​May 14, 2018, was our last day of tutoring for the school year. We hosted several celebrations for our students and appreciation parties for our volunteers.

We are so grateful to serve the community of East Palo Alto. The hard work that each volunteer did this school year and last summer made a huge impact. It was a blessing to work with them. 

This school year, we were blessed with an influx of new students and new tutors. In fact, the apartment has gotten so crowded that we’ve moved our 5th graders across the street with the middle school students. ​

We also arranged several fun activities for the students, especially around the holidays. We took a field trip to the Bethlehem experience and hosted a Christmas party with gifts.

​On Saturday, May 12, 2018, a group of 7 volunteers was able to serve 14 homeless people. This was a two-part outreach.

During this outreach, we got in contact with my friend Nelva, who goes to church at the Christian Worship Center. She supplied pastries, breakfast burritos, and fruit for us to pass out. This was an event where we were able to set up tables, and have the homeless come to us, and whatever extra we had, we went out to the encampments and passed out.

On Saturday, April 21, 2018, our team of 8 volunteers went out to serve 8 homeless people. We distributed socks, food, toilet paper, water, hand wipes, bug spray, lotion, toothpaste, batteries, and toothbrushes. 

​Most of the items we handed out are staples for the homeless, but the items that impacted them the most at this time were the bug spray and AA batteries. A lot of them like to listen to the radio during the night time; meanwhile, since summer is coming soon, mosquitos have become quite troublesome, since they live near the creek.

In the picture below, we took a group picture with Jerry, who is an African-American with the blue button-up short sleeve shirt right in the middle of the picture. 

On Saturday, March 10, 2018, a team of 14 volunteers went out to serve the homeless. We distributed socks, beanies, food, blankets, water, hand wipes, and rain ponchos to about 11 homeless people.

​During this season, it has been extremely cold and raining profusely. We wanted to provide items that will help keep them warm and dry. Normally clothing items are very helpful since they don’t have much opportunities to wash their clothes. 

​We got to have conversations with the people we see on a regular basis. We talked about possibly taking them out to lunch and getting to know them personally. We are trying to show them the love of Christ, and to get to know them on a personal basis. We are hoping that this will open doors up for them to come visit our church and accept Jesus Christ. One of the people we help out named Mike isn’t really for church, but he said he would be open to visiting Echo Church, which is our local church, one Sunday. 

​What do these colleges all have in common? They are schools that our students aspire to attend. 

Our low-income tutoring program serves elementary and middle school students, and some of our previous students are now in high school. But we can tell how the East Palo Alto students who have attended our program have college ambitions that differ from their peers in the area. It is very exciting that we have the privilege of encouraging these students at such an early age.

Marcus Givens, the Development Officer of O'Keefe's parent ministry BCM, shared the following: 
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I want to share with you a very encouraging conversation I heard, when I recently visited CREATE Studios, our STEAM (science, tech, engineering, arts and math) program. Kids were doing their homework, and I had the fun of helping a very bright young lady, whom we’ll call Delfina*, with her algebra.

Maybe what stood out the most was the seemingly everyday conversation about colleges. I sat next to Delfina, who wants to be an engineer or maybe a doctor. She wants to go to Stanford, but knows it's tough to get into. This didn't phase her of course. She began to explore other schools, and other students, while working on their homework, chimed in.

​On Saturday, February 24, 2018, our homeless ministry had its first meeting for the semester. We did not do any outreach because we wanted to go over goals and plans for this semester. Also, I wanted to go over the rules and provide an introductory meeting for newcomers. We had 9 volunteers show up. During the meeting we enjoyed fellowship over some Chinese egg rolls and got to know more about each other. This semester we have 8 returning volunteers and 6 new ones.

​My goals for this semester are to get our volunteers to grow closer together and to build a bond beyond the homeless outreach. God has put it on my heart to put love as our goal, loving the people we serve, and also the people we serve with.

​I explained to the volunteers about how we love Christ because He first loves us, and that Christ’s love compels us. I wanted to explain to the volunteers that it’s not about the items we hand out, or what we say, but it's about if the people see genuine love from us, and that if we consistently go out there and remember each one of them by name. 

Santa Clause wasn't the only one getting free cookies at Christmas. On December 23, 2017, we handed out holiday treats, along with practical supplies, to our homeless neighbors.

​Normally people only think about bringing basic necessities to the homeless, which is a great thing to do, but we decided to do something different this outreach. We focused on bringing things like cookies and candy to brighten up their holiday spirits. We wanted to go beyond just providing the basic necessities, by providing them things they would truly enjoy.

On Monday, December 18, 2017, we had a great turnout for our Christmas party! Many thanks to Sierra for organizing and prepping all the presents! Thank you to all the tutors for helping out. We are so blessed to have you! Merry Christmas everyone, and hope you enjoy the holiday season!

This fall, not only did we help with the big Thanksgiving event for the homeless at Forager, but we also continued with our regular visits to the encampments. 

On a typical Saturday, we have about 15 volunteers going to serve about 8-10 homeless people. We’ve distributed tire repair kits, water, canned foods with crackers, socks, and shoes. These supplies have provided the homeless with basic necessities to get by on a day to day basis.

This kind of service provides new volunteers with the experience of interacting with people who are homeless. It allows people to talk with them on a personal level and understand the conditions that they go through on a daily basis.

​​Learning is fun when it’s under the sea! On Saturday, November 11, 2017, a group of 18 of us went to Monterey Bay Aquarium for a 3-hour field trip. We had 2 middle school students, 10 elementary school students, and 6 volunteers.

​We had the fortune of being accepted to the Free-to-Learn program at the aquarium, similar to last year. This provided us with tickets for all the students and tutors.