Well, a lot has been going on since my last post of wrestling with poverty and justice. I'm still not sure I know what the answers are. I don't think I am really suppose to know :)... What I do know is that those that are stuck in the cycles of poverty are in just as need of love and mercy and grace as any other. Each of us is loved and each of us has been created for a purpose. I don't believe that we are here by accident. I truly believe that each of us has been created and that God has a plan for each of us. Now, whether we make the choice to go with the plan is another post.. But, the point is that in seeking that plan and knowing that we've been created for a purpose gives each of us worth and value.
This has become an issue of the heart for me. I'm not sure all the precipitating factors, but the fact is that I live in a very diverse community where there are neighbors who are part of the working poor and cannot buy their kids food, nor clean their school uniforms. I live in a community where young 14 and 15 girls are becoming moms and while they are trying to figure out how to grow up they are stuck in a position where they have to do it too fast and don't get basic knowledge in how to love themselves nor their baby. I'm living in a community where there is wealth and poverty. There are those and those who have little. The question becomes- not what is the church going to do about these things, but what am I going to do about it...
To make a LLOOONNNGGG story short, there came to my attention that 20-30 kids each day go to the neighborhood library to get food from the library because they don't get it at home. Now, 20-30 lunches are being delivered to the library by mostly neighbors and friends. The community's outpouring has brought me to tears, the library staff is overwhelmed (positively)and there are kids who are being told in a very practical way (and with notes) that they have not been forgotten.
There is a school that my kids do not attend in our neighborhood and its population is about 73% economically disadvantaged: 4 person family making $47K(reduced lunch)-$28K(free lunch). These kids have no advocate. They come to school hungry and dirty and not able to learn. These kids are struggling. They didn't ask to be born into the circumstances. Their parent(s) don't know any better and something needs to be done. There is a sizable population that needs desperate help with their reading and math skills in order to stay at grade level. They don't have the parents' support and to be honest parents don't know how to support their kids. SSSOOOO....
Whiz Kids is brought in and I'm running it. Whiz Kids is a tutoring program where a caring adult is paired with a student for a 1 hour tutoring session. The tutoring program is a reading and math curriculum that has been helping kids improve at least a half grade level. Studies suggest that kids that get their diploma and have a caring adult in their life and break the cycle of poverty. This program gives them a leg up on both fronts.
Whiz Kids is just the catalyst. We are planning on doing parent evenings and free dinners and uniform drives. We need these kids to know that God has not abandoned them nor are they forgotten. They are LOVED by the SAME GOD that created each star. And if God knows each star by name, if He knows how many grains of sand there are, God knows their name. That is love. That is the kind of love I want these kids and their parents to experience.
I don't have all the answers. I'm nothing special. I'm just one person who is looking around at the pain and suffering and lost of this world and wanting to love them into a relationship with the God who loves them more than anything else in all creation. Be it a lunch, a kind word, a tutoring program, a financial donation, sponsoring a child in Africa affected by Aids, or a dinner for a single mom- we each have the opportunity to tell someone they have not been forgotten.
o
