Our community has faced an abundance of uncertainty, stress and anxiety on a daily basis during this pandemic season. As a small Christian organization, we have worked diligently to stay connected with our students and the community at large during this time of uncertainty and unrest. We quickly made the following adjustments to our programming:
Virtual academic instruction 3 days a week and social support for our PreK-8th classrooms
Wellness check-ins for families offering community resource referrals via phone and video
Twice daily prayer calls open to all our families, staff and online networks
Adult Bible Study offered once a week via Zoom
Daily Bible initiatives for PreK-8th grade classrooms
Growing Students in Faith, Leadership, and Opportunity
Scholarship organizations in Philadelphia are few, yet 80% of Spring Garden Academy elementary students need financial assistance to attend our school. Families should not have to sacrifice high-quality, Christian education because of financial hardship. The Next Generation Ministries scholarship fund supports families in our community and is an investment in future leaders. Give today so a student can learn tomorrow. Your gift helps students grow in Faith, Leadership, and Opportunity.
The mission must go on! This summer, we will be connecting to families through virtual sessions and weekly Bible Power Bags and meals. If your team would like to participate in virtual Bible activities or in the supply and delivery of Bible Power Bags and food, email bible@sgaphilly.org. This is a great short term mission opportunity for all.
We are updating our databases. Please email us with your updated contact information. Also, include if you prefer to receive information via email or direct mail. All updates can be emailed to info@nextgenministries.org Or message us directly on social media!
On March 16th, our school, Spring Garden Academy moved online as the governor closed all schools in PA. Over fifty percent of our students did not have access to computers and/or internet. Malaysia, a sixth-grader, was using a shared cellphone with her mom to complete schoolwork. At the time, Angela, her mom stated “Learning is a longer process now. We receive the assignment on my cellphone, write it down on paper, and then type it on the phone to submit. On top of that, Malaysia wears glasses, so we take frequent breaks from the small screen because her eyes hurt, and she gets headaches. We are working until 9:00 pm some days.”
God answered our prayers to help Malaysia and other students.
In early April, we received sixteen laptops from Children’s Jubilee Fund, a scholarship organization that worked tirelessly to provide resources to Christian schools in Philadelphia.
Because of their commitment to educating children, our students can complete essay assignments, receive tutoring, and participate in Zoom instruction three days a week as a whole class. God’s provision and the goodness of God’s people is a testimony of hope; though the times seem uncertain and unprecedented, God remains faithful!
We need your partnership! Donate to Summer Ministries today. Sharing the love of Jesus with children not only transforms children’s lives, but also families, and ultimately the community. Summer Ministries is our largest programming of the year. We serve over 150 children and families during our 8-week summer camp, family night events, and compassion ministries. COVID-19, social distancing, and the economic recession our nation faces causing uncertainty in the security of funding for our summer programming. We are praying about alternate delivery of ministry in the face of ongoing closure. Your partnership will allow our organization to share the gospel, stay engaged with the community, and make a lasting change in the future leaders of the school, church, and community.
Effective Ministry
Vulnerable populations (Individuals in shelters, transitional housing, or homeless)
Safety in homes
Families who do not have access to food
Missionaries in the fields
Spiritual awakening
“Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others”. – Philippians 2:4
“One of the most impactful ways we can share God’s heart with others is by living compassionately.
To show compassion is to step outside of ourselves and love another in times of weakness. And to live compassionately is to posture our hearts continually toward giving grace and love to those who need it most.” Fatima Fulks, NGM leader.
We are updating our databases. Please email us with your updated contact information. Also, include if you prefer to receive information via email or direct mail. All updates can be emailed to info@nextgenministries.org Or message us directly on social media!
Looking Ahead…
Summer Ministries begins in June Dessert reception to celebrate our Elementary School
For the past five years Ms. Se’mona has been leading the children at Spring Garden Academy with hands-on bible experiences. She enters the classroom with great expectation knowing that the children will react positively to her creative expression of God’s Word through dress-up, poetry, and role-playing. Ms. Se’mona is looking forward to leading Kids Bible Power Hour this year, she says,
“The kids always have an expression of pure joy and excitement when I enter the classroom. I teach them knowing the Bible is the most important and valuable thing in their life. God’s Word is transformative and no one can take that knowledge away from them; nor can they settle for a lie after experiencing the truth of God’s Word.”
Ms. Se’mona leading small group Bible activities.
This fall, we are committed to a free, intensive launch of God’s Word to the children in Philadelphia. Our Kids Bible Power Hour will provide bible instruction one hour every day to over 150 children across both our school communities.
Every day during the same hour of the day, our staff, interns/volunteers, and children will be praying, learning, and exploring God’s Word together.
THERE IS POWER IN UNITY!
Will you stand in agreement with us? We need your partnership!
· It costs $35.00 per child per week to staff and run this Bible Power Hour. Help us with a donation to cover the cost of one child. · Are you or your children’s ministry team passionate about helping children grow in their faith? Come and speak in chapel or take a hands-on approach and lead children in bible activities. · If you can’t make it to our communities, we are always looking for prayer partners. Commit to praying for a student, intern, staff member, or family unit.
There is an intense need for God’s Word. Every day we encounter children and families who are hurting, broken, and in need of restoration and reconciliation with God. Next Generation Ministries has a place for you to make a difference! A smile, an act of service, or fervent prayer can be transformative in a child’s life.
“Children are innocent with open minds, therefore, they trust the pure Word of God. Everyone needs to know that our Creator has the perfect plan for our lives. There is an intense need to teach children because they must learn and know God loves them and will never leave them.”
Ms. Cordella
Ms. Se’mona leading small group Bible activities.
“I live by Philippians 4:13 ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me’. This will be my first time teaching and with the help of God, I am looking forward to teaching the children the love of Christ and compassion.”
– Ms. Marion
You can make a donation online using this link or by sending a check to PO BOX 15191, Philadelphia PA 19130, please make the check out to Next Generation Ministries.
For more information about other ways of getting involved please email: candace@nextgenministries.us
Our full-day summer camp is in full swing! We have also opened our doors to children in the community who otherwise are hanging outside on the playground or wandering idle around the neighborhood; they enjoy a free lunch with our camp children and stay for Bible Exploration. We are thankful for the opportunity to serve. Next Generation Ministries and Spring Garden Academy are on the mission to reach children and youth through the Gospel!
July Missions Teams
Thank you to Bellerose Assembly and The Dream Center for serving our children, youth and families this month! The children enjoyed engaging in fun activities and Bible Exploration. We love working alongside other ministries to advance the Kingdom of God.
Short-Term Missions Opportunities
Is your church or ministry interested in a missions project for this year? Partner with us! We have various ministry opportunities that focus on children and youth ministry, evangelism and community outreach, as well as facilities and outdoor work projects.
Helen is a teacher-leader at Spring Garden Academy. She commutes two hours every day to invest in urban children and youth. With a childhood marked with trauma, Helen knows first-hand the impact caring adults can have. Her family was not devoted church goers, but because a church group drove around the neighborhood taking the children to church, Helen’s family eventually gave their life to Lord and were all baptized together. In high school, Helen’s track coach was a positive role model by taking her to church, supporting her on the field, and teaching her to respect her body and empower her mind.
Here is what Helen shared about her first year teaching: “I am teaching children who were me…. I can easily put myself in their shoes. I was homeless, I didn’t always have food to eat, I witnessed and experienced abuse in my home. I feel blessed that there is freedom to talk about God and His love for our children. The Christian values we teach at Spring Garden Academy—love, honesty, compassion, forgiveness; I see the difference we are making in the lives of our students and we’re a witness to their spiritual growth.”
I feel God using my pain and my past to do good, and to bring children and their families closer to Him.
– Helen Gillman-Hanna
Helen came into teaching blindly but the Lord has given her so much direction since then. She leads her classroom with a heart of compassion.
While teaching a lesson about Jesus’ sacrificial love for us, one child politely raised his hand and asked if he could shout Hallelujah. This was the highlight of the year for Helen!
Bible Power Hour
Focusing on our core mission, we are launching the Kids Bible Power Hour for our PHLpreK students. During the same time every day, we will provide 150 children with Bible instruction for one hour. Stay tuned for more details of how you can get involved!
We are praying for committed interns and volunteers to serve in the Bible Power Hour, each day for 1-2 hours, as we present Jesus to over 150 kids five days a week during the school year. Details will be coming soon about this intensive launch of God’s word to our community. If you would like to do an internship (with possible payment) or volunteer at least one afternoon a week, please reach out to Candace Wegner at candace@nextgenministries.us. We will be interviewing and training during the month of August for a September launch!
VBS Extras
Now that your VBS is over…do you have leftovers (crafts, music, student books, gifts) that you would like to donate to our ministry? Next Generation Ministries offers free Bible programming all year for children in our community and helps secure materials for teaching Bible at Spring Garden Academy. We will make sure your extras are used to share the love of Jesus with our Philadelphia children. Candace Wegner at candace@nextgenministries.us.
A long time ago a few lines captured me. The individual words are rather ordinary; however, in their arrangement I see eternity coming face-to-face with time and hope unseating despair. John writes in his record of good news,
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. -(John 1:14)
The Eternal God— the One who spoke everything good into existence, the One who formed us out of dust and then breathed life into us making us living beings, that God—appeared! We were apprehended, caught up in His “glory.” In Jesus, grace and truth uncover the Father’s desire for all mankind.
Recently, I was the pulpit guest at Vailsburg Assembly of God, a church we planted in the 90’s. At the end of the service, Grace and Selena, a mother and daughter, approached me with the question, “Do you remember us?” Details of addiction, abuse, and anxiety about the future flooded my memory in a few moments.
Grace asked, “Will you please tell your wife that without her I would be dead?” Selena has graduated from Rutgers University and is a banker! More than 20 years have elapsed since Pat poured out her heart in prayer for a mom and her preschool-aged daughter. The “Word made flesh” has reversed everything for this family who stood at the altar speaking with me!
Oh that Jesus—the One described as revealing “the glory as of the only begotten of the Father”—would capture our imaginations and enlarge our faith today. Remember, every time hope confronts despair, hope wins!
-Reverend Otto Wegner
SPECIAL TRIBUTE
In October, we lost one of Next Generation Ministries’ biggest supporters, Mr. Bobby Williams.
Mr. Williams, a long-time resident of the Tioga community, cared passionately for his neighbors and worked tirelessly to encourage caring people to work together.
Each year, he pushed us all to keep Celebrate Hope Tioga alive and often encouraged the staff at Spring Garden Academy to not give up. He was our great encourager and called us his godsons, goddaughters, and angels.
Each year, well into his 80’s, he brought cupcakes to celebrate his birthday with our Spring Garden Academy children. Mr. Williams was a member of Resurrection Life Church. We will all miss Mr. Williams but pray that God will continue to send others who love people as Mr. Williams did.
FALLING INTO MINISTRY
This fall, our Next Generation Ministries team has been immersed in community ministry. Our youth and children ministered alongside adult volunteers at Celebrate Hope Tioga (CHT), an outdoor fall block party featuring Christian artists, food, kids’ zone, clothing bank, prayer table, community partners, and the gospel message. Our youth led games, performed on the stage, folded clothes, and shared the love of Jesus. Ministry is not just about sharing the gospel. It’s teaching others to share their faith with the world around us.
Just a few weeks ago, we had the largest family event in our school history. Over 350 people from our school and neighborhood joined together for a Thanksgiving Worship Service, led by our K-8th grade children. The students sang the hymns of faith and led us to show our gratitude to our Lord.
After the service, we joined together for a full Thanksgiving Dinner, prepared by a mission teams from River of Life Church in Doylestown, PA. Trinity Compassion Ministries from Westchester, PA donated 100 Boxes of Love (turkey meals) that we were able to send home with many of the attending families. It was wonderful to see the love of Jesus flood our community.
We invite you to join us in ministry – short term or long term – in the city. We are raising up children to lead and serve their neighborhood. We do this in partnership with God’s wonderful people. Thank you to all who have given so much this year
to the work in Philadelphia.
Founder, Otto Wegner, with U.S. Missionary David Dominguez
Every summer, teams of faithful partners like you descend on the NGM ministry centers at Resurrection Life and Highway Tabernacle to make building repairs, lead Vacation Bible Schools, paint trim, weed flower beds, and invite neighbors to our outreach ministries. We welcomed over fifty volunteers this summer; thank you for coming together with us to love our community in Jesus’ name!
We extend a special thank-you to our U.S. Missionary, Otto Wegner, for coordinating both the installation of new carpet at Resurrection Life and the building of a new shed to house our outreach ministry and clothing bank supplies. We appreciate Pastor Wegner’s example of lifelong service to the next generation of leaders who come from our community and across the region to work beside us during summer ministries!
Serving is life. It’s who I am.
– U.S. Missionary, Otto Wegner
SEEDS BEARING LONG-TERM FRUIT: HAAKIM’S STORY
Have you ever wondered who will be leading Philadelphia’s ministries twenty years from now? Haakim, a Youth Leadership Intern, loves outreach and plans to become a pastor.
During several years of his childhood, Haakim attended Spring Garden Academy’s elementary school and after school programs. This summer, he has pursued his calling by building leaderships skills as a Youth Leadership Intern. Instead of spending the summer months relaxing, Haakim and his fellow interns studied God’s word and worked hard supporting NGM’s community events, including multiple Vacation Bible School events and family block parties, along with missions trips to Pittsburgh and Newark, NJ. Interns receive intensive discipleship training, set goals, discover their spiritual gifts, serve in the ministries of the church, work as a team to lead events, and are missionaries to their own community.
“I see how much God is in the neighborhoods”
– Haakim
Haakim and the other four high school interns will continue to minister this school year at Celebrate Hope in September, children’s ministry with NGM and the churches, and outreach. They are meeting each month for leadership development and are planning a foreign missions trip for June 2018. We are blessed to train the next generation of leaders for the Kingdom!
A CALL TO PRAYER
As a child, I spent many Sunday nights at the altar, learning to hear the voice of God as I listened to my mom and dad pray for me. I can still remember the cadences of their speech and the pressure of their bodies against mine. Several years ago, I realized that the prayers of my parents, grandparents, and many church saints of my childhood and youth had shaped not only my own prayers but my destiny, for I heard them pray God’s will and purpose over my life. I still hear their prayers echo through my mind.
This fall, we are welcoming over 175 children and youth to participate in the ministries of NGM, including Spring Garden Academy, community family nights, Junior Bible Quiz, and our Youth Leadership Center. We believe that, from this group of children and youth, God is raising up Spirit-filled pastors and missionaries who love God’s word, honest and just lawyers who seek God’s will, passionate teachers who love Jesus and the community, and many workers for the Kingdom of God.
We need the prayers of God’s people to shape the destinies of these young lives. We need people who will pray that God’s call will be distinctly heard by each young person and that He will continue to keep them safe from the enemy and bring each of their families to salvation and hope.
Will you partner with us? Will you commit to praying for at least one child or youth each day. If you are local, will you commit to spending physical time in prayer once a month so that our children can hear you pray on their behalf? If so, please send an email to candace@nextgenministries.us. We treasure your partnership in prayer.
– Candace Wegner
CELEBRATE HOPE!
On September 30th (10am-4pm) Next Generation Ministries—in collaboration with its community partners—will be hosting Celebrate Hope-Tioga, a community-wide celebration for the residents of the Tioga neighborhood. We invite our neighbors not only to enjoy a FREE fun-filled day of entertainment, kids’ games/activities, giveaways, and access to resources, but also to experience God’s love for our community.
Through this event we aim to introduce our neighbors to the one who has plans to prosper them and to give them HOPE and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)
If you would like to volunteer please register online using the link below!
Each week, Next Generation Ministries works with our partner church, Resurrection Life, for a Community Family Night. Family Night is a year-round bridge between the school ministry, neighborhood, and the congregation. In the summer, we take it outdoors with dinner or snacks, children’s activities, music, testimonies, and a clothing bank.
Tiesha Haughton, a member of the community and Resurrection Life Church, agrees that Family Night is an effective way to connect neighbors to the church. Ten years ago, she enrolled her daughter in Spring Garden Academy, and she started attending Family Nights. “Over time, I wanted to learn more about God and how to serve him,” she explains. She decided she wanted to be part of a church that serves their community in this manner, and she committed her life to the Lord.
Are you or your team called to demonstrate God’s love in very practical ways? Visit us for Family Night. Flip some burgers, toss a bean bag, and make a new friend in Jesus’ name. Email candace@nextgenministries.us or call 215-226-1000 for more details or to try your hand at volunteering. You can also sign up through our website. We can’t do it without you!
INTERN SPOTLIGHT
John Garges has joined the Next Generation Ministries team as a summer college intern.
John has worked in our after school and summer camp, participated in Vacation Bible school events, helped lead our youth interns on a missions trip to Pittsburgh, and is learning how to live and minister in the city.
In August, John returns for his final year at Eastern University as a Youth Ministry & Psychology major. He hopes to return to Philadelphia to minister when he graduates.
“I’m thankful to be a part [of the NGM team], to see Philadelphia, and to get to know the people in the community. There’s a lot of work to do, but the people are so great, they make it easy to come in everyday to do the work.”
