Mission Houston Newsletter

From Our Executive Director, Steve Capper

Christmas is the celebration of God coming to earth as a person, born as a baby. The writer of the Gospel of John said it this way: "The Word of God came and dwelt among us!" That is what we want to see happen for at-risk students and their schools – God coming among them, "wrapped up" in caring Christians!

Our listening sessions with school administrators, teachers, veterans of ministries working with students in schools, and community leaders are almost over. We’ve been asking for their counsel about our call for the Christians of greater Houston to make a 7 year investment in transforming public school elementary schools. Their feedback helped us in determining several clear goals. While we’ll reach these through 1 year increments, here is what we want to see happen:

The Body of Christ in each CSA (Community Service Area) will "adopt" the 3 elementary schools with the highest percentage of at-risk students and the fewest resources to address their needs, and invest in these schools each year.

That "adoption" commitment will include:

100 students per school each year will each have 1 trained mentor who spends 1 hour per week with that child giving authentic academic help, affirmation, and a role model who is able to show and share the love of God
$10,000 will be given to each school each year to supplement what they receive from the school district and compensate for what they don’t get from sources common to more affluent neighborhood schools (like PTA’s)
1 facilities improvement project will be completed each year
The entire school - staff and faculty and students - will be covered in weekly intercessions by CSA prayer teams.

To help us achieve these, the Mission Houston staff will continue to develop and coach Community Service Area teams. And we will provide leadership courses and coaching (see "Faithwalking" on our website) to leaders in business and to leaders of congregations who want to see impact that results in changing greater Houston for good.

Will you help us with prayer and financial help? Your end-of-year contribution, and your commitment to support us in 2008, would mean so much. And so much more if you respond before the end of the year: a generous benefactor has offered to match all increased pledges and donations from "new" donors up to $50,000. (For credit card donations, see our website: www.missionhouston.org)

With all our hearts, thank you for your prayers, encouragement and support.

Steve Capper
Executive Director, for all of us