Clay in the Potter's Hands - Tami's Story

At our Pittsburgh Kids Network meeting in March, Tami Weisner shared a short devotional about viewing God as the divine potter, and us as clay. She beautifully explained and expanded on this concept using her journey of motherhood to illustrate what it means to be clay in the hands of the potter. 

One of the things that became clear through Tami’s story is that being surrounded by a supportive community is incredibly important. Youth leaders play an important role in kids’ lives, and as the saying goes, “You can’t pour from an empty vessel.” That’s why we invest so heavily in local youth leaders through the Pittsburgh Kids Network. For decades, youth leaders all over the city have found a supportive community within the network.

Coronavirus Response

In light of the recommendations from our state and local leaders regarding large gatherings and COVID-19/Coronavirus, we have made the decision to postpone Spring Session and the Dream Team happy hour event until we feel that we can safely and responsibly host these events. 

We know that this is likely disappointing, yet expected news.

We want to make sure that we preserve everyone’s health and safety in these unique times, and would like to humbly suggest three things.

• Most importantly, we urge you to draw near to God. It’s easy to listen to the current news and feel anxious, fearful, and even hopeless at times. We urge you to remember that our ultimate hope is in Jesus, especially in times of trial. We can take it all to Him and trust that He is good. 

• Secondly, we want to remind you to treat each other well. As Fred Rogers reminds us, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

• Last and not least, we urge you to research and follow the CDC guidelines and listen to the recommendations of local, state, and national officials. The CDC has published coronavirus resources that are available at this link.

We believe that Spring Session and the content at the event are important, so we are currently working through our options regarding rescheduling, and/or delivering that content online. We will share more information soon. Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

We are thankful for each of you, and as we often say in our office, “We are in this adventure together.”

- PKF Team

Quarterly News. Q4, 2019

Every quarter we collect and share some of our favorite stories from our work in Pittsburgh and Cap Haitian. The end of the year offers a time to reflect, and as we celebrated the holiday season together, we felt an overwhelming sense of thankfulness. We’re thankful for the ways we continue to see God work in students’ lives here in Pittsburgh and Cap-Haitien, Haiti. 

Alongside thankfulness, we are excitedly anticipating what 2020 will bring, and what we’ll be able to accomplish together.

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CHIDA Turns 2

In November of 2019, we celebrated the second anniversary of the opening of Centre Hospitalier D’IDADEE (CHIDA). CHIDA is the hospital that the PKF Medical Director, Dr. Wislyn, oversees just down the street from the IDADEE campus. If you’ve had the chance to visit in person, you immediately see the difference that Dr. Wislyn and his staff are making in their patients’ lives. The campus bustles with activity: Pharmacists filling prescriptions, lab technicians running tests, the first cry of a newborn baby, doctors and nurses taking time to sit and pray with their patients. The emergency room is either just below or just above “maximum” capacity. (At CHIDA, there is always room to care for one more patient.)

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It Takes HOW MANY Pieces of Pizza Hut to Pull Off Laurelville Mud Weekends?

It can feel disingenuous to say every year that the most recent season of camp was “the best ever,” but that’s just how it feels! This year, Thanksgiving was so late that we fit all four weekends of Laurelville in before the holidays officially started. At the end of November, we wrapped up the 56th year of Laurelville Mud Weekends. The entire month was full of crazy games, singing and dancing, football tournaments, too much pizza (3,964 slices to be precise), and MUD. 

Over four weekends, we invited 1,496 students and leaders to have the best weekend of the year and learn about a God who loves them unconditionally. 

In our leaders’ meetings, we talk a lot at about faithfulness and fruitfulness. God calls us to be faithful to Him but doesn’t promise that we’re going to see the fruit of our faithfulness. Even still, camps like Surf City and Laurelville continue to be moments where we recognize the fruit that comes from faithful ministry. At the final leaders meeting each weekend, leaders had the opportunity to share how they saw God move in their students’ lives over the weekend. They shared story after story of students accepting Christ for the first time or rededicating themselves to a life with Jesus. 

Needless to say, we had ALOT to be thankful for as we went into Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

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What We Read in 2019

We asked our staff what their favorite books of 2019 were. It's been a long time since any of us have had to write a proper book report, so bear with us. Here are the PKF Staff's favorite books of 2019.

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At the Players 4 Kids Gala this year, we launched our Someone Like You project. We set out to show that the students we serve in Pittsburgh and Cap Haitian have a lot in common. The food, language, and weather all change (what we’d give for a sunny Haitian day during this gloomy Pittsburgh winter), but in both Pittsburgh and Haiti, kids are pretty similar. They play the same sports and enjoy the same things. They either really enjoy school, or don’t find it all that interesting.

Most importantly, they share the same hopes and dreams for life. That’s the common thread in all of our work. Empowering and equipping students to live life to its fullest, in relationship with Jesus Christ.  

We are in this adventure together,
PKF Staff