Kids Hope USA

By: Jonathan Scheffrahn

Every week during the school year Kids Hope USA volunteers from Grace Community Church went to Foster Elementary School in Arlington to spend an hour a week with one student. These children were selected by the school as needing extra encouragement and mentoring. Over the past year, I went on Monday mornings and when I arrived, my student knew the only reason I was there was to see him. He would have an hour of uninterrupted attention where we could talk about anything that was on his mind, work on schoolwork together, play games, shoot some baskets, or just take a walk around the playground. There were weeks that he was doing great and others that he was having a lot of challenges but I was so proud of him when I was invited to his awards ceremony at the end of the year.

And of course along with mentoring we took the opportunity to encourage the teachers and the staff at Foster over the year. We served at the Thanksgiving lunch for all the families and then provided a Teacher Appreciation lunch at the end of the year. The principal and the staff were so appreciative that we would take time out of our schedules to come and volunteer and encourage the people at Foster.

Foster has asked us to come back again and mentor in the Fall of 2023 and has already sent us the names of students who need some encouragement and help. In addition Morton Elementary School has reached out to us asking for mentors as well. Helping all the students from both schools will require more than 25 mentors from Grace Community Church. Please join us in praying for God to provide all the mentors to fully staff both schools and if you are interested in joining that team, reach out to Pastor Jonathan at jonathan@gracearlington.com.