Program Touches Lives in More Than One Way

By Craig Pinley

As a church council member, I know that the goal of Ravenswood Evangelical Covenant Church is to reach the neighborhood for Christ one life at a time.

Our church recently had an opportunity to celebrate that fact when Toinette Marco, a daycare staff member, came to a saving faith in Jesus Christ during a September Covenant Women's retreat at Covenant Harbor Bible Camp in Lake Geneva. Marco and a few other staff members at our daycare center, known as RC4, attended the retreat with about 30 women from our congregation and a couple of teen moms whose children are in RC4.

My wife, Mary, attended the retreat and appreciated the talks given by guest speaker Judy Howard Peterson that also may have helped Marco in her decision. But the weekend also culminated the work of a congregation over many years as they considered how to best minister to their community.

Ravenswood Covenant isn't the biggest or the flashiest church in our denomination, but it has a history of more than 100 years and a willingness to take a few risks. The biggest risk we've taken since I've been on church council came in the decision to reconfigure our Christian education wing into a daycare center. It wasn't a decision that was taken lightly – more than a few people wondered aloud if we were biting off more than we could chew financially – and I remember during our groundbreaking ceremony how some of our most prominent parishioners reminisced about how they had lived in apartments that had been torn down and had been replaced with the parking lot that sat next to RC4. We received grant funds from the State of Illinois, entered into a partnership with a hospital group and nearby Amundsen High School and set to work with hopes of helping some teenage moms finish school while their infants were cared for in our church building. So far, the results have been miraculous. We opened RC4 in September 2002 and celebrated our second anniversary during a post-church event in October, honoring the dedicated staff and the many volunteers from the church who have found ways to help. (Accompanying photo shows pastor Bryan Kletzing reading Christmas stories to children.)

An early miracle came in the form of a pair of checks totaling $200,000 that arrived one February day from a foundation. It was just when we needed some encouragement (and cash) and I recall the council meeting and the joy we had at knowing that God had given us a lucrative confirmation that we were following His will. Another miracle came in the form of executive director Adrienne Edlen, who has run the daycare program with wisdom and a ton of hard work. A third miracle came in the form of a Covenant missionary who was on home assignment while her husband taught at North Park Theological Seminary. Alice Westlind is a consultant for Parenting PROGRESS while serving as an administrator for RC4. She's got a bubbly personality, the savvy that comes from many years doing creative ministries in Latin America and the heart of gold when it comes to the teen moms and daycare staff members.

The myriad of miracles that have come from the efforts of parishioners would be difficult for me to count, but there are plenty. We've got junior high and high school students who have helped coordinate Christmas parties for the little kids, we've got a 90-something woman who rocks babies on a regular basis, there are parishioners that served or are serving as paid workers that see their work as ministry, there are council members and parishioners that offer legal assistance, fill roles on the RC4 Executive Board, and even run aerobics during the week.

All in all, the vision of our senior pastor Bryan Kletzing and a (then) high school administrator has gone from a blurry dream to a ministry with clarity that has received help from local churches, both in and outside of the Covenant, and many other individuals in the area.

"We've realized that it's bigger than even this church," said Dana Robertson, administrative assistant at Ravenswood Covenant and the coordinator for the church's Baby Closet ministry to teen moms through Parenting PROGRESS. "We also thought it was our ministry, but we've had help from Winnetka Covenant Church (in Wilmette), Batavia Covenant Church, Northbrook Covenant Church and Libertyville Covenant Church. We've also had St. Philip Lutheran School and Queen of Angels and St. Matthias Catholic Church give donations, along with groups like the local Boy Scouts and some private schools. It's been word-of-mouth and people hearing that a church is helping teen parents - and they want to help too."

I've spent the past four and a half years as a staff writer for Covenant Communications, writing about the many wonderful individuals and churches doing good ministry all over the Covenant. It has been inspiring to see how God has worked in all sorts of ways. But being a part of the ministry of Ravenswood Covenant and witnessing its efforts via RC4 and Parenting PROGRESS may have been the best blessing of all.

In September, we saw up close how God changed a life, but the church's faithfulness has been life-changing to me for much longer than that. And I'm proud to have been part of this congregation's journey in faith.

Printable version of this page.