Good News Club

This afternoon the first official After-school Good News Club was held in the Greater Little Rock area!

Actually, the club was held in a school district outside of Little Rock in the small community of Vilonia. We had fifteen children in attendance, and the club went off without a hitch. It was the very first After-school Good News Club I had ever attended, taught, and supervised. It was a little backwards, but it worked. God sometimes surprises me with crazy things like that.

I continue to experience moments of culture shock here in Arkansas, and today was no exception. When CEF first starts an After-school Good News Club in a new school you expect people to be a bit leary or suspicious of the program, as if we where there to brainwash the children with our dirty Jesus-talk. I "expected" that this would be the case in Vilonia as well. Not so. From the moment we walked in the school personnal were laughing and joking around with the team, which consisted of the children's pastor and three other members of the congregation.

As we walked into the library to set up our sign-in station, the librarians greeted us warmly with their soft southern drawls, and a few minutes later one of them whipped out a photo album. The three older members of our team flocked over to her ooo-ing and aw-ing over pictures of her grandchildren. Pastor Dan must have read my mind as I stood there watching this scene unfold. "Yeah, this is a real closed-knit community...", he said by way of explanation. I flashed him a smile, not minding one bit. There are times when I am thankful for smooth sailing and receptive hearts!

I can't help but fall in love with the people of Arkansas. I am really such a snob sometimes, but if I had to stick around here for awhile, I don't think it would be the worse thing. In fact, it just might be the best thing that's ever happened to me. Confession time? Little Rock is starting to feel like home, and the people here are leaving their mark on my heart.