July 17, 2025 - Thursday

Pizza and a movie night!!! This morning I got to hang out with my friend Kate for a while and Ella played with the girls. I love that they all get along so well! Especially considering we really only hang out once a year. 😅 She brought up something that I've realized was a problem but haven't given a lot of thought to, and that's the TNT program at Dwell...or at least at 4th Street (I can't speak for campuses that I haven't visited). She said that Ella truly hates going to it because it's so boring and, the truth is, Ruby hates it too. Kate said that she shadowed one week and felt like the volunteers barely interact with the kids, seem to have very little excitement about what they're doing, and some of them were downright miserable-seeming. She is spot on with that. They are not a happy group! I also think that this age group isn't being served well outside of Sunday mornings. Meadow Park did some pretty fun things with these kids. They had field trips twice a year to go bowling and roller skating. So fun! I bet a ton of kids would show up if we did something like that for Dwell. I think I'm going to put together some points and try to have a conversation with Nathan about it. We used to have a TNT director, and we just don't now. They wrapped it in with Oasis and I really think this age group is suffering because of it. They are right in this pivotal pre-teen age and, instead of excitement about their current church groups, they just look forward to middle school. We can do better! I did accept that position today and part of it is because I feel like it will give me more access to the people I need to access to improve things for my kids and the other kids at Dwell. I know the church is just there to reinforce what the parents are doing at home, spiritually, but this is their fellowship too, and they should be excited about it.