We have been granted a tremendous opportunity to do just
that, outside the setting of our local church.
God has richly blessed this opportunity, but we are at a point now
where we need help. I believe there are some readers out there who God is
preparing to step in and help us carry out a tremendous ministry to children at
Central City Elementary School located in the West End of Huntington, WV.
In past years many of us have lamented judicial decisions to
“take the Bible out of the public schools”.
However, through His providence, (and a ruling from the Supreme Court)
God has, indeed, allowed us to take the Bible and the Good News of Jesus into
the public schools through after school programs.
This September we will be beginning our second full year of
reaching the children of Central City Elementary by partnering with Child
Evangelism Fellowship and a neighboring church (Sunshine FWB) with a Good News
Club.
We began our Good News Club during the last five weeks of
the 2012-2013 school year. In that
short time we were able to minister to 10 children who stayed after school for
an hour on Thursday evenings. Those kids were treated to delicious snacks, a
fun time of recreation, songs, a Bible memory verse each week, along with a
Bible lesson, missionary story, and a Gospel presentation. Several children made professions of faith
during those few weeks.
Last school year we were blessed to enroll 27 children in
our Good News Club. But along with the
blessing of an enrollment that nearly tripled in number, came the problem of a
shortage of helpers. For the ministry
to be successful and to grow in number, we MUST enlist some new workers for the
coming school year.
We desperately need to have enough helpers to split the
children into two age groups. The future effectiveness and success of this
ministry rests solely on God providing us with enough helpers to make this
work.
The requirements and qualifications for workers and helpers
are simple. The workers must be born
again followers of Jesus Christ. They
must love children, and be able to pass a criminal background check, and attend
a brief training session offered by Child Evangelism Fellowship. And they must be willing to give about an
hour and a half of their time on Thursday afternoons in serving the Lord
through serving these children.
Would YOU be willing to help?
You do not have to be a gifted musician or Bible teacher
(although we can always use more of those), you just need to be willing to
help. Beside the obvious teaching and
singing folks, we need helpers who are willing to serve in any of these other
ways:
- Refreshments
- Games and recreation
- Passing out materials
- Greeting parents when they pick up the children
- Provide a loving presence for the children during the club hour
- Help with keeping order and attention
- Taking care of records
- Helping prepare materials
- Prayer support
- And other tasks as needs arise
We need to be there by 2:45 when school dismisses, to greet
the children, and stay till the parents pick them up at 4:00.
We have had a wonderful crew of workers since day one, but
during the last school one has passed away and two have had health situations
that have limited their availability.
Would you be willing to help us this year? I will be glad to
share more information with anyone who may be interested in being part of what
God is doing at Central City.
Feel free to contact me via private message through
Facebook, or by email at pastoradkins@frontier.com,
or by calling the church office at 304-429-1348. If you get voice mail, just leave a message with your name and
number. We will get back to you.
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