As vehicles travel across the new Margaret Hunt Hill bridge and into West Dallas they are entering an area richly full of investment that the naked eye frequently does not see in Dallas’ materialistic culture. This investment has consisted of millions of human hours being invested into lives that the investors believed would one day show promise and provide a return well over one million percent at some point in the future. The manner of that return however would probably not allow the investor to purchase an island in the Mediterranean or other exotic locale. The reward however would provide the investor with the lifetime surety of knowledge that his efforts were splendidly spent.
West Dallas Community School, formed in 1995, brings a rich classical and Christian education in areas of mathematics, science, language arts, and history, with additional studies in music, art, physical education, athletics, nature studies, Spanish, health and government to children in a neighborhood that is one of the poorest in Dallas and overwhelmingly Hispanic and African American. Because the tuition to the school is paid for mostly by corporate and private donations there is a large responsibility placed upon the parents to be involved in their children’s educational lives. The diligence of the administration and teachers in the school enables many of these students after eighth grade to get accepted into some of the best high schools in Dallas. What a lot of people do not see though is what goes on behind the scenes, such as the fact that each week someone is praying for each student by name.
I have been aware of this school and the West Dallas Community Church since my days at Northwest Bible Church where I had numerous friends who went into the community to tutor and mentor students who lived in the neighborhood. As this article states, each student at the school is prayed for by name. The school calls this ministry the Shield of Prayer. What this is comprised of are two different initiatives. The first one is Adopt a classroom – The school gives the names of the students and teacher of a classroom to a volunteer to keep in his prayers and he can connect with the teacher on specific prayer requests. Through this process, the school had one family come, meet their class and spend time helping them with a project. The school found that it was a great time for them to understand the needs of both teachers and students. The second one is to be on the school’s monthly prayer list – the school sends out monthly prayer requests to those on the list that are given by the staff and faculty.
I thought these initiatives were novel and splendid ideas and was curious how the inspiration developed that brought them about. I was invited to come to the school recently and take a tour of the campus with two members of their staff. As I drove into the parking lot I was amazed at the nice brick building that housed the school. The appearance of the facility both outside and inside denotes calm and order, something which my guides told me was very critical for these students, many who come from dysfunctional environments that are the complete opposite of that. They explained to me that the children arrive early for breakfast and sit in the school’s chapel before the beginning of the school day. This time is a period of transition for them from the cacophony of the outside world to the order that the school day will impose.
In 1983, Arrvel Wilson, pastor of West Dallas Community Church, began to pray that God would bring a Christian school to West Dallas. About that same time, Carole Sonju, began to tutor at Pinkston High School in West Dallas. Her discouragement over high school students who could barely compose a correct sentence, motivated her in getting her bible study to facilitate Women’s Outreach luncheons with Eletha Wilson, Pastor Arrvel’s wife, at the West Dallas Community Church. In 1992, Carole began to pray about where God wanted her to invest her time when her youngest son went off to college. Through the course of continued tutoring in West Dallas, and the counsel of a friend that Christian education is what will make a lasting change within the community, Carole broached the question to Eletha as to what Arrvel would think about starting a school. She found out he had been praying about that for a decade, and they contacted educational expert Robin Lewis who founded Providence Christian School. The Sonju’s, Wilson’s, and the Lewis’s met one Saturday morning in December 1994 and prayed regarding the starting of a school in West Dallas and putting forth the commitment to enable it to happen.
The laser like focus they placed on their commitment enabled the school to open its doors for the first time for the 1995-96 school year, using the facilities at West Dallas Community Church until a new building could be constructed. Carole Sonju who had prayed for how God would have her invest her time, found herself serving as headmistress of this new school from 1995 until 2001.
The humble beginnings of that school in 1995 have grown into a campus today that has 246 students. The first students who started with that school in 1995 are now graduating from college and set to begin to make their mark on the world, whether that be Dallas, Washington DC, or the remote places on the planet.
As I continued my journey around the school, my guides showed me several rooms that were set aside in the school for volunteers to come and tutor children in different subjects. A room in the school’s library was dedicated for volunteers to come in and read to students. It was explained to me how important this was due to the fact that many of the children’s parents are too busy or are unable to read to them at home.
Getting back to the subject of prayer as it relates to the students and staff of the school, at one time there were a group of ladies who regularly walked the halls of the school during class and prayed for each prayer request that was provided to them. The school would like that to continue, however currently there are no volunteers who have committed to doing that.
All in all, I had a very positive experience walking through that campus and really sensed how open the staff and leaders were for responsible and caring volunteers to come into the school and make a lasting investment in the lives of those children. This school was planned, initiated, and has been administered through these first critical years through much prayer. A community volunteer prayerfully walking those halls for thirty minutes each week could impact a five year old to create a medical breakthrough in forty years time that could impact the billions of residents living on earth.
Eternal Investment Plan
Posted: April 1, 2012 by Chuck DeShazo
