HOPE Got Slammed!

by Jeff Bills

This past week, HOPE was hoppin’! We had 60 children in our facility each morning for the Summer Slam. This program is a high-energy, kid-friendly teaching tool that incorporates wonderful videos and interactive lessons that invite children to learn God’s truth in age-appropriate ways. If we could have bottled the energy these kids generated, we could have kept the lights on in Voorhees for a month!

As much as I enjoyed seeing children excited about learning about God, I was just as jazzed watching the women and teens who led the Summer Slam. For several months, a Lead Team planned and prepared for this event. They made props and scenery, they designed and prepared lessons, and they prayed. As energized as the children were, these adults were just as energized. (The only difference was that at the end of the morning the adults were ready for a nap, and the children were ready for Round Two!!) To these wonderful, faithful, and joy-filled workers I say, “BLESS YOU” on behalf of the entire HOPE community. You are an inspiration!

What several of the women shared with me during the week was how much they enjoyed being part of the Summer Slam team. Each one made similar comments about the process that went something like this: “Each of us contributed to this in ways that fit our gifts; that is what made it so much fun.” It is true that when we are using our God-given gifts along with others who are doing the same in a God-honoring endeavor, it is the BEST. There is a Spirit-filled synergy that results in blessings for the individual, the group, and for those who are being served.

In many ways the Summer Slam experience was a model of what HOPE has always sought to be. A group of people got together with a devotion to Jesus Christ and a commitment to help people hear the Good News in a way that they can understand. Each one offered his/her gifts and talents and found unexpected creativity and strength from the Spirit’s work within the group. The result: Everyone walked away amazed by how God could use them to really bless someone else. What could be better than that?

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