Hundreds of people and dozens of churches joined together to celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., during the January 16-19 weekend. St.Paul Presbyterian Church hosted the youth program on Friday night. Our youth church members joined with others through song, prayer, dance, and drama to ask the question, "What are you doing for others?" The highlight of the evening was a dance by Galilee Miissionary Baptist Church that ended with everyone being asked to hold up a Scarlet ribbon to show the unifying blood of Christ that brings us all together no matter our race or social station in life.

Saturday night was gospel fest at New Jerusalem Church of God in Christ. Churches shared their choirs, soloists, drama and mime troops. An offering was collected to help with scholarships in honor of MLK.

On Sunday afternoon, we returned to St. Paul to worship, sing, and hear an inspirational message. Monday 's worship service was held in the historically black section of town for the first time.

Vera Lloyd Presbyterian Family Services has been a safe place for children and youth for more than 100 years. Our agency has its corporate office and counseling center in Little Rock, Arkansas and its children's home in Monticello, Arkansas. Our 40 staff members are committed to sharing Christ's healing love with children, youth and families in crisis. All youth in our care are in state custody. They are in our care for emergency shelter, long-term residential, therapeutic group homes or transitional living for youth aging out of foster care. Many of our youth have lived lives marked by chaos, violence, truancy, drug use, poor nutrition, lack of safety and unstable home environments. As one youth told our school supervisor, "I want to stay here. I share my home with 17 other people. At Vera Lloyd, I know I have a safe place to sleep and a warm meal to eat." Our 45-acre children's home campus includes five homes, all with beds for eight children. House parents live in each home and model a positive family environment. Most of our youth are ages 14 to 18. They all have treatment plans, visits with a professional counselor, chores to do and other opportunities to master independent living skills. For many, their time with us is the first time they've had regular recreational activities or the opportunity to go to church, see a play, go to a college football game or learn how to cook. Last year, Vera Lloyd was home to 163 youth from all over the state of Arkansas. Here they have a safe place to stay, clothes, shoes, food, school supplies, birthday parties, holiday celebrations and more. All youth are given a Bible and a handmade quilt to keep. The Synod of the Sun grant allows Vera Lloyd to complete one more step to improve safety on campus. With the grant, we are purchasing a storage building that volunteers will customize with shelving. The building will be used by house parents in one home to store gas, lawn mowers, cleaning supplies and other potentially dangerous items that must be kept secure.

THE POSSIBILITY TO DO SOMETHING NEW 

I will be participating in a Travel Study Seminar organized by the Presbyterian Mission Agency in coordination with our partners in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador to investigate and understand the context and respond to the needs of the thousands of Central American children who are crossing the border. We are 17 Presbyterians from different cultural, racial and generational backgrounds. The trip is scheduled for January 24 - February 1, 2015, and will include visits with a Presbyterian Border Region Outreach (PBRO) ministry site as well as visits with ecumenical partners in Guatemala and El Salvador.

This experience will start before heading to the border, as participants will be invited to explore how immigration touches all of us regardless of where we live and to discover the borders and immigrants in our own communities. The current wave of immigration is rooted in decades of poverty, failed government policies, broken families, lack of protection for children, and violence plaguing Central America's northern triangle - Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. We will be listening to the often-unheard voices of children and families sharing why they make the difficult decision to head northward. We will wrestle with complex issues in order better to understand the root causes of immigration. We will explore how these various forces interconnect in the current exodus, delve into theological analysis and see how our global partners are engaging these issues. Together we will discern how we are called on to respond, identifying actions that can contribute positively to our world. Here are some of the goals of this trip:

• Experiencing the US/Mexico Border with Presbyterian Border Region Outreach
• Crossing into Central America on the Mexico/Guatemala Border
• Engaging with expert political, economic, social and theological analysis to unpact
• Exploring strategic ways that we as Christians can actively address the root causes and multiple effects of migration.

• Hearing both rural and urban voices and seeing their daily realities through fellowship, conversation, worship, and study with global partners in Guatemala and El Salvador

This is more than a good opportunity to learn something new, is in fact the possibility to do something new.