Throughout the history of SFC including children in our ministry has been really important. When we made the move to Portland we saved lots of our daughter’s old toys so that we’d have options for wee ones at the house. Over the year we’ve done Godly Play each week with a rotation of volunteers, and when our demographics shifted we hired a young man to watch and engage with the littlest kiddos.
Trinity has long had a ministry providing backpacks with food so that on the weekends hungry students from the two closest elemenrary schools would have something to eat. As the Discovery team did one to ones with community members they found a recurring theme of a need to support children and families in our neighborhood. So our group started volunteering at Grout and we began listening to the school and providing things likes leggings or gloves when there was a need.
We’ve found something really beautiful in the relationships with the schools, in the increase in kiddos at worship, and with three new babies on their way to our community. It feels like God is calling us to ministry with children and families. We have some ideas and some hopes about what this might look like such as offering affordable summer day camps this year. Our first step will be some community conversations around affordable child care. Too often I have been part of things where a bunch of people sit in a room and decide what someone else might need. So the Parish is inviting the whole neighborhood to join us January 30th, February 4th or February 21st from 7-8pm to dream about what our area needs and what great (or not so great) experiences folks have had with childcare options. Let us know if you are coming and need childcare that night.
It is exciting to be dreaming and listening. I know that God is unfolding something in this place and it will be amazing.
-Eilidh
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