Monday, December 29, 2008

Where We Are Headed

I hope you are all enjoying your holiday break and finding peace and renewal for the new year! I'm still at home in PA, spending some extra time with family and friends but I'll be headed back to the BX on Friday and I'm so excited to see all our dearly missed family there! I just wanted to update you all on some things we've been praying about and some needs we'd love to meet over the next few months.

It was our initial idea to get to know people and learn about their lives, we didn't want to come in with a bunch of programs or ways to meet the needs we thought people would have but rather to learn what those needs actually were and how we could come alongside people to renew our streets. One thing that has been a dream of mine from the beginning and is clearly a need now is educational support for the youth of the neighborhood. The schools just aren't cutting it in the Bronx and a lot of kids need extra help to have a chance of not falling too far behind. There have been several people that have asked me about tutoring their children but no one really that we've followed through with.

I've been praying for a few months now though about the possibility of having a tutoring night once a week or once every two weeks where some kids from the block could come for one on one academic help provided by our brilliant and wonderful NYU friends and community. It seems as though God is putting things into place for this to happen. I left my other job at the after-school program so I will be able to recruit volunteers now to help us and take all my experience from that job and put it to use in our neighborhood! After talking with our friend Jess who volunteers with her husband with the Navigators at NYU it seems like we may even get some grant money to help us get started here. I'll hopefully be putting a lot of work into this over the next few weeks, developing curriculum and training for new volunteers and talking to our friends in the neighborhood to see how best to advertise this oppurtunity to parents in the area. It is my vision that we would be able to serve more youth than we are right now and in a very tangible, ongoing way. I'd even love it if we could offer music lessons and art lessons as part of the night for students who don't necessarily need the academic help. As you can see there is a lot to think about so would you pray with me that God would guide our actions here and that he would help me to get all of these preparations done before classes start on January 20th?! I'm so hopeful for God to use and stretch us and most of all draw us as a community closer to His heart in the next few months. Thanks for all your prayers and support this last year! Blessings, Friends.

1 comment:

Meredith J said...

This is exciting. Can't wait to be there!