freedom ARTS project

most people around the peoria area have hopefully had the chance to hear about the dream center. in a nutshell, this place has a huge impact on families in the surrounding area by doing awesome stuff for the youth. anything from athletic programs, setting up community service projects for kids, after school programs, donations to help kids out, and something they just started within the past couple of months called the freedom ARTS project.

this program is an awesome way to change the community by teaching youth lessons in the arts, and it takes place in a weekly class setting. i had the privilege of helping out by teaching guitar lessons this past summer, and it truly was an awesome experience. the program is getting ready to start it's second session in the next few weeks and i can't wait to teach another group of kids how to play guitar. although, it's hard to teach rookie guitarists how to play like jimi hendrix by the end of an 8-week course (A. because i can't even play like jimi, and B. because guitar is stinkin' hard to just pick up and play well). still it's so cool to be building relationships and having the opportunity to show Jesus' love through this program. in some cases we may never know what we mean to someone just by building a friendship with them. how cool is that? extremely! and sure it's tough not always knowing if you've had a huge affect on someone, but that's not what it's really about.

here's a cool idea. if you live in the peoria area (or you're up for a commute) and you play an instrument, paint, do photography, sing, write, make stuff out of clay, draw really well, record music, do videography, or if you're into anything else in the arts and you want to teach...you should sign up to help! why? because it's only one day a week for 8 weeks? nah. because they pay really well? no. because when we help others we help ourselves? nope, that's not it. hmmm...oh, that's right...because serving others is serving the Lord. now if that doesn't make you excited, i'll fall back on my "it's a scientific fact that helping people makes you physically feel better" card. and that, my friend, is a card that wins them all.