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Community Outreach

Single moms targeted for new scholarship program

Happy days they're not—at least not for too many of America's moms and their children! We are a society in crisis and the results are becoming increasingly evident. Escalating family abuse, skyrocketing divorce rates, absentee fathers, and rising poverty levels have devastated the traditional family ideal. Today broken homes and teen pregnancies contribute to more than 25 percent of this nation's children being raised by single moms. 1

Burdened by these statistics, the national Women's Ministries Department and Convoy of Hope, a compassion ministry, have partnered in an effort to touch these moms with the love of Christ. The result is a new scholarship program—Touch With Hope—that seeks to provide some relief in areas of their most critical need—tutoring, job training, clothing vouchers, childcare, parenting classes, house repairs, vehicle maintenance, and more.

Women's Ministries through local, sectional, and district Women's Ministries groups will generate program funding. Lillian Sparks, national Women's Ministries director, heads a special advisory committee that includes several district Women's Ministries directors and other key leadership. The committee will oversee the program and provide scholarship guidelines. Convoy of Hope will serve as a liaison in mobilizing local church leaders in establishing centers of hope.

Four metropolitan cities are targeted for a 2002 Convoy of Hope outreach and possible pilot study for this new program. The goal is to mobilize Women's Ministries leaders in these areas to take an active part in ministering to single moms.

Convoy's Executive Vice President Mike Ennis states, "We have two options. We can either look away and pretend it doesn't exist; or we can pull together and do something to turn these circumstances around. It is, after all, the Church's biblical mandate (Matthew 25). When you realize how close we are to Christ's return, you gain a real sense of urgency to reach and touch the least, the last, and the lost."

For more information on how to get involved in this and other Convoy of Hope outreaches, call 417-823-8998 or go to Convoy's website at www.convoyofhope.org.

Contact the national Women's Ministries Department to request a free copy of "Touch With Hope" brochure, item 735022. A two 7-minute segment video featuring "Touch With Hope" and "Health for the Helpless" (featuring HealthCare Ministries) is available for an offering of $5.00. Request item 735511. Telephone 417-862-2781 or e-mail womens@ag.org.

Send contributions for "Touch With Hope" to the national Women's Ministries Department, 1445 N Boonville Avenue, Springfield, MO 65802-1894.

1 Source: Arlene F. Saluter, Marital Status and Living Arrangements: March 1994, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P20-484, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1996.