By Kurt Rietema “Bienvenidos!” Olga called out enthusiastically from her front door as a group of middle schoolers and I stumbled out of a van. Olga was as bubbly as she usually is volunteering at Youthfront Neighborhood’s food distribution, but…
By Kurt Rietema The leaves barely blushed with fall color. A canal dating back to the time when Aaron Burr haunted these New Jersey woods had a footpath that lured me out of the hotel room that morning. From the…
By Kurt Rietema The 12 kids gathered around the tables for ImagineX were about the same as any other group of kids that I’ve led through our youth social entrepreneurship program. It was a mixed group of Latino kids, Black…
A greater portion of January was spent bundling up and covering every exposed appendage from the extremes of the polar vortex. But on Wednesday afternoons, the kids in Youthfront Neighborhood’s Adventure Academy afterschool program in Argentine donned swimming suits as they splashed around the pool during swimming lessons at the YMCA. Peals of laughter and delight ricocheted across the surface of the water from every corner. A handful of the kids demonstrated a comfortable ease twisting and turning about on the surface like river otters. A greater portion of the kids sported big smiles, but simultaneously maintained a clawed, death grip on the pool lip. And finally, a few of the kids approached the water in full-fledged panic, convinced that this day would be their last.
A historic church with an aging congregation made a generous act of faith recently. And as a result, their gift will allow God’s work to continue in the Argentine neighborhood for generations to come.
By Kurt Rietema I’d spent days writing these stories. I agonized over each sentence. I’d observed how my own kids became engrossed in stories read aloud. So, I analyzed the proper amount of detail given to the nuances of character…
