We started Sozo Kids almost 2 years ago because we had close to 30 elementary-aged kids coming to Teen Late Night every night until midnight. It was clearly not a place where they belonged, but we couldn’t keep them away. Some kids were walking 6 miles each way in the middle of Winter from the Eastside just to be there! And they would walk back home at 1am. I don’t walk on the Eastside late at night—how much more inappropriate for 3^rd graders! Sozo Kids was birthed out of a need that we could no longer ignore.

Sozo Kids is a Late Night ministry for kids in Kindergarten through 5^th grade on Friday nights, and consists of games, crafts, snacks, worship, and a message about the hope of Jesus Christ and the truth of the Bible. The fruit looks so different than with Sozo (for teens)…we don’t see kids leaving lives of gangs, violence, and drug addictions like at Sozo and Remann Hall. Instead…kids are coming to know who they are in Jesus Christ as grade schoolers, and never engaging in that lifestyle to begin with!

I work with the teens as well, and I know many of the kids’ older brothers and sisters who are fully entrenched in gangs, violence, drugs, alcohol, and violence. I can’t tell you how amazing it is to look at a little girl named Virginia and see the purity and innocence that God is preserving, and to know that God has intercepted her from the enemy. Instead of living a life of gangs, drugs and violence like her brother Kyle. I am confident that Virginia will graduate from high school, will know that she is treasured by the God of the universe, and will be used to influence others for God’s Kingdom. This is the fruit of Sozo Kids. What an amazing gift to be a part of this ministry, thank you.

-Doug Jonson, Sozo Coordinator