What's Happening in Chicago
Since 1987, Navigators have been at work in Chicago's West Side community of North Lawndale. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, North Lawndale is home to a 75% high school dropout rate, 50% adult male unemployment, and is also where 75% of adult men have some type of criminal record. A non-profit organization, which is now called Breaking Ground, was established in 1992 in order to purchase buildings and lay a local platform for ministry. In 1997, a job-readiness and placement program called the APL Teaching Factory was founded. The Teaching Factory fills a crucial need of the community and also provides an atmosphere for ministry.
The APL Teaching Factory is a six-week program where students are given the opportunity to gain the necessary tools required to transition into entry-level employment. The program also gives us an opportunity to present the Gospel as we relationally connect while meeting the students' educational needs. Each day we begin with a devotional where we read the Gospels together. After the devotional we have Math, English, and Job-Readiness classes. Upon graduation, our students have many options. Our program is structured to prepare students for the entrance exam of Chicago's city colleges. Because of this, our students can choose to continue their education or transition into a career.
When I came to North Lawndale back in January of 2003, I felt a tremendous need the minute I walked through the doors of the Teaching Factory. Everywhere I turned I saw needs. I guess you could say that everywhere I looked I saw fields ripe for harvest.
I became involved at the Teaching Factory as a math instructor and immediately began building relationships with the students. As time went by, God opened doors with students as trust began to develop. One example is Anthony Washington. Anthony enrolled at the Teaching Factory upon release from the Cook County Jail in January of 2003. Anthony thought he would begin by working "day labor" and then maybe transition into a full-time job but beyond that did not have much hope. The prospects of getting his G.E.D., being admitted into a technical institute, or finding a well-paying job, in his mind, were not possible. All three of these are becoming realities in just one year.
Anthony passed West Side Technical Institute's entrance exam upon graduation from the Teaching Factory a year ago and enrolled in West Side Tech's precision milling program. He graduated in March of this year and is almost ready to take the G.E.D. exam. Currently he attends our G.E.D. training program in the mornings and works as our custodian in the afternoons. Anthony's involvement in the G.E.D program allows me to spend one-on-one time with him every day. Anthony's future is very bright, because in the last six years the instructor at West Side Tech has placed 100 percent of his precision milling graduates in full-time manufacturing positions.
A while back, Anthony told me that before arriving at the Teaching Factory he didn't believe he could do it, but now he knows he can do it. All I can say is "Praise the Lord!" Anthony has encouraged and challenged me in his perseverance and hard work. He shows up day after day and has not given up.
We have grown close in the last year during the math classes I teach and the devotions with which we begin each class day. Vanessa Jordan, a fellow teacher, remarked, "You two are almost like brothers in the way you talk." I'm praying that Anthony will join our Thursday night Bible study and will feel God's love through me as I strive to live out the Gospel in our time together. Please pray with me for Anthony's success in school, in his first job after graduation, and for his spiritual growth.