The community center has been up and running for a month! Thank you all for praying for a good opening celebration and start to activities. At the opening party on the 1st we had a full house of neighborhood friends coming to see what the new place was all about and aside from having someone from our team speak about what we wanted to do and what we had planned we also had some of our local friends talk about what they hoped to see and accomplish through the center. We took advantage of the festivities and gathering to vote on the name of the center, from a list that we had been working on from our visioning meeting in March, and share the values of the center: family, hope and growth. These values are also products of our visioning meeting and are some of what we, as a team, feel is laking in the neighborhood and what we want to encourage in all activities.
Here at the end of the month we have five english classes going, a yoga class for women, a storying time for mothers and kids, and an ongoing conversation with young single guys from the neighborhood on the topic of doing a football (soccer) mentorship with kids. We are happy with all these projects and value them as initial networking activities but are still intently seeking locals who will lead projects. To help in this we will have an open neighborhood meeting on Wednesday the 11th in which we will invite locals to put forward ideas on how they can serve the community and have a follow up meeting for those interested in volunteering their time and effort toward making those ideas into realities. (Prayers appreciated)