New Life

This week, our theme at the Afterschool Program surrounded EGGS. We used eggs for art activities, science experiments (or EGGsperiments), games, races, riddles, and more. Eggs were significant this week because they represent the spring season and the Easter holiday since eggs symbolize new life.

With the spring season, we see new life with the sprouting of plants and flowers (an image soon to be seen at Tyler Square after all of the hard work put into our community garden). With the Easter holiday, we see new life in commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Even though Jesus' resurrection was a historical event that happened in the past, this event of rebirth can still have power in our lives today, similar to how we can be affected by the beauty and power of nature's rebirth via plants, images of which are easy to notice in our day-to-day lives during the season of spring.

It's important to feel reverence for the beauty and power of Jesus' resurrection too. This event shows us the power God has over death. Only God has power over death and only God can give the gift of life. At Tyler Square, this is so important to remember because the whole point of the Family Life Program is to help people transform and to start new lives. But if God is the only one with the power to defeat death and grant new life, then this act of transformation cannot happen apart from God. We need him. Desperately.

Below I have included pictures of an egg activity we did this week. Some of you probably have done this activity before--it's an egg toss. The whole point is to throw an egg back and forth between partners without breaking the egg. The kids and the volunteers had a lot of fun with this.

Even though we had a lot of fun, this game is challenging. Eggs are fragile, so, obviously, it's not easy to throw this fragile item around while not breaking it. Similarly, the lives of these kids are fragile. They've been thrown around by life's circumstances, and they desperately need the cushion of God's loving hands and the power of His healing to bring the pieces of their life back together, to build a new life.

I pray that the After-school Program acts as a medium that transmits God's love, creating an environment where the kids are nurtured and are able to transform from past hurts into new and exciting beginnings. Thanks to all of the support we receive from volunteers, from donors, and from the local community in general. We can't do it alone!