Friends,
Thanks so much for your response thus far to our campaign – and to the matching fund! So far we have raised $2,675 of the original $5,000 match. Now a generous donor has added to the matching fund for a total of $8,000. Every dollar will be doubled, up to a total of $16,000! That’s enough for camps this summer – and we’ll be well on our way toward a ministry van. (See below for a thermometer graph!)
The Funerosity campaign ends June 17th – just two weeks away. Or you can donate via the website. And we always accept old-fashioned checks made out to Last Bell Ministries and mailed to PO Box 3922, Carmel, IN 46082.
Because we work with orphanage graduates year-round, it may seem superfluous to host summer camps for them. But camps are not EXTRA, they’re ESSENTIAL!
Here’s why Stop the Cycle camps are so important:
* When we offer a Stop the Cycle camp, we often meet young moms and, especially, young dads whom we would not see otherwise. We can develop relationships with these vulnerable new families that bear fruit in the year to come; some of these new moms and dads will come to Stop the Cycle meetings and seek out assistance and advice.
* At camp, these young families are able to see Andrey, Oksana, and other staff and volunteers model good parenting all day, every day: how to play and be playful with their kids; how to discipline in love; how to teach little children what they need to learn at each developmental stage. During the schoolyear, Stop the Cycle moms and dads only get this experience perhaps an hour every couple of weeks.
* Stop the Cycle moms and dads attend parenting classes led by our team; so in that sense camps are more like a parenting workshop. These are young people who grew up in abusive, neglectful households, and then in an institution with hundreds of other children, and they know very little about parenting. These classes are essential for the health of their families.
And our Shelter 2 camp is important – more like a family vacation! The Shelter 2 family includes more than just the teens who live at the Shelter; there are many who only come on weekends, or whom we know through outreach. Camp is a chance to form trust relationships that will keep kids coming back throughout the year.
Thanks again to everyone who has given so far!
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