www.kidshopeusa.org 

Kids Hope certainly fits within the criteria of Missional Outreach. It is based on the principle of uniting one church fellowship with one local elementary school in a one-on-one mentoring program. Volunteers from the church are trained, and then agree to visit what the system defines as an ‘at-risk’ child once a week for one hour during the regular school year.  The mentor stays with the same child throughout elementary school until the child graduates into the sixth grade (unless, of course, the child moves out of the district). Immanuel began this program in partnership with Meadowlawn Elementary School of Kentwood in March of 2004. The results have been incredible, for both the school and for our fellowship. The school principle (and teachers), have expressed their gratitude to us many times over concerning how much improvement they have seen in the participating student’s grades, attendance, and behavior.  Even though our mentors are not allowed to vocally ‘share their faith’ on the campus, we are allowed to invite the kids to our various church activities. Many of the children began to attend our Wednesday night children’s program as IRC members volunteered to pick them up and bring them back home.  We watched many of the Kids Hope kids blossom, and a few even made intentional decisions to invite Jesus into their lives. There is also a very reciprocal result. Our fellowship, and particularly our kids and educational leaders, became exposed to the culture we are, as a church, supposed to be reaching out to. KHUSA became a very effective catalyst in producing an outward-focused paradigm to our kids’ program here.  Utilizing KHUSA in this manner is a prime example of ‘relational evangelism’.  If you would like to know more about KHUSA, or read some real-life testimonies of how this mentoring program changes the lives of both kids and mentors, click on the KHUSA link posted above.