All the Pieces Coming Together

Many of you know that we have been running our tutoring program for about 5 years now, and it has continued to grow in size. However, we had size with little to no infrastructure, and so, as a friend of mine put it, it was like this tsuhami of kids crashed into us each week, and then we would recover for a few days and get hit again. There never seemed to be time to get thing under control, and it more felt like survival. That same friend has commented that with tutoring it's like you get two Fridays every week - one on Tuesday when tutoring is over and then the regular one on Friday.

This, however, is changing. God is beginning to move people into place to transform this ministry into one that is effective for the kids and more enjoyable for the tutors. He brought Regina Clark, a businesswoman who specializes in developing an infrastructure to make vision come to pass. He has brought Millie Smith, who has a degree in physical education, and works for a state organization that promotes health and physical activity. Millie now leads an organized play time for our kids and tutors each Monday, which has increased relationships and teamwork amongst them. God brought Jeb Burns, a graduate school education major who is a parent of middle schoolers and who also has a passion for middle schoolers, and he is helpind bring an organized curriculum to that portion of our program. God enabled Melissa Lewkowicz to come on as a paid staff with InterVarsity as an administrative assistant for GUPY and this program. God gave John Freeman, the middle school pastor at our church, a heart for the middle schoolers in our program, and so he serves one day a week. God has brought 7 adult tutors from our church and other churches, which has given maturity and presence to our class rooms. God has given us a tremendous resource in a reading teacher from Guilfor County Schools who is teaching us about discipline and how to help kids read.

Adding these pieces to what we had already has begun to transform our program. Regina has helped us implement a regular schedule each day, which the kids are responding to in a great way. The play time has taught kids and tutors to play together. And there is a calm and an order to our time that there hasn't been. Thus the tsuhami feels more like and regular tide, with some occasional rough seas from time to time (like today when one of the kids stopped up all the sinks in the boys bathroom and turned the water on, resulting in about 1.5 inches of water on the floor and some water in the ceiling below). God is positioning us to have a program next year that is going help the children tremendously.