|
Our church in Hot Springs, Arkansas, started a Day Camp program this year aimed at promoting literacy and Social-Emotional Learning for kids in our community. We held it at our church building each Saturday morning in June.
Some background: the poverty rate for households with children in Hot Springs School District is 38% (which is nearly double the rate of AR as a whole). Our church building is right in the middle of the district and adjacent to several of the more under-resourced neighborhoods in town. Plus, we have multiple retired teachers and school librarians in our congregation—and anyone with an education background knows summer learning loss is a big deal.
Putting all these things together, it seemed obvious God was calling our church to extend a loving welcome to our neighbors through some sort of summer reading program. Thus, the concept for Day Camp began to take shape!
With a Mission and Ministry Grant from the National Benevolent Association of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), we were able to send each of our campers home with free, age appropriate books each week. We also provided all the kids with breakfast and lunch, and transportation for about half of them. (As an aside, only 1 of the 14 participating kids is a member of our church.)
This was a small venture, and not particularly groundbreaking or innovative, but it was one way for us to give back to our community and use our talents and resources to support kids and families. The new relationships we’ve built have already led to several productive conversations about how we can continue to be a resource to families.
We couldn’t have done this without the NBA Grant. If your church gives to Disciples Mission Fund, then, in a very real sense, we couldn’t have done this without you either! So thank you all for your commitment to our General Church, and to the cooperative ministries that make all our churches stronger.
In the kingdom of God, kids love to read!
| 
