Tutoring in the city

Four years ago we started an Athletic Ministry at Johns Hopkins University (MD). Soon the student athletes wanted to start a community service project. A student stepped forward to help lead it and I talked to a local church that has a Christian school in a poor neighborhood nearby. I told them that our group of college students was interested in tutoring on Thursday afternoons for an hour each week. They were excited to have us.

For the past three years, ten JHU students have tutored kids needing help in reading and math. The one-on-one involvement has enhanced the mentoring relationships. “This is my favorite part of the week,” says student Heather Cameron. Another athlete, Zack Kail, says, “I was amazed at how much tutoring taught me. Here I was expecting to teach the young children, and I didn’t realize how much the Father would teach me through them. It was very enjoyable and really made a profound impact on my life.” Zack is on the JHU football team and wants to serve the Lord overseas in the future.

Why do college students enjoy tutoring so much? They are aware that Christ calls them to care for others, the poor, the widow, the orphan, and yet there are not many places to do this within the time restraints of college. Also, most service opportunities on campus are done by people who don’t know Christ. The students wanted this to be a Christian tutoring program. We only invite those students who are involved in a weekly Bible study to be tutors. We recruit those who can be a godly influence on the students, not just a study partner.

When we arrive for tutoring, we first talk to the student and ask them how their week has been. Over the year, we tutor the same student and get to know them well. We then pray for them, and sometimes ask them to pray for us. (There is nothing like hearing a kid petition “Father God” on your behalf.) We help them with their homework. Then we read a portion of Scripture and then do reading on the computer for 45 minutes. We try to change things around often, so that the students don’t get bored. We think that learning should be fun.

This is a great way for a chapter to visibly and practically live for Christ. College students in our group have gotten to see their student improve academically, and teachers and parents say that they can see a difference, too. We learn from the vision of the school and why they are trying to help this community in Christ. We also have wrestled with how these kids, by growing up in a poor neighborhood, don’t have much chance of going to college. Some of them may not even graduate from high school. We even wrestle with a tax system that makes it so that poor communities get poor education. But what can we do about it? Well, we pray, and tutor a child one hour a week. That is not a lot but it is a start.

—Tim Leary is helping to start an athletic ministry in East Asia where he can eat dumplings for three meals a day.