2014 01.31
Well-known American inventor and businessman Charles Kettering wasn’t far off when he said, “People are very open-minded about new things, as long as they are exactly like the old ones.” Change is a difficult thing for many of us simply because we’re comfortable with things as they are. Recognizing this truth – and taking a deep breath – we’re planning a pretty big change here at the 3 Mile Project.
Beginning with the weekend of February 13 – 15, we’ll be switching the nights that we host 5th and 6th graders and high school students. Our new schedule will be:
* Thursday evenings, 6 pm – 9 pm: high school students
* Friday evenings, 7 pm – 10 pm: 7th and 8th grade students
* Saturday evenings, 6 pm – 9 pm: 5th and 6th grade students
The reason for this change is simple. It’s our goal to reach as many young people as possible in our community – and we believe that this switch will allow us to do so. Specifically, we believe that more 5th and 6th grade students will visit us on Saturday evenings because it’s not a school night, and we believe that more high school students will visit us on Thursday evenings because there are not as many conflicting social opportunities available to them on that night of the week.
We’re not taking this change lightly. It won’t be easy for us, either. We have several thousand students to inform about their new night. We suspect that we’ll be dealing with a fair amount of confusion. And worst of all, there might be a handful of students who currently visit us that won’t be able to attend on their new night. But having spent a fair amount of time analyzing this switch, we’re convinced it’s the right thing to do.
President Woodrow Wilson once said, “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.” Fortunately, we’re not trying to do something as significant as change the formula for Coca-Cola or revamp the national health care system. We’ve learned some things over the three short years we’ve been in existence, and student attendance trends is one of them. Please bear with us as we continue to do everything in our power to make this safe, loving, and exciting community available to as many young people as possible.
– Stan, Executive Director
2014 01.21
Whenever I meet new people and the topic of what I do for a living arises I get some pretty strange looks. Then, invariably, I get asked a follow-up question that goes something like this: “What could possibly make you want to spend your weekends with hundreds of other-people’s kids???” I’m not always sure what is going through the questioner’s mind at that point but, by their you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me look, I can usually assume that they think I’m either joking, crazy, masochistic, or worse. The question, though, is legitimate. Why do we do what we do here at the 3 Mile Project?
Growing up has never been easy. But we’re living in a time in which social media takes bullying viral, technology makes isolation common, media messages lead kids to believe they should be acting like grownups by the time they’re twelve years old, and our culture seems more intent on tearing others down than on building others up. It’s a tough world out there for our tweens and teens and, as a result, some of them are reacting in ways that far too often end up on the evening news. We are raising up a generation of young people that struggles with feelings of anger, isolation, loneliness, confusion, and hopelessness.
So why, then, do we do what we do? It’s simple, really. Our hearts break for these young people. And because we’ve been blessed to have been shown a better way, we feel compelled to share that good news with them. So we’ve created a safe, fun, and exciting place where we can earn the right to point our visitors to a way of life that leads to meaning, purpose, hope, and joy. Our primary tool is love and, by reflecting the love that God has shown us, we engage in a ministry of softening hearts. We’re not interested in pressuring kids or judging how they live their lives or acting like we’ve got it all figured out. We just want to be a little refuge of light in the darkness.
The risk of this whole blogging thing is that we end up sounding like a bunch of self-promoters, patting ourselves on the back and pointing to our jerseys after we’ve sacked the quarterback. It feels awkward to us. That’s why it’s taken us more than three years to really begin sharing our story. The truth, though, is that God has given us a heart for young people, a set of gifts and talents that allows us to effectively connect with them, the plan to put this thing together, and the resources to make it all possible. This opportunity to make a difference in the lives of young people is not about us or because of us. We’re simply blessed to be a part of it.
– Stan, Executive Director
2014 01.03
Have you ever awoken with one of those brilliant, potentially world-changing ideas that make you hop out of bed and write it down on the pad of paper you keep on your bedside stand? I had one of those ideas just this morning. “What this world needs,” I thought to myself while frantically trying to scribble out the words through my sleep-fogged eyes, “is another blog!”
Not really.
I think we need another blog like we need more Washington lobbyists, more Miley Cyrus videos, and another rendition of the song Little Drummer Boy. The truth is that I find the majority of blogs to be self-absorbed, trivial, and poorly written. Why would I ever want to write one? And, more importantly, who on earth would want to read it?
But here I am, having been dragged kicking and screaming into the world of blogging. I’ve been convinced by those wiser than me in the ways of social media that we have an important story to share and that we’re being selfish by keeping it to ourselves. And I have to admit that, in an age when we seem inundated by bad news, there are some remarkably good things happening here at the 3 Mile Project. God is working in powerful ways and lives are being changed – sometimes dramatically but more often than not in smaller yet consistent increments.
So here goes. We’re going to try our best to use this instrument to celebrate the idea that what’s going on here is not about us. The things that we experience here on a weekly basis are way bigger than that. So I’ll do my best to avoid being self-absorbed and trivial. The writing quality? No guarantees. Our prayer, however, is that you’ll be informed and encouraged by the stories we share.
– Stan, Executive Director
