In 2016, Mount Calvary Lutheran Church (LCMS) in Warner Robins, Georgia launched an outreach ministry designed to integrate both neighborhood families and our church family to meet a widespread need. Rebecca’s Garden of Hope at Mount Calvary (RG@MC) is changing lives in our community through Christ-centered, after-school tutoring and mentoring to ethnically diverse K-5 students near the church campus. In partnership with Shirley Hills Elementary School, the mission of this no-cost holistic ministry is first, to help at-risk, low-income students build a solid Christian foundation for life while preparing them to succeed academically.

The Mount Calvary van transports students from Shirley Hills Elementary to Rebecca’s after school each Tuesday during the school year, where they receive snacks and enjoy some free play. Weekly sessions begin with a devotional, where students learn to apply the lessons of the Bible to their daily lives, sing songs, and close with prayer. Individualized tutoring is focused on reading and math as the foundation for all other subjects in school. A nutritious, hot meal, brief life skills lessons or crafts, and fellowship enhancing games finish out the evening. Altogether, these activities serve to meet the student’s spiritual, academic, emotional, social, and physical needs. Going forward in relationship through RG@MC, the congregation wants the children and their families to see themselves as part of the family of God at Mount Calvary.