Entrusting to God What's Next

by Jenelle Denson & Amy Hong, GEMs Directors

Due to our facility renovation, we're sad to say goodbye to Grace Educational Mentors (GEMs) after 14 continuous years of service.  We’ll miss our time with the kids each Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, many with whom we’ve traveled for many years, including some who have become tutors themselves, for example, Wayne Mak (read his article, "On Being a GEMs Tutor") who began GEMs as a third grader. Over the years, we’ve grown in our understanding of what it means to love our kids as Christ loves them. As a congregation, we’ve asked ourselves what it means to see each other through God’s eyes, and GEMs has provided a concrete place for us to live this out. 

As we look to future forms of educational or other youth-related ministry, we’re grateful for this interim season to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the GEMs program, and the ways that God is growing us as leaders and as a team. Craig Wong’s article “The Gift of Change” describes well the things we’ve been learning during this time.  Though we have much we could be anxious about, we have so much more to look forward to.  Please pray that we would continue to see our neighbors through the eyes of Christ, and to fully invest in the work He would have us do next.  We trust that God will continue to be faithful with whatever ministry he leads us to, just as he was faithful throughout our time with GEMs.