The church we attend has a tutoring program on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. As the church started doing outreach in one of the more difficult neighbors in the city, they went door-to-door to ask people what the biggest need they had for their children. The resounding answer was that their kids needed help with school work. So the church's first outreach ministry was started 20 years ago and is the Firm Foundation Tutoring Program. It meets in the church offices (which is about 5 or 10 minutes from where the church meets) and is the home of all of the church's outreach ministries.
Over the past years, as I've brought high school mission teams to New City Fellowship, we have helped Firm Foundations in the summer with tutoring. So now that we attend the church weekly, this is something that both Kathee and I wanted to help with on a weekly basis. So Kathee serves Tuesday nights from 6:15-7:45. I help out on Thursdays from 4:15-5:45pm. So far, Kathee has been working with an 8 or 9 year old girl named Leslie (a city kid). I have been assigned to Baraka, a 5 year old refugee boy from Burundi (shown below).
I am REALLY enjoying serving in the tutoring program and see how important it is. Specifically with Baraka, his parents speak very little English (he has 4 older siblings, also in the program, and a baby brother just born a few weeks ago). Not only are we helping him (and his siblings) to succeed in school, but the leaders of Firm Foundations advocate for each kid in the program with/to their teachers at school, etc. They know what to ask of the teachers, what changes need to be made, are able to set up specific goals for the child, etc, so the kid doesn't slip through the cracks. It's truly a vital ministry.
And as a seminary student, it's nice to be doing hands-on ministry with the least of these. It's nice to get off campus and do ministry in the real world. And with a face and attitude like Baraka's, how can I not love every second of it.
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