More photos of our Thanksgiving
service project with Brother Under Christ (BYX).
These guys are awesome! Blessings.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
CNS In Action: Thanksgiving Meals
service project with Brother Under Christ (BYX).
These guys are awesome! 
A Thanksgiving Come True
With the help of several CNS church sponsors (Austin Christian Fellowship, Austin Stone, All Saints Presbyterian and Covenant Presbyterian, Christ the King Presbyterian, Austin First Evangelical Church, and Lake Hills Church) Community New Start developed 100 Thanksgiving Baskets and officially handed them out on Thursday, November 19th at the end of Smart Start. The families were truly grateful and this small token of support brought tears and smiles to our families. The children were equally moved as they helped carry the groceries for their parents. I later drove from TA Brown Elementary to JJ Pickle and as drove through the neighborhood, I saw families walking proudly down the street, in hand with the Thanksgiving Baskets that they received. All thanks’ be to God and for the CNS friends, families and churches that support this effort. In addition, our newest partners, BYX (Brother’s Under Christ) members came to help in their first support of CNS and proudly delivered all of the meals to both school. They were terrific, so good that they broke into song when we got to JJ Pickle and had us all singing “Lean On Me” in a glee kinda way! It was beautiful!
Thanks to all our volunteers including Daniel Robles of RR Limousine, Amy Johnson, Suzanne Harris, Christy Robinson, Alex and Jeanette Guzman, John & Lisa Davila, Stephanie Rivers, Courtney Ousley) and all of the rest of our friends for their support. God Bless.
CNS Board of Directors Retreat
The CNS Board of Directors Retreat was held at the Austin Baptist Association and together the Board reviewed 2009 accomplishments, made advances in looking at our mission and took giant steps at continuing “Development” in 2010. These individuals are truly committed to sharing Gods love by word and deed.
CNS Family Day at Zilker Park
Last Saturday, CNS Staff and some Board Members gathered at Zilker Park for a time to fellowship away from the office and school setting. The idea was to help unity to the various individuals that keep this ministry going each week. What a great time! God is good!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Its the small things in life...
This is my first year to work with SmartStart and I love it. I love all of my kids, no matter how many time clips are moved to yellow or how many times a week my supervisor has to have a heart-to-heart with one of them. They are precious and the best part of my day. This week I had just led the kids in a prayer and one of them raised their hand and asked "How does God hear us?" I was caught a little off guard because, as kindergarten and first graders, they don't usually ask those kinds of questions. Then I was thankful that I had been given the opportunity to share with them more about the God who loves us.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Oh Happy Day
The past couple of weeks at Smart Start have been filled with rainy days. While the kids still get to play games inside, there is something special about being able to enjoy running around in the sunshine. This Thursday we finally got to head out to the park and play. And not a second of the day was wasted!
Monday through Thursday, we play a group game with all of Smart Start before heading into the classrooms in order to develop community among the classrooms. It was beautiful to see the fruits of our attempts to make Smart Start a Christ-centered family. Numerous games of tag, soccer, and football were going on all at once, teachers were swinging on the monkey bars with their classes, and the swingset was occupied the entire time.
Before we headed inside, I noticed something that made me smile to myself and encouraged me that we are making a difference. Two little boys in the kindergarten/1st grade class were playing at the swings.
Before I go on, let me tell you a little bit about these boys. While they appear cute at first glance, these two in particular always keep their teacher on her toes. They have definitely had their fair share of timeouts and parent conversations, but changes are happening and this moment helped demonstrate their progress.
Without any teachers around prompting them to do so, the 1st grade boy was pushing the kindergartener on the swing and they were laughing and having a conversation. Seeing their interaction, even though it's a seemingly small event, shows a huge step in their development. Teaching kids how to love one another as Christ has shown us to do is a huge goal of our program. There are no tests or benchmarks or quantitave data sets that we can take to measure this effectively, but today the victory was shown through two small children playing together on the swingset. God is good.
Monday through Thursday, we play a group game with all of Smart Start before heading into the classrooms in order to develop community among the classrooms. It was beautiful to see the fruits of our attempts to make Smart Start a Christ-centered family. Numerous games of tag, soccer, and football were going on all at once, teachers were swinging on the monkey bars with their classes, and the swingset was occupied the entire time.
Before we headed inside, I noticed something that made me smile to myself and encouraged me that we are making a difference. Two little boys in the kindergarten/1st grade class were playing at the swings.
Before I go on, let me tell you a little bit about these boys. While they appear cute at first glance, these two in particular always keep their teacher on her toes. They have definitely had their fair share of timeouts and parent conversations, but changes are happening and this moment helped demonstrate their progress.
Without any teachers around prompting them to do so, the 1st grade boy was pushing the kindergartener on the swing and they were laughing and having a conversation. Seeing their interaction, even though it's a seemingly small event, shows a huge step in their development. Teaching kids how to love one another as Christ has shown us to do is a huge goal of our program. There are no tests or benchmarks or quantitave data sets that we can take to measure this effectively, but today the victory was shown through two small children playing together on the swingset. God is good.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Smiles
November 2, 2009
Last Thursday at Smart Start we had a great time celebrating Halloween with trick-or-treating, coloring, and games. Some of the kids (and some of the teachers) were dressed up in costumes for the celebration. Unfortunately that day, it was pouring down rain in Austin and one of our teachers took a terrible spill on the way in, ripping his jeans and scraping his leg pretty badly. On our way into the cafeteria, I overheard to of my second graders discussing the teacher's leg. Then I heard one of them ask the teacher if the scrape was real, and of course the teacher answered yes. I laughed to myself as I realized that they had apparently been debating whether or not the scrape and blood was apart of his costume or if it was actually real. This is one of the things I love about working at Smart Start; even if I've had a bad day or things are frustrating, one of the kids always has something to say that brings a smile to my face.
Last Thursday at Smart Start we had a great time celebrating Halloween with trick-or-treating, coloring, and games. Some of the kids (and some of the teachers) were dressed up in costumes for the celebration. Unfortunately that day, it was pouring down rain in Austin and one of our teachers took a terrible spill on the way in, ripping his jeans and scraping his leg pretty badly. On our way into the cafeteria, I overheard to of my second graders discussing the teacher's leg. Then I heard one of them ask the teacher if the scrape was real, and of course the teacher answered yes. I laughed to myself as I realized that they had apparently been debating whether or not the scrape and blood was apart of his costume or if it was actually real. This is one of the things I love about working at Smart Start; even if I've had a bad day or things are frustrating, one of the kids always has something to say that brings a smile to my face.
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