A Generous Act

A Generous Act

By Kara Akins

Today at church I was sitting at a table with some inner city kids when a very elderly lady walked by.

One of the children remarked how old she was. When I looked up to see her my heart was taken. She had reached the age that standing up straight was not even an option. Each step she made was slow as she ebbed along with her walker. I marveled at the sight of her. To me she was so beautiful and represented a spectrum of life that we all face but rarely take the time to ponder.

I exclaimed to the children how much I loved this lady, a stranger, yet so familiar to me. I exhorted the children to love her as well. I wanted them to have the ability to recognize things that are clearly precious but so often wrongly overlooked.

I didn't realize the Lord was going to return the favor. God was planning that very day to use an elderly person to see something about the the inner city kids that many people overlook. That they, too, are precious

After church we took the children out to eat. There were 24 of us in our entire group. My husband, Jack, went to stand in line to place our order as the children and I pulled tables together so we would have a place to sit.

When Jack was in line an elderly man began to talk to him. The elderly man had seen us eating with our large group of children on another occasion. He let Jack know how wonderful he thought it was of us to minister to so many children. Jack even introduced the gentleman to me. To be honest I was surprised the gentleman could remember us.  He was very elderly, didn't seem to have good vision and we hadn't frequented that particular restaurant in weeks. His words were kind and I cherished what he said in my heart.

I went back to setting up tables and helping with drinks. As I did so the elderly man approached me again. 

"I want you to know that I really wish I could be doing the work you are doing with these children," he told me. "I really do wish I could. But the fact is I can't."

Then he placed something in my hand. I looked down and I saw what appeared to be a $10 bill. 

"I felt the Lord wanted me to give this to you," he shared.

I was again touched by his kindness.

"I will give this to my husband right now and he can use it to help pay for everyone's lunch. Thank you!" I exclaimed as I gave him a hug.

When I went to hand it to my husband I realized it was $100 bill, not $10.

WOW! 

I knew beyond a shadow of doubt that the Lord provided not only lunch for our crew of children, but that he also was providing for the desire of this man's heart. He allowed him to do exactly what he had seen us doing. Nothing complex. We just feed them. And we love them. And we see them for what they are: precious.

"But blessed are your eyes, for they see..." Matthew 13:16

Kara Akins married Mr. Jack Stephen Akins III at age 18.  She is now the mother of six children, ages 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18.  Her "7th child" is her niece, Cecily, who also lives with the family.  She has one boy in the bunch who is spoiled rotten.  Along with being a mom, she also volunteers extensively with Young America Ministries and is a speaker for the Be Still, Get Real team.

Case of the Stolen Camera

WOW Kids at BBC!

We took twenty-three kids from East Lake to Brainerd Baptist this past Sunday.  One of those kids was an eleven-year-old BB (Baby Blood) gang member, Federico, who attacked our car with carrots and rocks last time we saw him.  

We expect a lot from our East Lake kids when we take them out and we're strict, but we discipline with love.  For some reason, all the kids went berserk this past Sunday.  When church let out, they scattered and immediately started breaking rules.  We had kids yelling, running, going upstairs, going outside, fighting, etc.

I was very disappointed and the kids could tell.  I knew that my kids were better than this.  Wayyy better.  Most of these kids I've been working with for almost a year - a year of training and getting to know them.

I tell kids all the time, "You can fight on the streets back in East Lake.  I don't bring you to church so you can  fight.  I bring you to church so you can learn about God."  If kids aren't ready for church, we take them home until they are.

I was ready to take all the kids home because of their bad behavior!  Everything we were saying was going in one ear and out the other.  We eventually had to gather all the kids on the stairs and give them a talk.  The plan was to go to Coolidge Park after church, but we told them that we could only do that if everyone agreed to behave.  My mom (Kara Akins) told them, "We're going to see how you guys do in the car on the way over there.  If one person breaks a rule, it will ruin the trip for everyone and we'll have to take you guys home early."

We loaded all twenty-three kids up in our cars and headed to Coolidge Park.  On the way there, Jarvis got angry and yelled out a cuss word.  We had to turn around and take the kids home.

When I finally got home, I felt like it had been a really crummy day.  Did the kids even learn anything today? I wondered.  Or did they just go backwards?  Did I just waste half my day getting nothing accomplished?

I took a deep breathe and me and my mom started planning for next Sunday to prevent this from happening again.  I thought that it couldn't get any worse, but it did.

The next day, Monday, the church called and said that a camera had gone missing Sunday.  

The security cameras had caught a boy taking it.  

It looked like one of our boys.

I immediately thought that it was Federico who took it, but when we looked at the pictures from the security cameras, my heart sunk.

The boy caught on tape was my kiddo who never gets in trouble, my kiddo who has the cutest dimples when he smiles, my kiddo that is superstar material.

He's the kid that everyone loves.

We went to his house and he confessed and gave us the camera that he had taken.  We started talking and somehow Satan came up in our conversation.

"Satan?"  He asked.  "Who's that?"

"You don't know who Satan is?"  My mom asked.

"No.  Is it sin?"  He asked.

She explained who Satan is and asked him, "Have you ever been saved?"

"I don't know what that means."  He said.

It amazes me that, in the Bible Belt, there are kids who don't know this stuff.  When I leave East Lake, I count all the churches that we pass.  On one street there are seriously, like, five.  How can there be five churches on one street in the inner-city and I meet kid after kid who answers my questions about Jesus with a puzzled expression on their face?

I look at this situation with the stolen camera and I see a story in the making.  Who knows, maybe this boy will one day grow up to be a strong Christian and when he shares his testimony it will start with how he stole a camera from a church and ended up learning what it means to be saved.

You never know.

Paris Akins is currently a college student pursuing a degree in Education.  She loves diversity, Jesus, and middle schoolers.  She spends most of her time at school, helping with Chattanooga's Urban WyldLife, and with her kiddos in Emma Wheeler.  She also blogs over at Attempting the Impossible.

Church Daze

Let me start off by saying, this is not part two of The Ripple Effect.

I can already hear the groans of some of my family members. I'm working on it, I promise! - but I'm inspired to write what I'm inspired to write and that's just the way it happens.

When I was younger, going to church was something I dreaded.

Yes, I'll admit it. I didn't want to go - not at first. Why? It was something I was forced into doing. I had to wake up early on Sunday morning, get crammed into clothes I hated just to listen to a message that I really didn't care about for a couple of hours.

Church was a habit back then. It wasn't enjoyable, or something I spent the entire week looking forward to doing. It was a chore - and that ladies and gentlemen is definitely not what church should feel like.

I can't remember actually going to a church I liked until I was about 10 or 11; the first church that I felt I was actually learning something; the first church that made me want to learn more about the Lord. Humorously enough, it was actually my aunt Kara who found that church. She was trying to help my uncle find one to go to.

And we stuck to it.

Don't get me wrong, I still had my doubts. There were things going on in my life, and at my young age I couldn't fathom why. I was angry; I didn't know why God was doing this to me, or even if he was there - but I always went when I could because I loved hearing the Bible stories - I loved learning, and something deep down in my heart was always stirred.

I am so excited that we are starting our own church. Let me just repeat that: OUR OWN CHURCH!

I know that sometimes, especially for children whose situations are less than cheery - they only go to church so they have an excuse not to be at home. I don't blame them - when I was their age I would have wanted to be anywhere but home.

I want our church to be more than just an escape. I want it to be a place where these children feel free. I want it to be a place that learning more about our Lord causes an excitement in them like nothing else.

I want them to be able to worship as they please, pray as they please, and have their mind open to every endless possibility about God's plan for their future.


It is my heart's desire to keep these children from falling into a church daze, and I'm bound and determined to do so.

Y'all better get excited with me.

A Fairy-Tale Family

Sweet LayNasha.  She's so pretty!

Kids say a lot of crazy stuff.  I heard a ton of stuff during my internship at East Lake Elementary that made me stop, scratch me head, and say to myself, Is that really how this kid looks at life?

One time Angelica asked me, "Do you get food stamps?"

"Uh, no." I said.

"You will when you have a baby." She said and nodded like it was the most natural thing in the world to be talking about.  In her world, it is.  The kids at this inner-city school assume that everyone lives off food stamps - except rich people.

One time Terrance asked me, "Did you read the busted papers last night?!"

"Uh, no." I said yet again.  "Do you read the busted papers?"

"Heck ya!" He said.  "I gotta check to see who in my family's in there!"

A lot of people don't know that I went through culture shock during my internship.  I never knew that I could experience culture shock twenty minutes away from my house, but I did.  I spent fifteen weeks in Chattanooga's inner-city surrounded by kids who looked different than me, talked different than me, had different names than what I was used to, acted different than me and even ate different stuff than I did.

I spent fifteen weeks having conversations like the ones above every single day.

You think that I would be used to it by now, but LayNasha said something tonight at Wyldlife on the way home that blew me away for the millionth time.

"When I grow up, I want a fairy-tale family." She told me.  "I want a dog, a cat, a little boy, a little girl, and a husband."

What would it be like growing up and thinking that a traditional family is a fairy-tale? I thought to myself.

I wanted to cry for her and her dream.  I wanted to cry because she had been cheated out of fairy-tale family because of people's sin and mistakes.  I wanted to cry because I knew she hadn't seen her real dad in over six weeks.

I don't do WOW Kids or WyldLife just to give a kid a good time.  I do it for real life conversations in the back of a fifteen passenger bus at 10:00 p.m. as we're driving kids home, listening to a little girl share with me her dream for a fairy-tale family.

Paris Akins is currently a college student pursuing a degree in Education.  She loves diversity, Jesus, and middle schoolers.  She spends most of her time at school, helping with Chattanooga's Urban WyldLife, and with her kiddos in Emma Wheeler.  She also blogs over at Attempting the Impossible.

Crazy Horse: A Homeless Man

Taking a picture with Crazy Horse!  He's holding the poster.

Paris, my eldest daughter, asked me to write a post for the WOW Kids blog.

My pleasure. 

It's nice to stop every once and awhile and record some thoughts.So here are a couple things on my mind:

Last weekend we picked up a couple kids from Emma Wheeler and took them downtown for ice cream and a walk on the Walnut Street Bridge. As we were walking across the bridge Terrance shared with me that he and his mother ran into Crazy Horse one day while they were downtown. When Terrence saw him he told Crazy Horse hello.

Who is Crazy Horse?

That's exactly what Terrance's mother asked him.

"Who is that, Terrance?"

"He's a homeless man, " was his reply.

"How do you know him?" his mother asked.

"He's a friend of Ms. Akins."

Terrance told me that when he told her he was a friend of Paris' (kids call her Ms. Akins), she went over to Crazy Horse and gave him $10.

"And I didn't even know she would ever do anything like that!" he exclaimed.

I just love it that Terrance's mother showed love for someone that we love simply because she knows we love them. It makes me feel like we are truly a community, players who are all playing for the same team. A heart warmer, for sure.

The other thing I can't seem to get out of my mind is the gang violence Chattanooga is being infiltrated with. This is the thing that bothers me the most: We are the buckle of the Bible belt. Our statement of faith and our actions have not been lining up. We talk more than we walk. Too many kids right in our own back yards are what the Bible describes as "sheep without a shepherd", falling prey to whoever will take them in. 

That calls for compassion. It calls for action. It calls for the type of faith that goes beyond lip service to community service.

I am not trying to bash anyone here. Our family has just begun to get involved in inner city outreach to combat some of these problems. The thing is we, like many of you, always had a heart to do something but we simply didn't know what to do.

I will share with you something I have learned and I will offer it up as a challenge before you: Not one child that we have invited to church or anywhere else has ever told us no. They are willing to go. The question is are we willing to take them?

Kara Akins married Mr. Jack Stephen Akins III at age 18.  She is now the mother of six children, ages 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18.  Her "7th child" is her niece, Cecily, who also lives with the family.  She has one boy in the bunch who is spoiled rotten.  Along with being a mom, she also volunteers extensively with Young America Ministries and is a speaker for the Be Still, Get Real team.

Chaos!

Have you ever driven a fifteen passenger van - filled with children who's saftey was in your hands - all the while all of them talking at once and very loudly while you're pulling your hair out because you have no idea where you're going?

Well, I have.

Now, I've driven the van before numerous times. By this point, I've gotten pretty comfortable with it. I've even broken down in the van on the side of the road with about 15 girls, and we got through that okay.

I've never been really stressed driving this van until Paris, Madison and I started Wyld-Life on Wednesday night. Wyld-Life is a Young Life program, but for middle school kids. I was actually super pumped for it, because I thought it would be really good experience for the three of us to be Wyld-Life leaders.

Before we took off, my aunt Kara came in to talk to me, and just told me to be extra cautious. That's not abnormal; though the moment we picked up even a few kids I could start to feel the pressure. Paris was in the passenger seat, telling me to go pick up kids who's houses for all I knew were in Timbuktu. I got lost several times, turned around in circles, trying to listen to Paris' directions (though if we're being honest here, I'll put some of the blame on that GPS. It doesn't seem trustworthy.)

All the while, the kids were in the back, arguing and carrying on and basically yelling over everything Paris was trying to tell me. It was being jammed in the middle of a beehive. My ears were buzzing.

Have you ever been in one of those situations where you just want to yell 'BE QUIET!' really loud? Don't tell me you haven't because you'd be lying to yourself. Everyone has. For me, this would have definitely been one of those times.

Of course I didn't yell. I love those kids, I did however turn around and very sternly tell them that they needed to be quiet so I could hear where I needed to go. With the reaction they gave me, you would have think I yelled. They all fell quiet and just stared, murmuring their yes ma'ams' - I was pretty stunned myself, but I'm pretty sure I had never once before come off stern with the kids. The thing that really threw me for a loop was that after I'd said it, they were really quiet for  along time, even helpful. They told me better directions than the darn GPS enabled smartphone.

The rest of the night went pretty well, and I calmed down after that little bit of chaos at the beginning. There was only one part at the end of the night were we had to stop and practice being quiet for three minutes because the kids were getting way out of control.

I know perhaps this doesn't seem the most stressful situation to most people. I know half of you are probably going 'what's the big deal?' - for me it was a pretty good idea. I'm not used to being a leader for so many people, though I know God wouldn't dish out more than I could handle. Having the saftey of 12 kids plus your own cousins is a pretty big weight to bare, and I want to take it as seriously as I can.

It was our first time doing Wyld-Life, so I'm sure the next trip will go alot more smoothly. I'm confident about that, and I'm really glad I've been given this opportunity because it's a big weakness of mine, and I know I need to grow in it.

And if it doesn't go well?

I just hope Madi doesn't conveniently snap another embarrassing picture of me tearing my hair out.

Supernatural Love

Cameron (left) and Shawn (right) at church.

Working with at-risk kids, my heart has been broken many times.  I have cried and asked God, "Why?"

I hear about people who go to other countries and are astonished at the poverty that they see.  They go back to America in shock at how wealthy they are.  I've never seen third-world poverty for myself, but I experience a similar astonishment when I work with my kiddos in the inner-city, trailer parks, motels, and in homeless situations.

One example is a couple Sundays ago.  I went to go pick up Destiny, James, and Shawn for church.  There were police cars a couple houses down for who knows why.  I got out of the car and began to work my way up to their front door.  I wish I could have gotten a picture.  Me, in my grey dress and church shoes, gingerly stepping over junk that littered their front porch.

Every time I make that walk all dressed up for church, it seems so wrong.  So wrong to be dressed up when the kids that I am picking up are wearing the same clothes that they wore last Sunday.

I knocked on the door and immediately their pit bull started barking on the other side.  I don't like pit bulls.  I like nice, adorable dogs like pugs, not pits.

The door knob was gone and there was a hole about the size of an apple.  Little Shawn ran up and put his mouth up to it and said, "What?"

I leaned down next to the hole in the door.  "Hey, Shawn!  I want to take you guys to church!" I said.

"I gotta ask my mom." He ran off to ask and then ran back.  "She said no."

"Oh.  I love you, Shawn." I said.

He was quiet.

"I want to see you guys later this week, ok?" I said.

"Huh?" He said.

I leaned closer to the hole.  "I want to see you later this week!"

"Oh, ok." He said.

I wanted to cry as I walked back to the Young America van.  Talking to a first grader through a hole in the door will do that to you.

I do what I do for kids like Shawn.  Well, ultimately I do it for God, but y'all know what I mean.  I wake up early on Sundays to pick kids up for church.  I drive kids home when they throw a fit and refuse to listen.  I tell kids I love them when they're mad and they say they hate me.  I go through my clothes to give them away  to girls who don't have any.  I go to their football games on Saturday mornings and endure pouring down rain.  I spend all day Friday at their school because I want them to know that I'm there for them.

I do all this because I am driven by one thing: God's love for them.  This love is not of myself.  It's supernatural and it comes from God.  My flesh does not want to do these things and yet I love doing it because God has placed that love in my heart.

Speaking of love, I would love it if you came and helped us launch WOW Kids!  Pray about it and see where God leads you.  You never know what God has in store!

Paris Akins is currently a college student pursuing a degree in Education.  She loves diversity, Jesus, and middle schoolers.  She spends most of her time at school, helping with Chattanooga's Urban WyldLife, and with her kiddos in Emma Wheeler.  She also blogs over at Attempting the Impossible.

Upcoming WOW Kids Events

We are so excited and busy as we prepare for our launch date for WOW Kids on October 16th!  We've got so much to do and we can't do it without your help.  Thank you for reading this blog, following us on Facebook, and accepting our event invites.  The best way to keep up with everything that is going on is through Facebook.

Here is a rundown of upcoming WOW Kids events! 

CLEAN UP EMMA WHEELER

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15TH

PINEY WOODS 

(701 HOOKER RD, CHATTANOOGA, TN)

11:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Hamilton County is letting WOW Kids use the old Piney Woods Elementary School/Family Resource Center across the street from Emma Wheeler Homes. It hasn't been used as a school since 1992 and it needs to be cleaned before we start tutoring October 16th! We're going to need lots of help. Even if you only come for an hour or two, your time and effort will be greatly appreciated!

If your youth group or Sunday School class is looking for a service project, then this is the perfect opportunity to get involve

d and help the community!

If you do come, please bring some cleaning supplies if you can. Broom, mop, rags, cleaning gloves, bleach, garbage bags, vacuum, cardboard boxes to store old stuff, etc. The school has very few cleaning supplies for us to use.

If you have anything you would like to donate, now would be a great time to bring it! We will be 

setting up classrooms and organizing as we clean. We have a supply list on our blog page "Wanna Help With WOW Kids?"

VOLUNTEER MEETING FOR WOW KIDS

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27TH

AKINS' HOUSE

(314 CHANDLER RD, CHICKAMAUGA, GA 30707)

6:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Are you interested in volunteering at WOW Kids on Tuesdays and Thursdays? We're having a meeting for all possible volunteers September 27, 2012 from 6:30-8:30pm at the Akins' house in Chickamauga, GA. We will be going over volunteer opportunities, schedules, and details. Invite anyone who you think would be interested in helping! Dinner will be provided.

REGISTRATION FOR WOW KIDS

OCTOBER 2ND & 4TH

EMMA WHEELER RECREATION CENTER

4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

This is for anyone who plans on volunteering with WOW Kids.  We are going to need help registering children.  If you can come, please contact us.

LAUNCH DATE!!!  WOW KIDS OFFICIALLY STARTS!!!

OCTOBER 16TH

PINEY WOODS

(701 HOOKER RD, CHATTANOOGA, TN)

4:15 PM - 6:00 PM 

(VOLUNTEERS NEED TO ARRIVE EARLY)

We launch WOW Kids October 16th!  We have so much to do before then, but it will be totally worth it.  I picked the picture of my mom (Kara Akins) trying to help Jasiah when he ran away.  That picture totally describes WOW Kids.  She's leaning down and offering him a chance.  We want to offer a chance to all the kids in Emma Wheeler, and eventually all of Chattanooga and maybe even beyond one day.  A chance to do good in school, a chance to succeed in life, and a chance to meet Jesus.

A Place Where Things Happen

The other day as I was going to read my Bible, I randomly picked Psalm 73.  I'm pretty familiar with this psalm, and you might be too. Its basically about the psalmist questioning why wicked and ungodly people seem to have the good life.  He doesn't think it's fair, and that perhaps he's been godly in vain.

I read this knowing that in the end, he would see that their prosperity was so temporary in the light of eternity. 

Here's what really stuck out to me though. I got to verse 17, and I stopped. I read it and I re-read it.

It said, "Then I went to your sanctuary, O God, and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked."

He went to God's sanctuary, and that's when something happened. That's  when he understood. Going to God's house made a difference for him.

That's what I want. I don't want church just to be a place where I go. I want it to be place where I go and I know that I will be better off because of it.  Whether its having been able to worship God, Him speak to my heart, or give me understanding like in Psalm 73. Church is a place where things happen, and people are changed. Life's are changed.

I think that's what we're doing by starting the church - and even the tutoring - in Emma Wheeler Homes. We're giving these kids a chance to come to a place that can make a radical difference in their lives.

I think I should say that it's not actually going to church that changes anything, it's God and going near to Him. Church is just a way to do that.

Please pray with me that this church will be a place filled with the presence of God, so that like the psalmist, these kids lives will be changed.

Madison Akins is a 16-year-old college freshman who loves God and people.  She enjoys being healthy and spending time with family and friends.  She's passionate about helping impoverished children and singing (which she does all the time).  More than anything, she wants to grow forever closer to her Savior.

The Ripple Effect; Part One: He's been preparing me.

"Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you which is wellpleasing in his sight, though Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."
                                                            - Hebrews 12:21

A couple hours ago, my cousin, Paris ambled into my room asking me if I would do the (hopefully) daily blog post for WOW Kids. Truth be told, I wanted to grumble and complain and go to sleep because we've had quite the eventful day, though something in the back of my mind was really pushing for me to make it, so I agreed. (It might also have something to do with the fact that there are still a few kids here, making it impossible to get any sort of sleep...but I'm going to go with it was God pushing me)

My initial plan was to just write about how our day at church went today. Simple, right? So, I get half way to typing my little story out.

God says, "Nope, I don't want you to write about that."

Well, alright. You're the boss. I change my mind, go for an approach about preparing my little kids class for the ministry. Awesome- I put on my writing playlist, get halfway with that...and then again, there's that voice at the back of my head.

God says, "I don't want that, either."

At this point, I'm pretty sure I made that odd  horse noise. You know, the one where you stick out your lips and kind of let them flop around.  So, I turn off the music, take off my headphones and sit there on my bed with my hands folded in my lap. "Okay then, God," I say, with ample determination, "Tell me what it is exactly you want me to write."

And He says, "I want you to tell your story."

...AlphaandOmegasaywhat.

Hahahaha. You know me, Lord. You know how timid I am. You know that I've never really shared my story - not in excessive detail anyway. I'm not looking for sympathy, and really I don't want random strangers having access to my life story at the little click of a button. Besides, who is really going to sit there and read that?

No reply, just the same words echoing around in my head: "I want you to tell your story."

So I'm going to. I have to trust that God knows that He's doing and that there's a reason He's told me to tell my story, on this little blog of all places.

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For those of you who are geeks like me, you'll know all about Doctor Who. I'm a BIG fan of Doctor Who, let me tell you. I went through a phase when all I would do was lay in bed and watch the episodes all day and night - and I mean all of them, the classic ones included.

I'm just a tad obsessed - the theme song is even my ringtone.

At any rate the show is about the man who calls himself simply "The Doctor" - he's the last of his kind, and he goes around in his time-and-space-warping-machine called the TARDIS. Basically, he saves the Universe on a daily basis.

There are so many times in my life where I've paused and wished that I had a TARDIS, just so I could go back in time. So that I could prevent something from happening, or take back something silly I said - maybe try to get a better grade in Math, I don't know.

Slowly, I've come to realize that if The Doctor randomly showed up on my doorstep, shouted "Allons-y!" (cheers to anyone who gets the reference)  and told me that he'd take me back in time and allow me to change any event in my past, I wouldn't do it. (Not like this would really happen, I know he isn't real, good gravy. Don't put me away in a mental home just yet, I'm just trying to paint a picture for you here.)

Why?

Because every moment of my life has a specific purpose; He has been preparing me to do His work my entire life without me even knowing.

I've been virtually homeless. I've been completely on my own with my parents in another country. I've been tested, pushed, depressed, suicidal. I've been in more dangerous situations than I can count. I've been bullied, ignored, mistreated.

Everything I used to think I was so unfair, that I was so bitter about - I'm now incredibly thankful for, because I know now there was a reason, and that He was just leading me to my path all along.
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Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll actually join me on the rest of this little adventure.

- Cecily Macomber

We LOVE East Lake

A lot of people may be hearing about WOW Kids and think it's cool and all, but don't know the whole story.  WOW Kids has sprung up from the result of two years of outreach in East Lake starting in 2010.  I was a freshman in college and I wanted to be a teacher.  I was at a conference and I happened to sit next to Ms. Rock, an inner-city middle school teacher at East Lake Academy.  I volunteered there for a whole year every Friday.  My love for East Lake grew and when I had to pick a school to intern at for fifteen weeks, I chose East Lake Elementary (You can read about that adventure here).

Honestly, we could write a book about everything that has led up to starting WOW Kids.  WOW Kids is a part of Young America Ministries and they were looking to expand into East Lake the same time we wanted to do more to help East Lake!  We would have never have gotten the building for WOW Kids if my friend Sammie hadn't posted a picture of VBS in Emma Wheeler on Facebook.  I saw that picture and went to help and there we met Brandon Bacon who helped us get the building.  God's timing has been so perfect.  He's blessed us so much.  We have partnered with the city of Chattanooga to launch WOW Kids and Hamilton County is letting us use a whole school building for tutoring!  Talk about amazing!

I wanted to post some pictures of these last two years in East Lake so everyone can look back on what led up to WOW Kids being launched.  It's been an incredible journey and I am so excited about October 16th!

Volunteering at East Lake Academy

Passing Out Clothes in East Lake Courts

My Internship at East Lake Elementary

Saturday Mentoring Trips

Missions Trip to the Atlanta Dream Center

Paris Akins is currently a college student pursuing a degree in Education.  She loves diversity, Jesus, and middle schoolers.  She spends most of her time at school, helping with Chattanooga's Urban WyldLife, and with her kiddos in Emma Wheeler.  She also blogs over at Attempting the Impossible.