A child can buy a hit of crack cocaine for only twenty-five cents on the streets of inner city Phoenix, the same price as a few pieces of bubble gum or hard candy at the local mini-mart. Skinny, waiflike prostitutes walk the streets of Van Buren waiting for someone to stop for them. A thirteen-year-old boy is jumped into a south side gang, spends his first night in “juvie”, and expects a life of living in and out of jail. That is the future he awaits, the legacy that is handed down to him. Twelve, thirteen year old girls become mothers. They only want to be loved, told they matter. They do not know there is a Father who longs for them to find that love in Him. Violence, fights, feuds, and even death occur because forgiveness and humility are foreign words. Has the enemy won? Has evil prevailed? Never! Where is God? Is he sitting in heaven fretting about what to do? Is he pitying his creation with his hands tied behind his back? Never! 

 
Into the hovels of the poor,
Into the dark streets where the homeless groan, God speaks:
"I've had enough; I'm on my way
To heal the ache in the heart of the wretched."

God's words are pure words,
Pure silver words refined seven times
In the fires of his word--kiln,
Pure on earth as well as in heaven.
 
Psalm 12:6,7 (The Message)
 

At Neighborhood Ministries, we know that summer is a dangerous time for a bored and hurting child. A simple dose of healthy activity can change the course of a summer and the direction of a young life.

Neighborhood Kids Club is a two-week, all-day summer camp serving more than 500 urban children. We've been doing Kids Club for eighteen years and it gets better every year.
 

Work Crew

The youth staff of Kids Club, called the Work Crew, consists of more than eighty young people who come from all walks of life, urban and suburban. Each Work Crew member commits to two weeks of away-from-home service to Jesus Christ. The team lives in community during the 2 weeks of Kids Club -- learning, working, praying and growing alongside one another. We provide training to this team of teens and young adults, preparing them for perhaps the hardest and best thing they have ever done.

The Neighborhood Kids Club program includes

• Fun, large-group worship 
• Age-appropriate Bible classes 
• Teaching in woodworking, cooking and more 
• Activity times with crafts, dance, drama, basketball, soccer, swimming, and more 
• Field trips to interesting and important places
• Big events where all children and staff take a memory-packed trip for a whole day to Canyon Lake