Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Where did the time go? It literally seems like yesterday when we started 2020. Oh, how this year has really surprised the whole world and zoomed passed us (literally “Zoom”)! 

I want to first thank our church family, Emerald City Bible Fellowship (ECBF). They have been our backbone this year. We really began with nothing and the church helped in so many ways. We now have an office and a place where our students can gather and attend programs. The church has supported the youth financially, spiritually, and physically. That is what community is about. They look at us as family and we are blessed to have a church that has our back and where we are able to send our students if they don’t have a Bible-believing church they can call home.

I also want to thank my volunteers, friends, and family that have supported through prayer or by giving to financially support our ministry work. You have helped us so much! Through the ups and downs of ministry this year, we were able to thrive and sustain. 

Three Favorite Highlights of the Year:

• Winter camp in February was super fun and refreshing. We had 30 kids from our site alone that attended and half of them gave their life to Christ. 
• In the summer, we were able to do a youth service for ECBF. It was a blessing! As it fell during the beginning stages of Phase 2, we learned how to operate with masks and social distancing measures in place with our 15 students. It was amazing to see the students worship with dance, spoken word and music. 
• Lastly, this month we returned to Phase 1. Everyone was burnt out, tired of Zoom meetings, and ready for a break, but we still managed to have students come weekly to our online Zoom youth service. During these meetings, kids opened up and shared their hearts about God and what they feel about life. God showed me that I needed to have grace and this time wasn’t about me, it was a time for the students to express themselves outside of school and things they are required to do. 

Earlier this month, Cultured staff was able to deliver sweatshirts to those faithful 30 students, dropping them off at each of their houses. Their faces lit up with excitement and it was so good to see them in person after months everything being shut down.