Getting Ready

I'm still here, and I apologize for the lack of posts over the past month. Camp Heaven ended well, and Little Lights disbanded for a couple of weeks before we came together again to gear up for the new school year. There are now 17 full-time staffers (incredible, when you consider how much office space we have!), and I'm thrilled with the quality of the people who God has brought to us. Two new men and three new women now live and work with us, and I am blessed daily by their presence in my life and in the life of Little Lights as a whole.

This fall brings with it some challenges, and I would ask you all to pray with me as we meet them. First of all, we have lost a significant amount of funding this year. It is nothing we did - certain grantors just didn't have as much money to give this time around, so they gave us several tens-of-thousands of dollars less. In an organization our size, this is a quite significant amount of money to lose. We are not despairing - not in the least. We know God will provide for us. But we are left to be a little more creative when it comes to fund raising. I know that what we need will be provided, but I also know that it will probably require some good old-fashioned hard-work. Pray that we are up to the challenge, and that we are led to people (and people are led to us) who are eager and able to contribute.

Secondly - please pray for our banquet and silent auction. It will be held on October 4, at the Hilton Arlington. Our guest speaker is Brian McLaren (a big name who I know next to nothing about). We are trying to gather items for the auction, and so far we have been very blessed (a Gilbert Arenas signed jersey, a Redskins signed football, a $100 gift certificate to Clyde's), but we need more. It is a big event for a small organization, and right now we feel a little bit daunted.

So that's it. Homework Club begins on Monday, and I will fill you all in on the kids, and how they're doing now that school has begun. I cannot wait to see them. My life feels like it's missing something when I don't. They're dears, and I'm so lucky (read: blessed) to have them in my life.