Passion.

          Since starting my internship at Cottage Cove this January, I have completely fallen in love with serving our kids. We have the privilege of ministering to the smartest, sweetest, funniest group of kids I could ever hope for. Whether it’s Philemon telling his funny stories, or K’niyah writing me sweet notes, or Tioana running up to hug me every time we’re in the same room; I honestly can’t imagine my life without these kids. I love every minute I spend with them. They have blessed me and changed my heart more than I can put into words. 

          As happy as our kids are, it can be easy to forget the kind of life they have to go home to. These past few weeks have been a heartbreaking reminder of that. We have heard story after story about the home life of our kids. Some families can’t afford food to have a meal for the holidays. So many of our kids have dad’s who are in jail, some have never known their dad outside of a prison cell. A little girl is trying to deal with the fact that her dad is an alcoholic who is constantly letting her down. Another has felt all alone since her parents divorced. And that is only a handful of stories out of the 60 kids that we see every day.   

           I have cried many tears for these sweet kids over the past few weeks. It absolutely breaks my heart that they have to go through all of this and experience so much pain. Through all of this and a lot of prayer, God has really revealed to me that this is why I am here. This is my calling in life, this is what I am passionate about. No matter what they have to go through, our kids know that Cottage Cove is a place where they will be loved. It is a place where they are kept safe. It is a place where they learn about Jesus, who loves them more than they could ever imagine. I am so blessed to be able to be a part of Cottage Cove, and I am so grateful that God has placed me here to be a part of these kids lives. 

 My service at Cottage Cove is a missionary internship, meaning that I am responsible for raising the entirety of my own support. I am completely reliant on your generosity to be able to continue living out God’s plan at this time in my life. I am so grateful for everyone who has already supported me throughout this year. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for your support and prayers, and I won’t be able to continue my internship without you. I would like to ask you to prayerfully consider financially supporting me as I finish out my internship and pour God’s love into the children of inner city Nashville. Any amount that you are able to give will be very much appreciated, and all designated gifts to Cottage Cove for my support are 501(c)3 tax-deductible. You can make donations online at http://cottagecove.org/internssb.htm. I thank you in advance for your prayers and support, and for allowing me to continue in this ministry.

A Day at the Farm

A few weeks ago we took a few of our kids on a field trip to Ring Farm, and we just had the best time. All of the adults were responsible for a few kids throughout the day, and I had so much fun with my girls. They were so well behaved and had great attitudes the entire time. They spent most of the day making up songs about how much fun they were having and how much they love Cottage Cove. It melted my heart. 

We started off with a little school session. The kids learned about how corn and cotton grow, and even got to walk through a cotton patch and pick a cotton flower to take home. They also learned about miking cows, and had the chance to practice on a cardboard cow.

Makala and Brionna with their cotton flowers.

Sweet K'niyah learning how to milk a cow.

Next up was a hayride through the woods. I think this was my favorite part of the day. The girls spent the entire time laughing, singing songs, and making up silly chants. The destination of our hayride was a pumpkin patch, and everyone got to pick one to take home.

Singing on the hayride.

After the hayride we had a few hours to roam around the farm. We got lost in a corn maze, played on some gigantic slides, and climbed around on a tower of tires. They had glow sticks for sale, and a few of the kids bought some for themselves, and all of their friends. It warmed my heart that they were so willing to spend their money on their friends to they wouldn't feel left out.

Our girls. They called themselves "Team Go Fish" all day.

Girls with pink glow sticks.

I had more fun with the kiddies that day than I have in a long time. I always love it when we get to spend uninterrupted time with them and just show them love. We have some of the coolest kids at Cottage Cove and I'm so happy that I have the chance to get to know them.

fall break.

Our kiddos were on fall break last week, and it was just the best week. We didn’t have to worry about getting homework done; we just got to hang out with the kids. We had a lot less than usual, so we got to spend a lot more one-on-one time with them. We also got to see a lot of the older students that don’t get to make it on a regular basis during the school year. I had so much fun hanging out and getting to know the kids better. We played many games of kickball, football, and dodge ball. We played bible study games and learned the Hebrew alphabet. I learned that one of our kids has plans to play in the NBA someday. If that falls through his next choice is to be a doctor or a lawyer. It warms my heart to hear the kids talk about their dreams. I feel extremely blessed to be able to be a part of their lives. I love them so much and there is nothing else I would rather do than spend time with them. 

photo courtesy of my sweet friend Emily :)

lunch buddies.

My lunch buddy, K'niyah

Every time I walk into the school that most of our kids go to, I feel like a rock star. They don't expect to see us at school, so when they do they get excited. Everywhere I turn there is another kid saying "Miss Sara, Miss Sara!!" and asking for a hug. I can't even put into words how much I love these kids and how much they mean to me. It warms my heart that they are so happy to see all of us who work at Cottage Cove. Anyways, the reason for our visit to the school this week was for Lunch Buddies. Lunch Buddies is a program that allows us to go to the school and eat lunch with one of our kids twice a month. This was our first week, and I absolutely loved it. Having 50 kids in our building everyday, its hard to just get one-on-one time with them. Being lunch buddies gives us a chance to have some time to just be with them without being interrupted by a dozen other kids.  So the fact that I get to go eat lunch and hang out with sweet girl is such a blessing. We talked about her family, her friends in her class, and bible study. I tried, and failed, to get her to eat vegetables. At the end of her lunch time she gave me a hug and said, "Miss Sara, I want you to come eat lunch with me everyday." This was definitely the highlight of my week. I'm already looking forward to next Wednesday.

Kids are funny.

Especially our kids. They constantly make me laugh. Here are some of my favorite funny moments from the past few weeks.

Everyday we walk to the kids school and pick them up, and then walk them back to Cottage Cove. The kids all have partners for the walk, and they have to hold hands. One boy was complaining about having to do so, so I told him that one day he was going to want to hold hands with a girl. He responded: "Yeah, if I'm falling off a cliff."

Last week on this walk, a few boys burst out into song. Their song of choice? Who Let the Dogs Out. 

A 2nd grade boy said: "I actually have eight arms. I just keep the rest of them in my backpack so nobody can see them."

Two third grade boys were talking to me about their girl troubles.

"I don't have a girlfriend because when I try to talk to girls, I get shy."

"Me and my girlfriend have been together since 2nd grade. We have our fights and  disagreements, but we always work it out."

During bible study, a little girl asked "If Mary is Jesus' mom, does that mean that she is God's wife, or are her and God just boyfriend and girlfriend?"

It was explained to me that only people with swag should wear snapbacks. Because if you don't have swag you won't be able to pull it off.

 One sweet little girl said to me "Miss Sara, I love you more than my birthday."

I love my kiddies. 

learning.

This summer went by so fast. It was fun, but it was also crazy.  I had a lot more responsibility than I have ever had before, and that caused me to be stressed out a large majority of the time.

I was in charge of the afternoon program, which meant I had to keep all of the volunteers and work studies busy, write the schedule and keep track of 40 kids, as well as keeping up with the paper work and office work that needed to be done everyday. I was doing the best that I could, but a lot of times I felt like I was doing everything on my own. I basically had to learn as I went along, and I know that there were a lot of things I could have done better. It was not easy, but I know I learned a lot from it. I learned a lot that is helping be able to able grow, and be able to better serve the kids at Cottage Cove.

It was also a really fun summer. The kids had the opportunity to do some awesome things. One of which was to be on stage at the Bridgestone Arena with Roger Waters. 15 of our older students learned a dance that went along with the chorus of Another Brick in the Wall. We practiced the dance with them everyday for weeks. They worked so hard, and their hard work definitely paid off. On the night of the concert we went to the Arena and we had our own dressing room backstage and everything. They did a dress rehearsal, and then we were brought pizza for dinner. When it was finally time for them to perform they were on stage in front of 17,000 people. They did such a good job. I couldn't have been more proud of them.

On stage with Roger Waters.

Hanging out in the dressing room.

The whole group.

 The kids that were in our day camp program got to go on field trips once a week. They went everywhere from touring a Krispy Kreme factory to laser tagging. I was able to go on a few field trips with them, one of which was to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens. Along with the gardens, they have a bunch of cool tree houses that the kids got to play on. It was a lot of fun.

sweeties.

Rainbow fish tree house

Pirate ship tree house

Willy.

Jordan :)

Now that the summer is over, we are starting to get back into the routine of picking the kids up from school, helping them with homework, and teaching bible studies. Everything is going great so far, and I think it is going to be a good year. 

If you are interested in reading my support letter or supporting me as I continue my internship, you can do so by clicking on this link: http://www.cottagecove.org/internssb.htm

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support!

summer.

Summer at Cottage Cove is a crazy time. We have kids in the building from 8 in the morning until 5:30 at night. The kids we work with are almost an entirely different group of kids than the ones we work with during the school year. There are a lot of brand new kids that are still in the process of getting acclimated to our rules and structure, which can cause a little bit of chaos, as well as a few lost free times. Pair all that with the construction projects going on that prevent us from using half of the building, and its sure to be an interesting summer.

During the summer, there are two separate programs going on at Cottage Cove. Day camp lasts from 8 until 3, and then regular program is from 3-5:30. This summer, I have been put in charge of regular program. Being in charge is not something that I have ever considered myself to be good at.  I don't enjoy telling people what to do. And knowing that I am responsible for keeping track of 30-40 kids a day is a little unnerving. Needless to say, I was pretty nervous when the first day of summer program rolled around. And the first week was extremely stressful. I felt like I never even had a spare moment to catch a breath. Its hard to keep track of 40 kids when you haven't even learned half of their names yet. Oh, and it didn't help that we now have three sets of identical twins. But now, a week later, I've got all of their names down and things seem to be going much smoother. Praise the Lord. I know I'm not doing this on my own. But with His help, I'm beginning to get the hang of it.

All that being said, summer time is also just really fun. Without the stress of homework, we get to spend a lot more time just hanging out and bonding with the kids. We also have water day every Wednesday, which is always the highlight of the week. I pretty much lost my voice from shouting out instructions to all of the games for two hours, but I got to play on a giant slip n slide all afternoon so it was well worth it. We also continue to teach Bible studies and do bible memorization in the summer. When I first started this internship, I always dreaded the days where I knew I had to teach. Teaching has also never been one of my strong suits. But now, I almost look forward to teaching Bible study. Another one of the ways that God has been growing me throughout this process.

I'm so excited for the rest of this summer. 

K'niyah

Nequilla

William, Jayla and Brayden

Destiné and Keniia

Siblings and best friends. They melt my heart.

Kamryn and Mya

blessed.

The past few months have been crazy. I feel like I have always had something to do or somewhere to be.  But this is not in any way a bad thing. I have been surrounded by people that I love, and I am fully aware that my life here in Nashville has been blessed way beyond what I deserve.  I have been growing closer to so many friends, and more importantly closer to God.  He has made it abundantly clear that this is where I am supposed to be. It is a rare occasion that the thought "this is the best day ever" doesn't cross my mind at least once a day.

I have a job that is absolutely perfect for me. I get to hang out with 70 kids everyday. I can't even think of anything I would rather do. I even find myself missing them over the weekend by the time Sunday night rolls around. The hours of 3:15-5:30 are always the very best part of my day. Every single one of the kids have stolen my heart in some way or another, but I find myself being kind of partial to the younger half of our kids. I teach bible study to those in grades K-2, so I have become kind of attached. Particularly to a few adorable kindergarteners.

This sweetie pie is named Jaeda, and that smile never leaves her face. She is the happiest little girl you could ever hope to meet. Everyday she greets me with a big hug, as well as a quick update on the happenings of her and her fellow kindergarteners.

This is Dejuantez, and we are quickly becoming best friends. Every time we are ever in the same room he runs up to me to give me a hug.  He asks if we have bible study everyday, and when the answer is yes his reaction is pure excitement. He always says, "I love you Miss Sara" before he leaves, and it just melts my heart.

Playing basketball has also become one of my favorite things, because it means that I get to hang out with these three cuties. They're all actually very good, and sometimes they try to let me win, or at least catch up with them. Once, Dejuantez even offered to score some points for me. What a sweetheart.

Ok. Its getting late and I'm getting tired. So I'll leave you with a few more pictures of the kids that bless me everyday.

homework.

Sometimes it can be hard to motivate the kids to actually work on their homework. They tend to lolygag and procrastinate as long as possible before actually picking up the pencil and doing the work. I was having this problem this week when I was working with a spunky fourth grader named Patrick. He was supposed to be working on his division homework, but was really just futzing around. He finally raised his hand and said that he didn't know how to do the assignment, and needed help. When I suggested that we both work out the problem and see who could get the right answer first, he suddenly remembered exactly how to do it and accepted the challenge. He proceeded to easily solve all of the problems correctly, and he even checked my work to make sure I didn't make any mistakes, and rewarded me with three stars. The next day when we were picking up the kids from the school, Patrick came up to me and said, "Miss Sara, I have math homework today! You're gonna help me with it right?" It made me happy that he was actually looking forward to doing his work, and that I was actually able to help him understand his assignment.




On a side note the kids had pajama day at school this week, and they all looked so cute that I had to snap a few pictures. Enjoy. :)

Jaden and Jaylen.

Jaeda and Arianna

silly girls. 

Field Trip.

Helping kids with their homework is a huge part of the program at Cottage Cove. Everyday the kids have to work on and finish their homework before they can play games or do any of the other free time activities. Each time they finish a homework assignment correctly, they are rewarded by receiving homework stars. Every month we do a field trip of some sort, and the kids with the most homework stars that month are the ones that get to go on the field trip.


The field trip for March took place on Sunday. A group from a local church came in to Cottage Cove and put on an easter egg hunt for the kids. So for a few hours on Sunday night I got to hang out with some kids, eat hot dogs for dinner, and help them search for easter eggs that were hidden in plain sight. The group also helped the kids with a craft and did a short devotional. The kids all had a great time, and so did I. Its always a blast when we get to just hang out with the kids. Here are a few pictures from the evening.

A group of the kiddies before the egg hunt. 

Patrick :)

Sweet little Jaeda and the bookmark she made. 

Michael holding a bunch of the eggs he snatched up.

Me, Miss Kirby, and some pretty cute kids :)

Were expecting to be low on help this week due to all of our college students being on spring break, but I'm looking forward to it none the less. If you're free at all this week feel free to stop by and hang out with some awesome kids. :)

No Such Thing as a Stupid Question

I teach bible study to the younger kids at Cottage Cove (K-2) twice a week. We have been going through the beginning of Genesis and teaching them about creation. Talking about Heaven and how animals and people were created with kids of such a young age always causes them to ask some interesting questions, which leave me with some pretty cute stories to tell.

One little kindergartener named Kayla likes to get us off track by asking some pretty innocent questions. One day we were talking about The Ten Commandments, and we when got to “Thou Shall Not Steal” she raised her hand and asked, “Miss Sara,  can God go to jail?” I then explained to her that God isn’t human like us, and He is perfect so there would be no reason for him to go to jail. She didn’t quite understand and went on to say that it’s not fair for God to be able to steal something and not have to go to jail. Only after once again explaining that God is perfect and never steals anything did she understand.  

Another day when we were talking about Heaven, a little girl asked me if there would be toilets in Heaven. I was kind of caught off guard by the question, but I told her that nobody knows what Heaven is like for sure, but I was pretty sure that we wouldn’t need to use toilets once we were in Heaven. Then she explained her reasoning for asking. She said “But what happens if someone dies while they’re using the bathroom? How will they finish?”

Needless to say, these kids are curious about the bible and always want to know more. I’m so happy that I get to teach such and awesome group of kids about how much God loves them.

Also, here are a few pictures we took playing outside with the kids on Fun Friday.

Change

I'm usually not a big fan of change. I actually tend to avoid it all costs. However this year everything about my life changed when I packed up and moved to Tennessee for my internship at Cottage Cove. I went from living in a place full of people that I had known my entire life to living in a place where there were very few familiar faces. Even though I was very excited about my internship and the life that I imagined myself living in Nashville, a part of me was still scared. Scared of the unfamiliar, scared of being outside of my comfort zone, and just scared of changing my entire life. Now that I am 2 months into my internship, I could not be any happier that I listened to God despite my fears.

I love working at Cottage Cove. It was kind of intimidating at first,  I had to find ways to connect with 70 kids when I could barely remember their names. Now, 2 moths later, I love every single one of those kids. I feel like I have been truly blessed with this opportunity to have an impact on their lives. I love playing with them on the playground, and helping with their homework. And even though teaching has never been my favorite thing to do, I love teaching them about the bible.

I feel like it is clear that this is exactly where God wants me to be at this stage of my life. He has been making that very evident throughout the past months. I have been blessed with great friends here, and He has continued to provide me with everything that I need. I have been learning to trust the fact that God has a plan, and no matter what trials I have to go through, everything will work out according to his purpose.

This has already been an amazing experience, and I am so excited to see what the next year has to hold.