A Tale of Two (really three) Ministries — A GREAT idea!

Part One: The Church always had a strong Cadet club but it was never a large club — never more than eight or nine boys in the last decade, and there were few prospects for the near future. There were men who were ready to serve as counselors but they were thinking that maybe it was better to combine their efforts with another church's club if they were only going to minister to a few boys.
Part Two: The church had a number of outreach ministries and one of the more successful was Kid's Hope. Kid's Hope establishes church/school partnerships, bringing members of the church into the public schools as mentors. They found a local public grade school that welcomed the "one-on-one" attention that Kid's Hope provides.

How they came together …
There was a couple in this church — the wife headed up the Kid's Hope ministry, the husband was a Cadet counselor. One day the Lord helped this couple make a wonderful connection. The Kid's Hope ministry was going strong but the church members who participated were looking for ways to be able to share the Gospel with the children and their families. Since the mentoring took place on school grounds the mentors were not allowed to evangelize, but with parent or guardian approval, it was not a problem for the mentors to invite the children to attend activities at the church — a place where there were no restrictions on what topics could be discussed. It was a natural fit! Why not invite the children in the Kid's Hope program to join Cadets or GEMS?
For the church members who were involved in the Kid's Hope Ministry they found that after a year of mentoring a child — getting to know both child and his/her parents, they would feel comfortable asking if it was OK to allow their children to come to their GEMS and Cadet programs. The trust that had been built between the mentor and these families made the decision easy — Yes, they would love to have their children in these church ministries.
So, today we have a wonderful connection between three important ministries — Kid's Hope, GEMS, and Cadets. Twice a month on Wednesday Family Night the mentors pick up the children and they bring them to church for a meal followed by Cadets and GEMS. Now these children can not only experience God's love, but hear about God's love from His Word.
This isn't just a nice story. We recently stopped in at Bethel CRC's (in Zeeland, Michigan) Family Night where this story is reality. We found that it was community service night. The GEMS and Cadets were going to work together on raking leaves in the neighborhood around the church. It would be a "random act of kindness" style activity. If they saw a yard full of leaves — it became the target of their unlimited energy. No matter if they knew who lived in the home or not, they raked the leaves. Several homeowners came outside and thanked the Cadets and GEMS. The kids had a great time and learned how blessed it is to give as well as receive.
Our hats off to the Kid's Hope, Cadet, and GEMS leaders who are making a difference in these young people's lives. A special thanks to Audrey Veldhof, the Kid's Hope coordinator at Bethel who provided much of the information for this news article.