Growing up, I was fortunate to be surrounded by ministers, Sunday School teachers, peers, and their parents who loved missions, and it didn't take long before I learned to love missions too. These people gave me opportunities to travel to various communities outside of the United States for mission work. When I moved to Waco for college, my mission field became more local, as I grew my love for nonprofit work in the community which eventually lead to serving as a teacher in south Louisiana. I found my way back to Baylor University in 2015, where I completed my Masters of Social Work with a focus in Community Practice. I have spent the last four years working with our amazing 527 Tribe kids, and it was a dream come true when Dolores recently asked me to take on the Share position within the Family Ministry team as well. As I write all of this, I can't help but believe God has been preparing me all along for this very season.
Over the past year, we have been dreaming about all things Share, which is our way of talking about missions in the Family Ministry. While my past experiences taught me a lot about what missions are, I also learned a lot about what missions are not. These experiences provide constant guidance to the Family Ministry efforts of ensuring we are doing missions the way God has called us to do. Our deep desire is for our children to leave South Main with a solid foundation for serving their communities, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
I'm sure you've heard, we are currently writing an original curriculum, which includes three separate Share series, with a total of ten lessons each year. We started with the question, "What do we want our seniors walking out of here knowing and understanding?" Then we took that answer and scaffolded it all the way down to our four-year-olds. This looked like taking an outcome we want for Amy's seniors such as, "We see oppression and injustice and humbly serve with the community," to an appropriate outcome we want for Kelly's kindergarteners, such as, "I can love my neighbor."
Among many priorities, we are being very intentional to teach the students in the Family Ministry that we are not anyone's savior - that Jesus alone has the power to rescue. This means we pour over every word and activity in each of our lessons to ensure we are generating a healthy framework for missions.
We value our partnerships with our own community in Houston, which means we create opportunities for our students to serve South Main's ongoing mission projects. We encourage them to spend their Saturdays beautifying MacGregor Elementary School or their Wednesdays playing a game of chess with our Manna friends.
And maybe most importantly, we will spend all year learning to recognize the assets and strengths of the communities we travel to for our Tribe and Youth Summer Trips in 2022. In the safe space of church, we will lean into healthy conversations about Biblical justice, poverty and root causes, power and oppression, grounded in the life that Jesus lived and seen through the lens of the communities we serve. For example, the Tribe will learn about payday lending and how it directly targets vulnerable populations and the impact it has on communities we serve in Shaw, Mississippi, and in South Texas.
We covet your prayers in our endeavors to help our kids grow their passion for sharing and serving as investments in The Kingdom's future. God has something really exciting planned for the Family Ministry at South Main, and I promise you want your children to be a part of the experience.
