Through their visits, MPCS students are intentionally developing relationships with the children at FML.
After more than a decade of partnership with FML during the Christmas season, Mount Paran has come alongside this ministry to give greater support to them through servant-leadership.
As part of the ‘“Action in Truth” initiative through the Christian Life department, MPCS is intentionally partnering with several local schools and ministries on a weekly or monthly basis.
“Getting our kids to spend valuable time in service is what changes hearts and minds,” said Director of Christian Life, Aaron Farrant. “Until a young person puts themselves in someone else’s shoes, they can¹t relate to the needs of others on a personal level.”
Birthed from 1 John 3:18:
Dear Children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
The initiative has been a success within several grade levels that have put this on-going service into practice.
Mount Paran students also serve almost every week at MUST Ministries, Calvary Children’s Home, Walton Adventure Centers, Hayes Elementary, and Gaines Park Senior Living.
At Feed My Lambs, MPCS students work with the preschool children academically and also spend quality time doing one-on-one crafts and games.
They pray for each child by name to help foster a mentoring dynamic. Students get on the floor to play and engage with each small child. Bible stories are shared and each preschooler feels cherished by the “big kids” that come to visit them often.
Leaders and students also pray over the class and their teachers. Many times the sentiment has been reciprocated as the FML teachers pray for their fifth-grade visitors.
While not on an official visit, both school’s classes are writing letters and sending handmade cards and pictures back-and-forth.
The ultimate goal is to not only show love to these young children, but to prepare students for a lifestyle of service both by modeling and by experience.
The mission of preparing servant-leaders to honor God, love others, and walk in Truth is lived out everyday in the halls of the school. But it is also taken beyond the familiar walls of the classroom to impact hearts for Jesus.
Both the servant and the ones being served benefit from the initiatives engaged by action and truth.
Angie Wilson, fifth grade parapro, said she feels this has been such a success for our kids and the Feed My Lambs children.
“I know that I certainly have been blessed,” she said.