August 18 will be the first day of our sixth year of tutoring children for whom English is a second or third language.  Before we moved to this “new” building, one of the dreams for making a difference in the neighborhood was to help children at the nearest elementary school, Byars Dowdy.  Tutoring ESL/ELL children turned out to be a great need.

It’s hard to even estimate the hundreds of man hours that have been invested in helping these children learn so that they would grow into productive adults who know that they are loved by God and His people.  Cindy Spickard  has led this ministry since the beginning.  Many, many others have been involved on a weekly basis.

Our children have moved and been promoted to higher grades so we now pick up children at Sam Houston, Castle Heights, and Walter J. Baird.  We have chosen to concentrate on the same children to make the greatest impact possible although we’ve added younger siblings and newcomers as we’ve had room.  Last year we tutored 30 children from 3:30 to 4:30 each Monday.

I’ll never forget when our tutorees began asking if they could come to church besides coming to tutoring!  Last Wednesday night we had 49 children come for Bible classes.

If you would be available to help this fall, contact Cindy or me. Our fall tutoring runs from August 18 through November 17. We’ll have Labor Day and Fall Break as holidays.