"Let the Children Come to Me"

“But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”  Matthew 19:14 NRSV

It has been “the week of the children” in Community Ministries at Independent Presbyterian Church (IPC) this past week.  Our STAIR program (Start the Adventure in Reading) has begun its reading tutoring program with second graders from Hayes K-8 School and we will have large groups of wonderful 2^nd graders at IPC four afternoons a week, from Monday-Thursday.  The children will be brought to IPC from Hayes K-8 on the bus, they will have a delicious, healthy snack prepared by our IPC Kitchen staff, and then will settle down for an hour of one-on-one tutoring to help improve their reading before boarding the bus to get back to the school to be picked up by parents at 5:00.  This wonderful program is 14 years old this year, and through the non-profit, STAIR of Birmingham, Inc.,  this program is now serving children at nine sites around the Birmingham area.  What a joy it is to have bright-eyed, eager, happy children on the 1^st floor for that hour-and-a-half four days a week!  We are so grateful to our many volunteers who make the STAIR program possible.  Each child comes two days a week, and each child has two tutors that are assigned to them all year long, so STAIR is not only about tutoring children to improve their reading skills, it is about relationship building and mentoring, and most of all, it is about love—the love that develops between these children and their tutors.  We have tutors of every age—from teenagers to octogenarians and everywhere in between.  We have tutors who take a couple of hours off from the work that pays their bills to come to the church and spend time with a child; we have teenagers who leave a busy day at school and come straight to IPC to help a child learn; we have folks who have retired from their working life who continue to find ways to be vitally involved in their community—so many people who take time out of their busy schedules to brighten the life of a child.  We also have volunteers who set out the healthy snack prepared by our church kitchen every day and who stay with the children during snack time; substitute tutors who pitch in when regular tutors are out of town or sick or have some other complication that keeps them from being present on a given day; we have special event volunteers like those who help with the Christmas party or at STAIR family dinners.  There are many ways you can help with this important work!  And I promise it is also great fun, and you get paid in hugs and smiles and love, which makes you rich, indeed.

Also this past week, we heard the very sad news from our dear friends at the Mwandi Mission in Zambia about a fire that destroyed the storage facility at the Orphan and Vulnerable Children Center (OVC) at the mission.  The village of Mwandi, Zambia is a village of about 10,000 people, who live in traditional mud huts, with thatch roofs, with no electricity or running water.  This sub-Saharan nation has had a high incidence of HIV/AIDS and though wider access to treatment has reduced the mortality rate of AIDS, and education is reducing the number of new infections, there are perhaps as many as 1,500 orphans living in the village.  The OVC feeds 300 orphans each day, providing what may be the only meal these children receive in a day.  There were no injuries in the fire, for which we are very grateful, but all of the food, medicines, basic supplies, clothing, and every other supply you can imagine was were lost.  Many members of IPC have traveled to Mwandi as part of the IPC Africa Mission Teams over the years, and many of us have spent considerable time helping with feeding and devotions with the children at the OVC and with the staff.  The sadness we feel at this tremendous loss for them is huge.  We responded right away with some funds from our General Benevolence account at IPC, but as the staff of the OVC assesses the total damage, the cost of rebuilding, and the needs moving forward, we will have more opportunities to help. 

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not stop them; for to such as these the kingdom of heaven belongs.”  When we reach out to children in need with the love of Christ, when we offer them a cup of cold water, a plate of food, an hour of one-one-one time in his name, we come a bit closer to that Kingdom.  I can promise you that any time you spend with these precious, disadvantaged children, will increase your joy and fill your heart with love.  And I also promise that as you look into the eyes of a child—across the ocean in Africa or just around the corner in North Avondale—you will be seeing the face of Christ.  If you want to know how to get involved in either of these ministries, please call me!