Blog
This is simply a place for our volunteers to tell stories, offer inspiration, and attempt to express how the PEACE Program has shaped our lives and the lives of the kids we love. We hope you enjoy hearing about our journey!
Better Together
by Larissa There’s this kindergartener. She’s about three and a half feet tall with wild ringlets. Creamy complexion. Big, dark brown eyes. She’s beautiful, lively, and rambunctious. And very practiced in the art of tantrum-throwing… We were in the middle of transitioning from homework time to snack time, which meant that several kids were anxiously waiting for instructions. And when I say ‘waiting’, I mean, scattering around the Orange Room (where I’m the room leader) with excitement. The lively kindergartener was skipping from one end of...
read moreWho Trains My Hands
By Amy A. Peace is not what you think it is. Neither, most likely, is our afterschool program. These first couple of weeks of the school year have had me thinking on those facts—on the quiet, holy tenacity that peace is made of, and on what we are really all about at the PEACE Program. If you browse our website, or if you come to an informational meeting for recruits, or if you stop by a fundraiser where we’re selling yummy food, to hear us talk about the program, you might get the impression that we think PEACE is pretty big deal....
read moreGood Work, Great Play
By Amy A. We took a four-week-long break between the end of this year’s afterschool program and the start of the summer program. It was much needed, especially since PEACE is no one’s full-time job, and we needed to attend to other parts of our lives, like going places, making money, and dreaming—literally and figuratively. During the break, I did a lot of talking about PEACE. Talking about vision, talking about needs, talking about what you can do to help. I talked with new volunteers and their parents, with church leaders who...
read more45 Things We Learned This Year
By Amy B., Amy A., Andrew, Michael, & Larissa I watched silently, as the chess game unfolded one move at a time. This requires amazing skill, I thought to myself, as the eight year-old and the college student each took their turns. Now, I wasn’t amazed at the skill required to play chess. Anybody can do that. I was impressed by the skill required for a college student to subtly lose at chess to an eight year-old who doesn’t know what she’s doing. I realized, watching the game, that the PEACE Program has taught us, the volunteers, skills...
read moreLooking Back
by Amy B. The PEACE Program keeps growing. It is exciting to see all the new ways that we are starting to expand and change. But just as it is important to look forward, I think it’s also valuable to look back. In the midst of administrative meetings and talking about the next steps for PEACE in the future, I have been finding myself looking back to PEACE’s first steps. We started the afterschool program in a small community room. Thinking back, I realize it seemed so big to me then, but compared to our...
read moreGrowth Spurt
By Amy A. Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do no hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes (Isaiah 54:2). Evidence suggests that God has spoken that word—increase, expansion of our sphere—over the Peace Program. As this season of growth has unfolded, I’ve come to realize that what really gets enlarged, stretched, lengthened, and strengthened are not some figurative, easy-come-easy-go borders. They are the cords of my heart, the bounds of my literal, practical, honest-to-goodness capacity to...
read moreThe Adventure Continues
by Larissa “I’m your knight in shining armor!” His exuberant voice rang into my ear, pulling my attention away from locating a pair of scissors and down onto his tiny yet lanky body. He was grinning from ear to ear with his arms stretched out wide, inviting me to bask in his brilliance. I ransacked my brain trying to remember what might have triggered the outburst. When it donned on me, a grin all my own spread across my face. Nearly half an hour earlier I had been attempting to stir him on to begin his work. And frankly, the ‘you can do...
read moreUnexpected Treasures
By Michael I am relatively new to the PEACE Program; I started volunteering at the beginning of the summer, 2012. I have not regretted a moment I have spent at #20 Devlin Place with all my kids, nor would I trade any one of them for anything else in the world. I was originally a little apprehensive about volunteering. The circumstances are not always the best at the PEACE Program. We have a modest sized space and a scarce amount of supplies, but the number of kids that come through our doors is anything but modest or scarce. Most of these...
read moreChristmas Lights
By Amy A. I’m not an event person. I like parties, but in moderation, kind of spread out. Crowds don’t make me nervous… just tired. And I like presents well enough, I guess, but gift-giving as a love language? Greek to me. That said, I have never in my life been so passionate about celebrating Christmas in every single little way possible as I am this year. Never have I had so much anticipation for a dinky Christmas party as I have for the one we’ll hold at Devlin #20 this week. And never has a Christmas tree meant so...
read moreHis Family at Peace
by Andrew When I first started working at the PEACE Program two and a half years ago, a lot of things were different. The program was in a different building, a much smaller and more cramped building. The kids were different, some moved away and others stopped coming. The snacks were different, consisting of unending boxes of old, sometimes-stale fiber one bars. I was different. I remember being asked to come PEACE because there were not enough male volunteers. The volunteer load at that time was transitioning to Amy B. and Amy A., and there...
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