I received a scholarship from our church's Faith Development Fund to take six one-night courses at the Child Care Council this winter.

They are: The Violence Children See, Bullying, The Power of Relationships, The Effects of Stress on Children, Asthma/Allergies, and Obesity/Diabesity. I want to better understand the issues around the kids I'm in contact with, and lead the church on coming up with ways to help. One thing I'm looking for is future theme ideas for Backyard Bible School (BBS).

My first course was “The Violence Children See.” We defined violence as anything that violates our basic rights, then made three categories, media violence, family violence and community violence, and grouped violent acts into each category. We included things such as video games, the nightly TV news, child abuse, domestic violence, gangs, drug activity and many more. It's a rough world out there!

Next, we looked at the effects of witnessing violence. Of course, it varies for each child, but in general, when children do not feel safe and do not feel that adults are keeping them safe, their ability to learn and develop can be affected. This is where building relationships with caring adults in settings such as Sunday School, Spirit Singers, Christmas Craft Workshop and BBS, is vital.

Third, we looked at risk factors and protective factors in the individual, the family and the community, and how those factors set up a child to handle coping with the violence. Having strengths in one category may help to balance risk factors in another category, so the church’s presence as a neighborhood "safe place" could help to offset the home life in crisis. Right now, that "safe place" for many children is my home. Our church could look at moving the safe place over to the church building and/or  getting more church folks into my home and my neighborhood. We have many willing volunteers – I had 40 volunteers for last summer's BBS, 23 of whom were from the church. I thank God for each of you, because our home is affected by community violence, too, and you help preserve my sanity every summer!

In the next Spirit, I will review my next course, Bullying.

I am grateful to Covenant for this scholarship. Thank you!