Ministries Making a Difference
OCJ Kids, School of Promise, Clergy Appreciation Month
OCJ Kids, in partnership with T-Mobile, has launched a program offering free phones to youth who have aged out of the foster care system. OCJ Kids (Opportunity Community and Justice for Kids), an Arizona-based nonprofit that connects churches with youth in foster care group homes, provides the youth with up to a year of free talk, text, and data with the understanding that the youth call their assigned mentors regularly. OCJ Kids founder Gary Webb said mentors would often lose track of youth as they aged out, and already they’ve seen a big jump in youth calling to check in. T-Mobile provides the phones for free and the ministry pays a discounted rate for plans. OCJ Kids has programs in five states and also provides hygiene and care kits to foster youth.
School of Promise, a Christian school in Thailand run by Hope International Schools (HIS), is producing a textbook series for Thai students covering key subjects from a biblical worldview. Work on the series began after administrators had difficulty finding textbooks on Thai social studies and history that weren’t written with the underlying message of “to be Thai is to be Buddhist.” School of Promise was founded in 2010 to give children in poverty a holistic, gospel-centered education. It is the first school opened by HIS, which focuses on building and operating financially independent Christian schools in developing countries.
The National Association of Evangelicals has put together a list with more than 50 ways to bless your pastor during Clergy Appreciation Month. Ideas include specific ways to pray, encourage, serve, and give generously.
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