Boys to Men

I am so excited for Lawrence!  Today, after school, he will meet with the fifth grade boys for the first session of Boys to Men this year.  At least 15 boys have already turned in their permission slips to take part in the "club," and I am thinking several more will bring their paperwork in today.  I am also pretty sure that after this afternoon's session, the boys who attend will tell their friends and classmates how cool the "club" is and more will come next week.

This is the third year that Lawrence and another male teacher have lead the Boys to Men after-school club.  Ever since we first invited his students to Ponca back in 2007 and saw God work in a mighty way in those kiddos' lives, we had been praying for an opportunity for Lawrence to do a Bible study in his school.  Getting that up and going is easier said than done, and so we just had to keep praying and trust that God would open doors at the right time.  We didn't get an answer until 2010, but the wait was well worth it!

I don't know exactly when the Girls on the Run program started, but in 2010 the running club was available for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade girls at Kellybrook Elementary where Lawrence teaches.  The girls run, of course, even working their way up to participating in a 5K race at the end of the year.  In addition to running, they discuss various character traits they will need in order to succeed at life.  I guess the boys at Kellybrook felt jilted that they didn't have a Running Club or anything of the sort.  And so some of Lawrence's former students came to him and declared, "We need a Boys on the Run club, and you should be the leader!"  Lawrence was flattered that they would ask him to head up the group and assured them he would think about the idea.  Well, that wasn't good enough for them.  These boys were persistent, and persuasive too.  Several days later, they came back to his classroom with a letter outlining three reasons why the boys needed the club and why Lawrence should be the one leading it.  That settled it.  A few weeks later, over half of the fifth grade boys attended the very first Boys to Men meeting.

God is soooooo awesome!!!!  Not only was Lawrence able to impact the lives of the students in his third grade class, but also follow up with some former students as well as new boys he had never personally taught.  He may not bring out his Bible at the Boys to Men meetings, but they do discuss a character trait that "real men" will display in their lives.  And no one modeled those qualities better than Jesus Himself, and so really Lawrence is teaching these boys about our God and Savior.  He is modeling to them what it looks like to have a personal relationship with Him and how to live boldly and passionately for Him in your every day life.  The club meetings are also a wonderful platform, providing Lawrence with the opportunity to invite these boys to Ponca.

This past summer, an entire cabin of boys (7, I think) who had attended Boys to Men during the school year came to camp.  If they had already trusted Jesus as their Savior before coming to Ponca, they left with a deeper love for Him and a renewed commitment to really live for Him.  If they came not knowing Jesus, they left having Him as their personal Savior!!!  So cool!!!  We were blown away by how God had worked!!!

BUT, He wasn't done knocking our socks off yet!  Those boys are now in 6th grade, middle school.  Lawrence doesn't get to see them on a regular basis, as many of his former students were faithful to stop by his classroom and say hi in the mornings before heading to their own classrooms.  And so we started praying again.  This time, we felt burdened to follow up with the boys, and girls, who have come to camp and are growing up in need of godly mentors to help them stay on track, to remember what they learned at Ponca, and to challenge them to keep living for Jesus.

Since we don't live in the Kellybrook area yet, we didn't really know how to go about starting up a Bible study for the "older kids" who live there, in a place that would be convenient for them to come.  God had that covered!  A few weeks after camp, we received an e-mail from a parent who wanted to share with us how God had laid on their hearts (and several other families as well) to open up their homes for a Bible study for the boys and girls who had gone to Ponca!  On Sunday, we will be meeting with 4-5 families to discuss what the "Ponca and Beyond" Bible study is going to look like for kiddos in 5th, 6th, and 7th grades.

We are excited about the opportunities God is giving us, as He seems to be throwing doors wide open for us to influence the lives of the boys and girls (and consequently their families) in the Kellybrook area.  Who knows what kind of impact the Boys to Men club and this Ponca and Beyond Bible study will have?!  We are looking forward to seeing what mighty and awesome and wonderful things God does.  And we are already praying for the next group of kiddos who will be going to Ponca in June and July as a result!