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I want to thank Rev. Blackwell and Nancy Renick for extending an invitation to me to be a part of African American Heritage Month at First United Methodist Church. I am pleased that First UMC at Chicago Temple is celebrating and reflecting on African American life experiences, challenges and culture. It is important for all of us to address our next generation of Children’s safety, health and education. On behalf of ChildServ, I also want to thank you for the Temple Fund grants that enable ChildServ to help at risk Metropolitan Chicago children and their families build, achieve and sustain better lives.
For 117 years ChildServ has accomplished its mission through preschool, school based, youth development, family support, out-of-home placement and advocacy services throughout Chicagoland.

Just as we believe at ChildServ, I know you too are motivated by the example of Christ to self – giving service and the belief that every child is a person of worth, entitled to God’s gifts of wholeness of life.  First UMC at the Chicago Temple and ChildServ are connected through common commitments like Fifth Sunday Appeal and Rainbow Covenant and program partnerships like the Chicago Temple Tutoring Center.
Some of you may not be aware that on November 9, Doctor Reverend Blackwell was honored by ChildServ as the first recipient of the Lucy Rider Meyer Humanitarian Award. Reverend Blackwell received this special award because of his career- long body of work in mission and social justice. Reverend Blackwell’s ministry represents many of the core values that Lucy Rider Myer, ChildServ’s founder held.

I am proud to announce ChildServ’s Board Church Relations Committee will recognize First United Methodist Church with “The Mother Heart in Mission Award” on Mother’s Day, May 13. This award is inspired by two separate, but related, ideals. The first of these is the innovative, purposeful and remarkably  productive servant-leadership of the Chicago Deaconess, whose faith in action gave rise over a 40 year period to 40 ministries in Northern Illinois, including in 1894 ChildServ’s predecessor, The Methodist Deaconess Orphanage in Lake Bluff, Illinois. The second is the Methodist connection that guided, developed, sustained and blessed those 40 ministries as the Chicago Deaconesses and the congregations of the Rock River Conference were joined together in serving the needy and the vulnerable. The award’s name “The Mother Heart in Mission” derives from Lucy Rider Meyer’s belief that through mission service the Deaconesses might enable the world to know the feminine side of God, “The Mother Heart.” It is our sincere hope that the focus of Lucy Rider Myer and the Deaconesses will help re-connect and strengthen ChildServ’s connection to the church and the community as we jointly build support for those we serve.
Our legacy is to protect vulnerable children. Social, physical, psychological and economic attacks on children are at an unacceptable level. There are several  community-focused principles that are helpful for keeping our children safe and protected: Firstly, we have to help more at risk children and their families develop, enhance and transmit positive identities and wholesome values; secondly, we have to encourage children and their families to value hard work, respect elders, demonstrate high achievement particularly through education; thirdly children and their families have to assume personal responsibility; and fourthly families have to develop stronger connections and involvement with churches.

We must remember that threats to the nation come from within as well as without.  To preserve the well-being of our nation we must also preserve the well-being of our children.

We hear the prophets and their warnings against injustice and call to justice. The faltering economy and political gridlock have altered America’s will to make our children a national priority. Our leaders should not balance budgets by taking vital resources from the poor. We can not allow a prominent politician to get away with saying that he “was not very concerned about poor people because they have an “ample safety net.”

The United States Census Bureau reported the official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent. The number of children and families struggling below the poverty line is the highest number in the past 19 years. The number of children in poverty rose from 14.1 million to 15.5 million in 2009 and the child poverty rate increased from 19 percent to nearly 21 percent. When vulnerable children and families experience episodic or chronic poverty the likelihood of bad things happening exponentially increase.

Every day in America, 2,479 children are confirmed as abused or neglected. We live in a country where one out of three girls and one out of seven boys are abused.

Every day 1,154 babies are born to teenage mothers.

While these very familiar statistics indicate how children experience economic and social poverty, they do not tell the story regarding how children experience spiritual poverty.

ChildServ serves nearly 2% of the children and youth who are in the Illinois child welfare system. The child welfare demographics are changing where we have youth in need of more services. ChildServ is providing services to more youth who are struggling to emancipate themselves and achieve developmental milestones associated with becoming a young adult.

As this morning’s scripture reading, Matthew Chapter 18:1-6 indicates, we have to welcome children. In response to the disciples’ argument about who among them would be the greatest in the kingdom, Jesus brings a child into the circle and gives the disciples some important instructions: they must change and become like children; whoever becomes humble like a child will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven; and welcoming a child is the same as welcoming Christ. We have an able God. He gives us hope and life to carry on.  Hence, we are able to see the blessings. Through these blessings we are energized to perform God’s work. This is where we have common ground.

Today, vulnerable children we serve in the community face significant difficulty due to occurrences of abuse and neglect, violence, marginal incomes, high unemployment, and lack of school completion.

Helping children feel whole and complete is not simply a job of parents and immediate families. It’s also the job of communities.

In order to close the achievement gap between African American, Latino and Caucasian children, we need to invest in early learning programs. Early childhood services like child care and Head Start Programs are great returns on society’s investment in children and preschool learning.
ChildServ’s Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) is invaluable because parents teach their 3 to 5 year old children to read and are their child’s first and primary teacher.

In truth, we are still running the same race. We still have plenty of work to do to address the plight of children suffering from injustice caused by lack of access to a decent education, lack of stable and safe home environment, and needed support to experience a successful transition into adulthood.

On a personal note, I can recall my plight as a young boy living in agrarian southwest Georgia, then moving to an industrial northern town in Ohio then eventually to Chicago. I remember discrimination, prejudice and the civil rights movement.

I am still inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s vision. He was the leading voice speaking out about freedom, justice, and a better life for African Americans and other groups confronting racism in America. Dr. King was a role model inspiring hope and faith about the future. He encouraged us to dream, set goals, and learn. Dr. King indicated that the function of education … is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.

One of the greatest legacies a parent can leave their children is a good education. I worry about the future when each year about 30,000 youth drop out of school in Illinois and 40 percent of the students in Chicago public high schools will not graduate.

Poor children are under siege in schools across our nation and in our city.  Chicago Public Schools CEO, Jean- Claude Brizard noted that a child’s junior high attendance rate is a valid predictor of the student’s probability that he or she will drop out. Cook County Board President, Toni Preckwinkle recently indicated that it costs Cook County residents $143 per day for an individual to reside in the Cook County jail. It costs Cook County citizens over $200 per day to detain a youth in the Juvenile Detention Center. There is a 9% higher likelihood that a youth who does not graduate from high school will end up in jail or prison during their life time. Some say jail is the intersection of racism and poverty.

Nearly 150 years ago, Frederick Douglas said “Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will.” Given all the demands of our current society, we can close the achievement gap if we do more to help students master academic skills; improve self-esteem and confidence; improve attitudes toward school; decrease dropout rates and truancies; reduce social barriers and develop new positive friendships; and increase emotional support and become constructive role models.

In order to change many of our children’s plights, we also have to advocate for policies that effectively deal with education; employment and training; and create appropriate alternatives for children and youth involved with the Juvenile Justice System.

Demetrius Hobson, a Westside of Chicago School Principal and Teach for America graduate recently stated “the Underground Railroad is no longer underground. It is public, tangible and runs through high performing schools.”

Apostle Paul teaches us to share without being commanded. Paul tells us to manage resources God has entrusted to us to share in order to meet the needs of others.

We have to provide impactful resources to children. We have to find new ways to protect children such as volunteering to mentor, coach or tutor a child. We can also keep kids safe by being a good listener and communicator with children.

If you are interested in volunteering, please consider ChildServ. We have many projects and hands on experiences where you can mentor, tutor or coach a child or youth.

Jesus said to welcome the children because in doing so we welcome him and not just him but the one who sent him. We pray that we will welcome the children as Jesus bid us to do, that we will remove the stumbling blocks before them, and that our church will remain a place of sanctuary – peace, protection – and well-being  – for children………….

I would like to close with a prayer by Gabriela Mistral, Nobel poet from Chile:

“Our greatest fault is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain of life. Now is the time blood is being made, bones are being made. Many of the things we need can wait. The child can not.

The child’s name is “Today”… Amen. So be it.