CCC Gainesville | Blog
“Beware of watching these Dispatches if you don’t like being moved and inspired and shaken out of the ruts of your life. My wife and I were riveted in watching the frontline reports of God’s work recorded in the Dispatches from the Front. This is the sort of information that builds faith in the present providence of God over his mission, and stirs up action for the sake of lost and hurting people near and far. I would love to see thousands of people mobilized as senders and goers for the sake of the glory of Christ and the relief of suffering on the frontiers, especially eternal suffering.”
—John Piper, author of Desiring God; Pastor for Preaching and Vision, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis
In the November 2002 issue of Perspectives, Nicholas Wolterstorff gave his definition for a “Reformed lifestyle.”
“It’s a style of life that gives prominence to the conviction that God is creator; hence it is that we give thanks to God for the goodness that surrounds us. Secondly, it incorporates a deep and powerful sense of the fallenness of all things, understood in such a way that there is a strong impulse to resist all attempts to draw lines in the sand, with the explanation that human fallenness occurs on this side of the line and not on that side of the line. Fallenness runs throughout our entire existence–indeed, through the cosmos. Corresponding to this comprehensive view of sin is then an equally comprehensive view of faith and salvation… In short, I think that at the heart of the Reformed tradition is a passion for totality, for wholeness, for integrity, for not allowing life to fall into bits and pieces but to constantly ask, ‘What does my faith–what does the gospel of Jesus Christ–have do with this and what does it have to do with that?’ And then never being content with the answer, ‘Nothing!’”
Our own Rachel Stimler is program director with The Education Foundation of Alachua County, which administers Take Stock in Children.
from Rachel:
Take Stock in Children attacks both poverty and low graduation rates by providing college scholarships to low income public school students. What’s unique about Take Stock, is that it is not just a scholarship program, it is also a mentoring program. Students are selected for Take Stock in Children when they are in 7th grade, and are paired with a volunteer mentor, with whom they meet on the school campus once a week during their lunch period. If the student maintains at least a 2.5 GPA, stays drug and crime free, maintains program behavior and attendance standards, then they are awarded a 2-year Florida Prepaid scholarship which will pay full-tuition at any State College (formerly community college) in Florida.
In the past, we have inducted around 20 new 7th grade students each year into the program, but this year we are beginning to institute some massive program growth, starting with accepting 71 students this school-year, and then 100 students per year for the next 6 years after that. We are doing that because we feel we can’t really impact drop out rates and poverty by only having a graduating class of 15-20 students per year. Students in the same peer-group as the Take Stock Students, but who are not involved in Take Stock in Children have a graduation rate of 57%. Students involved in Take Stock in Children have a graduation rate of 92%.
Learn even more at www.acpsf.org or www.takestockinchildren.orgTo sign up, call (352) 955-7003 or e-mail Rachel: stimlerre AT gm DOT sbac DOT edu.
