Revelation 3:8 ‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.”
Our ability to serve God is not based on our own power and ability. Our ability to do ministry is held in the power of Jesus who has the authority to open and shut doors. When doors of opportunity open, we do not have to have great power to perform. When the doors open, we just have to be obedient to walk through the door and it is God who will empower us through the Holy Spirit to accomplish what he desires.
A door of opportunity that God has opened for us is our ministry with Governor Bent Elementary School. It was our concern that with the change in principal over the summer that the door was closing and that it would be harder for us this year to do ministry. The reality is that the new principal is just as excited about our partnership and wants to use us to help their students to succeed.
Governor Bent is a community school. Governor Bent’s special designation as a community school means that they work intentionally to connect with area businesses and nonprofits to help their students succeed as well as to make the community stronger. The biggest community sponsor for Governor Bent Elementary is Del Norte Baptist Church. And they want to use us even more to help them connect with parents and help with their number one problem within the school, truancy.
So, how can you help? There are three new areas of our partnership that you will begin to see announced. The first is the community room. There is a room in Governor Bent Elementary that is for helping our community to connect with each other. It is a place for the parents to gather as they wait to pick up their children in the afternoon. We are helping to host that room for the parents. We need adults willing to go through the background checks with the school, as well as the necessary background checks and Ministry Safe Training we require here, in order to help volunteer to be a host to these parents. What a great opportunit
y for us to connect with the parents of our community! We also need cookies and bottled water to hand out to the parents. If you are interested in providing cookies or water, please contact Ira at ira@dnbc.org. If you would like to donate, please designate the gift “community events.”
The second opportunity is that we have been asked to host family movie nights. We are still working on the date for our first one, but we want to have at least one of these before school lets out for the summer. We believe that this will be a great opportunity to connect with parents as children are watching the movie. What if our Sunday Morning Bible Study teachers were there to build relationships with the parents? We see this as a great way to get them comfortable enough to come to a Bible study or worship service on a Sunday.
The third opportunity is partnering with Governor Bent Elementary to do events at the area apartment complexes in order to help parents understand the importance of their kids being in school every day. Governor Bent Elementary is the third worst school in the city in truancy. They want us to help them address this issue by doing fun events at the apartments which will give the opportunity to help educate the parents. We will need people to help us with these events and we will need some finances to help provide food and entertainment. Again, if you would like to donate, please designate the gift “community events.”
God never promises us a door to remain open. It is our responsibility to be faithful while it is. Please be praying, serving, and giving to help us to be faithful with this great opportunity to serve our community. We cannot take advantage of this without you.