The Fellows embarked on an adventure to further their understanding of history and ministry, with a goal of bringing their knowledge back to the community of Prospect to better serve alongside them.
“Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” Proverbs 27:11, KJV
The Abundant Life Fellows Program was inducted as a Program in 2015, with a mission of equipping young adults with the practical theology of Christian Community Development to engage their faith holistically, and leadership practices for the church and the workplace. This two-year program allows Fellows to build deep and formative relationships with each other and the Abundant Life family.
They began their trip in Georgia, where they visited the Coca-Cola Museum and Aquarium in Atlanta Virginia, as well as the MLK National Park. From there they traveled to Birmingham, Alabama and toured the 16th Street Baptist Church, that was bombed on September 15th, 1963, and Memorial Park. Following Birmingham, they went to the Legacy Museum and Memorial in Montgomery. The Fellows finished their journey in Chattanooga, Tennessee where they went to Coolidge Park and Nature Hikes.
As the Fellows focus on Leadership, their 4-day trip allowed them to, through the lens of their faith, engage aspects of our Nation’s past and see how the Christian Church was involved. The importance was to see for themselves how the past impacts our ministry today in the community.
“The trip was impactful in many ways including team building and a deep dive into a stronger historical understanding of southern history. I feel like I went in with the baseline expectation that I would learn something new, but it was so much more. It came with tests of faith and powerful and painful history lessons. However, I’d do it all again with such a great Fellow’s team alongside me.” Jonathan “JD” DeLeon, Fellow & Elementary and Boys Program Co-coordinator
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K-4th grade Summer Programming consisted of lots of fun, laughter, and memories.
This was Calvin Kellum’s first time coordinating the Abundant Life VBS program. During programming this summer, he was able to connect with the kids he knew already from John Tutoring and new kids that joined during the summer.
Each week they would travel to a different church around Charlottesville to learn about the love of God. Before leaving for the church, Calvin would ask the children if any of them would like to pray for the upcoming day they were about to experience. At first the children were very hesitant to pray in front of all of their peers, but there was always one student whose hand would jump up immediately his name was KJ. KJ loved to pray for safe travels, for fun, and for family and friends. He was what the group needed to give all the students confidence to participate and by the end of the, summer we had every single student raising their hand to pray each and every day.
Following the daily VBS sessions, the group ate a lunch together and then moved on to afternoon activities. They worked on reading and writing at the Abundant Life house with Calvin and Ms. Faith. They would read 2 books each day and wrote 3 sentences about a prompt that was given to them. After their work was done they would have lots of fun playing outside as well as painting, drawing, and making bracelets.
This summer was filled with excitement and great times learning about the Lord. We learned how to pray and why we pray, Calvin and the children can not wait for K-4 VBS 2024.