Fall Greetings from FaithWorks, This past weekend was our annual community fall festival. Over 200 hundred families and children attended. It was a wonderful event filled with music, hotdogs, carnival games, face painting, a photo booth, pumpkin painting, and a family pumpkin carving competition. Thanks to a local car club, our families also got to enjoy a display of custom painted vintage cars. Our thanks to FaithWorks’ volunteers, donors, and students from Crossings Christian School for donating pumpkins and candy for this event. This upcoming weekend our teenagers will be attending the first ever FaithWorks’ fall retreat at the Central Oklahoma Camp and Conference Center near Guthrie. Students will be treated to various activities, including a hayride, s'mores, a scavenger hunt, and Bible studies. On Sunday they will travel to Yukon to attend Trinity Baptist Church Sunday services. Please pray for these students and leaders as they fellowship together and learn more about Jesus. November brings preparations for our children and staff Thanksgiving Dinner, as well as putting plans in place for our Christmas festivities. We will, once again, host the FaithWorks’ Living Nativity on Friday, December 2 from 6-7:30 p.m. We will also continue the tradition of hosting Christmas parities for our children and teens, as well as passing out the traditional red and white sacks to all Shidler students. This is all possible due to a bequest made by our precious friend, Doris Dahl. For many years Doris provided funding for the Shidler Christmas gifts and activities. Upon her death, she requested that those funds continue to be made available to FaithWorks. For the past seven weeks FaithWorks has hosted its first parenting class. This summer FaithWorks received a grant which included materials and training for the Raising Highly Capable Kids parenting program. I can not say enough about this program. Our parents are loving it! We meet each Tuesday evening for 13 weeks. We serve dinner and provide child care for our families. This program does not make our parents feel guilty about their parenting style, but instead is empowering them to see how their past has given them strengths they never knew they had. I believe it is one of the best programs FaithWorks has ever offered. Our class is comprised of couples, husbands, wives, widows, single mothers, and a teen couple with a ten-month-old daughter. This is the piece that FaithWorks has needed to help our families grow and become stable. In closing, although things may sound “rosy” at FaithWorks, there are still many traumatized children and families who are struggling with overwhelming issues. Please continue to pray for our staff and these families. Thank you for the funding to continue our programs and to meet the needs of our community. Blessings, Sally
An excerpt from our most recent staff meeting: The question posed was “What have you learned from working at FaithWorks?” “It is not all about Me.” “I have learned to love kids better.” ” I have become a better listener, and know that is important to our kids.” “I have learned that the way kids act is, most times, not about what is going on here, but what is happening at home.” “I have learned to pray for them, a lot.” “I have learned this place is sort of magical; it teaches you things you couldn’t learn anywhere else.”