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Shoes and Cupcakes

Written by Emmie Stanley

June 12, 2013

Since April, Breakthrough Prayer has been mobilizing a team of volunteers to demonstrate the love of Jesus in practical ways to an inner city school in Langley, a small township in British Columbia, Canada.

At Douglas Park Community School, 45% of students are children of refugee families, who deal with issues most of us will never have. They face the challenge of assimilating into a new culture and deal with language and resettlement issues. Many of the other students come from homes that struggle with finances and addictions. These little ones face so many needs: educational, material, financial, and, especially, spiritual.

Upon the principal’s request, our volunteers have been engaged in a number of activities to bring encouragement to the school, the students, the teachers and, ultimately, the community.

Cupcake Day

In May, we created a special day for all the students and teachers that we called Cupcake Day. Eleven of our wonderful volunteers each baked two dozen cupcakes to distribute to the kids for this special occasion. It was a day that brought a lot of delight and there were a lot of smiles from both the children and the teachers.

A prayer team meets on a weekly basis to pray over the spiritual needs of the school and the children. We pray for protection, hope, peace and blessing… for those gifts that can only come from our Father in heaven.

In September, we will coordinate volunteers who will not only read with the children, but will also be committed to praying for them and their families.

One of the greatest tangible needs is something very simple that most of us take for granted: shoes. Most of these families are unable to buy a pair of indoor shoes, so students track in dirt and mud from outside, and then spend much of their day sitting on the floor in their classrooms. As a result, we’ve made it our goal to donate 100 pairs of indoor shoes for kindergarten and Grade 1 students.

We rejoice that God has called us to minister to the broken and forgotten in our city. We praise God that we have been invited into this community, and that we are able to meet both the physical and spiritual needs of the school.

If you would like to volunteer with us in our ministry to Douglas Park Community School, feel free to contact us.