Greeting supporters, prayer partners, volunteers and future
partnersJ! Just wanted to update the blog as we are
nearing the completion of the first year mentoring at Heritage Academy. We started with the 3rd grade
boys. There are 6 little guys in the
class, and we have come to love each of them for their own unique
personalities. At the risk of putting
any personal information in a public I will just share some of the things that
make them special! For instance, this
past visit, one of the boys said the blessing before lunch and I was literally
tearing up when he was done—not only did he pray for each of his classmates
individually, he prayed for at least 4 of us by name, and for our families. We are truly blessed to be able to learn from
these children and I think everyone would be served well if we went back to
seeing the world from the eyes of a child!
Our visits consist of mainly 3 activities—we arrive around
11:30 and bring our bag lunches to the back lunch table. There are about 5 other classes in the midst
of their lunch when we get there, and we try to say hello to all! Then “our guys” arrive and give us the update
of the goings on from the past month…the conversation usually focuses Steph
Curry or a WWE “wrastler” or NFL current events—just normal boy stuff! We are usually spread out so each of us can
be 1-1 with a child to let them tell us how things are going.
Our next mainstay is going outside to “play” either
basketball or football. This usually
consists of 1-2 of the more athletic kids showing off their skills, and then
all 6 boys (yes, only 6 in the whole 3rd grade this year!!) usually
end up in a giant group all fighting for the ball! We do our best to maintain order, but it is
nice to see them run around and burn some energy!
Lastly, and most importantly, we take the last 30-45 minutes
to share a brief devotional with a theme centered around character traits
similar to the First Tee 9 core values like teamwork, integrity, gratitude,
persistence, etc. Then we parlay that
theme into a project. 2-3 have been
things for them to take home like a Lowes pull back race car kit, or neat Lego
projects, and 2-3 have been more service oriented—we have done a thank
you/goodie bag for Active Duty Armed Forces, thank you notes and gift cards to
Chick Fil A to 20 local firefighters and police officers. Most recently we tested our green thumbs and
did a potted Daisy project from scratch—38 pots, potting soil, daisy bulbs and
a Bible verse from the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:8-9 for all 32
faculty and the office and lunch room staff from our guys.
Just wanted to update y’all on what we have been up to. Also,
to let you know that our hope and prayer is for this opportunity to multiply. This is super fun, doesn’t require much
time—11:3 0-1:30, 6-8 times a year, and you are investing in the lives of our
community’s youth who lack a lot of positive role models, especially male role
models. We are hoping to have another
group of men start with next year’s 3rd grade class and continue to
cycle until every class has a group like this.
We also want to expand this to the girls—in fact a 3rd grade
girl just last visit asked me, “When are y’all going to have a group for us?”. I want to be able to answer that little girl,
and all of her classmates, with “soon, very soon.” This needs to happen!!
So many men in our country—regardless of ethnicity or
economic status— are absent in the lives of their families. Some areas of the population provide more
obvious effects of this, but suburban, upper class families are also feeling
the impact of men who place higher priorities on things other than being a husband,
father and leader of their homes and communities. This is much more subtle and harder to
detect, but our country is showing the outward signs of the failing family unit
in a big way. We recently read
Resolution for Men (great book and would HIGHLY recommend it for every man) and
it talked about the 3 things our kids need from their fathers: attention, affection
and affirmation. If they don’t get it
from the father they will seek it out from someone and somewhere else, and
rarely will that alternative have the child’s best interest in mind. Look around and you will see evidence of this
in every neighborhood, rich and poor, in our town and the country. Human trafficking, gang participation and
drug use are just a few examples of the places that kids may end when they seek
attention, affection and affirmation from the wrong sources. So, while our initial focus was on men, and
justifiably so, there is absolutely no reason at all that we shouldn’t develop
a similar program for the girls of Heritage Academy too.
OK—sorry for the rant there, but if we don’t identify these
type of issues, we will never turn the tides.
If we don’t have a clear understanding of how these situations are
breaking down our homes and communities, things will only get worse. If we don’t show the love and give “our
children,” all of “our children,” hope for a better future, what are we
doing? As the father of two young boys,
I wonder what the future will look like for my own children—will the downward
spiral of absenteeism prevail, or will we reset our priorities and focus on the
things that matter. Will my children see
their father upset with the status quo, but do nothing to change it—or will
they see him working with a band of brothers and sisters to make a
difference? Our children see everything
we say and do—actions speak louder than words so will our children see us do?
Graham for KH
