Lament, Action, and Jubilee
Lament, Action, and Jubilee: How the Church can step in on behalf of the children in our city!
As many of you know, the Winston-Salem Forsyth County schools have had a hard start to the school year. We have read about the substantial $42 million debt, heated school board meetings, allotment decreases, hundreds of jobs that have been eliminated, and more.
What you may not know is how this has affected the children in our city and how critical it is for our community to come together to pay off the debt in order to safeguard the flourishing of our youngest and most vulnerable neighbors.
For our family (Elissa’s), it has looked like our daughter’s beloved Kindergarten classroom being shut down one month into the school year. Her class was divided up and assigned to the other existing classrooms after four wonderful weeks. The hard work these five-year-olds had done to make friends and learn the routines of their room came to a screeching halt overnight.
Our school also lost the front desk staff and assistant principal, as did many other schools in our district. The two women who knew the “ins and outs” of the school like the back of their hand are no longer there. Their kind, warm eyes with a twinkle of nurture who greeted families at the front office and answered phone calls were immensely important to creating a sense of belonging, welcome, and reassurance. There is no longer a full-time assistant principal, a wonderful man who the kids adored, who was integrally involved in the classrooms with behavior challenges and who oversaw the buses. We now share an AP with another school several miles away. Simple things like paper have become a limited resource. We were told at Open House, “we aren’t sure what homework will look like this year because we don’t have enough paper.” The kids are bringing their own paper from home to color.
As you can imagine, the children in our city are directly feeling the effects of this situation every day. There is much to lament, and we know our Heavenly Father welcomes our cries with a compassionate ear.
Most importantly, we have come to feel the weight of how this will affect children from less-resourced neighborhoods. In many of the resourced schools, volunteers for eliminated positions such as front desk staff and classroom supplies are being provided by families. What about the children whose families aren’t able to provide in this way? Children from unstable households– emotionally, physically and financially– often find school to be a great source of stability and nurture. We are coming to you on behalf of the families that rely on our public schools for so much more than education- stability, food, mentors, love, and refuge. These children are the poor, oppressed, and marginalized for whom Jesus invites us to be his hands and feet.
What does it look like for us as God’s people to join in his redemptive work of making all things new in the broken places?
Passages like Matthew 25 and Jeremiah 29 come to mind- reminding us that we are stewards of great wealth and we are also called to seek the prosperity of our city. For when our city prospers, we will too.
We are in the middle of a Making Room for More Campaign. Part of that campaign is aimed at raising funds for a building which will enable the work of God through Hope church to continue in the midst of our growth. An additional part of that campaign is to continue making room for more of God’s kingdom to break through across our city and world.
It is clear that the WSFCS debt will continue to enslave our school system (and therefore our entire city) for many years if we allow it to hold us captive. It calls to mind the Sabbath and Jubilee years of Leviticus 25, which God commanded in order to loose the chains of injustice. We of all people should know the power of our debt being paid by another, as our ultimate debt has been totally paid for by Jesus himself.
Please prayerfully consider making room for more of God’s kingdom to shine bright in our city by making a contribution to pay down the WSFCS debt on behalf of the least of these- the children in our community and the courageous teachers who care for them. You can read more and also donate through the Winston-Salem Foundation’s Futures Fund on their “All In For Our Schools” platform here. If you want to give of your time or talent, there is great need for those gifts , too, so please reach out to us. Yes, the debt is large, but no debt is too big for our generous God and the people he invites to join him. What if the Church had the most generous response to this effort? I wonder what our neighbors would think.
With Hope,
Elissa Dowlen & Jessica Shore