Pages from our Outreach Notebook

 July 20, 2003

 

For the second year, we have just finished a very courageous outreach project in which we bring children from the Missouri Hotel to share with our congregation’s children in our week-long Vacation Bible School.

 

This may sound easy, but it really is an experiment in brining our compassionate ministry to the homeless into our own home. The life experience of children who live in homeless shelters is often profoundly sad. It is no surprise that there are some very challenging problems associated with this effort. The children from the shelter are given not only an opportunity to meet our children and share in a great experience in Bible learning, but we are also introducing them to field trips which would otherwise be totally beyond their family’s ability to provide for them. Our VBS went to see the Incredible Acrobats of China in Branson and the Wonders of Wildlife Museum as well as other special treats.

 

There are heart-warming events which happen in a week like this, such as when one child looked up from his simple lunch plate and said, “Wow, this is more food than I usually get all day!” But, there were some very difficult moments as well. We are not accustomed to dealing with children who have tendencies towards violence or vandalism and we are especially not used to having kids who are not willing to take directions from adult leaders.

 

This sort of outreach work is risky. There were some incidents of even our own kids being bullied and one of our teachers took a direct punch. However, as Charles Shedd said  “A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are for.”  We took some risks and had some problems, but we also did a great deal for both our own kids and the children from the shelter. It was very educational for our children to get to know these kids up close and great for the Missouri Hotel residents to have this exposure to the church and the broader world.

 

Special thanks are due to Jennifer Klein for organizing this year’s VBS;  to our custodian, John Tepiew, for cleaning up some absolutely unspeakable vandalism (don’t ask, you don’t want to know); to Ed Fox for being our on-site teacher and MP; to all the volunteers who taught, cooked, and chaperoned; and to Rev. Charles Bahn for providing the transportation to and from the Missouri Hotel for our special young friends.

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National Avenue Christian Church
1515 South National Avenue
Springfield, Missouri  65804
417/869-9176
fax: 417/869-7256
e-mail: natlave@sbcglobal.net