A decade ago, Fairview Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis entered into a partnership with the school six blocks away, James Whitcomb Riley School #43, with a simple conviction: Every child deserves to hold a book that belongs to them. Today, this partnership has grown into a web of care and relationship that reaches students, teachers and families throughout the school year.
Four times a year, members of Fairview sit down for lunch with third-grade classes at School #43. Then, a community member reads a book aloud to the class. At the end of each session, every student receives their own copy of the book to keep. By the end of the school year, each third grader has collected four books. It’s a small but real personal library that may, for some, be the first books they have ever owned themselves.
The partnership extends well beyond the four visits. Each session also includes snack packs prepared by Fairview volunteers, a small but meaningful gesture that says we thought of you; we prepared something for you; and you are worth the effort. During National Teacher Appreciation Week, Fairview hosts an Appreciation Lunch for School #43 teachers and staff.
Winter at School #43 means cold, and Fairview’s Keep ’em Warm Project work to make sure students have what they need to face the season. Supported by a $250 Thrivent grant, and fueled by donations from church members and child care families, the project collected and donated over 100 items of clothing last year. Skilled crafters in the congregation added handmade hats, gloves and scarves to the mix. These were not surplus items dropped off at a door. They were gathered, sorted and given with care.
Sometimes Fairview’s support is more personal. When a family in the school community lost their home to a fire, Fairview responded. Clothing was gathered and financial support was offered, not as a program, but as neighbors who heard of a need and showed up.
What Fairview has discovered over nearly a decade is that presence is its own form of proclamation. Congregants who might never describe themselves as "doing mission" have found themselves moved by the faces of third graders lighting up at the sound of a story. Teachers have learned that people in their community see them and value them. A school that serves a neighborhood with significant need has come to know that they are not alone.
This is the witness Fairview Presbyterian is called to offer: not programs delivered to recipients, but a congregation showing up, year after year, in ordinary acts of reading and feeding and warming and caring.
Pastor Shawn Coons, Fairview Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis
Let us join in prayer for:
Devan Caton, SR OPS Manager & Business Analyst, Operations, the Presbyterian Foundation
Omar Chacon, Mission Specialist, Migration Accompaniment Ministry, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Let us pray:
God of the open book and the set table, thank you for every child whose eyes have widened at the sound of a story, and for every volunteer who showed up, again and again, because they believed it mattered. Thank you for teachers who pour themselves out daily and for the rare moments when they are told it is seen. Teach us to keep showing up. Teach us that presence is a form of prayer, that a book given is a blessing, and that community built across difference is holy ground. May the children of School #43, and every school, know they are seen, loved and not forgotten. Amen.
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