One of the great things about Math and Reading Heroes is that we love to celebrate both big and small achievements. Recently, one of our students, George, mastered all of his multiplication facts. We awarded him with a certificate and small prize. Later that week he returned with his certificate and asked for us to make copies—one for his mom, one for his grandmother, and one for his teacher. It was great to see him so proud!
Meet a couple more of our rock star interns! Chelsey and Cheytan are gaining valuable job experience and giving back to the community through their work after school as part of the Teen Internship Program. ROCK STAR is not an overstatement-- the elementary and middle school students love them!
Chelsey
• 17 years old
• a senior in high school
One of our middle school students chose Chelsey as a subject for a photography class project, and wrote this to describe the picture: “This is a teen intern from Little Lights. She is a very sweet woman. I know her brother; her brother goes to choir with me and he has a beautiful voice. This is the playground around my way where Little Lights is. As you can see, she is very beautiful.”
LL: What have you learned as a teen intern?
Chelsey: I’ve learned how each child has their own particular needs.LL: Tell us about a fun moment.
Chelsey: When I played air hockey with Makalia and Monae. We laughed until we cried. It is a great experience to be working with these kids.LL: Why is it important for LLUM to have teen interns?
Chelsey: It is important because the kids need to be heard from a different perspective at times.
Cheytan
• 17 years old
• a sophomore in high school
• aspires to be a chef
LL: Why did you become a teen intern at Little Lights?
Cheytan: I started working at Little Lights because I love kids. Also to open my eyes to new things. Also to make money, and I like what I do.LL: How has the job made an impact on you?
Cheytan: Being a teen intern affects me because I can be around more people and become more open-minded.LL: Why is it important for LLUM to have teen interns?
Cheytan: It’s important for Little Lights to have teen interns for the little kids to see what we’re doing and maybe do something like this one day.
Chelsey and Cheytan, thanks for taking time to share your thoughts with us, and thanks for your hard work and dedication to the younger kids at Little Lights. We appreciate you!
Hello- I’m Tim Rodgers
I work on the media and publications for Little Lights Urban Ministries and also teach a small art class after-school each Tuesday from 3:30pm -6:00pm. This semester I wanted our middle school kids to focus on making books. We started off the year with the theme “This is Me”. Each week I would have a question or a phrase ready for them to address during class. These questions would be along the lines of, “What angers you the most?” and “What are a few of your favorite things?”
The results were outstanding and many of the kids surprised me with their responses.
Camp Hope is held annually at Camp Bennett and hosted by Chinese Bible Church. It provides our kids at Potomac Gardens a chance to spend their spring break at a sleep-away camp. They spend four days and three nights participating in various activities and lessons, arts and crafts, games and music, which are all centered on a yearly theme. This year’s theme for Camp Hope was “Taking the Plunge, From Good To Great”. You can check out photos on our Facebook page here.
Many thanks to CBC!!!
Meet two of our fantastic Teen Interns! These lovely ladies come out faithfully to work with our K-4th grade students, and they’ve taken time to answer some questions about their experience with the Teen Internship Program.
Geizel
• 16 years old
• a junior at Cesar Chavez Public Charter School
• aspires to be a veterinarian
LL: Why did you become a teen intern?
Geizel: [I started working for Little Lights] to better myself in the future and help my communication skills.LL: What have you learned through this job?
Geizel: It has shown me who I am as a worker and the real me.LL: Tell us more about what you like about it.
Geizel: All the chances to meet new people and go places. And it was fun when I was at the park playing football with the little boys.LL: Why is it important for LLUM to have teen interns?
Geizel: To give the kids a chance to deal with people who understand them.
Leslie
• 19 years old
• a sophomore at University of the District of Columbia
• studying early childhood development
LL: Why did you become a teen intern, and how has it affected you?
Leslie: It was an internship that was offered to me when I was a junior in high school. It’s affected me by making my dream of working with children come true.LL: What have you learned through this job?
Leslie: The most challenging thing about being an intern is coming to work every day for me. [. . .] I have learned so much but the most I have learned is to be a good disciplinarian.LL: What’s your favorite thing about it?
Leslie: Every moment is fun working here. I ♥ Little Lights!
Thanks, Geizel and Leslie! We ♥ you!
You’re the God of this City
You’re the King of these people
You’re the Lord of this nation
You are
You’re the Light in this darkness
You’re the Hope to the hopeless
You’re the Peace to the restless
You are
There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God
For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
Greater thing have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done in this City
(Chris Tomlin, “God of this City")
Thank you for all who came out to our LITTLE LIGHTS PRAYER PARTY this past weekend. It was a blessed time of prayer, praise, and fellowship and we hope you were blessed. We are so blessed to have support around the globe! Your prayers surely play a role in keeping this organization afloat-- thank you!
We hope to see you next time!
We’ll be having our prayer party at the Little Lights Center from 10am-12pm tomorrow (Saturday, 4/17) for an awesome time of praise, prayer, and fellowship!
Hope to see you there!
(Click on the link to see our facebook event page!)
by volunteer Charles Wright
Living in the nation’s capital, I often hear the mantras of finding and codifying solutions to societal ills. A high level talk here, a billion dollars there. These discussions are necessary; however, when I enter the Potomac Gardens Housing Units on Tuesday nights, the rhetoric seems as useless as the DC Metro system on a Snowmageddon day. Why? Because my “statistics” have names – Jalone, Queshawn, Clarence, and Tyrone.
Through Little Lights I’ve had the opportunity to work with these kids who all have great potential. Some nights are fraught with tantrums and tears, and I feel that the weight of the world is against these children. Is my weekly effort futile against the crushing influences of an environment which is not always positive? Needless to say, it can be frustrating some days.
But then I go visit Clarence and Ty, who ask for help getting into a GED program, and complete a Captain Underpants book with Jalone. It is in these moments I see the “Rocky” in the community – the desire to overcome, to achieve, to reach higher heights. And then I am thankful for Little Lights, which stands in their corner in spite of the odds and helps to produce real results day after day. And I am glad to be a part of such a powerful ministry – a haven for individuals worthy of national attention.
What a wonderful Monday morning here at Little Lights Urban Ministries. We hope you all are doing well and just want to thank you for the support shown as we push 31x31. So far we’ve raised $10,657. Check out this great video that features our teen interns. Many thanks to June Kim for her excellent work on this video.
On March 23 we had an awesome night at the theater with the middle school students. Two staff, one volunteer, and eleven students were fortunate enough to see the world premiere of Stepp Stewart’s “Show N Tell”, a new musical. As a lover of theater, I have never seen a better written musical for kids. It was very colorful, animated, upbeat, and short. As soon as we entered the door, we were greeted by the writer/director of the play, Mr. Stepp Stewart himself. He introduced himself and we were able to ‘walk the blue carpet’ once we entered the theater. The entire play had the kids’ attention and they talked about it long after we left. I will leave you with the words of our own Queshawn Wheeler who, once the curtain closed at the end of the play, said very loudly ‘Yo that was tight y’all!’
Leah Archer’s reflections on the importance of Youth Night (Find this story and others in our 2009 Annual Report.):
Almost every Friday night he wanders into Youth Night. This young man has been involved in our programs since he was a boy and is now falling victim to the streets. He will be the first to run with the wrong crowd and then the first to stop by during the week to say hi to me as he’s passing by.
One night as we were closing up Youth Night, he called me over to his computer to show me something.
Thanks to the financial support of a generous donor with a heart for high school students, this past weekend Little Lights was able to take 11 teens to Impact, a well-known Christian youth conference that was attended by more than 2,000 youth from 7 different states. Our teens were very blessed by the speakers there, who spoke to the youth on a variety of topics, such as relationships, a holy lifestyle, God’s unchanging love, and how to live for Christ in the face of adversity. Our youth enjoyed interacting on those topics, and were hungry to hear God’s Word applied to the issues they deal with as teenagers.
In addition to be spiritually blessed, we all had a lot of fun being in Ocean City away from the hubbub of city and life in the Gardens. It was great to see the teens bond so quickly with each other and with staff over a two day period. On Sunday no one wanted the conference to end. Here is one of our teens expressing just how much IMPACT made an impact. Can’t wait till next year!
For more photos check out our FLICKR
With DC schools out for spring break, there are no programs at Little Lights this week. Volunteers, we’ll see you after programs resume on Tuesday, April 6.
Have a great week and a joy-filled Easter!
A group of us were able to catch the Capitals v. Penguins ice hockey game, courtesy of #8 Alex Ovechkin, on Wednesday night. And boy did we have a blast! The Caps won 4-3 over the Penguins in an exciting shoot-out. LET’S GO CAPS!
Thanks to Mr. Ovechkin, our students were able to score super sweet seats (100 level!), as well as a complimentary NHL video game to take home!
Thanks #8!
We need help preparing a mailing (stuffing, stamping, etc.) tomorrow, Friday, March 26 here at the Little Lights Center from 10am to 2pm. Come on by for a great mail party, or tell your friends who may have flexible schedules.
If you can’t make it this time, click for other ways to help and give. Thanks!
Little Lights is a non-profit Christian urban ministry organization dedicated to showing the love of Jesus Christ to the inner city community of Southeast Washington, DC, particularly the children.
To contribute through the Combined Federal Campaign, please designate # 89156.
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