School Works

Several months ago, I was approached by a staff member from a neighboring church about School Works–a cooperative ministry and community outreach.  I was introduced by her to Half-Hour Heroes.  I confess, at first I was a bit resistant–buying into other people’s agendas, feeling that I had too much to do already, but as I heard about an initiative of compassion to our neighborhood school children, and in our case, immediately next door, I gave the conversation my full attention, and I’m glad I did.  I learned of the need: of school children disadvantaged by circumstances, and how a small effort on the part of a few people can make a great difference in the lives of our neighbors’ children—an adult giving a half hour once a week reading with a school child.  The materials about Half-Heroes were compelling and I shared the idea with the people at our church, and was overwhelmed at their interest.  A couple of weeks later we hosted a brief info session to share the basics with our people, and the enthusiasm only grew.  The net outcome is that we have begun a substantive outreach of compassion in the local public school with potential huge significance and enthusiastic participation with a number of our people—and all of this in direct cooperation with the local public school—at their invitation!  A group of our church people recently completed a simple orientation, and have begun to touch people’s lives.  And out of this group, a leader arose to lead the ministry!  Effective ministry, enthusiastic involvement, and minimal effort on our part–I’m a fan of School Works and its Half-Hour Heroes initiative, and commend it to you.

–Dale Patterson, Pastor, Hackberry Community Church