using old t-shirts. The purpose in teaching this skill is that they don’t have to buy expensive fabric to make things they can wear. They also learned about recycling with this craft, by reusing t-shirts. The girls also learned different types of stitching for hand-sewing and how to crochet. These are all skills they will be able to carry with them for years.

Using old t-shirts to make new aprons

Other activities the girls participated in are: devotion, dance, small group time (where we talked more in depth about different topics), games, and tae-kwon-do. We also provided nutrition education, health education, and cultural education to the girls over the summer. As most of the girls have never seen outside the city, much less their own block, we used Fridays as a day to help them see that there are so many places to go and see in the world. We took several field trips over the summer to places such as the Auduobon Zoo and the Stennis Space Center.

Please continue to pray for the girls involved with Up 2 Hope. Pray that they can take what they have learned over the summer and apply it to their lives daily and that they can hopefully share the skills with others.