"Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in hand because of his age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there." Zechariah 8:4-5
This vision reflects the vision we think God has for East Palo Alto. As it was in the days of the rebuilding of the temple, the solution for East Palo Alto will be a massive heart change of the people, a turning to God by the youth and their families. This is an amazingly daunting task. It will need to be a large-scale, sustained effort to engage and disciple the youth of the city. It will need to be a work of the Lord through MANY of His people.
But as God says in the next verse, "It may seem marvelous to these people at that time, but will it seem marvelous to me?" So we have faith, and are grateful for your prayer partnership in this effort to see the Lord work miracles.
Praises
Some of the AYSO coaches and referees have been able to get some time off of work or school to help with the Ravenswood School District's short soccer season. We are helping to coach as well, which has become a great opportunity to meet many more children, and to network with school district employees.
- AYSO discovered some surplus money with which they were able to donate much-needed equipment to the schools.
- The local law firm of Gray Cary is considering doing pro-bono work for us. Please continue to pray that they would accept our request!
- A previously hostile school board approved a proposal we helped craft that will allow us to rent the school facilities at a very reasonable rate, and that will save us a ton of time applying for facility use. This is really going to help us.
- We have a small Board that has approved Bylaws, and so we are off and running. We appreciate the Board’s time in the painstaking process of reviewing the Bylaws.
Glimpse From the Sidelines
One of Coach Shannon’s recent microlessons was in the form of a pre-game cheer
“I told you all that I'm a Christian. In the Bible in Romans 8 God says that nothing can separate us from God's love. God loves each one of you very much, and no matter what happens at the game today, nothing can separate you from that love, no power, not even death. So on the count of 3, our cheer will be, "Nothing! Nothing! Nothing!" It will be the strangest cheer anyone ever did! Ready?" Then they did the cheer very enthusiastically.
Next Steps
- During May and June we need to secure startup funding and recruit coaches. Without coaches, we simply can't run the league, and coaches have been difficult to recruit in the past. So, big time prayer request here. If you live locally, and would like to invite us to come recruit volunteers at your church or small group, please contact us at 650-327-5433 to set a time.
- One-time funding of $50,000 to get us set up for the big soccer league in September.
- People who will give monthly financial support.
For those of you who have asked how to help financially, there is new information at http://www.ravenswoodsports.org/donate.html.
Thanks,
Shannon and April Pekary