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By Jeremy | July 28, 2006
Last month,
Jonathan paved the Adopt-A-School way at P.S. 34, the public school across the street from
Generation Xcel. Yesterday,
Dorothy Rivera joined him as a second math teacher at the school.
A Cornell University graduate and lifelong New Yorker, Dorothy spent the summer before her senior year on Xcel's staff and worked full-time after graduation as an Xcel program coordinator until becoming a junior high school teacher in September 2002. She has served as an
Abounding Grace youth leader since 2001 and has directed AGM's missions ministry for three years as well, leading summer teams to Tijuana and the Domincan Republic. Dorothy's the real deal -- beautiful, smart, compassionate, kind, a go-getter -- and one of my most favorite people in the world! (Sorry, boys, she's already taken ... engaged to Steven, whom I want to call "equally wonderful" but won't because I feel like D's a little sister for whom I have to reserve a skeptical eye. But so far, he's proven to be fun and charming and industrious and full of character; in short, a worthy match for her delightful self.)
So here we have a dream Adopt-A-School scenario. A local church and youth development agency have been unoffocially partnering with a local school for years, to the extent they share many of the same students. The church prays regularly for the school and the youth agency provides after school and summer academic enrichment and recreational programs. One of the co-founders of the youth agency, who also happens to be the youth pastor at the church, and his youth ministry colleague, who also happened to be staff at the youth agency, both decide they want to teach at the school to be able to serve the students and their families more consistently. So they apply for positions, and within six weeks, both receive offers to begin teaching there in the fall.
The plot thickens. More to come.
Topics: abounding grace, adopt-a-school, education, generation xcel, youth ministry | 5 Comments »
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(Two chapters)
(Commentary throughout)
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July 28th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
Jeremy,
i graduated from p.s.34…
congrats to Jon, he’s the real deal!
July 28th, 2006 at 5:50 pm
Dorthy is one of my all time heros.
Her faith to do what she does and love for her kids bears so much fruit. Praise God for the righteous ones!
Stephen is a blessed man!
I am proud of you guys!
July 29th, 2006 at 2:07 am
Jeremy, you are too much!!! I owe it all to my heavenly Daddy who has been the reason why I do what I do. I am excited for what God has in store this year. Keep us in your prayers, that we remain sensitive to His will for the kids, the families, the school and the community at large. I want to make sure that we move according to His annointing. Thank you for being my big bro
and I love you 2!! (and steven will love your comment….lol) i am also not really blog savy yet, so i don’t know how to find him and leave him a comment, but could you please tell matt thank you for his encouragement! He has been an inspiration to me and a pillar of strength. I love him so much!!!
July 30th, 2006 at 12:09 am
Woop dee doo — I finally got Dorothy to leave a comment on my blog! A little flattery works wonders now and again! Now if only I could incite a response from Jon, CoCo, and, say, the dozens of other friends who never show any love here in cyberspace. Hmm…
Btw, D, you just gave Matt all the shout out he needs.
September 12th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
Guys, this is great news. How better to serve those kids than to be in their midst every day. I wish both Jonathan and Dorothy luck and give a special shout out to Mrs. Hart, the school’s principal, for opening the door. Both these guys love kids and love the Lord even more, perfect attributes for guiding those young people through their most impressionable years.
Our prayers are being answered!