About Us!!
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Mission Statement:
To help develop Christ-centered individuals through love, prayer, and creative teachings, so that we can impact our community for God.
The Circle of Love Community Center (The Circle) has been in operation since November 11th, 2002. Janet Roy established it after God had given her a burden and a desire to house a safe, caring, and structured environment for the lost children of Bedford County. Most of these children come from some very difficult home situations and choose the safe haven of the Circle to fill some of their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.
Our facility targets these children through numerous ways, the first and foremost being LOVE and ACCEPTANCE. Since the opening of The Circle we have seen countless ways in which these children’s lives have been affected. The beginning was not an easy task. The first year was not only a learning experience for the 20 or so children that frequented The Circle, but for the adult volunteers running it as well. We had to establish rules that protected and guided the children. They tested and tested us throughout our first year of existence. They broke things, stole things, hid things, lied about things anything to test the sincerity of our mission. And for the first time there were consequences for their actions. What an impact you can make when you hold these children accountable for their own actions!
The Circle is open to Kindergarten through 12th grade children. We do however have teenage mothers from time to time, who bring their infant babies with them. We encourage the parents to visit with their children as often as possible; however, at this time we do not see much involvement from our parents. But we believe that we can impact the parents as well since scripture tells us that Love Never Fails!
We are always looking for fresh ideas to utilize at The Circle. We have been experiencing a huge growth at The Circle; within the last 8 months the number of children attending has risen from approximately 25 children to 40 or 50 per night. Not only has the children’s attendance increased, but also the wave of caring volunteers from various churches in the area that God has been sending to make The Circle the success that it is. That’s what makes The Circle so wonderful…it’s a community effort!
The first thing that the children are asked to do when they enter, is sign in so that we have an estimate of how many will be with us for dinner. By 5:00 The Circle is already filled with activity in every corner. So much to choose from: computers, jump rope, 4-square, XBOX, Playstations, XBOX 360, Nintendo Wii, board games, pool, air hockey, foosball, helping to prepare dinner, basketball, football, puzzles, help with homework, etc. And with nearly 50 children in the house another 6 to 15 adults, (some of our volunteers and some T.S.S.'s from our local school districts), the noise level begins to swell. Somewhere between 5:30 and 6:00 dinner is served. But before dinner can be served, everyone, (all 50 or so) must come to the dinner tables, close their eyes, bow their heads and wait while one of the children who has volunteered to pray, asks the Lords blessing. Then we dismiss each table, usually youngest to oldest for the delicious food that has been prepared by the volunteers. We are like one big happy family…it's stability for the first time in some of these children’s lives! After 4 years in existence we hear a lot of “Please.", "Thank you.", and "Excuse me.” during dinnertime. Simple things that they may not have learned otherwise. It's music to our ears! After dinner it's clean-up then back to games, homework, hanging out, talking about school, just having fun, until 8:00 at which time the children that walked to The Circle earlier that day walk home and the other children get picked up by parents. From time to time we are called upon to transport, which we try to accommodate when we can.
From time to time, we have issues with transportation. We have a 15-passenger van and just a year ago we had a 72-passenger bus donated to The Circle for transportation. At this time however we are looking for a way to do a pick up directly from schools to the center for safety sake for the children. The problem lies in having the necessary drivers (CDL), and the fuel funding to provide this service on a daily basis. We also feel that this opportunity would allow our numbers to grow as some of our parents do not have the wherewithal for transporting their children every night to and from The Circle.
On our typical Wednesday evening Bible study night, we have approximately 20 to 30 children that show up for class. We open at 6:30 and allow the children to hang out until 7:00 at which time we divide the children up into 2 groups-10 years and under, and 11 years and up. The younger children, (approximately 6 to 12 children) have Bible story time with the help of a unique flannel graph system that we have, followed by a discussion on the story and how it applies to our own lives. It has been truly amazing to me at the lack of knowledge of these children with the very basic of Bible stories. The younger children that Sheila teaches have not heard of Daniel in the lions den, or Jonah in the belly of the whale, or David and Goliath, or sadly enough the real reason that we celebrate Christmas and Easter. To them the holidays are for Santa and the Easter bunny. What a Tragedy!
The teens however engage in various activities, for instance one night we had the teens sit in a circle take off their shoes while leaving their socks on, pass their shoes to the person to their right, and then they had to put on the shoes of the person on their left that was passing their shoes to them. Well you can guess what happened. No one had shoes that fit, some where to small so they could not get them on at all, while others were way too big and their feet swam in them. Then they were asked to get up and walk around in the room with their “new” shoes to see how they “fit”. What followed was a discussion on how we treat others, even when we have no idea what they may be dealing with at home, or at school, (what they are walking in). We all have difficult circumstances and we cannot sit in judgment of each other! We try and seize every opportunity to have various discussions on the things affecting their lives, such as alcohol, drugs, cutting, peer pressure, etc. It’s working because we’re growing.
So how do you measure the difference that you make in a child’s life? Obviously growth can be seen in the sheer numbers of attendance, which we have established in the sign up sheets that we have kept the past 4 years. But The Circle is so much more than that. It is the level of trust, respect and love that has been established through 5 years of stability. Stability that each of us tries to find to make us feel like we belong! It’s that one on one time while playing a board game, or helping with homework, or playing pool. It’s the passing of knowledge while teaching a child how to simply make Kool-Aid, or help set the table for dinner, or in love teaching a young girl how much make up is too much make-up, or how to dress respectfully. It’s teaching patience with others, while waiting for an egg timer to go off for their turn on the computer. It’s putting your arm around an upset crying child and telling him or her that in the midst of their newest crisis at home that its going to be O.K. and that no matter what, you are there for them, and they can cry on your shoulder anytime, and knowing that they know that you mean it!
So where does The Circle go from here? Wherever the Lord leads it! That’s where! We would like to begin more programs on a more instructional level to reinforce in our children the basic skills that the school systems are trying to teach, but are obviously not being followed through with at home. Such as cooking classes, to teach how to follow a recipe, measure, learn nutritional information on what they are eating, etc. Possible fun mathematical teachings so they learn how to budget, use a checkbook, or just count money properly. There have even been thoughts on getting a clunker car, and trying to get an auto mechanic to teach some of our older teens how to do car repairs. We would like to do more outings, and with the bus we certainly have the transportation. Not to mention that with this growth there are obviously growing pains happening internally…WE NEED A LARGER FACILITY! Until this point we have had no one on paid staff, but even that is becoming increasingly harder to continue as it takes Janet and Sheila both to make this boat float. They both spend an average of 30 to 45 hours per week making the center work.
The Circle of Love Community Center
302 West Pitt Street
Bedford, PA 15522
814-623-2332
Eric Gadley II - Webmaster
Page last updated: January 11, 2009
Background image borrowed from www.trustingingod.com.