| Church helps teachers, students go back to school
By John M. De Marco
ORLANDO — Reeves Memorial United Methodist
Church here is demonstrating how prayer in schools does not have to
involve engaging the ubiquitous and naive battle of church versus
state.
Located on the fringes of downtown Orlando,
Reeves recently “adopted” an elementary school across the street
as a mission project. The church collected school supplies for Fern
Creek Elementary School during July, then invited the school’s
teachers and staff to its property for a “teacher blessing service”
and a lunch served by the United Methodist Women. Teachers were given
the supplies along with the opportunity to submit prayer requests and
receive anointing.
According to the church and the school
principal, nearly half of Fern Creek’s staff attended, with about 20
teachers receiving anointing and prayer. Among those attending was a
woman of the Muslim faith.
“It is absolutely wonderful what they have
done for us,” Principal Kimberly Whitney told the “Review.” “They’re
taking us under their wing.”
Reeves currently averages about 70 individuals
in worship per week and is an older congregation located in a mostly
white neighborhood transitioning from older residents to younger
families. Fern Creek Elementary is a large school populated by
numerous ethnic groups, with about 75 percent of its children on free
or reduced lunch. Many children are homeless or live in hotels and
cannot afford the school supplies, according to Whitney.
Whitney made attendance at the church service
optional, but said she was very pleased with how many of her staff
members participated. She said the staff left “inspired and excited
about starting the new year.”
“It’s been a tremendous experience so far,”
said the Rev. Frank McKown, Reeves’ senior pastor. “We have
discovered there are great needs, not only with the pencils, paper and
booklets that we worked up for them, but with the spiritual side, as
well.
“We just felt that we needed to reach out more
in the community. We see all these other organizations that have
chaplains—why can’t teachers have chaplains? We’re not coming
into the school or anything like that, but we want to be there for
them, to help them spiritually.”
The church is collecting more school supplies
and plans to have another service and luncheon Oct. 17 and perhaps
again in February.
McKown, a former teacher, said the response from
the congregation has been fantastic. “It seemed like they kept
asking, ‘Do you think we have enough?’ The supplies just
absolutely poured in.”
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