Westside Ministries

Hey everyone, Ben here.

I started out the day thinking I was late to Rob’s “Good News Club” when in fact I was about an hour early. I’m ok with that. Turns out Rob is here very early to prepare for the kid’s coming over. He plans the lesson, bakes the cupcakes, and prays for God’s help in teaching the kids. For the most part I never even knew it took so much work for a class of kids that sometimes last less than 15 minutes due to school restrictions.

About a half hour before good news started, a mom came walking right in the door and asked if she could leave her daughter here while she took the other kids some where. The kids went for the cupcakes of course and as I stepped aside to let them paw through their prizes (it really wasn’t that messy, more like a lion cub eating than a grizzly bear) I couldn’t seem to shake the fact that this mom just trust her kids completely with Rob. And she has good reason to. In all the years that Rob has been here, he and his family have been a safe haven from the outside world. And he just opens the door and lets them in when ever they need it!

That’s what Westside Ministries is all about. It’s a refuge of sorts. And as much as it is a ministry to the kids in the surrounding neighborhoods, I feel like it’s a ministry to me as well.

We then headed over to the school to pick up all the kids from their prospective class rooms and it was clear that they were all excited to see Rob. Of course any kid who gets out of school 20 minutes early is bound to be excited to see their savior from the studies.

This was the first Friday that I’ve gone to so I’d never really met these kids before. Man, so many kids! The most asked questions of me: What’s your name? How old are you? Do you have a car? We headed over the the ministry house and got everyone situated in their seats and as Rob started teaching the lesson I pulled out my video camera and worked at getting some good shots. Most the kids who saw they were being filmed started making faces, saying “Hi mom,” and leaping from the camera’s view (I didn’t have the heart to tell them that it has an extremely wide angle lense). Once the kids settled down, Rob spoke to them about Noah and how he obeyed God even though it took over 120 years before God’s promise came true. It was pretty cool seeing the kid’s being able to hear this important story. Some for the first time.