By Laurel Kehl

“Every child you encounter is a divine appointment.” – Wess Stafford, President, Compassion Int’l

We discovered the truth of this quote as we piloted Busy Brains Homework Help this past school year! Often as we tutored, we thought, “This child doesn’t really need help with her homework…” or “Wow, this kid is a handful!”…or even “Now, why did I decide to do this?!”

But then we started to hear the backstories. Two of our youngest girls were struggling in school because their parents were going through a nasty separation and divorce. One young boy had no father in the home (which is why he ran through our doors every Thursday straight to his male tutor!). One little adopted Russian girl was having schoolwork problems because she was still adjusting to American culture. Another young girl had to be dropped off at school every day at 7:30 and picked up at 6:00 so her single mom could hold down a job.

God had a reason for us to be involved with every one of those kids! Each one was a divine appointment!

We’ve begun to glimpse the fruit of this ministry (although the whole story is only known by the Author at the moment!). We now know about 18 more families in the Upper Dublin school system than we did before! Every family involved this past year wants to keep bringing their children to Busy Brains this year! Two families have visited our church, and at least one family brought their kids to Kids in Motion! The five English Language Learners who attended now speak better English! And the tutors had a lot of fun! (As Dostoyevsky said, “The soul is healed by being with children.” WE benefited as much as, if not more than, the kids we served!)

We’d love to have you join us in this ministry! Orientation for tutors will be Thursday, September 18th, with Busy Brains formally beginning the following week. For more details, contact the church office.