Health and Safety Week

This is the second semester we’ve had senior nursing student interns placed at Granny’s House, and you’re probably wondering, “Why in the world would you need nurses at Granny’s House?”

To be honest, I actually asked myself that same question when their supervising professor at the University of Missouri’s Sinclair School of Nursing first approached us with the idea of placing senior students at Granny’s House for a semester. Serving at Granny’s House, she believes, will give the students invaluable experience in working with “vulnerable populations” – giving them a 3-D, close up view of what they learn in their Community Health class.

Jessica Garcia Oyervides and Deidre Brookins have been a tremendous asset to Granny’s House. We believe the Nursing School, again, sent us the “cream” of the cream of the crop students!!

Their internship began with several weeks of just hanging out with the kids, participating in a variety of groups and activities as a means of getting to know the kids and assess how to best address the health needs of their families, and the community.

The fruit of their season of full immersion into Granny’s House was the development of “PASSPORT to Health and Safety” - a full week of demonstrations and hands-on activities to teach the kids the basics of keeping safe and living a healthy lifestyle.

The kids learned everything from personal hygiene and “When to Go to the Doctor,” to how to interact with the police, and what to do with a burns and broken bones. The kids especially loved visiting with “Organella,” a special teaching doll whose zippered compartments allow the kids to see her various organs and body systems…

Jessica and Deidre not only planned the week’s activities, they also recruited volunteers, collected supplies, and raised the funds to purchase the first aid and hygiene kits that every family at Granny’s House received. We cannot thank Jessica, Deidre, and the many community sponsors enough for such a fun, informative week at the Granny’s House! We all learned a lot.

PEOPLE STORIES – Part 3, John

No one would ever describe John as subtle. Not by his raucous laughter, and certainly not by the way he bounds up the stairs at Granny’s House every day. Even when he’s trying to be quite, our African friend from Burundi is loud.

As is typical, I heard him long before I saw his bright-eyed face appearing at the office door. Moments later, he walked in and noisily plopped into a chair beside Crystal, our new mom-volunteer who had just signed in to begin the day’s volunteer duties.

“Granny Pam!” he nearly shouted. “I need to know about God…” he said. “I got this Bible, but I need to know God.” John is Ira’s friend and, before, the two of them enjoyed making mischief together. But Ira’s dramatic transformation at KAA had peaked John’s interest in God.

It’s not very often that someone makes that kind of unvarnished inquiry, so I quizzed him to see exactly what he had in mind. “The Bible?” I said. “There’s a whole lot about God in that book...what do you want to know?”

“Everything!” he said. “I want to know everything… like, how YOU got God.”

Since he said “Everything!” I began sharing the unabridged version of how I became a Christian decades ago. He seemed fascinated, listening carefully to every detail. As he sat pondering what he’d just heard, I turned and faced Crystal, who was sitting there savoring the leftovers of what I had just shared with John.

“Crystal?” I asked. “I know you’re excited about going to church and everything, but have you ever had a time in your life when you knew you believed the Gospel, that you had given your life to God... that you were forgiven?”

“Oh yes!” she said with a beaming smile. “It happened the first day I went to church a few weeks ago.” I still recall that day when she sat crying throughout the entire worship service. On the way home she said, ”for the very first time in my life, I didn’t want to leave.”

There’s hardly ever a subtle moment with John, and there’s nothing subtle about God’s passionate desire to claim the hearts of the ones He loves on Trinity Place. Ira, Crystal, John - all three like dominos falling into the grace of God... -Granny Pam

People Stories, Part 2 – Ira Desirè

Ten-year-old Desirè (pronounced Da-zee-ray) arrived at our doorstep not long after his arrival from a Tanzanian refugee camp.* I don’t think I had ever encountered anyone quite like him. At times, we all experienced great frustration trying to break into his world.

I still remember a conversation during his first year at Granny’s House: “Well, Sweetheart... we really want you to know just how happy we are that...” End of conversation! He lowered his head, turned and walked away mid-sentence. Every now and then, his emotions came hurtling out, and woe to the one who had to endure his angry tirades! He seemed to love slinging that dreaded “N” word around when he taunted neighborhood boys. The parents of his peers were hesitant to have their kids hang out with him…

It seemed that no one was able to span the wall behind which he stored his emotions; emotions he had amassed during his first ten years in Africa where he, his parents, and seven siblings lived with constant hunger, fear, and danger while roaming from nation to nation, camp to camp, seeking safety from genocide, war, and famine. Although difficult for the entire staff, we believed that the Lord brought Desirè to us so that he might experience real “childhood” for the first time in his life. A childhood filled with God’s love, kindness and peace. Quite often, however, we felt like feeble tutors.

Fast forward two years: After eight days at KAA (Kids Across America) Kamp with Granny’s House last summer, Desirè’s countenance is bright and he smiles and talks constantly. It’s not unusual to see him turning flips across our front yard. It’s as if Someone had peeled off the old Desirè – the one who, before, would not hesitate to hurl invective insults at you if you crossed him. Now, he peppers us with questions about God, the Bible, and what Heaven is like. He’s new inside out.

Recently, he told a staff member that people who know God, have joy. “So, I have a lot of joy!” he beamed. We can all see that and are getting to know the new Ira Desirè – the tall lanky kid whose cabin mates at KAA nicknamed him “Avatar;” the kid who personally invited us to his recent baptism where we got to hear him tell of his newfound relationship with the Lord. Yes, we believe in miracles… –Granny Pam




*African children first enrolled at Granny’s House in 2007 and, to date, fifty-percent of our enrolled children are from African and middle- eastern countries: Rwanda, Burundi, The Congo, Tanzania, Liberia, Sudan, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, etc.

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Serve the City

The young ladies of the 2010-2011 Princess Academy have been meeting for roughly a month now, and have been studying Paul the Apostle and the letter he wrote to the Colossian church. Their knowledge of the bible, and in-depth questions have made it an amazing year so far, and I can't wait to see what God has in store for the rest of our meetings!

After each week's lesson, the girls are challenged with the following question "How can you live out what we just learned?" Whether it's studying the worship of idols, purity, or serving others, the girls are always expected to put feet to the Gospel and have their lives reflect their beliefs.

Today, the girls "lived out" what they have been learning by serving the community alongside the Youth Community Coalition. You may remember last years event where the girls planted tulips alongside Providence Road along with other Columbia youth. This year...we did something a little different!

One thing Columbia is known for is its beautiful MKT Trail. Alongside the trail, runs a stream which the girls helped clean this morning! With trash bags, trash pickers and gloves in hand, the girls made their way down the stream and helped "Beautify Columbia!" It was a great experience for them, and a great way for them to live out their faith!!

People Stories (part 1)-Crystal

In our nearly ten-year history on Trinity Place, this was the very first time we had ever enrolled a new kid and signed on his mom to volunteer at the same time.

Crystal and her son had just moved to Columbia from Cairo, MO, and were not all that excited about living in public housing. All that changed, however, when she learned about Granny’s House from another neighborhood mom.

“Honestly, this is the best place I’ve ever encountered... everybody makes us feel so homey... like
nobody is better than anyone else; like everybody is equal. When I walk in, I always feel loved,”
Crystal comments.

Crystal jumped in with both feet! Within days of enrolling her son, she went through the required Granny’s House Volunteer Orientation and stared her volunteer duties as a kitchen assistant everyday. She was thrilled to serve the kids who come to Granny’s House, but admitted that she just likes being in the atmosphere. She is our very first Granny’s House Mom-Volunteer!

Crystal, typically, begins her afternoons by visiting with the staff in the upstairs office and perks up whenever the conversation turns to the God/Church/Bible… She sits there taking it all in with wide-eyed wonder…

“Ohhhhhhh. I’d love to go to church,” she said one day; “But I don’t have a car...can I go?”

“Sure,” I responded. “We’ll pick you up when we come to get your friend and her kids, o.k.? I’ll be there around 10:15 Sunday morning.”

After her first time attending church in years, she confessed to crying through the entire service. “I had been to churches before, maybe ten years ago, but when I walked into The Crossing, for the first time in my life I didn’t want to leave,” she said. “I wanted him (Pastor Keith Simon) to keep going and going and going. I’ve only missed one service since that first time and I don’t plan on missing any more!”

(Crystal’s story will continue in “People Stories, Part 3 – John”)

Beauty!!

If you've been following our blog, or have been around Granny's House the last several years, you know that several of our "Spirit Riders" girls have participated in and event called the Extreme Mustang Makeover and have traveled to Texas, Tennessee and Illinois as a part of this challenge. This challenge requires youth from around the nation to train and "tame" a wild mustang for 90 days. At the end of this time, the youth get together and compete to show off their training skills, and see how well they did! Starr is one of our mustang trainers who has been participating in this event since the very beginning (3 years ago), and this year, was invited to participate in the challenge once again!

Starr and her trainers (Sue Crane and Riki Shipley) traveled to Mississippi a few weeks ago to pick up Starr's 3rd Mustang! Upon meeting her, Starr named her "Beauty" and INSTANTLY fell in love. Knowing that wild mustangs are often unpredictable, hesitant and avoid human contact out of fear, Starr was cautious as she approached Beauty. However, Starr must be a little "Mustang Whisperer" because the only time Beauty WAS happy...was when she was petting her!!

Starr has made AMAZING progress with her horse and on the second day back, she was already doing things that took her MONTHS with her other horses!

We are so proud of Starr and Beauty!

Back from camp!!!

We have been back from KAA for about 2 weeks, and have been going non-stop since! We had many adventures at camp this year, with some VERY hot weather, and a few "tough" situations, but for the most part it was a great time and we watched God move in a lot of ways!

This year we brought 37 children to camp, and all of the children had a great time (with very little homesickness...thanks for the prayers!). We also avoided the nurses office (last year we had 2 kids in the office overnight for several evenings), and had safe travels!

We have many stories to share that we will be posting several in the next few weeks. Until then...enjoy some pictures from our time at KAA! U-KNOW!!