Kansas District LCMS

Mission Moment

Bethel, Kansas City Begins After School Ministry

Pastor Kermit Rickenberg at Bethel Lutheran in Kansas City witnessed the past two years how the public school students from three elementary schools in his neighborhood are released early on Wednesday afternoons so that the teachers and faculty can enjoy planning time.  However, many of the children are latchkey children.  With no one at home until dinnertime, many children were wandering the neighborhood streets as a way to pass the time.  With the help of his summer DCE Intern, Kim Mueller, Bethel is launching an After-School Care Program for the neighborhood children.  With the support of an after-school specialist from Hope Lutheran School in Shawnee, Bethel is looking to be a rich blessing to the children, and hopefully their parents.  Bethel is praying that this will be a wonderful way to make new connections and relationships in a community that is feeling the effects of an urban community with a greater and greater diversity of ethnic people.  Pray for all those involved in seeking to be a great blessing to this Kansas City community.  Calvary Lutheran School of Kansas City, Missouri, has decided to send a portion of their chapel offerings to Bethel in order to encourage them in this endeavor.