I am just filled with joy this week, as I think about what the Lord is doing in my life.  Sometimes, not often enough I drive in the car and just pray out loud to my God.  Just the other day I got to do this and I was filled with so much joy.  I am just amazed at what the Lord is doing in my life and the many blessings He is providing.  One great blessing is I got a car.  A wonderful family who I live with blessed me and bought me a car.  Thank you Thompson's, you have been such a gift to me.  This will take such a burden off me and them, and has been something I prayed for, for quite sometime.

Also a few post ago I commented on possible building my own non-profit.  The Lord kinda put a tug in my heart with the help of some wisdom, to just slow down.  Though it may be quite sometime before I run my own non-profit, I have had the freedom with the non-profit I already work for, to build some programs for them.  In a few weeks I will launch this program.  So instead of trying to do my own thing, I am building programs for an already existing organization and just seeing what the Lord does through this.  If you live in St. Louis and would like to donate time and money, or if you live outside of St. Louis and want to donate money for a great cause (how many times have you heard that?) But really I have big hopes for what can be done where I work.

Let me just explain the who, what, when, where of what I do and what I am planning on doing,

I will start with the what the heck do I do?  I have been working for this Christian non-profit (Hope Unlimited) for the last four months, and honestly I get paid to hang out with middles school and high school girls.  We do various activities, like going to the park, to lunch, swimming, we are going to the circus next week, etc.  I just felt like the Lord was calling me to do more with these girls.  A few months ago I went to Chicago and met up with an old friend from high school.  She is doing great things for young girls in Chicago and I was just really inspired to do similar things with my girls.  She did cooking classes and thought girls how to make skirts, and teaching them life lessons about what is means to be a woman.  I was like man, I need to bring up some of my older girls to do this program with you.  I was so excited and when I went back told the girls I worked with that I wanted to take them to Chicago to do this program.  Because my friend is traveling back and forth from Chicago the trip kind of fell through.  I thought just because I can't take these girls to Chicago, and just because I am not the chef (which she is), or just because I can't sew anything, doesn't mean I can't something similar.  So I decided to implement this same program here in St. Louis, just use my resources to do so.  I know artist, designers, and chefs.  So then I built this weekend program and pitched it to my board, they approved.  Then a few weeks later the Lord brought three different women in my life, which I wrote about two in past post, and another came on board.  With their help this program grew bigger and bigger.  Not its not just a weekend but its going to be on going programs built around these young women.  Programs that will enhance and encourage them in life and in the Lord.  The program is called The Art of Living.  So fill free to ask me how things are going.

So after I just explained the what, let me tell you a little more of the who?  I work with middle school and high school girls in Kirkwood, Missouri in a little neighborhood called Meachem Park, these kids are involved in or exposed to everything under the sun.  Yet they are exposed to so little positive influence, and they don't experience lift outside their little closed off box.  Like St. Louis as a whole Kirkwood is a very segregated place and because of some violence between the two communities in past few years it has become worse.  Their are organizations that has been put in place to change this.  What I think our organization is doing differently then other organizations in Kirkwood is reaching the youth.  I want to go a step farther with beyond hanging out, encouraging them, and being a friend in a tough situation.  I want to give them a taste of something greater then what the have been brought up to know.  I am going to end there because I just wrote a book.  Love all my readers.  You all are far more faithful then I am, sorry.

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Who even reads my blog?

Finally

I would first like to give a big congrats to my baby sister Dio for graduating high school.  Many of my readers may not know me, but not only is it always exciting for a sibling to graduate but for my family this year is a major stepping stone.  My younger sister is the youngest of 9.  So therefore she is the last one to graduate high school. Thats a big deal.  This will be my last high school graduation until my oldest nephew graduates in 11 years.  Crazy!! So also want to say congrats to my parents.  I love them both dearly.  

I am not too good at this blogging thing.  I just don't know what to write about.  I don't know what interest people.  I wonder if people want to read some profound stuff( which I can't offer) or do they want to settle for reading stuff about my boring life? Because of that I give you all nothing.  Nothing at all, and I am sorry for that.  I was talking with my friend Loren the other day about something and she thought I should share it with blog friends.  At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to share it with you all because its so fresh.  But anyway I have decided to share this adventure with you all. This is something that I think is both profound and its about me.  Its something that I have deep passion for and pray it goes far. Anyway here it is. 

So I work part-time for this Christian non-profit with young girls in a community here in St. Louis.  Each girl I interact with is very dear to my heart.  I am also one person trying to care for a good number of girls.  This is something that I have been doing for the past 4 months.  I have thought of ways to better care for these girls and ways to preach the gospel to them as well.  But it has been kinda hard.  I often think I am not doing a good job. Hanging out with them is not enough.  So I try to come up with these great ideas and many time they have fallen through. 

 Last week the Lord brought two women into my life and it was an instant connection.   They both had desires to build into this community, so we decided to build a partnership. We have joined together to come up with great ideas to build into this community of girls and parents.  I have always wanted to start and run my own non-profit and its kinda happening.  I mean we have only met twice and we have come up with a name for the group, we are coming up with some fundraisers, we have ideas of what we are going to teach these girls.  But pretty much its an organization that enriches women lives.  From young ladies to mothers.  So there will be three things going on at once.  I will be the spiritual leader, then we have someone teaching them life lessons which I will also help out with, then we have my other partner focusing on mothers/caregivers.  Helping them be the best parents they can be to their teens.  There is so much I can't even go into great detail, so just take the overview for right now.  This is something I am passionate about and as I talked with my girls about it, they to are excited as well.  My prayer is that this program will build into these girls, who will then build into the community and make it a better place for them and others to live.  

So for my readers if you have any suggestions or ideas about topics, activities, arts and crafts, fundraiser ideas.  I would love to get those.  I want this to go far.  I will keep you posted on how things pan out.