Briarwood Presbyterian Church
Thursday, May 17, 2012
worshipping.equipping.reaching

in birmingham

Hemphill Elementary | Tutoring

The Sojourners Community (Sunday School) class has been involved serving the students at Hemphill Elementary.Resting in the western shadow of Princeton Medical Center, this school is one of the elementary feeder schools for West End High School. During the months of Feburary, March, and April, volunteers from the Sojourners tutored on Saturday mornings in math and reading. Hemphill Elementary - Science Lab The Lord gave some of the class a vision to clean up and redo the walls of their unused science lab. For the last month of the Saturday Academy, volunteers split time tutoring and painting with students in order to clean and redo the walls of the science lab. One of the Sojourners, a commissioned painter, painted a solar system mural on one of the walls.

Hemphill Elementary | Learning Garden

After the lab and the Saturday Academy were finished, the school asked the Sojourners again if they would help with another project. For years, science teachers at Hemphill Elementary school have had a vision of making an outdoor classroom. They drew up blue prints, but never were able to complete their vision due to funding. One member of the Sojourners' Sunday school class owns a landscaping company and volunteered to take the blue print dreams and make them come true. In July the Sojourners completed work on the outdoor learning garden. he God provided the $8000 to cover the supply costs of building a first class learning garden.

The Singles Community for provided lunch and members of the Family Life Community Class brought their families down to work along side the Sojourners.

The PTA director has asked if Briarwood Church would start a new mentoring program at the middle school (the school the Hemphill elementary students would go to). Be in prayer that the Lord would continue to open doors like this as Jesus is seen through our service and love. Also pray for Briarwood as we decide how to meet this need in this school.

Hemphill, Gate City, Inglenook Elementaries | Discovery Clubs

Volunteers from Briarwood lead Discovery Clubs at three local elementary schools. The clubs meet from 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. at the school building one day a week for 23 weeks during the school year. During the club hour volunteers provide a simple snack for the children, lead singing, teach a Bible lesson, have small group mentoring time to talk and pray with the children, lead memory verse activities/games, and occassionally lead crafts. It is a lot of fun and the principals all report that the children involved in Discovery Clubs have had noticeable improvements in their behavior and they have been talking about God and the Bible at school with their friends and teachers.